NYPD Beekeeper Darren Mays (@nypdbees)
Aug. 22, 2019 By Allie Griffin
New Yorkers will get a chance to taste the official honey of Ridgewood’s very own NYPD bees next month as part of the ninth annual NYC Honey Fest.
Attendees will get to taste the honey of a dozen beekeepers–including the NYPD’s– and vote for the 2019 honey champion. Participants can also shop for bee by-products at the festival’s bee marketplace.
The NYPD’s honey is made by more than 30,000 bees who live in a beehive on the rooftop of the 104th Precinct house in Ridgewood and are cared for by famed NYPD Beekeeper Darren Mays.
Mays is a beat cop at the 104th precinct and one of the police department’s two official beekeepers. Participants will get the chance to meet him and taste “New York’s finest” honey at Honey Fest, which is taking place on Sept. 14 at Beach 106th Street in Rockaway Beach.
Come out and get a taste of the official NYPD local honey from the rooftop of @NYPD104Pct and from the Hudson Valley where most of the bees have been relocated @NYCHoneyWeek https://t.co/E2wJ33Zh5h
— NYPD Bees (@NYPDBees) August 21, 2019
Mays constructed the beehive atop his precinct house in the summer of 2017 when the number of calls to the NYPD bee cops peaked and he didn’t have time to bring all the recovered bees to his five bee colonies at his home outside the city, according to Business Insider.
Mays and fellow officer Michael Lauriano make up the NYPD Beekeeping team and are called to remove swarms of bees throughout the city, like the thousands of bees that landed on a hotdog stand in Times Square last summer.
Honey Fest will also have a honey extraction demonstration and costume contest.
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