This chapter of the Integral Urban House manual is titled “Some Other Animals for Urban Backyards”, focusing on how to raise bees and aquatic animals in your backyard. These are animals less commonly raised in the urban environment, so the book takes the interested beekeeper/fish farmer through the ecology and practice of designing an optimal environment and nourish their critters.
A design for a wind-powered fish pond pump and filter system shows how engineering and advanced technology fit within the landscape of ecological living. It challenges many people’s beliefs that self-reliant living is performed with very simple technologies. Like many other appliances, the filter used at the Integral Urban House was made out of scavenged automobile parts, making it affordable and practical. A design for an indoor observation beehive (Figure 11-7) is also featured in the chapter.
On the section about beekeeping, the authors discuss the social stigma against bees and being stung, and how this can be overcome. They return to their philosophy of behavioral shift to encourage curiosity towards bees, rather than fear, to acclimate others and normalize beekeeping.
“Once, in our neighborhood, when a swarm of bees clustered on a shrub four feet above the sidewalk in front of a house near ours, a group of panicked housewives came over to ask advice, saying, “Please do something, because the young children will be stung.” It is true that there are quite a few toddlers on the block as well as some rather mischievous kindergartners. We suggested to the mothers that they relax and not scare the children, but rather encourage them to appreciate this relatively rare and fascinating sight. If the children could be induced to stop and watch quietly, they might learn something.”
