So what if a guy in Queens had 3 million bees in his back yard?

That's not the point. So what if he was cutting the honey he was selling with corn syrup, that's not the point. So what if he had another six unregistered bee hives behind his Astoria sushi restaurant? That's not the point.

Oh, we'll get to the point alright, in a minute.

Yi Gin Chen had built himself quite an apiary in his Queens backyard. 45 hives, that's roughly 3 million bees. His neighbors weren't as enthused as Chen, and neither were some local businesses. Chen is seems had tried to pass off diluted honey to a local bakery:

"He gave them a sample, and it was just fine," Andrew Cote, of the New York City Beekeeper’s Association, tells the Post. "Then they bought the honey from him, and it turned out he had cut it severely with corn syrup. We tasted it, and you could tell right away. It was the old bait and switch."

Chen disagreed about diluting his honey but not about the fact the bees were out of control:

Chen, however, calls that "an absolute baldface lie," but did say of the bees "I don’t have the time or resources to do this."

The point, yes the point, lets get to it. Chen's neighbor, one Ted Kouris said this about the propensity of bees:

"I’ve been bitten three times already. It’s to the point where it’s ridiculous."

You do not get bitten by bees. No one has ever been bitten by a bee. You get stung by bees, not bitten. Mr. Kouris, if you're gonna hate on this guy's honeybees please learn to hate correctly.

You can only try and come up with a clever headline for so long...

...before you finally just say it is time to post the actual article. Johnny was looking for a play on words about bees this morning, honeybees to be precise. The downtown Hyatt hotel right on the river is now home to a colony of around 36,000 honeybees. Perhaps the bright colored bee painting on the air-conditioning unit on the 5th floor tipped you.

North Caldwell beekeeper Joseph Lelinh set up the bees on the roof whom he said will produce about 100 pounds of honey a year which should "bee" available in the fall.

This would suit Hyatt executive chef Cathy Kearney just fine. She is the reason the plan took off. She wanted to include local honey in her kitchen for such dishes as chipotle and honey-glazed Amish chicken breast and salmon ceviche with creamed honey as well as seasonal drinks like honey lemonade and honey horchata. Kearney said until the rooftop honey is ready she is buying to top flight all natural honey from Lelinh for the Hyatt.

This is a great idea by all those involved. Honeybees are disappearing at an alarming rate in this country. Not only will the Hyatt get honey for their menu, the honeybees are expected to now pollenate plants and flowers in a two-mile radius meaning Liberty State Park as well as Hamilton Park will have many friendly visitors helping keep Jersey City healthy and happy.

To Bee or not to Bee, that is the sticky question

As Eddie Izzard once famously proclaimed "I'm covered in bees..." Well some New Jersey resident DO spend the day covered in bees and for that we should be forever grateful. A lot has been written on the loss of so many bee hives around this continent. Is it pollution, is it cell phone towers as some suggest? Johnny doesn't know but like everyone he knows humankind needs bees to pollenate our plants or we don't have much of a chance to keep on living.

Luckily as the New York Times points out this morning, beekeeping is alive and well in the Garden State. The New Jersey Beekeepers Association has over 900 members here in New Jersey. That's lot of bees considering some hives have upwards of 50,000 bees each. Some of these apiaries are turning out flavored gourmet honey while one, Trapanis’ Trapper’s Honey has won awards.

This is fantastic news to know New Jersey's produce is well protected by the humble beekeeper. It's even better to know Johnny can now go get some flavored honeys for his waffles. And pancakes. And french toast. And regular toast. And tea. And, well, you get the idea.