Last year, Julia Taylor became a beekeeper.  The one-time pediatric nurse acquired a hive, and put it in the back yard of her home lodged just outside the urban neighborhood of north Buckhead.  And she's not alone.

"There are beekeepers all around here, within a stones throw of here.  At least seven that I know of," said Linda Tillman of the metro Atlanta beekeepers association.  She says the number of in-town beekeepers has tripled in the last five years.

Taylor is among them, and she's learning it's not easy.  Bees have many enemies.  She lost her first hive to hive beetles.  Another got caught in an aeriel battle with a competing hive.  

"There was a cloud of bees that was buzzing around that hive, and it was really scary for about 24 hours," said Taylor.

But the biggest enemy is a mysterious killer called colony collapse disorder -- which threatens honeybees as a species.  Since honeybees pollinate crops, it's a serious ecological challenge.  

"Nobody knows what it is, but it appears to be decimating mostly the commercial beekeepers hives, as opposed to people like me," said Tillman, who also has bees in her yard.

It makes urban beekeepers a small vestige of resistance.  Taylor's hive of 40,000 bees isn't large, but is producing honey and staying healthy.

"This is my third (hive), and I think it's going to be okay," said Taylor.

Although urban beekeepers haven't singlehandedly saved honeybees -- and they may not -- they've given bees a measure of vitality they desperately need, one back yard at a time.