That Buzz on City Rooftops? Beekeeping Is Going Corporate
Sourced from Bloomberg
Honeybees, under threat in rural and agricultural areas, are finding an unlikely refuge: the big city.
The fuzzy pollinators, apis mellifera, have found new homes at places like the Beaugrenelle Commercial Center, one of Paris’s biggest indoor shopping complexes. Not far from the Eiffel Tower, the mall hosts a pesticide-free garden on its rooftop with Russian mint, Australian lemongrass, Indian holy basil and other plantings that attract local Michelin-starred chefs. The aromatic flowers and herbs also draw legions of bees that now live on a cleared corner of the roof overlooking the Seine River.
“It’s a heavenly buffet for them. They enjoy a healthy and varied diet, which makes the colony stronger,” beekeeper Diane Jenny said on a recent day as she checked the rooftop’s six hives, each containing about 40,000 bees, for potentially harmful parasites like mites. The bees were healthy and thriving, she proclaimed, and busy making rooftop honey.
The Paris initiative is one variation of a theme being pitched across the globe. For $500 to $3,000 annually per hive, urban beekeeping operations offer to install honeybee colonies on corporate or residential rooftops. The price includes regular checks on the bees’ health, perks like classes in biodiversity and beekeeping and, usually, samples of ultra-local honey. The companies also pitch loftier benefits — the prospect of providing pollination for urban plants and creating a hedge against widespread losses to bee populations, while also providing companies green credibility in exchange for a small investment and a bit of rooftop.
From the Living Architecture Monitor
