Urban beekeepers

Mon, Aug 31, 2009

Climate Change, UK Climate Change

Regent Street in London is going to produce its own honey thanks to a hive containing more than 15,000 bees high above the shopping mass.The Crown Estate which owns Regent Street has already installed its first colony and is planning dozens more if the experiment is a success.

A special honey garden has been created on the rooftop with a mixture of lavender,thyme,sedums, salvia and verbena to add flavour to the honey. Beekeepers have also been tending the bees for several weeks feeding them on a sugar-syrup solution to build up the stregth of the workers.

Beekeeper assocations have reported record number of enquiries from people wishing to keep bees in their  gardens. As a result a company called Omlet has begun selling a designer beehive aimed at the urban market.

http://www.omlet.co.uk/products_services/products_services.php?view=Bees&about=garden%20bees

This is great news for the bee population which has been hit hard in recent years by virulent viruses transferred by the varroa mite. Nearly all the colonies in the wild have died out and without beekeepers to care for them honey bees could vanish in a few years. Find out more about how to help the honey bees in your area by visiting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/features/honeybees.pdf

http://www.urbanbees.co.uk/

London Beekeepers  – http://www.lbka.org.uk/

Pollination is worth £190 million to the UK economy and bees account for 80% of all insect pollination.It is believed that colonies are under threat as a result of intensive, single crop farming using insecticides combined with the destruction of hedgerows.dsc00591

This post was written by:

- who has written 872 posts on My Climate Change Garden.

I am not an experienced gardener - more of an enthusiastic amateur who learns by trial and error and who is keen to "manage" the effects of shifting weather patterns on my garden. Writing this blog is my passion and it has evolved over 12 years to inspire engagement with climate change outside our back doors, in our personal gardens and green spaces. My mission is to fertilise and expand this platform to grow a community of global gardeners communicating about the effects of climate change on our plants and exploring how each individual can make small changes in our lives to become more sustainable. The future of our gardens and #OurPlanet is in our hands - please plant your own seeds for our collective sustainable future.

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