I saw this post on the BBC News website today and thought it would be of interest

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10942618

Paris fast becoming queen bee of the urban apiary world

By Hugh Schofield BBC News, Paris

A private honey store is now de rigueur for some top hotels and restaurants

Tourists are not the only ones swarming down the Champs-Elysees and through the Luxembourg gardens this summer. Thanks to a renewed interest in apiaries, Paris is fast becoming the urban bee-keeping capital of the world.

The city now boasts some 400 hives and the number is growing steadily. Some are on the balconies of family apartments, others in public parks or on the roofs of famous buildings.

Cultivation of a private honey store is now de rigueur for some of the top hotels and restaurants. The famous Tour d’Argent restaurant opposite Notre Dame Cathedral has just installed hives on its roof-top, as has The Westin hotel on the Rue de Rivoli.

Driving the trend is growing public awareness of the crisis in rural bee-keeping caused by the collapse in bee numbers. Oddly, city bees are not just immune to the health problems facing their country cousins – they are also far more productive.

Simonpierre Delorme: Paris has flowers all year round

According to Guillaume Charlot of the association L’Abeille de Grand Paris (The Bee of Greater Paris), a metropolitan hive produces 50kg (110lb) of honey in an average year, and up to 80kg in a bumper season. “A country bee-keeper is happy if he gets 30,” he said.

For the past 10 years the French capital has been officially a pesticide-free zone, which may partly explain its advantage. The warmth of the city environment also promotes early breeding.

But paradoxically, the main reason for the success of urban bees is the variety of flora in the city compared with what is now present in much of the countryside.

“City people like flowers. We have parks, we have balconies, we have roadside verges, we have gardens – and we are planting them all year round with lots of different species to ensure year-round colour,” said Simonpierre Delorme, who keeps bees by a railway-line in the 14th arrondissement.

“In the countryside, by contrast, these days there is often just one crop dominating an entire area. When that has finished blossoming, there is no more nectar for the local bees,” he said.

Worrying decline

By early August most rural pollination is long over, but in Paris many streets are lined with non-native Sophora trees which have just started to blossom – allowing bees to keep producing honey much later in the year.

Like other countries in Europe and the Americas, France has seen a worrying decline in bee numbers in recent years. Since 1995, 100,000 French hives have been lost and the amount of honey produced has fallen from 32,000 tonnes to 20,000. Bee mortality – at between 30% per hive – is three times what is considered normal.

Most experts believe a variety of factors lie behind the crisis, from the dreaded varroa mite to pesticides, diminishing biodiversity and maybe even mobile phones.

In Britain, the National Environment Research Council recently announced a £10m ($15.6m) research project into the decline, which could have severe effects on crop production.

A century ago, there were more than 1,000 hives in Paris, but they almost totally disappeared in the decades after World War II. Among the first of the new generation was the hive installed 15 years ago on the roof of the Paris Opera, which today makes honey sold at the luxury goods shop Fauchon.

Where do urban bees swarm? In this case, on an art gallery window

Other colonies now live on the roof of the Grand Palais and on a skyscraper in La Defense business area. For ordinary home-owners, the rules are simple: hives must be registered with the veterinary authority and be more than 25 metres (82ft) from a school or hospital.

According to Mr Charlot, the most commonly-used breed of bee is docile by temperament and stings are rare.

“We did an analysis of the honey we made here in Paris and discovered that it contained more than 250 different pollens. In the countryside there can be as few as 15 or 20 pollens,” said Olivier Darne, who styles himself as an “artist and urban apiarist”.

As part of his “Honey Bank” project, Darne creates bee-related art installations and organises street-tastings from his many hives – all to raise awareness about the decline of rural biodiversity.

“It is an unwelcome paradox that city bees do better than country bees. I wish it was not the case. But if you exhaust your resources, you end up with nothing – and this is what the bees are telling us,” he said.

Do you want to find out more about the backyard beekeeping revolution?

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Learn The Art Of Beekeeping

Ever thought about beekeeping?

Learn the essentials of beekeeping

Bee populations are in decline in many parts of the world.

You could  be part of the solution!

Many people are turning to beekeeping as a hobby, and the world is in dire need of more bees.  Our food supply ,  flowers and fruit , are dependent on bees .  The physical environment as we know it could all change without bees and pollination.

Imagine the garden without familiar splashes of colour, the meadows without flowers.  Imagine depleted crops without sufficient bees to complete the pollination.

Do you know how to handle bees,  do you have an interest in keeping your own hive and collecting your own honey? Perhaps beekeeping is the hobby for you. Play a part in helping to create healthy bee colonies, and enjoy the benefits of your own home produced honey!  Being a backyard beekeeper is becoming increasingly popular as a way to reconnect with nature. 

While beekeeping is increasingly popular, it is not a hobby to be taken lightly. Whether you are going to be a hobby beekeeper, or backyard beekeeper, or whether you want to turn beekeeping into a business, you will have to properly equip yourself with appropriate clothing and hives. Correct procedures and techniques need to be learned  to make beekeeping  a hobby  to be enjoyed  without fear.

Supers (the hive boxes) are created in pieces and require hours of assembly spent gluing and nailing boxes together. Equipment is also incredibly expensive, and insurance is needed for shipping. The most important cost you must be willing to pay is your time. The hive will require hours of attention and it cannot be left on its own, rather requiring care and the recording of all observations and events. Additionally, the bees’ survival is dependent on medicines and treatments being applied in a timely fashion, and also on regular inspections.

Ready to start?

Choosing the location of your apiary site is vital to the success of your honeybee colonies as it affects all aspects of their health and productivity. The site will affect both the honey production and the amount of time you will need to spend to keep your colonies healthy. To begin with, the hives should be at least 3 feet apart, be easy for you to access, and have partial shade. The hives need adequate air flow, and should preferably face south east to ensure proper ventilation for the hives. Inadequate air flow will increase the bees’ tendency to swarm in hot weather, and result in damp and sick colonies in cold weather. Essential for the bees is a foraging area within 2 miles of the hive. Flowering plants or crops, preferably ones which aren’t regularly sprayed with pesticides located within 2 miles will ensure a productive hive. Additionally, ensure you place your hive on stable ground which isn’t plagued by floods or heavy runoff. A vulnerable site is sure to cause you grief and endanger your bees. Finally, ensure that the path between the bees and their foraging sites does not cross any playground or public pathway which could endanger or cause undue stress to your neighbors.

Once you have chosen your site, the next step is to buy your equipment, food supplements as well as medicines and treatments. From there you are ready to order your bees and install the hive in the apiary. Beekeeping is incredibly popular, with classes, tutorials and books available to help one learn about honeybees and the art of keeping a hive. There are also several bee keeping journals such as American Bee Journal and Bee Culture Magazine. Additionally, there are several online blogs which can give you all good information . Ensuring you have a good knowledge of beekeeping, as well as the stresses and problems honey bees face is equally as important as having the bees. It is important to remember that hives are a fragile system and even if you do all that you can to care for your bees, it is always possible they will die. However, arming yourself with the right equipment, knowledge and attitude will ensure you get the best result possible. 

Instant download

Run your own bee hive! Learn all about how to feed bees with these tips from a professional beekeeper in this free beekeeping tutorial video. Expert: Jorge Gomez Bio: Jorge Gomez has been a professional beekeeper for over 15 years. He currently cares for many bee hives in the Austin area.

PROPOLIS, Propolis harvesting,collection beehives. Beekeeper John Pluta, Georgia Beekeeping. Beekeepers collection and extraction of propolis from honeybee hives. MORE at georgiabees.blogspot.com Propolis is used for antibiotic medical uses like cuts,burns,sores, ulcers,dental problems,

First time being this close to a bee hive. Dad’s new hobby is pretty interesting.

Written and sung by Jerry Lee Miller. St Ambrose is the patron saint of beekeepers. Guitarist is Nancy Honeytree (www.honeytree,org) and Joseph Helfrich plays electronic bagpipes (www.simplyjoseph.com).

New to beekeeping. cought this swarm the night before and put them in a dresser untill i was able to make an actuall hive the following day. This is me moving the bees from the dresser to my home made hive..enjoy! thats a lot of BEES.

Beekeeping made easy; learn about beekeeping a brood from a professional beekeeper in this free beekeeping tutorial video. Expert: Jorge Gomez Bio: Jorge Gomez has been a professional beekeeper for over 15 years. He currently cares for many bee hives in the Austin area.

There’s more to bee keeping than just keeping bees. Your heart must be in it. In the bee season the beekeeper works day and night to keep his gigantic family. Forty to eighty thousand bees work hard in every hive to wait on their queen with milk and honey. It is a perfectly formed matriarchy and a highly organised state, which must have gradually come into existence maybe millions of years ago. Certainly the Egyptians kept beehives five thousand years ago. MADE BY MAN is a series of 13 documentaries, which take a closer look at some traditional and not so traditional skills and crafts. Duration 13 x 15 minutes. Visit WWW.STOCKSHOT.NL for more shots and visit WWW.FAUNAFILM.NL for info about the tv-series about crafts.

bee keeping : dwarf honey bees

Beekeeper Wayne Pitts illustrates for Bite-size Green TV host Angelina Le Grix the different types of bees in a hive, and their life stages. We also learn how he got started with his own apiary. Part 1 of 4, episode “The Buzz about Bees.”