The Benefits of Urban Beekeeping

We have a unique opportunity to participate in sustainable efforts aimed at promoting advantages to our local environment that are both accessible and inspiring thanks to our partnership with Alvéole Urban Beekeeping Services.

Urban beekeeping is the practice of working with bees in cities. Bees have a remarkable ability to find and utilize a variety of floral resources, and they accomplish this over a large area surrounding the hive. Bees frequently travel 3 miles or more in search of honey and pollen. Even the cities with the highest population densities have resources nearby. In addition to fostering a sense of community with the surrounding ecology, urban beekeeping also supports urban agriculture and encourages pollination throughout the area. Bees are more likely to thrive in urban environments than in rural ones, where they merely survive.

Honey Bees live in colonies averaging 20,000 – 60,000 bees. There are three groups in the colony:

The queen, or adult-mated female bee is in charge of running the entire hive. The task of the queen is to deposit eggs that will produce the hive’s subsequent generation of bees. She also creates substances that influence the behavior of honey bees.

Drones: These unfertilized egg-born male bees are called drones and their main goal is to mate with each fresh unfertilized queen.

Female bees serve as the workers. They are responsible for gathering pollen and nectar from flowers, as well as cleaning and moving air by flapping their wings. The workers will fly around outside of the hive in order to construct and safeguard it.

Alvéole provides extra food as needed, helps them ward off pests, and collects honey when there is an abundance. Given that they only require a little footprint, city beehives work great on most commercial building roofs. By promoting fruiting and seed production, our bees continue to pollinate local plant life causing the neighborhood ecosystems surrounding our chosen Rising properties to flourish.

One California Plaza, The Park DTLA, and The Waterfront are where you may find our hives. Over 300 jars of honey are produced by our beehives every year! Rising tenants and staff have the opportunity to take part in the annual honey harvest and ongoing care of our bees through educational seminars and hands-on activities that involve and connect our tenants. One of our broods had enough bees to populate a separate hive that could be set up at a different neighborhood structure, increasing bee productivity even more. To learn more about Alvéole, visit www.alveole.buzz