News about urban beekeeping is increasingly frequent in newspapers and websites: that is, hives located in large metropolitan contexts, such as Brussels, Paris and New York, but also many Italian cities including Milan, Rome and Bologna. Large metropolitan contexts which, although very different from the rural context in which we are used to placing bees, offer the opportunity to harvest high quality honey, characterized by excellent organoleptic properties and a high pollen variety.
What drives them to leave rural landscapes?
The pressures exerted by various anthropogenic stresses such as urbanization and the consequent erosion of natural areas, the use of plant protection products, global warming, the scarcity of food resources and nesting sites have progressively weakened the survival of pollinators belonging to the Apoidea family, including the apis mellifera commonly known as honey bees.
Why precisely the urban context?
The urban landscape has greatest biodiversity than rural areas, where agriculture has radically changed the landscape. Intensive agriculture and the spread of renewable energies has favored a growing use of chemical molecules that are harmful to the health of these living beings. The city thus becomes a refuge for many animal and plant species that can find a less hostile environment for their survival, bees in particular remain less exposed to all those chemical agents used in agriculture such as herbicides, insecticides and chemical fertilizers.
What makes the urban habitat so hospitable from the point of view of bees?
The microclimate. With temperatures on average higher, the bees consume less supplies in such conditions, but not only that, the green spaces offered by the various cities with the variety of abundant and assorted blooms, often used in an ornamental way, such as in terraces and balconies, offer a huge advantage for insects that find a lot of food and little competition in a short flight range
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This is why we at Beeing have developed B-BOX, the first urban beehive with an innovative design that helps bees to enter this environment. Made with sustainable but durable materials such as wood and stainless steel, it is safe thanks to the location of the entrance at 2 meters high and the separation of the melarium from the nest that allows the extraction of honey without protection. It performs an educational function, you can observe the bees inside thanks to transparent polycarbonate walls allowing you to leave enough honey for their sustenance. For novice urban beekepers are also present on our website video-educational courses that will allow you to carry out the activity independently.
In conclusion, it is not uncommon, given the aforementioned reasons, that bees prefer an urban context so rich in biodiversity compared to a monocultural landscape such as the rural one. In addition, the delicate presence of these pollinators cannot help but help public green areas with a perspective to the proliferation of urban green spaces which must inevitably be correlated with proper management of urban green area. In this delicate balance, everyone must do their part starting from the safeguarding and protection of bees.