Urban beekeeping at hotels & restaurants

Bee hives at Fairmount Royal York Hotel in TorontoLast month, my friend Martin sent me an article about Fortnum & Mason using honey they gather from their own bee hives. Then a few weeks later, he sent another article about the Fairmount Royal York Hotel in Toronto installing bee hives on their roof. Today he sent another link to Paris-based Pullman Hotels & Resorts and their bee related activities.
It reminds me of the lines from Alice’s Restaurant:
 
You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him.  And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization.  And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out.  And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.
And that’s what it is , the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come’s around on the guitar.
 
I don’t know if urban beekeeping is a movement yet but it is certainly capturing the attention of a lot of city people. We live in an apartment and are unable to put a hive on our roof so took it one step further and installed a real hive on a farm.

I found a few articles about the beehives on the 13th floor roof of Toronto’s Fairmount Royal York hotel. The Toronto Star writes:

The Fairmont Royal York hotel is abuzz with excitement.

It has to do with the opening of the new Honey Moon Suite. But don’t go looking for Italian linens or extra-deep bathtubs. This suite is a very small box with holes in its walls, and it’s also prone to regular visits by insects.

Bees, that is. The Honey Moon Suite – a cute name for one of three new beehives in the hotel’s rooftop garden – is now home to more than 10,000 buzzing bugs.

The hives were installed this week and will provide honey for the hotel’s restaurants starting this summer.

“I’d noticed how many insects fly into this garden

Read more here.

The National Post also has an article:

The honeybees – who live in three designer hives called The Royal Sweet, the Honey Moon Suite and the V.I.Bee Suite, complete with the official hotel logo – are a new addition to the rooftop garden, managed by Garcelon, his apprentices and members of the Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative.

“The interesting thing about bees and the Royal York set-up in particular is that the honey will be specific to this location,” said Mylee Nordin, one of the TBC members. “They feed off the closest food source so they’re going to be feeding off the garden a lot and it’ll be kind of a taste-picture of the hotel itself.”

By keeping hives on the roof, chef Garcelon and the rest of the Royal York staff are not only ensuring that one of their restaurant’s most versatile ingredients is extra-local – the honey will be used in everything from salad dressings to soup, as well as cocktails and ice cream – but that surrounding green spaces like the ravine and the island are kept pollinated so the biodiversity of the city, as a whole, is further enriched.

Read more here.

 

categories Bees | | datetime 14 May 2009 06:53

2 Comments

  • By Barbara L, 11 June 2009 @ 05:13

    I am enjoying your beekeeping blog. I too am a new beekeeper. I just got my bees last week. I’m in southern Ontario – London.

    I certain hope urban beekeeping takes off. Like you, my hives are on a farm. Did you also hear that there are 2 bee hives at the Whitehouse? They have a garden and 2 hives!

  • By Stephen, 12 June 2009 @ 15:01

    Hi Barbara,

    Yes, I heard about the Whitehouse bees. Quite the location! My sister is in school in London and we used to live in Toronto. It is a small world. Let us know how your bees do.

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