ROOF TOP HONEY BEES AT THE BAY CENTRE

10,000 new residents moved into the Bay Centre

The roof of the Bay Centre is now home to over 10,000 honey bees residing in two hives. For the Bay Centre the addition of honey bees on their roof is an important element to the Centre’s commitment to fostering environment awareness through education and outreach with our tenants and customers.

Bay Centre bees are in partnership with Alveole who monitor and care for the honey bees. Urban beekeeping is an innovative program that repurposes unused spaces within our cities, such as the Bay Centre’s roof, and produces hyper-local honey. At the height of the summer, each hive has the potential of containing up to 50,000 bees, producing 30 lbs. of honey in a single year.

About the Bay Centre’s honey bees
The Bay Centre’s beehives were installed in partnership with Alveole, which has partnered with hundreds of companies and schools to initiate beekeeping projects. Alveole is dedicated to connect urban dwellers to nature, build ecological awareness, and in time, more sustainable cities and food systems.

Alveole works with a special breed of Italian bees selected for their docility. Honey bees are naturally calm in nature and are not interested in human beings. Bay Centre beehives are located on the shopping centre’s roof in a safe and non-threatening location. Their daily quest is to bring nectar, pollen, resin, or water to their colony to ensure its development. Unless aggression is demonstrated towards them, bees have no motivation to sting.

When bees leave the hive, they have but one goal: to forage for resources (nectar, pollen and tree resin) that are within a 3-5 km radius. Bay Centre honey bees will have access to many resources downtown including 740,000 square meters of park land at Beacon Hill Park.