Welcome to our bee-friendly establishment!
By hosting bees, we aim to foster urban biodiversity and help our community connect with nature onsite. With the support of Alvéole’s urban beekeepers, we care for our bees and educate our community about the vital role of pollinators in our food and ecosystems.
Coexisting with bees in cities is both easy and natural. Urban areas are home to a fascinating and diverse ecosystem filled with pollinators and flowering plants!
There are over 20,000 species of bees worldwide! While some are highly social and live in colonies, the majority are solitary, focused on creating their own nests and offspring.
The importance of bees
All bee species rely on nearby flowers for food. By visiting and pollinating these flowers, they play an essential role in the reproduction of nearly 90% of our planet’s flowering plants, including many food crops.
Why support pollinators in our cities?
Our lives are deeply intertwined with nature and biodiversity. Cities have become crucial havens for pollinators, who are losing their natural habitats due to industrial agriculture and pesticide use. As we face growing trends of nature loss, it is essential to commit to halting and reversing these impacts. Supporting pollinators is a step towards fostering a sustainable future where both humans and wildlife can thrive.
Connecting bees with environmental monitoring
Integrating bee populations into local environmental monitoring can provide valuable insights into ecosystem health. Bees serve as indicators of biodiversity and environmental quality, helping us understand the impacts of urbanization and agricultural practices on our natural surroundings. By supporting bee habitats, we not only enhance biodiversity but also promote a healthier environment for all.
Bees play an essential role in the reproduction of nearly 90% of our planet’s flowering plants.
Get to know the honey bee
Honey bees are just one of many incredible pollinators that play a vital role in our ecosystem. The honey bee is a social insect known for its complex colony structure. They are responsible for the pollination of approximately one-third of everything we eat. This means that without honey bees, our diets would be far less diverse and delicious!
Are honey bees dangerous?
Unless they sense a threat or aggression, honey bees have no motivation to sting. In fact, they have every reason not to sting because, once they do, they lose their stingers, detach a part of their abdomens, and rapidly die.
How is honey made?
Honey is created from the nectar of plants and flowers that bees collect. After returning to the hive, bees add enzymes to the nectar, which helps break down the sugars. They store this transformed nectar in sealed honeycombs, allowing it to mature and develop its unique flavor and consistency. An Alvéole beehive can produce an average of 15 kg (30 lb) of honey in a single year.
What’s in a beehive?
At the height of summer, each hive contains up to 50,000 bees. Wooden beehive “boxes” are added to the hive as the colony grows.
Members of the hive
Worker bees
Approximately 90% of the bees in a hive are female. Over the course of their short lives – just 30 to 45 days – they stay hard at work. They build the hive’s wax honeycombs, gather nectar, and transform it into honey.
Queen
Her Majesty lives anywhere from 3 to 5 years and can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day. She produces odors called pheromones that make bees behave in specific ways.
Drones
Approximately 10% of the bees in a hive are male. On average, their lifespan varies from 1 to 2 months. Drones don’t have stingers. Instead, they have a reproductive organ, and their main role is to fertilize a virgin queen from a neighboring hive.
Learn more about wild bees
Wild bees are undomesticated bee species that often live alone rather than in colonies. They nest in the ground or in cavities like hollow logs or plant stems, or the hollow reeds used in Alvéole’s BeeHomes.
Are wild bees dangerous?
Wild bees are generally very docile pollinators and do not defend their nests aggressively. They rarely, if ever, sting, making them safe to have around in gardens and public areas.
Are wild bees efficient pollinators?
Wild bees are incredibly efficient pollinators. Just one mason bee can accomplish the pollination work of over 100 honey bees! They typically forage within a maximum distance of 0.3 miles (500 meters) from their nesting site. That’s significantly shorter than honey bees, who can travel around 2 miles (3 km).
What threats do wild bees face?
Wild bees are heavily impacted by habitat loss due to urban sprawl and agricultural practices, as they rely on natural plant materials for nesting. Protecting their habitats is crucial for biodiversity and ecosystem health.
What is a BeeHome?
BeeHomes, also known as bee or insect hotels, are structures with small tubes where solitary wild bees can nest and lay eggs. Unlike honey bees, which live in colonies, wild bees nest alone in the ground or in hollow cavities. The tubes in a BeeHome bring many nesting spaces together in one spot, making it easier to watch the bees and observe their nesting habits.
What bees can you find in a BeeHome?
Mason bees
Expert pollinators that use mud to seal their nests, functioning like tiny bricklayers.
Leafcutter bees
Cut perfect circles from leaves to create cozy nests for their young.
How can you help wild bee populations?
Plant native flowers! Wild bees thrive on blooms they’ve evolved with. Find out which flowers grow best in your area to create a bee-friendly haven!
