Following a successful first harvest of honey from City Hall’s rooftop
beehive, the City has approved plans for a second hive.
Surf
Coast Honey owner Tony McNamara, who is responsible for the project, has so far
extracted around 4kg of honey from the first City Hall hive.
The
honey has been branded
‘Geelong Bee Project (Town Hall Honey)’ and is planned to be sold online and at
markets.
Using the honeycomb from the hive, Mr McNamara
is also making organic hand cream and other cosmetic products.
His
initiative – The Geelong Bee project – is designed to help rejuvenate and
improve sustainability within the urban environment by installing beehives on
CBD rooftops.
City
Hall became the first building to host a hive in May 2018. The second hive will
be installed in the coming weeks.
Planning
is also underway for further hives at other council-owned buildings, including
the Geelong West Town Hall.
In addition to producing honey, the thriving colony of bees is playing an
important role in pollinating flowers and plants in Johnstone Park and
surrounds – contributing to the health of the nearby natural environment.
With the worldwide bee population in decline, the initiative has also helped to
educate the community about the importance of bees to the environment.
Cr Sarah Mansfield,
Chair, Environment and Sustainability portfolio:
I'm so pleased with the results of the Geelong Bee Project so far, and to see that Tony's hive has been such a success that we're now adding another.
There has been a dramatic decline in global bee populations over the past decade, so this is a great initiative for the City to be involved in.
We hope the project is helping the community to understand the value of bees, and we'd love to see more buildings in the CBD hosting hives in the near future.