The Waterfront, among other hotels in the chain, is into beekeeping in a big way and is earning a sweet reward for its efforts
Kim Davis
Sun
Like a passionate wine maker describing the bouquet of his latest cabernet, Graeme Evans of the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel enjoys talking about the sweet elixir his hotel’s resident bees are producing.
“Right now they are pulling in a licorice-flavoured honey,” he says. “A little while ago they were bringing in a spicy honey, and earlier in the year they were producing a lavender honey.”
He says he believes the best honey is yet to come, though. “It is a dark amber, licorice-flavoured honey that comes from a variety of plants.”
Started in 2008 as part of the Fairmont chain’s decision that each hotel would adopt an environmental program, the Vancouver’s Fairmont Waterfront is one of a growing number of institutions that have added beekeeping to their amenities.
INTERNATIONAL ACCLAIM
It was over 25 years ago that Jean Paucton got the idea of keeping bees on the roof of the Paris Opera House, where he worked in props. In the heart of Paris, Paucton cares for five hives of honeybees. He is not alone either.
The Eiffel Park Hotel began beekeeping three years ago, after turning one of its terraces into a site for several hives. The reported 330 pounds of honey the hotel’s bees produce each year is given as gifts and served at breakfast.
In 2005, the National Apiculture Association in Paris began one of the largest programs in the world aimed at encouraging beekeeping in cities, and now more than 300 known colonies in the French capital.
In Tokyo, beehives dot the rooftops of department stores in the trendy shopping districts such as Ginza. In Chicago, bees hold court on the roofs of city hall and the Chicago Cultural Center in Garfield Park Conservatory. In Washington, D.C., several hives have taken their place in the White House’s new vegetable garden.
Here in Canada at least two other Fairmont hotels, the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto and the Fairmont Algonquin in St. Andrews, Science World and most recently the new Vancouver Convention Centre have embraced beekeeping.
A COMMUNITY SERVICE
“I thought if we released grizzly bears into the downtown core people might get upset,” jokes Evans when talking about the Fairmont Waterfront’s decision to adopt beekeeping. “I started learning about bees,” he says, “and found out that they are literally the cornerstone of our civilization. Without them, 90 per cent of our crops would fail and our entire civilization would crumble.”
Evans says that after reading about the irony of rapidly expanding agriculture in the face of declining bee populations, he saw the bee project as an opportunity to not only do something for the environment, but also to educate guests about the life and importance of bees.
“Guests have had a marvellous response to the fact that you can walk by a quarter of a million bees on the [rooftop] deck and have no issues.”
Evans jokes that people often come to hear about the bees and watch the weekly checking of the hives expecting he or beekeeping guru John Gibeau of the Honeybee Centre will get stung, but usually they go away disappointed. Visitors and guests have also been excited to learn that the honey produced is used in the hotel’s restaurant. “People want to know if they can buy it, where they can get it,” says Evans.
URBAN DWELLERS
Not only are urban bees spared many of the hazards that their rural counterparts face — bears, skunks and agricultural pesticides — they also enjoy a greater variety of vegetation, and the benefit of an urban centre’s warmer temperatures.
The urban biotope may be completely artificial, but there are dozens of different species, with at least something in bloom during much of the year.
This good life is producing healthy bees and impressive harvests. In a recent New York Times article, Paucton said bee losses in the French countryside have been as much as 50 per cent, while the number in the city doesn’t approach five per cent.
Some years, he says, he doesn’t lose any in the city. “The harvest is worse and worse in the countryside,” he is quoted as saying. He attributes the losses to the pesticides large agricultural companies typically use.
With conditions in their favour, urban bees are keeping busy and offering up a bounty in response. Paucton reported that his city hives produce more than 990 pounds of honey a year, several times more what rural French beekeepers typically expect.
Here in Vancouver, Evans reports that, though highly dependent on the weather, the hives at the Fairmont Waterfront are producing on average 30 to 40 pounds of honey a week.
BEE WISE
Aside from holding together civilization and producing a tasty treat, Evans feels that bees also have a poignant lesson to offer people regarding the practice of sustainability. “One bee doesn’t really produce a lot of honey,” he says. “It’s because there are hundreds of thousands of bees acting together to produce such amazing numbers. That’s what we need to do. Everyone needs to do one thing for sustainability, and as an entire group we can have a massive impact.”
He says that “individual efforts may be small, but you can’t discount them because the minute you take them away the hive collapses. Everyone needs to do their part.”
HONEY TASTING AND MORE
On Aug. 25 the Fairmont Waterfront invites the public to join hotel staff for several hours of beekeeping activities, including an extraction demonstration and honey tasting. For details visit fairmont.com/Waterfront on the Internet.
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