A few of us from HQ were lucky enough to receive a very informative and interesting talk from the bee keeper in charge of the resident bees that live on the office roof.
The route to the roof was a little reminiscent of a Die Hard film, ducking under heating vents, dodging pipes before finally emerging onto the roof via an open window. The bees aside, the view from the top looking over Clapham, Battersea and beyond into London was worth the climb.
Some interesting facts we learned during the talk…
- The hive consists of around 50,000 bees that reduces to 20,000 during the winter
- A bee lives for a month, whereas a Queen Bee lives for 3-5 years
- When the Queen becomes too old, approx 5 new Queens are born and they then fight to death to become the new Queen
- Bees, don’t do well with too much, or too little to do. There is a fine line in ensuring they have enough space to grow, but not too much that they’re overworked (a bit like us humans there)
- A hive is made up of 10% male drone bees that don’t sting and the remaining 90% are females (that do sting)
- Each hive will make around 20kg of honey
We watched as the hive was open, the Queen found and checked that eggs were being laid and were then given the change to taste some honey straight from the frame. Considering their house was being invaded and essentially broken apart the bees were extremely calm and even without any protective clothing on, the beer keeper wasn’t stung.
The hive was then shut back up and will be left until the honey is harvested in July/August. We’re waiting with anticipation for the first pots of Falcon Road honey to arrive in the office.
