A property firm is doing its bit for the environment by installing beehives in Birmingham city centre. Cushman & Wakefield has already introduced hives to buildings it manages in other cities and has now announced plans to roll out the scheme in the Midlands the Birmingham Post reports.
The idea developed as a response to the worrying decline in the bee population which has led to calls for urgent action. As a result Cushman & Wakefield first introduced hives to properties it manages in London’s Regent Street followed by another in Temple Street, Bristol.
This spring the Colmore Gate office building in Birmingham’s business district will be the next to welcome the busy new tenants, and it is hoped that the first ‘Brummie Honey’ will be harvested in the summer.
Phillip Taylor, of the firm’s Birmingham asset management team, explained that bees can thrive in an urban environment and that the tenants of the property will provide an important helping hand.
“Our tenants will be playing a valuable part in helping to look after the bees, and we will be offering bee keeping training and equipment – many of our tenants in Bristol and London have taken up the opportunity,” he said.
According to the British Bee Keepers Association, bees are in danger of disappearing from the environment. The habitat of solitary and bumblebees is being disturbed by modern farming practices at such a rate that they have little chance of re-establishing populations.
In addition the honey bee population is under threat from the varroa mite and it is only due to the treatment and care provided by bee keepers that colonies are surviving at all. As one third of the food we eat is reliant on visits from bees it is vital that this trend is reversed.
The Birmingham hives will be installed on the roof of the Colmore Gate property shortly.
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