I’m live from London reporting from the newly minted St. Ermin’s Hotel in Westminster. The hotel has just had a multi-million pound facelift but one of the most unusual new additions is the sustainable beehive on the roof–a live hive that is buzzing with thousands of honey-making bees working hard to bring in a harvest of over 20 pounds of honey that will be served to guests in the hotel’s Caxton Grill and offered for sale to take home.
The bees are the brainchild of London beekeeper, Camilla Godard (or apiarist for the bee cognoscenti) and her company Capital Bee. Based in South and Central London, Capital Bee makes their own sustainable honey and sells it at posh shops in town like The Frog on the Green in Nunhead. Capital Bee also runs a bee rescue facility where colonies at risk in London are removed from danger zones and relocated to an ancient oak woodland in Kent. Safe bee sanctuaries are being established by Camilla and co. across South London.
The St. Ermin’s bees will be collecting nectar and pollinating plants in local areas like St. James’s Park and perhaps even the Queen’s own Buckingham Palace Gardens, a stone’s throw away from the hotel, which brings a whole new meaning to the term, “royal jelly.”
