Paris rooftops swarm with bees as urban honey industry takes off
By Charles Bremner for Times Online
Tourists are not the only species swarming on the Champs Élysées this August. Also enjoying the sunshine are squadrons of bees, part of a fast-multiplying population that is making honey a new Parisian industry.
The Tuileries, Luxembourg and other lesser gardens of Paris are now home to hundreds of thousands of bees that are far more productive than their country cousins.
“There are a huge quantity of flowers in Paris,” said Yves Védrenne, the general secretary of the National Apiculture Union. As well as the city’s lush parks and gardens, the boulevards and edges of motorways offer pollen well suited to bees, such as acacias, limes and chestnuts.
Not only is the city largely free from the pesticides and fertilisers that are killing the countryside bees, the warmth of the urban area promotes earlier breeding.
Some Paris honey-producers are claiming record productivity, with up to 100kg of honey per hive annually, compared with the 20-25kg from typical hives on the cereal-producing plains of Ile-de-France, the surrounding region, Mr Védrenne said recently.
There are about 300 registered hives in the city, with more believed to be undeclared as residents try their hand at apiculture, which can be learnt on two-day courses. The total output is estimated at several tonnes a year. Hives must be at least 25 metres from hospitals or schools and have a two-metre screen if they are not on a high building.
Until last May, the biggest hives were on the roof of the Opéra. They were then joined by around 140,000 bees installed on the glass dome of the Grand Palais, the majestic 1900 exhibition hall off the Champs Élysées.
“The bees are very happy in the city. They have everything they need,” said Sébastien de Gasquet, director of the Grand Palais. Nicolas Géant, the bee-keeper behind the Grand Palais scheme, said that the abeilles de ville could produce up to five times the output of insects in the great rural expanses where there are single crops.
“There are myriad little flowers in the gardens, on terraces and on balconies. Bees live better in the town than the country because of the bioviersity. There are thousands of little flowers while the country is polluted by pesticides.”
The Champs Élysées honey is to be sold under the Grand Palais label, joining other miel de Paris brands that cost a steep ¤15 (£13) for a 125g (4½pot at high-end food outlets.
The honey flavour is described by experts as sweet and subtle, lacking any trace of exhaust fumes or the Métro underground smell that has become a Paris signature.
The national bee-keeping body has recently reported high mortality in the country near corn [as I suspected], sunflower and rapeseed fields. Bee deaths across Europe have been 30 to 35 per cent higher than average since the 1980s. French figures show that bees in urban areas produce about twice the amount of honey as rural ones. Similar figures are reported from New York.
No swarms have been known to attack the population but the Paris bee-boom has led to flourishing wild hives in odd places. Jean Paucton, bee-master at the Opéra, reported colonies in Père Lachaise cemetery, a hospital and in the directors’ room at the headquarters of the Société Générale bank. -- ###
~ ~ ~
Beekeeping not a simple a story in London: Shh!
John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson - Beekeeping
Hysterical sketch w/ Cleese as a beekeeping expert and Atkinson as a terrible television show host. Recorded live in 1981. Shh!
~ ~ ~
OT: Garden Update
Peas (front center) and green beans (center rear) have already outgrown their 4 1/2" pots and will be transplanted again as soon as larger pots arrive. In the future, I plan to "start" these larger varieties, including tomatoes and Chinese cabbage, directly in the 4 1/2" pots to avoid the shock of moving. All seem to be doing just fine though. :D <-- Your happy container gardener, c
0 comments:
Post a Comment