Urban bees survive better, produce more honey, and are healthier than rural bees. Furthermore, urban bees have a winter survival rate of 62.5 percent, compared to just 40 percent for their rural counterparts nationwide. Urban bees also produce, on average, 26.25 pounds of honey in their first year, while the yield for rural bees is only 16.75 pounds.

 

Moving bees to the cities also help prevent colony failure.  Pollinators like honeybee colonies are failing for four major reasons:

1. Habitat loss

2. Poor nutrition

3. Pesticide exposure

4. Pollinator-specific parasites and diseases

 

Urban beekeeping solves many of these issues.Keeping bees in cities helps to combat the habitat losses found in more rural areas of Virginia.As farmers look towards corn and wheat to improve income, these monocultural farming practices take away from plants that provide pollinators with nectar and nutrients.Cities are chock full of flowering plants along busy streets, in the yards of suburban homeowners, and on patios and porches of many high-rise buildings.The diversity of pollen and nectar in urban settings also provides a vast array of nutritional sources.

 

While cities are not pesticide free, the major sources of sprayed/ airborne insecticides are nowhere near as prevalent.Pests and predators can follow honey bee colonies to the cities.While some of the larger predators like bears will stay far away from city rooftops, mites and beetles that affect the colony will continue to be a source of disease transmission, requiring management by the beekeeper.The great thing about cities, is some of these pests require soil to reproduce and bury their eggs.With colonies on city rooftops, parasite load on urban hives is drastically limited.

 

Beekeeping in urban areas does not only benefit the bees.There are obvious benefits to urban agricultural projects when pollinators are working alongside us.Outside of these benefits, building owners can also see great benefits from partnering with urban beekeepers.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) ratings, a metric of sustainability promoted by the United States Green Building Council, grants buildings LEED designations based on a system of points awarded for environmentally friendly features. In Manhattan, for example, the rooftop hives atop the 51-story Bank of America Tower’s 6,000-sq-ft green roof is a critical element of its LEED Platinum rating –the highest possible– and is sustained in part by two hives of 10,000 honey bees.