A vision of bringing bees to the city: Melbourne City Rooftop Honey

We all need bees right? They pollinate our plants for us and we appreciate their honey.

Worldwide, bees are facing a whole host of problems including overuse of pesticides, parasites like the Varroa destructor mite, habitat loss, monocultures and so on. This recent article in The Age explains some of what Australia is facing and Wikipedia has a good explanation of issues leading to pollinator decline.

Well, there's some excitement around an interesting enterprise in Melbourne that's working to bring bees back into the city.

Melbourne City Rooftop Honey currently have around 18 hives up and running around Melbourne with a waiting list of people eager to participate. A recent $1000 grant enabled them to buy an extracting machine.

A few of the businesses involved:

• DecoBar in North Fitzroy, 
• Fatto A Mano Organic Bakery in Fitzroy, 
• La Luna Bistro in Carlton, 
• Ladro Restaurant in Fitzroy and Prahran, 
• Roller Door Caffe in West Melbourne, 
• Deck of Secrets and Trunk Bar in Melbourne CBD.

Check our their website or read this recent article in The Age specifically about Rooftop Honey, they also get a mention in this article in Food Magazine and the Melbourne Leader featured them in a story this week.

I wish them lots of luck and hope we see some groups in Moreland will get involved, we need the bees!

Know anyone in Moreland who keeps bees?

Could your group support a bee hive?