One Hive Started with 10,000 Bees, Grew To 70,000
Source: NaturalSociety.com
Julie FidlerApril 20, 2016
The world’s honeybees are in rapid decline. Due to pesticide exposure, disease, and more, there are 70% fewer of them now than there were just 70 years ago. A number of hotels in San Francisco are sympathetic to the plight of these vital pollinators, and have turned their rooftops into sanctuaries for the fuzzy, winged creatures.
Millions of bees currently reside on the roofs of at least 7 luxury hotels in the city. Beekeeper Spencer Marshall has seen the devastating bee decline firsthand. He told CBS News:
“When I started almost 50 years ago, if I lost two or three percent of my bees a year, that was like, ‘What’s going on?’ Now you lose 50, 60 percent. And it’s not sustainable.”
Marshall is a beekeeper at the Fairmont San Francisco, the first hotel in the city to install a bee sanctuary. At first, he thought the sanctuaries were just “good PR,” but now his rooftop hives produce 1,000 pounds of honey every year.
Fairmont sought Marshall’s help in 2010 with a goal of rebuilding the bee population. The flying insects pollinate $15 billion in crops in the U.S. annually. Yeah, a lot of food depends on bees and pollination.
Said Melissa Farrar, Fairmont’s marketing director:
“When I started almost 50 years ago, if I lost two or three percent of my bees a year, that was like, ‘What’s going on?’ Now you lose 50, 60 percent. And it’s not sustainable.”
The Clift Hotel in the city’s Union Square installed its bee sanctuary last May, with 1 queen and 10,000 bees. The sanctuary should fill with 70,000 bees, and that number is expected to grow to 800,000 by early 2017.
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