With the arrival of this year’s warm weather, which we experienced earlier than in previous years, beekeeping season has well and truly begun. Here at Blue Assets, our parks are home to 70 bee colonies, which produced 3.5 tons of honey last year.

The work of the beekeepers in a logistics park is not so different from any regular beekeeper’s routine. The bees are weak after the winter, so the first job is to disinfect the hives and feed the bees. The hives must also be checked for disease. During the year, beekeepers keep track of when the queen is born and subsequently dies, whilst their other activities include feeding the bees for the winter, wintering the colonies, repairing the hives, and much more. 

Logistics parks are an ideal environment for bees. This is due to several factors. As part of the BREEAM sustainability certification, flower meadows have been planted in the parks. This means that the bees have plenty of space and are protected from unauthorised access by fencing. The proximity of the retention ponds, which serve as a water source, is also beneficial. In some of the parks we manage, cameras and sensors have been installed in the hives to analyse the bees’ noises and weigh how much honey is in them. This means we can keep a really close eye on the bees day to day.