Bees in the City

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From the rooftop of Fortnum and Masons in Piccadilly and the grounds of Buckingham Palace to the Square Mile’s skyscrapers, banks and law courts, out to the city farms, back yards and council flat balconies of south London, allotments to the west, a honey co-op in the east end, and wildlife parks and gardens in the north, the landscape of the capital is now dotted with bee hives. This book will not only paint a vivid portrait of these intimate – sometimes secret – locations, it will also introduce you to the beekeepers and their bees through the changing seasons. By following the authors throughout a year, it will be part travelogue, part nature guide and part how-to manual for urban dwellers seeking to combine city life with keeping bees. Interviews with a diverse range of urban apiarists, describing where and how they keep their hives, will take the reader on a journey of discovery in which they will meet city workers tending to their bees in their lunch hour, entrepreneurs selling London honey to shops and restaurants, youth workers using beekeeping as a vehicle to help troubled teenagers, and environmentalists trying to green the city by keeping nature’s most efficient pollinator. Identifying with these new breed of beekeepers and learning how to keep bees in small, enclosed spaces, cheek by jowl with people, readers will be inspired and encouraged to take up this increasingly popular pastime.

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Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum have written two best-selling books about bees: A World without Bees, an investigation into the worldwide demise of the honeybee and what their disappearance would mean for the planet, and Keeping Bees and Making Honey, a beginners guide to beekeeping. Alison is a journalist and edits the Society section of the Guardian. Brian, a former teacher, runs Urban Bees, a London-based social enterprise that works with communities, companies and individuals to promote beekeeping in cities through practical education and training.