BeeBristol and At-Bristol's live beehive

BeeBristol are currently being featured in our Nature residency here at the City Ideas Studio. BeeBristol communicate the value of pollinators and their protection, importantly, creating food and nesting sites across the city. BeeBristol have kindly lent us the hexagonal planters that you can see outside our gallery, later to be donated to community growing groups.

We were pleased to hear that At-Bristol have welcomed some new residents to their green roof - in the form of a hive of European Honey bees or ‘Apis mellifera'.

Supported by a grant-making trust, At-Bristol have been working closely with BeeBristol, to get things ready for the bees, who moved in to their new penthouse hive recently.

The bees will be able to gather pollen from At-Bristol’s wildflower rooftop garden, as well as neighbouring green spaces such as Brandon Hill and At-Bristol’s own community gardens out on Millennium Square, and will hopefully be able to produce their first honey this year.

The hive will be tended by BeeBristol beekeepers in the first 12 months, as well as 2 newly appointed in-house beekeepers from At-Bristol, who will be trained by BeeBristol and will eventually take over looking after the hive themselves. The new urban bee hive will be used both as a learning tool for both school and general visitors, as well possibly providing honey for At-Bristol’s café and shop.

A webcam will be installed by the hive to broadcast images of the bees live to the Greenhouse in the At-Bristol Food! exhibition, as well as on the Big Screen on Millennium Square. 

We are very pleased to hear the bees are settling in nicely and think they may be what are pollinating our wildflowers in our hexagonal planters.

Visit our Nature residency before the 13th September to learn more about BeeBristol and other great projects helping Bristol become a nature-rich landscape.

We will be launching our third City Ideas Studio residency, Resources, on the 23rd of September.