What is Urban Beekeeping?
Both exhibitors offer a turnkey service in which trained beekeepers install your hives, maintain them every few weeks, and harvest honey for your tenants to share. Your tenants can observe as the bees move through their seasonal cycles, pollinating your plants, making honey, and retreating into their hives over the winter.
Both services provide reporting that you can use to prove your sustainable bona fides, including biodiversity reporting that uses the honeybees as an indicator species to gather data, explained Delaney Dameron, CEO of the Boston-based Best Bees Company. The two exhibitors also offer engagement reporting, so you can see how many people are attending hive events with beekeepers.
How Do I Get Started with Beekeeping?
Your urban beekeeping experience will start with a detailed assessment with your service provider of choice, said Noemie Turcotte, head of marketing for Montreal-based Alvéole. Assessors need to answer a few key questions about your site:
- What spaces do you have available for a beehive? Green roofs are a popular choice, but buildings that are taller than 30 stories can’t put hives there because the roof is too windy for the bees, Turcotte said. Other options include landscaped terraces, courtyards, and more.
- How much space is available? Some buildings have room for a few hives, while others have less space available and need a more compact option.
- What are the characteristics of your space? Bees need places to forage nearby, Dameron said. Sunshine and wind levels are also key.
- What are your goals? Different property owners and managers want different things from the hive. Is it primarily a tenant engagement initiative for you, or do you plan to use the hives toward your biodiversity or sustainability efforts as well? If the hive is for tenant engagement, will you want additional services? Both companies offer branded jars of your own honey and workshops for beeswax products, such as candles.
The service is fully hands-off for property managers except for the occasional communication with the service provider. You can schedule workshops and other events ahead of time, grant the beekeepers access to the space on event day, and then sit back while your tenants and their employees enjoy the events.
“We tend to find the buy-in with folks in a building to the beehives is really high,” Dameron said. “The ownership is really amazing. When folks engage with these bees, they start to ask a lot more questions about what they can do as individuals to support pollinators and the nature surrounding them in these urban areas.”
Ready to get started with urban beekeeping? Visit the Best Bees Company and Alvéole at the 2026 BOMA International Conference & Expo, taking place June. 27-30 in Long Beach, California. There’s still time to register!
