From PlanBig.com

Plan Description:

My partner and I are Beekeepers with a vision of bringing bees back to the city and suburbs of Melbourne. We set up this project as we saw a need to support the world wide effort to help save the honey bee. With the collapse of honeybees in 2007 (Colony Collapse Disorder), the Asian Honey Bee threat and Varroa Mite on our doorstep, a serious risk is taking place on our natural food supply. Since the honey bee is crucial in our environment and their existence helps with sustainability in food along with the responsibility of pollinating a large proportion of the food that we eat – if the honey bees are in trouble, we are in trouble as well. Since we started in November 2010, we have been overwhelmed with all the support we have been receiving from local businesses and the community. The way in which the project works is that, we install, maintain and look after the bees at no cost using natural beekeeping methods. Our plan for this in the future is, we will be providing the bees and the hive for free and seeking to get funding or businesses to sponsor them so we can keep maintaining them and rolling them out all over Melbourne. All of the bees re-homed are those which have been caught, swarms by us or from volunteers of the Melbourne Beekeepers club over spring and summer. Currently we have 20 hives placed around Melbourne and a offer of another 110+ businesses and individuals wanting to get involved or adopt a hive. So far our supporters include: • La Luna Bistro – Carlton • Ladro Restaurant– Fitzroy & Prahran • Fatto A Mano Organic Bakery – Fitzroy • Deco Bar – North Fitzroy • Roller Door Organic Café – West Melbourne • Trunk Bar – Melbourne CBD • The Alto Hotel – Melbourne CBD • Deadman Espresso – South Melbourne As well as half a dozen lovely individuals within 5-10kms of the CBD As a added benefit we also get some true ‘local’ produce, with less actual food miles as well as help green our city at the same time.

My Big reasons are:

What is on offer is an opportunity for people to get involved as well as, depending on the honey flow for the season we are looking at sharing a portion of the honey for the gesture. We extract the honey, raw and unprocessed which we will do at one of restaurants who have donated their kitchen to help out. Individuals can purchase their own local honey with the balance being sold back to the city community for pick up at a nominated collection points. Unique honey from each hive!

My plan will be a success when:

It will be ongoing as there will be re-homing of wild swarms during spring and summer annually. The Honey share working and sales to the city community. Ideally we would like to have numerous hives in the CBD and each suburb in Melbourne.

Thanks to the  following environmentally responsible businesses for supporting Happyzine:

ECOtanka

• Eco-friendly –  Reusable for years upon years
• Safe & non-leaching – BPA free (bisphenol-A)
• Solid food-grade stainless steel – Super hygienic & clean

www.ecotanka.com

Tags: honey bee