Things are all abuzz at Kitchener's Walper Hotel with new beehive: Andrew Coppolino

Honey bees aren't only doing their important pollinating work in the rich farmland around us: they've been introduced to the urban areas of Waterloo Region too. 

In the last several days, Kitchener's Walper Hotel installed a hive on the rooftop of their building which will produce honey for hotel guests and the general public.

While the honey won't be ready for a several months now, getting the bees settled in their new home six storeys up is a key first step that required the coordinated effort of beekeeper Catherine Young and Walper executive chef Nicole Hunt.

Young says that the new bees are currently familiarizing themselves with the neighbourhoods centred around the corner of King and Queen streets.

"There are about 12,000 honey bees right now, and they are learning about their environment and where they can forage. They will easily travel three to five kilometres to find the nectar that they need from flowers, the water that they need and pollen. Then they'll start packing the honey in," Young said.

The idea of rooftop beehives on restaurants isn't new to the food landscape, but there aren't many others between Toronto and London.

Langdon Hall in Cambridge has its own hives, as do Manulife and the Kitchener Public Library.

"But there are bees all over the region. They'll be in all sorts of nooks and crannies," Young said.

Important part of ecosystem

For the Walper, the idea started with executive chef Nicole Hunt. She has experience working at a restaurant with its own hives, and honey and bees have been a passion for her for some time now; she wanted to share that with downtown Kitchener.

"As a young cook, I was at the Fairmont Victoria and they had honey bees. It was engrained in me how important they are for our ecosystem and how important for the food we eat, so it's been a big goal of mine to get our own hive here and do our own part," said Hunt. "The Walper has been fantastic."

A year or so ago, Hunt had been working on the initiative with Walper management and ownership, but the pandemic put the brakes on the beehive plans.  

But now, Young and Hunt have set up the hive with a bowl of water and some plants for the bees to get started on until they find their foraging territories. Eventually, the plants will be harvested for use in the restaurant.

Slowly, Hunt says she will learn beekeeping from Young and make it part of her kitchen-prep routine. "The goal is for me to eventually be able to maintain the hives myself," Hunt said.

Setting up the hive

To start the process of the rooftop hive, a "nuc" (a nucleus colony, pronounced "nuke") is established with about 10,000 bees which will gradually grow to 50,000 bees, according to Young. 

"The queen is in there laying probably 1,500 to 2,000 eggs a day. The worker bees are foraging for nectar and pollen as fast as they can to support all those baby bees that are going to be born in about 21 days. This is a very focussed time for them when they build up a hive," she said.

The heat of the rooftop won't impact the honey bees, which live only about six weeks, Young points out, because they are cold-blooded and regulate temperature quite well. "Sometimes hives 'beard,' which is essentially going on the front porch with a lemonade to keep cool," Young said. "They'll fan and move air through."

In its first season, the Walper hive will produce anywhere from 18 to 45 kilograms of honey, estimates Young, who operates Backyard Honey Company.

"Next year, it could produce up to 135 kilograms of honey, depending on the season and the nature of the bees. Some are harder working hives than others," said Young.

Lots of uses

As for how the honey will be used, Hunt says that there's a wide range of applications for both the hotel side and the restaurant side at The Walper.

"We're going to jar some and it will be for sale to the general public as Walper honey," she said. "We will be using the majority of it in the restaurant for vinaigrettes, honey comb on charcuterie boards, for example, and for cocktails. We'll also make some honey caramels for room drops, turn-downs or just as a sweet treat for guests."

However, this evolving downtown hive is for more than merely satisfying the gustatory pleasures of Walper diner guests. As well as supplying the hotel with a range of bee and honey products for its clients, the pollinators' presence will benefit the surrounding neighbourhoods.

"Something like this rooftop hive is great because it is going to have reach in terms of people hearing about how easy it is to have a hive and the impact of it," said Young applauding the Walper's efforts, the buzz of which will help people understand these essential creatures.

"We've all heard that a third of your plate is thanks to pollinators. Bees are an important part of our environment, and they can live in many different areas."