This reblog was inspired by this comment…
bebefreed says:
November 29, 2013 at 9:13 am
I read an article about a beekeeper who left his apiary in the country to take a job as and executive in a high rise in Paris. He was bereft to leave his bees behind. But since he was a big wig, he managed to keep a hive in his penthouse office, why high up in a high rise. He built a little tunnel that went from the hive to the window so they were actually housed indoors, yet they had a great distance to cover to find water, nectar and pollen. Yet, surprisingly, he reported that his high rise bees produced over three times more honey that his bees in the country. Consistent, prodigious yields! Go figure!
Bees and beekeeping have a long and treasured history in Paris.
In the nineteenth century, many people left the French countryside to live in the city of Paris, and some of them brought their beloved bees along too. They soon discovered that their bees loved Paris as much as they did.
A century ago, there were more than 1000 hives in the city of Paris. The bees almost disappeared in the decades after World War II, but a new generation of beekeepers has brought them back to the city. Today, it is estimated that there are close to 500 hives in the City of Light.
One of the first of the modern beekeepers was Jean Paucton, a retired accessory designer for the Palais Garnier, the baroque Second Empire opera house best known in the U.S. as the home of the fictional “Phantom of the Opera.”
Twenty-seven years ago, Monsieur Paucton…
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