Just a year after putting bee hives on the roof of the factory, the bees have produced 15kg of honey.
Employees at Armor are said to be delighted to receive pots of honey from bee hives placed on the roof a year ago. Margarita Léonard, Head of Corporate Services at Armor and Safety and Environment Manager, explained that the venture came about from a collaboration with Les Jardins de Gally.
“The idea of installing hives on the roof of Armor came from the collaborators. Since we had already set up a collaboration with Les Jardins de Gally, which offers every 15 days a basket of local fruit to all employees at the headquarters, we turned to this structure for the installation of hives. In March 2016, a beekeeper partner of Jardins de Gally came with three hives, which he maintains once a month. Six months later, we had a first harvest! 15 kg of honey under Armor label and offered to employees for Christmas.”
From an ecological view, Fabienne Bouchon, Head of Studies and Advice Clients Jardins de Gally, commented: “We can not imagine, a priori, that bees are more fulfilling in the city than in the countryside – and yet it is! They escape the abundance of phyto-sanitary products and can exploit the diversity of flowers and blooms. Let us not forget also that bees have a recognized ecological interest, because they favour the development of the fauna (insects) and the flora, by the pollination of the flowers and the fruits.
“In this sense, besides the funny communication that can be made around honey pots with the image of the company, the hives project is fully in line with Armor’s will to assume its environmental responsibility for business.”
Christophe Travers, beekeeper and arborist, said that keeping bees in the country or in the town does not seem to make a difference: “Beekeeping on the roof of a company or in a rural context does not differ greatly. Of course, in town you have to harness yourself to climb on the roof, but it is enough to find the right geographical conditions for the bees to thrive: they must be placed on a sunny roof, and be able to find vegetation one kilometre round around the hive.
“In the countryside, they are found in more targeted massifs, such as colza or chestnut coppice; in town, they will make their honey of varied blooms (geranium, petunia) and less abundant. Far from insecticides, they are sometimes threatened as elsewhere by the Asian hornet.”