THE OPERA APIARY

In spring 2021, three beehives were placed on the roofs of La Monnaie. There were three queens at work and one type of bee, the Buckfast bee. In the summer of 2021, the bees produced their first honey. One year later, despite the drought, they produced 45kg of honey. 

In late summer 2022, the bees left two of the three hives. The third one was also found empty in early autumn. There are several hypotheses: the summer heat was too intense for the bees and many wasps were found in the hives, causing them to flee. 

New bees will be introduced into the hives in spring 2023.

Brussels honey, a high-quality product

The bee is doing well in the city. The average temperature is higher than in the countryside, there is less wind and pesticides are almost completely absent. The opera’s honey is called "all-flower" because of the city’s diversity of floral species, thanks to the many green spaces, parks, wastelands, gardens and balconies.

The bee, sentinel of the quality of our environment

While the honey bee is the most common and well-known species, there are also wild bees that represent a high number of pollinators and contribute to the pollination of 80% of the flowering plant species essential to our food. Protecting them is therefore essential!

Did you know that?

To produce 100g of honey, the bees had to make 10,000 flights, travel 20,000 km and pick 10 million flowers.