Beehives are now in place on the roof of Eden Locke ApartHotel on George Street by Webster Honey
The sustainable Scottish honey company engages with businesses of all sizes, giving them the opportunity to use the honey from the hives in their businesses.
This is the first Edinburgh hotel to install their Webster Honey beehives.
The hotel will use its honey to serve to breakfast guests, and possibly also in recipes. Webster Honey harvest and bottle the honey from each business’ hive and deliver it back to them for their own use, whether to sell onto others, personal use, or in the case of a food business, to use in its kitchens.
Daniel Webster, Managing Director of Webster Honey, said: “We are delighted to secure our first hotel in Edinburgh. Locke is a fantastic brand to work with, with an excellent food provenance at its heart which I’m confident our honey will enhance. Hives can be sited anywhere, you don’t have to be out in the country to have bees, as we already have a hive on a roof at a nursery in Edinburgh. Roofs are a great and very safe place in which to put a hive and these ones will enjoy a spectacular view of Edinburgh, not that the bees will notice, they will be far too busy, but it will certainly be nice for Meik, our beekeeper!”
“Let’s hope for another Summer of fine weather as last year our bees did really well with the warm Spring and less pollution due to lockdown.”
“The lockdowns have prevented us from being able to do much engagement with any of our customers who were hosting hives for us. We would love it if now we are able to get back to doing that, as it adds so much to the overall hosting experience.”
“Meik goes regularly round all of his hives to carry out all checks on the hives and make sure the bees are flourishing,” finished Daniel.
Jamie Mackie, General Manager at Eden Locke, said: “It’s been so exciting to have the four hives positioned today and filled with over 20,000 bees. We are thrilled to partner with Webster Honey and provide a safe new home for bees at Eden Locke, where they can thrive. Across all our locations, Locke works with local partners that are passionate about what they do and can provide interactions that transform guests’ stays with us into truly memorable experiences. We’ve no doubt that our guests will enjoy sampling some homemade honey, while learning about the important role bees play in our environment – and if they’re lucky, even catch Meik for a chat!”
Based in Kinross, Webster Honey offers all sorts of organisations, from schools and nurseries, to businesses, the opportunity to look after its hives for a year or longer, supplying them with the honey from their hives when it is harvested, which they can then sell, or in the case of businesses with a food offering, such as hotels, use in dishes they serve, and at breakfast time. Webster Honey is currently looking at bespoke labelling for hotels that want to sell their own branded luxury range of products to guests.
Educational establishments can carry out a lesson plan on the life cycle of bees with their pupils, in consultation with Webster Honey’s beekeeper Meik Molitor who will carry out age-appropriate sessions, first letting the children decorate their own hive.
Additional products from Webster Honey include business and personal sponsorship of hives, with beekeeping experiences for staff incentive and reward.
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