The Bee Village at Windermere Manor

Nestled up amongst the trees on the hill at Windermere Manor there now resides a large village, a village of bees that is. When Neil Kellock, General Manager of Windermere Manor wanted to get some bees for the property and restaurant, he turned to Rick Huismann who runs Huismann Apiaries, located just outside London. Rick came and installed eight bee hives which they are now calling a ”Bee Village”. Each one of these hives contains roughly 10,000 bees and one very important queen. Windermere Manor expects to collect their first harvest of honey in the fall of this year. Neil seemed pretty excited about this new project and I can see why. It is so cool! Take a look at the hives themselves – aside from the now famous hives at the White House Kitchen Garden, these are some of the nicest looking bee apartments I have ever seen. Each one is marked with the Manor logo just below the roof line, so the bees know when they are home. The roof of each hive appears to be made of copper, which I am sure must have been chosen to help in heating the hives through the winter, but it sure looks nice at the same time. Photo: Windermere Manor A few restaurants are now keeping bees to collect honey for use in the kitchens of the restaurant (Garlics in London, The Royal York in Toronto), but these hives are generally placed way up on the roof,out of sight from customers and also out of reach. At Windermere Manor, Neil wanted customers to see the bees, he wanted it to be part of the whole experience. A sitting bench has been placed just out of reach of the hives where you are invited to sit and watch the bees hard at work. I have not been up to the hives in person yet. But I will probably walk up there at lunch tomorrow and check it out. The Windermere Manor is open 7 days a week and has for some time highlighted quite a few local items on their menu. It is a really nice spot to grab lunch or dinner and even breakfast, of course I may be a bit biased as it is also where Sean and I tied the knot almost five years ago. This is a wonderful project right now for Windermere, but also for London. With declines being reported all the time in the North American bee industry, the honey bees are in need of our help right now. So go see them, learn about them, feel like royalty as you sit among not one, but eight royal queens.  Read More