Bee Downtown Installs 19 Urban Beehives in the Triangle

Durham, North Carolina, April 6, 2016 (Newswire.com) - Bee Downtown, a Durham-based startup focused on increasing the honey bee population in cities across the U.S., today announced the installation of 19 new beehives at 8 businesses across the Triangle. With these installations, Bee Downtown will nearly triple the number of hives located in Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh. In total, Bee Downtown will add more than 350,000 honey bees to the local community.

Honey bees pollinate 80 percent of the world’s plants and are responsible for every third bite of food we eat. However, over the past 50 years, changing agricultural practices have crippled their population. In 2010, US beekeepers lost 50 percent of their hives due to what is now being termed ‘Colony Collapse Disorder’. Bee Downtown is working directly with local businesses to rebuild the honey bee community and increase awareness around the changing food ecosystem. 

"For the first time, consumers are directly holding businesses accountable for the effect they have on the environment. When a business installs one of our hives, it is communicating its commitment to our environment, while also rebuilding healthy honey bee populations."

Leigh-Kathryn Bonner, Bee Downtown, Founder and CEO

Between April 6 -7, Bee Downtown will install 13 beehives in Durham, 3 in Chapel Hill and 3 in Raleigh. Durham locations include Common Ground Green, The East Durham Recreation Center in partnership with EDCI/LEAP Academy, The Hub Farm, Honeygirl Meadery, and two locations within Research Triangle Park: The Frontier and RTP Headquarters. In Chapel Hill, The Root Cellar will receive 2 hives and in Raleigh, Murphy’s Naturals will receive 3. Each businesses will participate in a quarterly employee education trainings on bees, agriculture and food production. The businesses will also receive the honey their hives produce.

In 2015, Bee Downtown installed a dozen hives across Durham and Raleigh, including the state’s largest observational hive at Burt’s Bees headquarters in the American Tobacco Campus.

“Bee Downtown’s rooftop and observation hives have become a staple attraction at the American Tobacco Campus,” said American Tobacco Campus VP of Real Estate, Michael Goodmon. “They serve as an effective marketing tool for multiple business on the campus and have created quite the buzz of excitement for the Durham community as a whole."

“Bee Downtown is thrilled to add beehives to so many forward-thinking businesses in the Triangle. For the first time, consumers are directly holding businesses accountable for the effect they have on the environment,” said Bee Downtown Founder and CEO, Leigh-Kathryn Bonner. “When a business installs one of our hives, it is communicating its commitment to our environment, while also rebuilding healthy honey bee populations.”

Bee Downtown is currently looking for interns to support its growth in the Triangle. If you’re interested please contact Leigh-Kathryn Bonner at [email protected].

About Bee Downtown

Bee Downtown is a Durham-based startup focused on developing a healthy and sustainable honey bee population across the United States. Bee Downtown installs and maintains custom beehives at urban businesses, while also providing training and education on agriculture and food production. Two percent of all company profits go towards educating school children on the connection between agriculture, honey bees, and environmental conservation. To learn more, visit http://www.beedowntown.org/

Follow @BeeDowntown on Facebook and on Twitter. 

Media Contact: Carlie Guilfoile​ | 919-619-8412