In Kiyose City, Tokyo, which has a rare initiative of beekeeping at the city hall, a large-scale moving work was carried out to move the honeybee hive to a "new house" with the construction of a new government building.
Kiyose City, Tokyo, has been working on beekeeping on the rooftop of the city hall for seven years in order to promote the rich natural environment and lead to the development of special products using honey.
The city is planning to move to the new government building next to it in May due to the deterioration of the current government building, but before the cherry blossoms that honey bees bloom, the city will move the honey bees a little earlier than the staff. I decided to move.
However, there was a big challenge in moving.
Honeybees with a homing instinct remember the exact location of their nests, and within an activity range of about 2 kilometers, they may be confused, such as returning to their original location.
For this reason, the move was a two-step process.
Last month, we plan to move the birdhouse to a temporary storage area more than 2 kilometers away, and then move to the new government building after a month or so.
According to the city, after a certain distance and time, the memory will be reset, and the honeybee will not return to the place where the birdhouse was originally located.
The move from the temporary storage area to the new government building took place on the 12th of this month.
Originally there were about 80,000 honeybees, but some of them died due to stress caused by the first movement, and at this time the number had decreased to about 50,000.
Employees dressed in beekeeping suits and loaded five bee-filled hives weighing approximately 50 kg onto the bed of a light truck.
There was a problem that the honeybees came out from the nest box that should have been sealed, but it took about 30 minutes to bring the honeybees into the cage installed on the roof of the new government building, and the life in the "new house" of the honeybees began. I did.
Yuichi Ebisawa, chief of the General Affairs Division of Kiyose City, said, "I am relieved that I was able to finish the work with safety first, such as being careful not to fall while carrying it. I put a burden on the honeybees, but the new environment I want you to get used to it sooner and get more delicious honey than ever before. "
According to the city, the amount of honey harvested by beekeeping last year was 79 kg, and so far, gelato and roll cakes have been made and sold in collaboration with local producers, as well as "hometown tax payment" gifts and elementary and junior high schools. It means that it was used for lunch.
Furthermore, in the new fiscal year, instead of wrapping film, we will sell "honey wax wrap" made from honeybee nests, which we hope to reduce plastic waste.
Mr. Ebisawa said, "I feel that we are deepening regional cooperation through honeybees. Since stable honey harvesting is an issue, we would like to further improve our beekeeping technology in the future."