Bee One Third – CBD Rooftop Hives

No sugar in your tea? Think you’re sweet enough? Well let me tell you, there’s buzzing news that you’re wrong. There is one sweetening experience that everyone who visits Brisbane should see, or at least taste. That is Bee One Third‘s Apairy and their neighbourhood honey.

As some of you know, I was chosen as a delegate for the Eat Drink Blog 2014 Australian Food Bloggers Conference and it was the most AMAZING experience. Our Sunday activity which was a trip to the James St Rooftop Apiary.

Bee One Third is run by Jack (pictured above) the founder and one of the beekeepers at Bee One Third. What I liked about Jack and consequentially Bee One Third, was his love for the bees, their well being and promoting the benefits they offer to the workings of our local ecology. Did you know that they pollinate more than one third of the global food supply?? That means most fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and species of native flora. This is why the business is named ‘Bee One Third’ – pretty cool huh? Here I was thinking they only made honey, until I met Jack I was one rather uninformed consumer! Without pollination, plants cannot produce seeds to reproduce (in food, that comes out in the form of fruits vegetables or nuts). We can’t be without the bees!

On the bee below, you can see the pollen on her hind legs.

The bees have a home with not only a million dollar view, but also a million dollar location for their ability to contribute to our ecology. They exist in a location that gives them to access residents yards, New Farm Park, the Botantic Gardens, Roma St Parklands and many small local edible market gardens.

Believe it or not, european bees can fly up to 5km from the locality of their hive. Those tiny bees certainly work off their sugar intake! Maybe there’s a thing or too we can learn from them? Get yo’ runners on!

Jack barely seems to notice, but his job up on the rooftops looks as though it comes with a bit of a sting! European bee’s die when they sting us, but it’s all for the safety of the hive and they will only sting when they feel the colony as a whole is threatened.

But excellent uniforms for plebs like me, don’t you think?

The products are wonderful, but Bee One Third’s concept of awareness is even better. Pollination for better food and plants AND 150kg fresh honey per hive (of which there are six at James St and another 29 around the city on rooftops!).

Afterwards, Gerards Bar provided us with a honey infused morning tea accompanied by a refreshing cold iced tea.

We loved it. I’ve only heard great reviews about Gerards since coming to Brisbane and I can’t wait to try their restaurant also. We were happy little honey-filled bloggers after this morning tea! 

I’m going to let you in on a blogger secret, below is what pre-above happy snaps and demolishing food looks like. There is an unspoken food blogger courtesy that no one eats until the photographs have been taken and Instagram updated. This would make most people hangry (thats angry due to hunger, I learnt that on conference – this word was like a language I’d never heard before but understood immediately), but not food bloggers. Its an unspoken but expected courtesy, almost like ‘the thank you wave’ when driving. I throughly enjoyed meeting other bloggers and experiencing something I Brisbane that I never knew existed!

Giveaway time!! – this giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to winner Marcus Foth!

Bee One Third are giving away a sweet gift pack which includes 150gram jar of chemical free bee pollen and a seasonal Jar of Bee One Third neighbourhood honey!! 

To enter, simply comment below and tell me where you would like to see Bee One Third stocked in your local area (think health food shops, local grocer, fruit shop etc) AND you can gain an extra chance to win by jumping over to my instagram account and following the instructions noted underneath the giveaway post. SUPER EASY….go! I promise it is worth it. Bee pollen is super expensive at health food shops! This competition is open to Australian entrants only and will close on 25 October 2014 at midnight.