City’s sweet deal a winner

THE City of Greater Geelong’s sweetest project has councillors abuzz, with the first harvest of honey from City Hall’s rooftop beehive.

The Geelong Bee Project initiative has been so successful the council has approved a second hive to be installed on the roof alongside the first, which has been there since May 2018.

About 4kg of honey has been extracted from the hive by Surf Coast Honey owner Tony McNamara, who has labelled the product Geelong Bee Project (Town Hall Honey).

Mr McNamara also plans to use the hive’s honeycomb to produce hand cream and cosmetics.

Cr Sarah Mansfield, who chairs the city’s environment and sustainability portfolio, said the project helped educate the community about the importance of bees.

“There has been a dramatic decline in global bee populations over the past decade, so this is a great initiative,” Cr Mansfield said. “We hope the project is helping the community to understand the value of bees, and we’d love to see more buildings in the CBD hosting hives in the near future.”

Council’s second beehive is expected to be installed in coming weeks.