Support the Bees on the Quays!

Dear Anchorage Tenants

Two hives of our very own honey bees are busy pollinating the local plants and making honey, right here on Anchorage Quay. Bees are crucial to the environment, pollinating many of our crops and providing honey, wax and medical remedies. Yet they are declining at an alarming rate in the UK, so our hives here and at other Cording Group sites in Manchester make an important contribution. In the past 2 months we have seen a lot of change in our two hives with the change of autumn to winter. Firstly, the bees are now forming their “winter cluster” which is like a huddle you may see at an American football game. Their main focus over the winter as you can guess is to take care of the queen bee by keeping her warm and ensuring the honey supply stays full. We also had some brilliant news a couple of weeks ago that our bees have produced their first edible honey which will be sold this month. The honey was extracted at the end of October, which means it only took 4 months to produce this year’s impressive honey yield. Find out more about our bees on the Quays below…

Caroline Murphy and Matt xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cording Real Estate Group

Why we're doing it?

The worldwide decline in honey bees is well-publicised. New pesticides and diseases are threatening honey bee hives. In the UKmore intensive farming means fewer fields with wildflowers and traditional hedgerows. Yet bees pollinate over 70 types of crop, all the orchards that produce our fruit and even the plants that our livestock eat. And their decline creates a knock-on effect on the food chains of many insects, birds and mammals.

Would we starve without bees?

Find out from expert Chris Packham

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OUR BEES ARE THRIVING

After just four months, our Anchorage honey bees are already settling in well. The bee-keeper tells us that our hive has excelled compared with other sites in Manchester. We have 2 beehives at the side of the car park, called Lyson Hives. They are a new style of hive, not widely used in the UK, and our bees love them! There are 2 ‘Supers’ on each hive, with 8 to 10 hung frames on each. This is where the bees store their nectar in the honeycombs they build on the frames.
Up to 80,000 bees can be present on each hive at its peak. The bees have settled in so well, they have already done enough work for us to extract honey which is very impressive! The honey yield has been great and shows just how happy our bees are. Anchorage Quay is the perfect haven for the bees. It is sheltered, warm and with lots of local forage. Our bees have discovered a pollen treasure trove on the banks of Salford’s rivers and canals, a plant called Himalayan Balsam!

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