Heavenly beehives are set to take residence on the roof of one of Manchester’s newest hotels.
Manchester Cathedral in partnership with Property Alliance Group who is redeveloping the city’s newest hotel, Treehouse Hotel Manchester, will install 10 beehives on the roof of this city centre hotel.
From Thursday July 21, beekeepers and volunteers from the Cathedral will begin to install around 20,000 bees to on the Deansgate hotel bring the hives to life and start to produce honey.
The project is an extension of the six hives already on Manchester Cathedral’s roof, and six hives at Salford Cathedral which produce the famous Heavenly Honey available to buy in shops and cafes across the city.
The hives are built, installed and maintained by beekeeper Cath Charnock and volunteers from the Cathedral’s Volition programme, a charity that aims to help people back into employment.
Thanks to generous funding from the Property Alliance Group and the Starwards Capital Investments, Volition has been able to purchase and build the ten hives and stands, acquire additional infrastructure, beekeepers suits and employ a beekeeper’s assistant.
All of this will allow the charity to work with and take more people from unemployment into employment.
Cathedral beekeeper Cath Charnock said: “We’ve always been really good at what we do with our bees at the Cathedral, but working with the Property Alliance Group has been an absolute blessing in that we have been able to invest in our provision for volunteers and really make some longer-term plans.
“Seeing the heavenly bees spread across the city is really exciting and who knows, maybe soon we could start to produce our own heavenly queen bees as well.”
Treehouse Hotel Manchester is the new city centre hotel being redeveloped by Starwood Capital Group in partnership with Property Alliance Group at the former Renaissance site on Deansgate. Treehouse Hotel Manchester is expected to open in 2023.
Fore more information on the Volition programme head to their website.