German liner operator Hapag-Lloyd is enjoying the sweet taste of success after boosting the output of more than 30,000 winged workers on the roof of its Hamburg headquarters.
The company set up a colony of bees there in April 2019.
The container line called the apiary project "a genuine win-win", as the bees help the surrounding natural environment in their role as pollinators, while "bringing smiles to our faces" with their Hanseatic honey.
"This year’s harvest was particularly plentiful," the company said.
Hapag-Lloyd's zero-emissions fleet of flying insects has produced a "whopping" 27 kg so far this year, the shipowner revealed.
This is up 10 kg from 2019.
Bees for rent
Hapag-Lloyd works with bee rental company Bee-Rent on the project.
The honey is currently being centrifuged, sieved, stirred and poured into small jars.
"Our bees swarm out of their colony day after day and cover almost the entire city centre of Hamburg, which is home to parks, gardens and green spaces containing an amazing number of plants and flowers," the company said.
"The bees stop at them to gather the nectar that will later become honey. By the way, they almost exclusively fly to yellow and blue flowers, as they cannot recognise the colour red."
For every kilogram of honey, the busy bees collectively travel 240,000 km (149,129 miles) — the equivalent of six times around the world.
On an average day, the fleet pollinates roughly 20m blossoms.
"After all, a large part of the agricultural yields when growing plants, flowers and fruits is reliant on pollination by bees," Hapag-Lloyd added. "So we can be doubly proud of our flying fleet."
