Busy Buzzing Bee Installation

Founding Farmers was onsite last weekend when the George Washington University Apiary installed six new honey bee hives. We support this undergraduate urban beekeeping research project, which includes a dozen hives atop a campus building in downtown DC.

Led by Dr. Hartmut Doebel, the George Washington University Undergraduate Honey Bee Research Laboratory and Apiary, known as GWBuzz, is a research team focusing on different aspects of honey bee life and health. We provided fellowship monies to GW to help promote and learn sustainable and healthy apiculture in the midst of the bustling city of Washington, D.C. The sweet stuff we get from their hives is just an added bonus and is used by our Founding Spirits distillery.

At Farmers Restaurant Group, we know the importance of honey bees for the future of the world’s food supply and the earth’s ecosystem. Our collaboration with GW began in 2011 and is one way we help to support research and continued education on honey bees.

For those interested, GW’s apiary has a live web cam where you can check out the busy bee action or you can watch a video and learn more about our partnership with the GW research lab. We also work with Sweet Virginia, a non-profit honey bee education program for children.

According to the research team, GW is looking forward to another great beekeeping season. To celebrate the installation, Dr. Doebel and his fellow beekeeping team headed across the street to Founding Farmers. They ordered tea, which was served with our flatware decorated with a bee and imprinted with the date 5.04.2011. When they asked our server the significance, they were happy to learn it was that date we started beekeeping with GWBuzz. That’s a pretty sweet ending to a busy buzzy spring beekeeping day.