STORY:

The initiative is set up by Alison Benjamin and her partner, Brian McCallum, in London. They run urban bee courses to protect the honey bees and encourage people to raise them in their backyards and on rooftops.


The classroom training started at the beginning of 2009. Organizers say more and more people feel attracted to the sweet idea of domestic beekeeping and honey production.


[Alison Benjamin, Urban Bees]:
"It's fairly easy. You don't need a lot of space. You don't need a big garden. It doesn't take up so much time, maybe a couple of hours every other weekend in the summer, and in the winter you don't have to look after the bees at all."


Various associations across the U.K .also aim at protecting the honeybees from deadly mite and virus infections, which could lead to a colony collapse disorder.


Benjamin's Urban Bees organization is one which wants to ensure the survival of the most important plant pollinators.


[Alison Benjamin, Urban Bees]:
"They have a parasite called the varroa mite that lives on the bees and sucks its blood and spreads disease. And all bees have this now in the U.K. So the beekeepers have to help to reduce the numbers of these mites to look after the bees well and to feed them and to help them be strong to fend off these mites. And also the weather in the last couple of summers has been very wet, which means the bees can't go out and they can't collect their natural pollant and have a good diet. So beekeepers need to help them."


Julie Parker is getting tempted in producing her own honey.


[Julie Parker, Class Participant]:
"I think bees are fascinating. There is so much media coverage what has been happening with the bees and the viruses and how crucial they are to the whole world environment. And I just think they are amazing things and I would love to have a hive in my garden or on the roof of my office, just find somewhere. And in the end we get some gorgeous honey."


According to the British Beekeepers' Association, there are about 44,000 beekeepers managing around 274,000 hives in the U.K.