The shipyard's 150,000 bees play an important role in pollinating the shipyard's surroundings

The shipyard has five beehives, which were supplied by the Lieto-based company Luonnon Kulta, and they are tended by beekeeper Claude Flener. The beehives were moved to the shipyard last year, and now, after the first year of the pilot project, there are plans to continue the beekeeping project.

The shipyard’s bees are honeybees, the only species of bee that stores honey. The bees have been hibernating, and they produce honey to survive the winter. They produce many times more honey than they need to survive the winter, and by collecting the excess honey, we are able to produce authentic shipyard honey.

A beehive consists of worker bees, drones, and queens. A single hive contains thousands of bees, most of which are workers. There is one queen and a few hundred drones, or male bees, in the hive. The queen’s job is to lay eggs to produce more bees, and when mating, queens can fly up to ten kilometers away from their hive to find a mate. Queens can live for several years; they’re easily recognizable by the spot on their head and their larger size.

It takes just over 20 days for a bee to grow from an egg into a full-sized adult. The most valuable work bees do is pollination, and the shipyard’s bees pollinate within a radius of up to three kilometers from the shipyard. The summer honey harvest from the hives can be ready very quickly—even within a few weeks. The shipyard bees have adapted well to their environment, and shipyard honey has proven to be a popular product. The shipyard’s beehives are located near the main gate parking lot.