The beehive on the rooftop of the HTH Amsterdam campus

Did you know that there is a beehive on the rooftop of the Amsterdam campus?

Recently, our beehive was published in various online magazines such as National Geographic and De Volkskrant as part of the series “The beekeepers of Amsterdam” by the photographer Jurre Rompa. Rompa followed the beekeepers of Amsterdam, the 'invisibles' of the city as he prefers to name them since they are often out of our sight. “About 33 million honeybees fly around in Amsterdam, I.e. 38 times as many as the number of people living there, and most of the beehives are located on the rooftop of hotels, companies, and schools,” he says.

Joost de Vos, instructor of Hotelschool The Hague & our beekeeper (along with Bjorn Mielke and Mark Eelman), organise beekeeping courses on campus! Students learn everything about the beekeeping process and apply all this information to our beehive, located on our Amsterdam campus rooftop!

There are three bee colonies on the rooftop which helps the students learn everything about the fascinating behaviours of the bees. Division of labor, complex and defense are some of the behaviours that honeybees have developed to exist harmonically and successfully in social colonies. The colony consists of three kinds of adult bees: workers, drones, and a queen, and each member has a specific task to perform based on their age.

During this course, students gain an understanding of:

• The process of beekeeping
• The pros of keeping bees
• What is happening inside a hive
• The beekeeping year
• Putting on a suit and looking into a real hive
• Honeybee product tasting

You can find the course syllabus here

Photos by Jurre Rompa