The Notre Dame Cathedral isn’t only home to priceless artefacts but also 180,000 Honeybees so when it went up in flames, bee enthusiasts hoped for their safety.
Paris, France – In 2013, an initiative was launched across Paris to help revive the dwindling Honeybee numbers. Hives were set up on the rooftops of buildings across the city — one of those being the Notre Dame Cathedral.
When the fire broke out, bee enthusiasts around the world, held their breath waiting to find out what became of three hives situated near to where the fire was raging.
Thankfully, the hives didn’t burn, and the bees were mostly unharmed, only a little drunk from the CO2 levels. In an interview with The Associated Press, beekeeper Nicolas Geant confirmed that the smoke would have just put them to sleep.
“It’s a big day. I am so relieved. I saw satellite photos that showed the three hives didn’t burn,”
“Instead of killing them, the CO2 (from smoke) makes them drunk, puts them to sleep.”
Nicolas has been the beekeeper at the Notre Dame Cathedral since the hives were installed in 2013. He said watching the fire was stressful as he had no idea how the bees would have been affected. An aerial image of the area was taken, and the hives could be seen, untouched by the flames.
The reason this is such great news is that the hives were a mere 30 metres from the burning roof and if the wax had of reached its melting point, around 63 degrees, the bees would have all died.
As Honeybees are mass pollinators, the loss of three hives would have been devastating. Already the populations around the globe are under threat. Every bee life is essential because it plays a vital role in pollinating crops which we as humans rely upon.
NASA has a Honeybee website that shares some interesting facts we didn’t know.
“The honey bee is a very social insect. Honey bees live in hives within a very structured social order. Each hive contains one queen, a few hundred drones, or male bees, and the worker bees, all female. Wild (feral) hives will contain up to 20,000 bees, while managed bees can live in colonies of up to 80,000 bees.
The sole purpose of drone bees are to mate with the queen, and her sole purpose is to produce eggs. The queen lives 2 to 5 years, whereas the drones live only about 8 weeks. All housekeeping tasks in the hive are performed by the female worker bees, who constitute the majority of the hive.
Most worker bees live about 6 weeks, except for those born in the late fall, who will live until the following spring. Worker bees have a barbed stinger that rips out of their abdomen upon use, which kills them and thus can be used only once. The queen’s stinger is not barbed, therefore she does not die when she stings a rival.”
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