Bees are dying at an alarming rate. But Nephron Pharmaceuticals in West Columbia is trying to do their part in keeping the local honeybee population thriving.

James Richter is the official Nephron Beekeeper (just for fun – he actually works at the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance). He keeps colonies of bees on the live roof of Nephron’s facility on West Cola’s 12th St Extension. At the end of August, the team harvested ~30 lbs of honey from the Nephron hives, which were installed in April.

The live roof idea is similar to what Amsterdam is doing to help #savethebees: creating bee-friendly environments via green roof installation on developing + existing buildings (there are even subsidies for residents + businesses who are interested).

Here in West Columbia, the idea came from Lou Kennedy (CEO and owner of Nephron), who mentioned late last year to James that it would be neat to have beehives on the facility’s live roof. There are now 7,000-10,000 bees in each hive, of which Nephron has two.

Nephron live roof with two beehives | photo provided

The bees came from Blythewood Bee Company – a perk because it’s often said that local honey from local bees helps build up immunity to local allergens. The bees are from the Italian bee species of the honeybee; they’re non-aggressive and self-sufficient – meaning they don’t require overactive feeding or maintenance. Honey harvesting can happen 1-2 times per year. Richter says it’s unusual to harvest the first year of having the bees, but they did it. The bees work around local vegetation, causing the honey to reflect flavors nearby (a.k.a. if there are fruit trees around or wildflowers around, you can taste them).

Fun fact: Richter has learned everything he knows about beekeeping in the last five years from another Soda Citizen: Burnie Maybank, an attorney at Nexsen Pruet who divides his time between Cola + Edisto, where he has 10 beehives.

Keeping bee populations thriving is important because bees carry the task of pollinating vegetation and fruit. Disturbing reports were released a few years ago concerning declining bee populations in the U.S. – a 44% loss of colonies by beekeepers across the country from April 2015-April 2016. But most recently, honeybee populations have been reportedly rising. There were 2.89 million bee colonies in the U.S. as of April 2017 – a 3% rise from April 2016.

See the bees on Nephron’s live roof for yourself – click here to schedule a group tour for your business or school.

This content was created in partnership with Nephron Pharmaceuticals.