Bee a part of the solution

12 Oct 2022

Beekeeping for the environment  

In late 2018 we decided to start beekeeping at our main office building in Willebroek. The idea was simple at first, keeping bees was a way for us to further embrace the environmentally friendly nature of our company. . Bees are a vital part of the ecosystem, they are excellent pollinators, facilitating the growth of plants, trees and flowers which serve as food for other animals and insects. Therefore, by beekeeping in our office roof, we would further help our immediate surrounding and ecosystem. 

At our office, there are three employees who are beekeepers. They volunteered to look after the bees and be the leads in the honey extraction process. Their main task was to regularly check the beehives to see if the workers had tried to make a new queen. A new queen would mean the creation of a swarm which could lead to a possible intrusion in our neighbourhood.
 
We currently house three beehives on the roof of our building. During summer and autumn, each hive can reach a population of 40,000 bees, whilst in the winter months that number falls to around 1,500 bees per hive. 
 
Our colleague and lead apiarist Geert (see below), has six beehives at his home.  He had some interesting insights about bees:

“During the winter, the bees form a cluster around the queen. The worker bees then vibrate to create heat.  They rotate from the outer ring of the cluster to the inside when they get cold.” 
" Bees have a very accurate internal gps. If you move their hive just 3 meters to the side, most of the bees will die as they will continue to return to where the hive was originally located"

Here is an image to illustrate bees during winter: 

Honey extraction is a process that any employee can get involved in and proved to be a fun activity with the plus side of tasting honey as fresh as it comes. This process is separated into three stages: 

1st - Our beekeepers first extract the slides with honey and bring them to our warehouse.  
2nd - Our volunteer colleagues use a wax scraper to remove the hard wax off the surface of the honey.   

 

3rd - The slides are put into the honey extractor and are spun in circles to force the honey to the bottom of the extractor. The honey is then passed through a sieve into a bucket and is then ready for use. 



Our first honey harvest was plentiful, and employees enjoyed the fresh honey sharing a jar or two with friends and family. Nonetheless, we decided there was more that could be done with it. After an initiative from some of our colleagues and with the rich history of our building in mind, we decided to use the excess honey to honour the building’s heritage and make our own beer. 
 

History of our building   

The Keppel Seghers office stands proudly at the borders of the river Rupel and the old Willebroek canal (1561) . The old Lamot brewery, once located in this beautiful building, was the activity centre of several Lamot brewers. 
 
The oldest parts of the building date from approximately 1700 AD. The brewery grew, as did its accommodations and by the 19th century, the brewery had transformed into a steam brewery with steam pipes replacing traditional fires. Although the brewing activities continued until 1959, a large drought in 1950 allowed water from the river to flow into the canal. The resulting salinated canal water was not fit for brewing beer and the brewery never recovered.
 
In 1994 Hendrik Seghers, who had family ties with the Lamot family, bought the property. An extensive renovation project commenced but  the special characteristics of the old brewery were integrated into a modern design thereby safeguarding the legacy of a bygone industrial age. 
 

With that in mind, we approached a micro-brewery, and they were more than happy to assist us in making our own honey beer; “Beeks”. 


In our first year, we brewed two variants; Blonde & Tripel. After feedback from employees, we decided to go for a second batch of Tripel beer in the second year. This year, we decided to bring variation to our beer production and made a Beeks IPA beer.