Urban beekeeping buzzing at East Bay public market | KTVU

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]at the Emeryville Public Market. We'd like to learn more by welcoming Cameron Louie, a beekeeper at Alveole. It's a beekeeping company that partners with commercial buildings to create biodiversity in urban settings. I see you're busy. I feel like we should be quiet. Tell us what you're doing, Cameron.

[00:00:18]So, I'm showing you guys some bees from my beehive uh here at Public Market, our beehive.

[00:00:24]Um and these bees have uh a really chill little temperament.

[00:00:31]Did you have to do the smoke thing to keep them quiet first?

[00:00:35]Uh no, the smoke uh helps cloud their uh communications and also focus on other things.

[00:00:43]So, um yeah, the the smoke helps me. So, as the beekeeper.

[00:00:48]>> Okay, and I Are you wearing protective gloves or anything? No, you're just You're just out there in your T-shirt.

[00:00:53]I'm just out here in my T-shirt.

[00:00:55]>> Okay, so I think the headline here is that we shouldn't be scared of bees, though many people are. Tell me how bees are helping to make Emeryville better.

[00:01:04]Well, so these bees can pollinate any plants in a 3-mi radius here. So, it kind of does um a lot of the legwork in the 3-mi radius to making a whole bunch of plants pollinated. Yeah. And what I love like you you're there behind the Public Market. It's such an urban area. I know I I walk that you know Bay Street.

[00:01:23]Emeryville's not far away, but I think people need to be reminded and this is one way we can be that nature is everywhere.

[00:01:32]Mhm. Yeah, and part of our goal here is to uh help reconnect people with uh nature, you know?

[00:01:40]How often is the honey harvested?

[00:01:44]Uh we harvest the honey uh with Alveole once a year uh like near the end of summer. Oh, okay. Where does it go?

[00:01:54]Um we give it back to our clients that are you know like in us to have us on their property and uh we give it back to them in about 100 jars. Wow.

[00:02:04]So, I know a lot of people like I said you know especially in the summertime we want to eat outside we're we're frustrated by the bees, but there is a great and important campaign to increase the number of of bees in the world. What can we do as homeowners if we're making some landscaping changes to help encourage pollination?

[00:02:25]Um so, I think just letting the bees do their thing. They're not out to get you. As you can see, they're not I I broke into their house and they're not even interested in stinging me right now.

[00:02:37]>> Yeah. Um let alone your lunch. They're more interested in your lunch than you are.

[00:02:43]I think some things you could do to help uh with the bee population is have some local bee homes maybe in your yard and um you know, help the local bee population whereas the honeybee population is doing pretty all right because a lot of people like to keep bees.

[00:03:00]>> Right. Well, let me let's talk about that. I feel like it was one of those pandemic things a lot of people did, right? Let's keep bees in the backyard.

[00:03:07]It it it ended up being a lot more work than many people expected. What's your best recommendation for someone who's like, "Hey, I want to do that."

[00:03:15]Um I mean like the best recommendation for a low effort uh fix for that is just plant some flowers.

[00:03:24]Yeah. Okay.

[00:03:26]Got it. Got it. Yeah, we we have a we have a my husband calls a pollinator garden uh right outside our our kitchen window and yeah, we have bees, we have hummingbirds. It it is really it's like a little pocket of delight. So, thank you so much, Cameron Louie. Should I even ask if you've ever been stung?

[00:03:43]Oh, I mean I've been stung a ton of times, but uh you know, it's not an everyday instance and it's usually defensive stings.

[00:03:50]>> There you go. I I I I like your attitude. I'll share it with with my my sons who are afraid of bees. Cameron, you you've brought a beautiful moment of calm to our morning show especially on this Earth Day. I appreciate you joining us.

[00:04:02]Mhm. Thank you. Thank