Downtown Houston's Hidden Beekeeping Network
High above the hustle and bustle of Downtown Houston, where office workers, visitors and locals go about their day, another kind of high-rise resident is hard at work.
Tucked away on rooftops, terraces and parking garages, more than 750,000 bees thrive under the care of urban beekeepers—part of a growing movement that brings pollinators into the heart of the city.
These hidden colonies do more than produce honey; they’re living proof of Downtown Houston’s surprising biodiversity and the ways nature quietly adapts to urban life.
A Diverse Diet in Downtown
Sierra Littlejohn, a lead beekeeper with Alvéole, visits these rooftop outposts in three-week cycles, tending to the seasonal needs of about 15 hives in Downtown and over 40 across Greater Houston.
At peak, each hive is home to about 50,000 bees, all working to gather and store nectar, care for the queen and brood, and build the honeycomb. Beekeepers like Littlejohn work hard to maintain the colony, but when it comes to food, the bees have no shortage of options.
“Surprisingly, that’s not an issue we ever really have to battle,” says Littlejohn. “They’re going out three miles every time they forage, so that can take them from George R. Brown Convention Center all the way down Allen Parkway.”
Unlike rural areas often dominated by monocultures, cities offer a remarkably diverse diet for bees thanks to a patchwork of parks, rooftop gardens, esplanades and even backyard flowers.
The ability of bees to adapt and navigate a concrete landscape makes Downtown Houston an unexpectedly ideal habitat.
“There’s plenty of food and green spaces around Downtown that maybe we can’t see, but the bees are taking advantage of all of those places,” she adds. "Once they find a really good spot, that forager is going to come back, do a little waggle dance to let others know where this perfect area was, and then they'll all be going back to that same spot."
Pollinators at Work
Bees play an essential role in maintaining healthy ecosystems. They pollinate one in three bites of food we eat and support 80% of the world’s flowering plants, according to The Bee Conservancy.
Their work doesn’t just sustain plant life—it makes places greener, strengthens biodiversity and supports other animal habitats.
“I got obsessed with bees when I would plant things, and all of a sudden, one or two bees would be there, and then my vegetable garden is booming,” says Littlejohn. "They're the reason for our success. If we want to have beautiful spaces—if we want to have food to eat—this is what it takes."
Ensuring that bee colonies thrive in an urban environment requires strategic placement of both hives and wild pollinator habitats. Factors like wind exposure, heat and access to water all play a role.
When it comes to Houston’s unrelenting summers, bees are highly adaptable and experts at climate control.
"In the summertime, bees do an excellent job of regulating their temperature. We make sure they have plenty of water, but sometimes they'll skip over ours and go down to the bayou or a fountain instead," Littlejohn explains. "They do an excellent job of keeping themselves cool. Ventilator bees will stand at the front of the hive and waft in cold air and push out the hot air, kind of making their own air conditioning."
Beekeepers take care to minimize disruptions, ensuring that when hives are opened, internal temperatures don’t spike and stress the colony.
Beyond the Bees: Community & Sustainability
Urban beekeeping is about more than supporting pollinators—it’s also a way for property managers to engage tenants and enhance sustainability efforts.
Buildings with beekeeping programs often use harvested honey for on-site restaurants or community events. Alvéole also offers hands-on workshops that demystify bees and turn initial apprehension into enthusiasm.
“It’s really cool to see people get to know them, realize it’s not a scary thing and fall in love with the bees,” says Littlejohn. “One property manager was terrified during the first install. By the end of the year, he was their biggest advocate. When he moved to another building, he brought the program with him.”
Education is key to fostering this connection between city dwellers and the natural world in a unique way that doesn’t translate to other sustainability initiatives.
“People don’t form a connection with a solar panel,” says Erin Johnston of Alvéole. “But they do with bees.”
Alvéole’s work also extends to wild bee habitats, which provide nesting spaces for native pollinators. In addition, they use biomonitoring to study the surrounding environment, extracting environmental DNA from honey to analyze floral diversity and detect traces of pesticides. This data helps property managers refine their green initiatives and even contributes to Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) reporting.
A Thriving Urban Ecosystem
Bees are both a product and a driver of a thriving ecosystem, one that flourishes in ways many don’t expect.
Their presence in Downtown Houston is a sign of a healthy environment, quietly connecting the city to nature in ways that often go unnoticed.
“If you’re driving down I-45, you don’t see just how special each little pocket of Houston is,” says Littlejohn. “But if you look for it, it’s easy to find the variety of nature around Houston. And I love being out in all of it.”
So next time you glance up at Downtown Houston’s skyline, know that just above your head, hundreds of thousands of pollinators are at work—helping to keep Downtown green, growing and buzzing with life.