Give your Quebec City buildings an engagement program tenants talk about.
Why urban beekeeping works for Quebec City buildings
Quebec City carries more wild bee diversity than its size would suggest. A 2017 study led by Université Laval researchers sampled 46 sites across Quebec City and Montreal over two years and recorded 152 wild bee species in Quebec City alone. The same study found community gardens carry the highest species diversity of any habitat type sampled, useful context for a hive program built around existing green space.
Local policy backs it too. Quebec City's Règlement R.V.Q. 3238 phased out synthetic pesticide use citywide starting in 2024, with stricter enforcement in 2025 and a full ban taking effect in 2026. And Quebec's 2030 Nature Plan funds community biodiversity and access-to-nature initiatives across the province, which a hive program like this feeds directly into.
How an urban beekeeping program works in Quebec City
A living amenity tenants actually use
Year-round events
Participation data that compounds
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Meet the neighborhood bees
VIA Rail
VIA Rail's Québec City station is home to a rooftop honey bee hive. The partnership gives VIA Rail a tangible way to show its environmental commitments to travelers passing through, and it's become a genuine talking point in the station's customer experience.
Turning your hives into insight
Data collection and instant reporting
Remote sensing establishes baseline indicators across your portfolio, while onsite monitoring (bioacoustics and eDNA) captures species presence and habitat quality at each property. That data feeds directly into TNFD, CSRD, and GRESB reports, generated in minutes from pre-filled templates, with audit trails showing exactly where each number comes from.
Portfolio dashboard and AI agent
See biodiversity trends across all assets, benchmark each property against portfolio average, and export site-level data for individual disclosures. Ask the AI agent questions about TNFD requirements, GRESB scoring, or site-specific risks, and get answers that reference your actual portfolio data and current framework standards.
We service hives across Quebec City and the surrounding region, including the following municipalities:
- Lévis
- L'Ancienne-Lorette
- Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures
- Boischatel
- Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier
- Beaupré
and more...
Alvéole in the media
FAQ
Yes. The Ville de Québec doesn't restrict urban beekeeping and actively promotes it as part of its urban agriculture programming. Every hive must be registered annually with MAPAQ, Quebec's agriculture ministry, the same authority that oversees Montreal's hives. Alvéole handles registration and siting for every install, to meet provincial setback rules.
Alvéole sites hives based on local forage density rather than adding to already-busy blocks, and pairs each honeybee hive with wild bee habitat (BeeHome) to support native pollinators too, not just honeybees.
The active season runs roughly May through August, shaped by the region's short summers and bloom cycle. That's also when most tenant-facing events land, hive tours, harvest days, workshops, so the program's busiest stretch lines up with the season buildings actually want tenant programming.
Yes. Alvéole keeps Italian honey bees, a breed known for its docility, and honey bees are not aggressive away from the hive, rarely stinging unless it's disturbed. Alvéole's beekeepers site hives away from high-traffic rooftop areas and manage all hive access, so tenants interact with the program through workshops and events, not the hive directly.
Yes. Alvéole's program contributes to BOMA 360, BOMA BEST, BREEAM, Fitwel, GRESB, LEED, and WELL, through pollinator habitat, tenant engagement documentation, and biodiversity monitoring.
They stay in the hive. Honey bees don't hibernate or migrate. Through Quebec City's long, cold winter, the colony clusters tightly around the queen and vibrates to generate heat, living off the honey it stored through summer. Before the cold sets in, Alvéole winterizes each hive, reducing the entrance, adding insulation, and confirming the colony has enough stores to reach spring. Tenant programming keeps running through winter with indoor workshops, and hands-on beehive visits pick back up in spring once the colony is active again.
