In Chicago, the rooftops of the city hall and Chicago Cultural Center hum with the sound of busy bees, as do several buildings in London, among them St. Paul's Cathedral, the Museum of London and The Premises Recording Studio. The Bee Force initiative in Melbourne engages citizen beekeepers who look after hives across the city on buildings like the Alto Hotel.

Most recently, the German Foundation for Humans and the Environment (Stiftung für Mensch und Umwelt) started an action to place apiaries on roofs all over the country. The Gasteig cultural centre in Munich, the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt am Main and thirteen high-profile buildings in Berlin, like the House of the Cultures of the World, are all homes to thousands of honey-makers.

As it turns out, bees may actually be better fitted for town living than country life. City bees are well-fed, feasting on the flowers and foliage in parks and gardens, and their diet is more diverse than that of their country cousins. The fact that cities are warmer than open land allows them to be more prolific, becoming active earlier in spring and working later when the weather turns cold. Not only that, but they have little to no exposure to the insecticides and pesticides used on farm crops, so urban areas are safer for them.