Home Green Hotel Focus Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort Adds Two Bee Colonies

Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort Adds Two Bee Colonies

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SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M.—Bees can bring to mind sci-fi like headlines, and thoughts of painful stings. In reality honeybees are important contributors to the many fruits and vegetables that we eat. Earlier this summer, Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa added two colonies containing 20,000 bees each to its grounds, furthering Tamaya’s mission of being an environmentally friendly resort.

Honeybees are the major pollinators of the resort’s many flower beds and its on-site orchard, vegetable and herb gardens. It’s estimated that in the first year, these bees will produce 70 to 80 pounds of honey as well as beeswax. While the bees will need much of this honey for the winter months, as much as 25 to 30 pounds will be harvested by the resort and used in the Tamaya Mist Spa and Salon and in the resort’s kitchens. According to Colleen Kareti, General Manager of Hyatt Regency Tamaya, “We happily welcomed our little buzzing friends to the resort, and our human guests can rest assured that there is virtually no danger of being stung from these bees.” Why? They are too busy gathering pollen and nectar. As a side note, honeybees rarely sting.

Every day, each worker bee flies within a two to three mile radius of the hive searching for food. Upon their return the bee does the “honey dance” which signals to the other bees where the good stuff is located. Pollen and nectar are collected and converted by the bees into an amber colored, all-natural honey that is deposited into honeycombs. This light, sweet and sticky organic honey is perfect for cooking and as an ingredient for body scrubs, wraps, facial masks and deep conditioning hair treatments.

Many operators hire a full time apiarist (a.k.a. beekeeper) to tend to their colonies. Hyatt Regency Tamaya in contrast, has a “Green Team” of volunteer employees who receive ongoing training on the care and handling of the bees from a locally contracted bee expert who visits regularly. In addition to the bee colony, this environmentally conscious team is responsible for planting and maintaining the veggie garden, herb garden and orchard. They support the kitchen and landscaping teams harvesting herbs, and work with the Santa Ana Pueblo’s Department of Natural Resources to maintain the resort grounds near the Rio Grande. The team’s ongoing plans will incorporate adding more bee-friendly plants into the resort’s landscaping to ensure the colony has enough food to live on and enough to produce honey for use at the resort.

Recipient of TripAdvisor’s GreenLeader Excellence Award, Tamaya continues to work to reduce its impact on the environment through composting, recycling, use of low-consumption LEDs, water reduction programs, and adoption of Hyatt’s corporate food and beverage philosophy of “Food, thoughtfully sourced, carefully served” in all of its dining outlets. Tending 40,000 honeybees in the on-site colonies is a clear extension of this philosophy on a local level at Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa.

Go to Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa.

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