Urban beekeeping as a hobby has grown across America. There has been a push everywhere to understand the role our pollinators play in agriculture and gardening. 

If you look closely around metro Atlanta, there are hives in neighborhoods, hotel rooftops, near parking decks, as well as, on the campus of Georgia Tech and Georgia. Small batch honey now comes mostly from independent beekeepers. 

Hobbyists and experts alike say city bees can be healthier, stronger, and generally more robust than their rural cousins due to less pesticides used in densely populated areas. Our Georgia Public Broadcasting team didn't have to travel far to find a myriad of hives with thousands of bees doing their thing on a warm early summer day in the downtown Atlanta ZIP code. A decade ago, there were great fears of honeybee hive colony collapse threatening the entire ecosystem, but today the bees are flourishing with their complex system of communication and pollination. We begin with the buzz of a Georgia Tech science building.