-We're on the roof of Tate Britain and here these are some of the bees that I look after for the Tate.

-I have to say and congratulate. You're having really very, very polite and friendly bees. I mean here we are standing from the hives, and they are just sort of floating around. I've never been able to do this.

-Really?

-Does anybody else do these?

-Oh, good, they are particularly polite, but a little bit different when you go in them, and they love this aspect. It's lovely and light and sunny, and there's a lot of good foraging in this area here.

-Is city really a good place to keep bees?

-'cos many people think well. There're just steel and glass and concrete and roads and traffic in the city, which put bees off. What do they gonna feed on?

-Well, if you look at here, there are chestnuts here and they will start on those early in the year. And then bees are all heading this way at the moment and there's a lot of lime trees over that way. And there's less in pesticides and there's abundance of pollen and nectar. There's real meadowy, I suppose, as well, with all the different parks and avenues and people's gardens as well, so they're probably doing quite well.

Evidence from all over the world are showing that urban environments are bucking the trend, when they come to the declining bees. In the U.K., for instance, honey bees produce more in M* than they do in the surrounding areas. And hives in Paris yield roughly twice as much honey as colonies in the French countryside. For now, the reseach seems to suggest that it is the very diet the city bees are getting that may be keeping their numbers up. And evidence of how different habitats affect honey is very clear.

-So we've got whooping honey here from E1, and this is very toffee-like honey. I love that. You put that down, and you'll love that.