The first Slovenian police bees, which have found a home on the roof of the Maribor police building, flew to the Maribor City Park to forage on 11 April 2023.

Bees are not only a common sight on village lawns, but are also welcome in cities, where they make their home on the roofs, terraces, balconies and gardens of public and private buildings. We heard that there are bees on the roofs of police buildings in other countries, so we decided to invite four bee colonies to our roof.

Police bees will be spoilt for choice, with the City Park, tree-lined streets, and meadows and forests of the city hills Kalvarija and Piramida all beckoning them to forage. Beekeeping has a particularly long tradition in our area, and we have a number of skilled beekeepers in our ranks.

The project strengthens connection with our employees, as well as with trade union organisations and retired colleagues, many of whom have actively joined the project and contributed to its realisation.

"For Maribor police officers, this honey story is much more than just fulfilling a social responsibility. Bees teach us about cooperation and mutual help. Values that have brought together the employees of our Police Directorate, our retired colleagues, family members and members of professional organisations. Everyone has approached the project with great enthusiasm and joy," said the Director of the Maribor Police Directorate, Donald Rus, who is a beekeeper himself.

On this occasion Mr Rus and Branko Uranjek, a Maribor police officer and the guardian of the police beehive, installed the last panel onto the apiary together.

The official opening of all four hives followed, attended by the Police Attaché in Vienna, Vladimir Pocek, who has already participated in similar projects abroad and brought the story of police bees to Maribor police officers, and the President of the Slovenian Beekeepers' Association, Boštjan Noč. Also present were our police colleagues from Austria and Germany, who already have experience in urban beekeeping.