THE LAST HIVE: THE WORLD'S LAST BEE POPULATION

"Refubees Welcome," or "Pesticides kill" - those are the slogans on the bleak grey wall of the miniature prefab building demonstrating the fight to survive. The facade of the 1,60m prefab building hive was custom designed and elaborately shows the various reasons for the worldwide death of bees. The last hive is real and located in Hamburg's HafenCity, across from a large field of wildflowers. Beekeeper Marc Steinwender has cared for the hive and produced Last Honey, "the world's last honey," since 2017. Bottled in a test tube and protected by copper housing, "LAST HONEY" keeps for multiple centuries and can serve-if bees ever cease to exist-as a time capsule for posterity. Each glass is one of a kind, filled by beekeeper hand, and numbered. All purchases include an automatic donation to Mellifera e.V.

The project "LAST HONEY" raises awareness of the dramatic die-off of bees. It consists of three parts:

1 THE LAST HIVE

The custom-designed beehive serves as a symbol for the last bee population on earth that is fighting to survive against agricultural chemicals, climate change, and parasites.

2 THE LAST HONEY

The symbolic remainder of the world's very last honey is bottled in a test tube, protected by copper housing, and keeps for multiple centuries. Thus, it can be passed on-if bees ever cease to exist-as a time capsule for posterity. The purchase of this honey serves as a donation.

3 THE MAGAZINE

The 28-page, 3 cm x 50 cm magazine tells the dramatic story of dying bees, causes, and what humans can do about it.

In only 7 weeks (02.01.2018 - 26.2.2018) over 4 million contacts were reached.

Mellifera .e.V. recieved more than 35% more donations than the years before.