From numerous embassies to Parliament House to the new Ginninderry suburbs, Canberra is buzzing.
May 20 is International Bee Day, not that the bees are aware of it, but humans plan to make a lot of the event.
The hives of the embassies of Switzerland, Slovenia, Sweden and Italy are all involved.
On Friday, the Italian embassy invites Canberrans to see the hives in the garden and "enjoy some honey-based nibbles".
The ambassador of Switzerland, Pedro Zwahlen, keeps his bees on the roof of the embassy. For him, bees have been a passion since he kept hives as a teenager in the town of Thun.
But moving around the world as a diplomat (Costa Rica, Portugal, Syria) meant his hobby fell by the wayside - until he arrived in Canberra.
"I saw the opportunity of taking it up here," he said. The Canberra honey is "superb", he said.
"It's very pure because there is so little air pollution - no industrial pollution, for example. And the honey is aromatic because of the Australian plants."
His view that keeping bees is a good way of understanding the environment is echoed at the Swedish embassy. "We want to be part of a collective effort to raise consciousness of bio-diversity," Per Linner, Deputy Head of the Swedish embassy said.
At the Slovenian embassy, there is a traditional bee hive in the garden. It's painted in a peasant style and is similar to the ones which Slovenians carry on their backs to find new pastures with flowers offering more honey.
"For us, bees have always been part of our culture," the ambassador, Jurij Rifelj, said. Anton Jansa who was born in Slovenia in 1734 is often thought of as the father of modern bee-keeping.
He was wise: "Amongst all God's beings there are none so hard-working and useful to man with so little attention needed for its keep as the bee."
There are hives in Parliament House, both for native bees and imported European honey bees. There was one in Old Parliament House.
In 1976, the speaker, Sir Billy Snedden, approved the first parliamentary beehives, apparently by going along with what he assumed was a prank.
He said "yes" to the request thinking it was a joke. Fortunately for the bees, it wasn't.
Legend has it that the honey even helped smooth over a dispute (sweeten the bitterness) with Gough Whitlam.
Mr Yates, a Liberal and before that a Conservative in Britain, sent the Labor leader a jar of honey after a particularly heated exchange.
New Parliament House also has hives, both for European bees and native Australian bees - though in winter they are moved to the relative warmth of Sydney.
There are 1700 species of native Australian bee but most are not very social, preferring a monogamous relationship rather than the promiscuity of the "honey bees" which descended from those brought from Europe in the 1820s.
In the new Ginninderry suburbs, there is an effort to help the native bees. It is the first time suburb planners have chosen plants which flower year-round, specifically to cater to native bees.
ACT For Bees founder Julie Armstrong led the push by including pollination and flowering information on the list of government approved plants, to make it easier for planners to think about how they can look after native bees.
"We've got a huge range of native bees," she said. "They're usually solitary, they live in the ground and they have a very short flight range of 500 metres."
"They're actually quite vulnerable."
