SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Ian Bens and Aron Weber, the executive pastry chef, wanted fresh honey to use in their menus. So, two and half years ago, they put the beehives on the roof and have been harvesting them ever since.

They estimate that about sixty to ninety thousand honeybees live in each hive at the height of nectar flow. The busy season for the bees is from May through late July.

MARIO RITTER: Several wooden boxes are placed one on top of another to form each hive. The boxes are forty by fifty centimeters and are called supers. Bottom supers are usually deeper than the others. They house the queen bee and her brood of baby bees.

The worker bees use the supers above to store most of the honey they make.

Each super contains ten frames in which the bees build a wax honeycomb. They use the structure to house the queen’s eggs and to store honey and pollen to eat. As each comb is filled with honey, the bees seal it with wax. Then they continue to move higher up the hive, filling new frames of honeycomb.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Fairmont’s rooftop bees travel up to five kilometers to collect nectar and pollen from plants and flowers. They fly around parks and gardens in Washington.

The chefs remove the frames that have been filled and harvest the honey every month or so during warm weather.

MARIO RITTER: Ian Bens uses a special warming knife to remove the thin layer of wax that the bees have formed on top of the honey. The beeswax will later be used to create skin products like lip balm, sunscreen and facial scrubs for hotel guests.