KOIN Tower is the home of many tenants, including KOIN 6 News. And honeybees.

A honeybee hive on the 19th floor is one of 22 urban hives veteran beekeeper Luca Gregtson checks on about every three weeks. During a talk at the KOIN Tower, he explained how the hives work along with “raising awareness about how bees are cool. Bees are absolutely amazing and super important.”

Gregtson, with the Alveole Company, often hosts hands-on sessions to his love of bees with others.

This year, the KOIN Tower bees did not produce any honey — which happens sometimes — but Gregtson brought honey from other hives to provide that hands-on experience. They’re able to use an extractor and see how the raw honey is filtered before filling up their own jars to take some home.

The life cycle of a bee hive, he said, “is their whole hive is alive the six months of late fall, winter, early spring period. So they need resources to stay alive. That’s why they store it, cap it,” he said.

With the cap on each honeycomb cell, the bees create something that’s like their own miniature honey jars.

Bees and beekeepers, he said, “have had this relationship for 10,000 years.”

The Alveole Company has bee hives in more than 2200 commercial buildings across 73 cities around the world.