There's a real buzz down at the National Magazine Company. As well as being a 10:10 media partner and doing some amazing work to cut its emissions, the company behind top magazines including Cosmopolitan and Esquire is also home to a colony of bees. And last week we were lucky enough to go behind the scenes as it jarred their first batch of honey.

Originally hailing from Hackney, the NatMag bees have only been residents of Broadwick Street, Soho, for four months. However, life in W1 certainly seems to be agreeing with them, as they've already created plenty of beeswax cells filled with delicious honey.

Sources close to the bees tell 10:10 that they're enjoying their new home among the plants and flowers which make up the roof garden atop NatMag's building, and are being very well looked after by 30 members of the NatMag staff, trained as volunteer bee-keepers under the guidance of bee mentor Dr Luke Dixon.

In fact, says Dr Dixon, London honey is often said to taste better than honey made in the countryside, as London has a wider array of plants from which the bees can feed.

At the potting of the bees' first batch of honey, held at the company's Good Housekeeping Institute, Dr Dixon talked 10:10 through the honey-harvesting process, adding that the bees have been left with plenty of honey to get them through the winter.

How to harvest honey

1. The slides of hexagonal cells, which are built within rectangular frames by the bees, are removed from the two rooftop hives.

2. The 'lids' of the honey-filled cells are scraped away with a special metal comb, exposing the honey inside.

3. The frames are placed in a centrefuge. (Dr Dixon used a hand-powered one to minimise the carbon footprint of the honey.) The wax cells are returned the bees in their frames, which next year they'll fill with more honey!

The bees are just one of the impressive number of measures NatMag is taking to improve its environmental impact. Having already slashed their carbn footprint, their latest 10:10 commitment of a further 10% is part of an ambitious long-term plan which aims to see the company become carbon neutral in 2013. 

Not only that - as part of the NatMag-10:10 partnership, keep your eyes peeled for full-page advertisements and editoral coverage in October issues of Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Country Living, Good Housekeeping and Company, out soon.