Something's buzzing at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, as new bee farm takes off.
Chicago O'Hare International Airport has opened up a bee farm on its land to both produce honey to give to passengers at the gateway, and also offer jobs to unemployed ex-convicts.
Earlier this year, 23 beehives were installed on a vacant piece of property on the airports east side as part of the gateway's efforts to make O'Hare more environmentally friendly.
The apiary is located just outside of the runway protection zone and therefore land on which the Federal Aviation Authority will not allow the airport to develop, said Amy Malick, deputy commissioner of sustainability at the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA).
As part of the project, the CDA has joined forces with Sweet Beginnings - an urban honey venture that employs people who have been to prison - and therefore former convicts, who are struggling to find work after leaving prison, are being employed at the bee farm to work as beekeepers, landscapers or food processors.
The land around the airport where the apiary is located is ideal ground and has the right sort of vegetation for the bees, who are reportedly producing around 150 pounds of honey per hive.
Malick told the Chicago Daily Herald that: "The location is so suitable for them, there's lots of food for them to forage. It's not an optimal location for people, but they like it just fine."
Sweet Beginnings employees make products from the honey harvest, including lotions, balms and creams, which they then sell on their own website.
However, the CDA wants to get in on the action too and plans to offer the honey that is produced by the bees at honey kiosks in the terminals of Chicago O'Hare and Midway International Airports.
Furthermore, the apiary project has other benefits. For example, it is also important for honeybee survival after the species experienced a population drop in the last decade.
In addition, the hives and the vegetation discourage birds that favour airport grass and that can be a hazard for aircraft.
However, this is not the first time an airport has used bee colonies on its land.
In 1999, Hamburg Airport began pioneering a new technique to calculate air quality around its facilities using bees. Originally, once the bees' honey, roughly 150kg per annual harvest, had been tested for trace pollutants in the air, it would then be discarded.
However the airport authority saw this as a waste and, after being cleared for human consumption, the honey is now professionally jarred and labelled at Hamburg Airport, creating some 500-700, 250g jars per year.
These are now given away at social events, to visiting VIPs and crucially to the local community as part of the airport's environmental PR campaign.
Likewise, at Malmö Airport in Sweden there are bee colonies used for the same purpose that produce around three honey harvests a year and since 2007 this also has been jarred and presented to visitors at the gateway.
