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O’Hare Abuzz with Bees

The airport beekeeping movement, pioneered a in Germany a few years back, has a new member. Last spring, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport became the first North American airport to experiment with beekeeping, installing 23 beehives on a vacant patch of land on the airport’s east side. The airport bee program is now on cruise control.

Unlike the projects in Germany, O’Hare’s beekeeping operation has less to do with monitoring air quality than with putting unused land to good use. In that way it can be viewed as part of the burgeoning movement to make vacant lots productive. The O’Hare project ls also being used to provide work for previously convicted felons, who are employed as beekeepers, landscapers and food processors.

Watch a YouTube vid about the program.

(via GOOD)

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