bees

Does your airport have hives?

Holidays,

The third Saturday in August is National Honey Bee Day. Here are 5 U.S. airports doing their part to keep the buzz alive.

Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)

(Photo courtesy Pittsburgh International Airport)

Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) has 11 apiaries housing 4 million bees across the airport’s 8,800 acres.

Seattle Tacoma International Airport (SEA)

(Photo courtesy SEA Airport)

SEA airport has had bee hives on its property since 2013 as part of the Flight Path project.

The goal is to raise honeybees and turn previously unused green spaces on the south end of the airport SEA into a native pollinator habitat. There are now 12 bee hives on site.

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD)

Chicago Oā€™Hare International Airport (ORD) began hosting bee hives on its property in 2011 and is the first airport in the United States to host bees. Helpers who tend to the 200 hives get job training and the harvested honey is used to make BeeLove products sold at both O’Hare and Midway Airports.

Indianapolis International Airport (IND)

Indianapolis International Airport (IND) works with the White Lick Beekeepers Association to maintain an apiary on about 5 acres of airport land.

Ohio’s Akron-Canton Airport (CAK)

Akron-Canton Airport (CAK) introduced 60 colonies of bees to the airfield in 2023 in partnership with Hartville Honey Bee Farm.

Airports + National Bee Day

Animals, , , ,

Honey bees are experiencing a drastic decline in the United States and that’s having a negative impact on the global ecosystem.

Creating habitats where they can thrive is part of the solution. And on National Honey Bee Day, Saturday, August 20, we recognize the contributions honey bees make to our lives.

Airports abuzz

Airports around the country are doing their part to help the honey bees thrive by hosting honey bee hives on airport lands.

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), and Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport (MSP) are among the airports that have apiaries on site.

The bees at MSP Airport are there as part of the University of Minnesota Bee Veterans program, which provides free beekeeping education for Minnesota Veterans, including monthly workshops, including in-person and online workshops.

Here’s a video from MSP showing honey bees in the hive.

Does your airport have hives? (Tee-hee) Let us know and we’ll update our list.

Travel Tidbits from PIT Airport

Airports, , , , ,

From art to bees, therapy dogs and the “refreshing” of some statues, Pittsburgh International Airport is keeping busy.

First up: a charming video to announce that the PIT Paws therapy dog team has joined others across the country hand out trading cards to fans.

PIT Airport also shared a video about the more than 700,000 bees that reside on property:

PIT airport said goodbye – temporarily – to the statues of George Washington and former Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris.

And the airport made room for a new – and somewhat large – piece of art.

The buzz about Victoria Harbour Airport

Animals, Environment, , ,

You can take a ferry between Seattle, Washington and Victoria, British Columbia, but it’s much faster – and far more thrilling Ā – Ā to take a seaplane and land at Victoria Harbour Airport (YWH), a floating seaplane airport that is home to Harbour Air and Kenmore Air.

To mark the first anniversary of the floating terminal, Harbour Air, which serves 9 destinations in British Columbia, put a colony of honey bees (four beehives containing about 10,00 bees) and 50 solar panels on the airport’s one-acre green roof.

A screen inside the terminal will let passengers see how much electricity the solar panels are generating and a ‘bee cam’ offers a live feed of what the bees are doing.

The airport beehives – which airline officials think may be the world’s first floating hives – are already generating honey and by fall Harbour Honey should be available for purchase in the terminalā€™s coffee area. Sweet!

 

The buzz on bees at Seattle-Tacoma Int’l Airport

Art, Environment, , , ,

SEA BEES

Busy bees are hard at work in hives out on the property of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Inside the airport, there’s also now an exhibit with bee-themed art and educational information about the importance of pollinators.

Titled Flight Path, the exhibit explores bees and flight through a variety of mediums including paintings, blown glass and a mosaic and includes the work of 24 Northwest artists.

Last year, the airport hosted 18 hives. This year, the Port of Seattle is working with a local group called The Common Acre to host 1.5 million honeybees in 24 hives on unused vacant land near the runways.

Sea-Tac isn’t the only airport with hives. Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport has honeybee hives on property as well and products made from the honey is for sale inside the airport.

Bee outfit