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<DIV><BR><FONT face=Calibri><EM>Thanks to Jen Boulden for
this:</EM></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Calibri>From GOOD MAGAZINE: <BR><BR></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT face="Georgia, Times New Roman">That buzzing sound
you hear at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport could be a jet taking off. Or
maybe it's coming from the 1.5 million bees that call the airport home. In May,
the Chicago Department of Aviation partnered with a community group to start a
2,400 square foot apiary on-site. Now 23 beehives are up and running and
are scheduled to yield 575 pounds of honey this year.<BR><BR>The project offers
a creative, sustainable, and productive way to use otherwise wasted open space
at mega-airports like O'Hare. The bees' new home on the east side of the airport
campus had long stood vacant, so it was a natural spot for the bee program to
begin. And if that's not enough benefit, the beehives provide employment
opportunities for formerly incarcerated adults (similar to other projects
that teach prisoners beekeeping. Sweet Beginnings <<A title=http:/// href="http:///">http://</A>www.sweetbeginningsllc.com/> , the
offshoot of the local economic development agency that's managing the project,
trains felons in the art of beekeeping and the process of making honey, candles,
and lotions, which are sold under the brand Beeline. O'Hare's shops intend to
start selling the hyper-local honey products soon. “It is the perfect example of
a green business operating and growing in Chicago, while also providing
opportunities to those who need a second chance,” said former Chicago mayor
Richard M. Daley.<BR><BR>The "airport beekeeping movement" has been growing in
Germany since 1999, when scientists realized honeybees could be helpful
for monitoring air quality, but O'Hare is the first American airport to get
an apiary. In a way, it's a return to the airport's agricultural roots:
O'Hare was founded on a former apple orchard, which lives on in the three letter
airport code "ORD."<BR></FONT><FONT face="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><BR>FULL ARTICLE:<BR><A title="http://www.good.is/post/bees-enter-the-air-traffic-mix-at-chicago-s-aiport?utm_campaign=daily_good&utm_medium=email_daily_good&utm_source=headline_link&utm_content=At O'Hare Airport, Unused Land Is Going to the Bees" href="http://www.good.is/post/bees-enter-the-air-traffic-mix-at-chicago-s-aiport?utm_campaign=daily_good&utm_medium=email_daily_good&utm_source=headline_link&utm_content=At%20O%27Hare%20Airport%2C%20Unused%20Land%20Is%20Going%20to%20the%20Bees">http://www.good.is/post/bees-enter-the-air-traffic-mix-at-chicago-s-aiport?utm_campaign=daily_good&utm_medium=email_daily_good&utm_source=headline_link&utm_content=At%20O%27Hare%20Airport%2C%20Unused%20Land%20Is%20Going%20to%20the%20Bees</A>
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