CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — It was installation day on the 11th-floor rooftop of Prudential Plaza on Wednesday.
“These bees made their journey from Georgia,” said Dana McMullin, a beekeeper with Alveole Beekeeping. “I brought four hives on-site, and I opened up the hive to allow them to do their orientation flight.”
McMullin used a little incentive from a burlap smoker to get the bees to come out and explore their new home.
“They zoom into the air in a cyclone, taking in landmarks and imprinting the location of their hive — because they'll never leave their queen or their colony for another,” she said.
At the height of the season, there can be up to 30,000 bees in each hive.
“They travel in a given direction and three miles back — and they can do this multiple times a day — foraging for pollen, nectar or a water source,” McMullin said. “It's really incredible. Sometimes they can come back weighing three times their weight. The queen lays 2,000 eggs per day.”
Alveole was established in 2019 as an urban beekeeping company that takes care of hives throughout the city.
“We have a bee van, and we load up for the day; we service the hives, on-sites and some schools,” McMullin said. “Some people come out, meet me, meet the bees and hopefully fall in love with the honeybee.”
McMullin said she handles about 30 clients. That requires visiting three to five clients each day. She said it’s currently installation time, which means it's a busy time for her.
"Installation is my favorite visit, because it's so exciting to meet your bees for the first time. Sometimes it's love at first sight,” McMullin laughed.
She said more people choose where they live and where they work based on conservation and sustainability efforts.
“Our goal is to encourage people to check out the hives, and think about how important the environment is,” she said. “I think more and more people care about conservation and make decisions based on that.”
Alveole cares for about 100 hives in the city and surrounding suburbs, and beekeeping season normally runs from early spring to late fall. More information about Alveole’s beekeeping efforts can be found here.
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