Last Sunday, I visited the Chicago Honey Co-Op’s Apiary on the west side. This is urban bee-keeping at its best: the co-op offers job training to the under employed and produces top quality honey from chemical free hives. The honey is absolutely delicious, thanks to the natural abundance of white sweet clover that was already running rampant on their land before they moved the hives in.
Our tour was led by a enthusiastic bee-keeper who had been in the business since he was 12 years old. I learned about bee colony collapse in the country (thanks to soy and corn), how worker bees make a queen cell and feed it royal jelly, and that bacteria does not grow in honey because cells cannot divide in the substance. I left with an utter fascination of bees.
You can purchase Chicago Honey Co-Op honey and lovely natural beeswax prodcuts at the Green City Market.
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