Urban Bee Farms Transform Detroit’s Vacant Lots

Photo courtesy of Detroit Hives

As the city removes thousands of blighted properties, this couple saw an opportunity to support a cooperative economy.

By J. Gabriel Ware
YES
May 17, 2018

Excerpt:

Last year, Paule and his partner, Nicole Lindsey, bought a 32,000-square-foot lot on the city’s east side from the Detroit Land Bank Authority for $350 and turned it into an urban bee farm. And they say more bee farms are coming.

Paule and Lindsey run Detroit Hives, a nonprofit organization they use to transform vacant lots into honeybee farms. Beyond reducing blight, its mission is also to conserve honeybees, whose drastic declines worldwide have been attributed partly to pesticides and herbicides, and to educate the community about the bees’ vital contribution as pollinators necessary for food production.

Honeybees pollinate about $15 billion worth of crops each year, according to a 2016 study from the U.S Department of Agriculture. They produce wax, and their venom is known to have healing properties.

Read the complete article here.