Believe the hive hype at O'Hare airport

Tucked away on 2,000 square feet of otherwise unused airport property, O’Hare’s apiary brings an unexpected buzz to a place once known for its quiet orchards. Long before jets filled the skies, the land was called Orchard Place, a nod to the apple trees that dotted the prairie, a legacy still echoed in the airport’s code, ORD. Today, that history comes full circle as more than a million honeybees work these grounds, producing Beelove honey while helping people returning from incarceration build new skills and fresh starts, one hive at a time.

Launched in 2011, O’Hare became the first U.S. airport to host an apiary. It is a project born out of a partnership between the Chicago Department of Aviation and Sweet Beginnings, a Chicago-based social enterprise under the umbrella of the North Lawndale Employment Network. What started as an environmental initiative to bring pollinators back to urban spaces has grown into a workforce development program offering second chances to people returning from incarceration.

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Brenda Palms Barber, founder of Sweet Beginnings, told Block Club Chicago that the program is “so much more than just keeping bees. It’s about learning to create and market a product and taking pride in your work.” Participants gain hands-on experience tending to the hives and harvesting honey. They also help produce Beelove honey and honey-based skincare products, a signature line from Sweet Beginnings now sold in O’Hare shops and local retailers.

O’Hare’s apiary launched in 2011 with 28 hives producing about 1,200 pounds of honey. Today, the program has expanded to more than 75 hives and more than one million bees, yielding thousands of poundsof honey each year.

The impact, however, goes beyond jars of honey. According to Sweet Beginnings, the program has maintained a recidivism rate under 10%, a staggering contrast to Illinois’ state average of about 43%. Graduates gain job skillsand the confidence to step back into a workforce that often closes its doors to those with records.

Cristian Petre, who supervises the apiary, told the digital media publication Upworthy that the work has been life-changing. “Working with bees gave me patience and purpose. It’s a fresh start you don’t always get elsewhere.” Over the past decade, more than1,000 people have gone through the program, many of them finding stable employment afterward.

Environmentally, the hives have become a small, vital part of Chicago’s urban ecosystem. The bees pollinate surrounding green spaces and help maintain vegetation in areas where development leaves little room for nature. As CBS Chicago noted when the program launched, the airport’s unused land was a perfect solution: no jet fuel or construction projects, just open space for pollinators to thrive.

With the hives well out of harm’s way, the program remains a steady force at O’Hare. This rare corner of calm and renewal in the middle of one of the world’s busiest airports stands as a quiet reminder that even in constant motion, there’s space for second chances to take root.