A green idea with sweet possibilities

Daily Herald Editorial Board

OK, let’s get the cliches out of the way right from the beginning.

타 Here’s an idea that takes the sting out of being green.

타 This honeybee plan is really sweet.

타 What’s the buzz?

타 Will this make the suburbs the place to bee?

Phew.

Now that we have that out of our system, we can get serious about a proposal in Hanover Park that offers intriguing promise. It’s not going to change the world, but, as staff writer Kimberly Pohl reported last week, the village’s proposed community apiary could provide a real-life educational destination on the workings of nature and help restore declining populations of bees whose pollination activities are critical to the flourishing of plant life that means so much both to the beauty and the ecology of the suburbs.

Howard Killian, Hanover Park’s public works director, said the plan would put the village on the “cutting edge of an environmental issue not a lot of communities nationwide are doing.” Gary Gates, president of the Cook-DuPage Beekeepers Association, added that Hanover Park’s project would be the first community apiary in the state and one of only a few in the nation.

The project to be located near the village’s former sewage treatment plant at Bayside Drive and Army Trail Road would start with about 20 hives — at least some of which would be managed by the beekeepers group — open to keepers who would have to provide their own bees. Depending on interest, the operation could grow from there.

Gates assured the village last week that the honeybees to be tended in these hives are docile and not inclined to become an annoyance to neighbors. In fact, except when they’re not out focusing on collecting nectar and pollinating suburban gardens, they rarely stray more than 10 feet from the hive, he said. Hanover Park’s apiary would be more than 160 feet from the nearest residence. Beekeepers also would have to be registered with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which inspects hives.

In addition, a locked fence surrounds the site where the bees will be kept, and beekeepers would have to buy insurance, indemnify the village against any liability and demonstrate that they know what they’re doing when it comes to managing bees and beehives.

We have to confess, we were unaware of the growing interest in beekeeping that Gates cites in explaining why Hanover Park’s apiary could become popular. But if it presents a demand and the village can provide the space without incurring any costs, this seems like one of the nice little ideas that excites the imagination, meets a need and does some good.

Now, they just have to, ahem, get busy setting the thing up. (Sorry.)