s
the The Bees knees Knees
“A nd t hy Lord taught t he b e e to bu i ld it s cel l s in h i l l s , on t re e s , a nd in men’s ha bitat ion s ." From t he Qu ra n, Su rat a n- Na h l : 6 8- 69
While guests sleep peacefully, cosseted in the utmost luxury of downtown Cincinnati’s Hilton Netherland Plaza, hundreds of thousands of workers are busy toiling away to ensure that their lodger’s breakfast will be extra sweet. But these tireless laborers aren’t of the human species. Tucked peacefully away on the 5th floor roof of the Hilton, are 4 whimsically painted bee hives. Executive Chef Todd Kelly came up with the idea of keeping the bees as a way for his chefs to buy in to his goal of utilizing more sustainable and locally sourced products in the kitchen. At the request of Chef Kelly, experienced beekeeper Richard Stewart of Carriage House Farm installed two hives in May of 2011; placing a purchased colony from California into one, and a rogue swarm Stewart had caught in Fairfield into the other. As luck would have it, the purchased colony arrived without a queen, (tantamount to death in the bee world) and fled, or possibly even combined with wild bunch. A second swarm was successfully captured, placed in the hive, and all of the bees began to successfully set up housekeeping.
_
90