9 October 2014
Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport
Lambert-Saint
Louis International Airport is receiving only a modest revenue from its recent
addition of beehives to a tract of land just north of one of its runways. The land, formerly “Freeborne Park,” had become overgrown with wild grassland after it was annexed by the airport. Now, a “bee yard” (or commercial apiary) has moved in. The tract boasts abundant Dutch clover with an absence of pesticides.
Following the lead of
several German airports, Seattle’s Sea-Tac Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare Airport
are welcoming commercial beekeepers and their bee yards (apiaries) onto the
airport property.
Actually,
the invitations make good sense for the airports. Runways require borders of large tracks of
unused land for security and, also, to absorb the noise of takeoffs and
landings. Use of the open tracks for other purposes proved unsuccessful. The noise and other disruption, from runway takeoffs and landings, have made
golf courses and other types of parks less popular choices. Much of this unused airport property had been
allowed to return to a more natural state with wild grass allowed to grow.
Although
noise-making devices, something like fireworks, are used to drive larger birds
away from the airports to avoid dangerous collisions with air traffic, small
birds and wild bees are attracted to open areas and are quite welcome. This habitat is particular valuable to the familiar,
large and rather “round” bumblebee. The
wild bumbles have suffered large population declines from a loss of the wild
grass habitats they require.
Recently,
Seattle’s Sea-Tac Airport established a non-profit common ground on their
unused land where several bee yards are, now, operating. At Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, the honey and
beeswax produced by the airport’s resident bee colonies are sold in the airport
market.
In Germany,
the airport-produced honey is given to passengers for free as a good-will
gesture. There, the honey production by the airport’s bees serves another purpose.
The honey is regularly tested for toxins associated with both jet
fuel and local automotive traffic emissions.
Honey, the honeybee’s most popular product, is an excellent barometer of
air and environmental pollution.
“WORKING” BEES IN THE AIRPORT?
Now, honeybees are at the airport. But, at least in
some places, the bees may soon be in the
airport. What will these honeybees be doing
in the airport? Traveling? Panhandling?
No. Working.
As long ago
as 2006, researchers were testing the bee’s ability to “sniff out” drugs and
even explosives. So, not only may the
DEA and Home Land Security be using a security team of honeybees at the
airport, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may get in on the act as
well. It turns out bees are as good at
detecting food quality. So, contraband
plants or food products may, also, soon be on the airport honeybee team’s list
of contraband.
How exactly
do these honeybees “work” at the airport? Answer: they hang out in their buzz box.
What’s a buzzbox?
What’s a buzzbox?
Well, first
things first.
Bees have
one of the most acute senses of smell in all of nature. Sniffer dogs can barely smell a thing when
compared to your average honeybee.
The real
breakthrough was the discovery that bees can be trained to smell other things
instead of flowers. All you have to do
is reward bees when they detect the smell of drugs, explosives, or contraband
foods. With just a few repeated rewards, they are trained.
What do you reward the bees with?
Something sweet -- of course. Sugar water will
do.
How long
does the training take? About 10
minutes. And, the bees stay trained for
life. In nature, bees live in a
hive. Security bees live in a “buzz
box.” When air is blown through their “buzz box,” their behavior alerts officers
to the presence of the drugs, explosives or, even bad or contraband food products that the particular group of bees has been trained to detect.
But should
bees be allowed to work under such difficult conditions? Constant sweet rewards and, with the buzzbox, the bees are forced to “work from home.”
Wouldn’t
the bees rather work in a commercial apiary? Well, if the bee's job is honey production, apiary life isn't so bad. But if the bee's job is pollination, it's another story.
The typical apiary providing pollination services is a place where bees are loaded onto trucks every pollination season and transported 24 hours a day on bumpy roads to major pollination sites. Then, they’re starved for a day to make sure they are motivated to pollinate before being released into the fields. Oh, and twice as many bees are released into those fields as are needed. Why? To make sure the bees can’t quite gather as much food as they’d like. That helps assure that absolutely every flower gets pollinated. And, on a bad day, they might accidentally get exposed to pesticides.
The typical apiary providing pollination services is a place where bees are loaded onto trucks every pollination season and transported 24 hours a day on bumpy roads to major pollination sites. Then, they’re starved for a day to make sure they are motivated to pollinate before being released into the fields. Oh, and twice as many bees are released into those fields as are needed. Why? To make sure the bees can’t quite gather as much food as they’d like. That helps assure that absolutely every flower gets pollinated. And, on a bad day, they might accidentally get exposed to pesticides.
Yeah, with working conditions like that, why would honeybees want to stay in buzzbox at
the airport and get sweet rewards all day?
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