Beehives make life 'sweeter' at Sandy Springs medical facility

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. - As a fourth-generation beekeeper, it’s no surprise Leigh-Kathryn Bonner spends her life surrounded by hives. What is surprising is that many of those hives are surrounded by skyscrapers.

"Studies show honey bees thrive in urban environments," says Bonner. "There’s diverse food, there’s stable living conditions, there’s longer periods of bloom for the bees, as well."

Bonner is the founder and CEO of Bee Downtown, which installs and maintains hives on major corporate campuses throughout the Southeast.

"Bee Downtown started when I was in college, and I couldn’t keep beehives at my apartment complex. So, I asked the company I was working for if they could let me put beehives on their property," recalls Bonner.

The answer was yes, and it caused such a "buzz" in the local media that the idea of corporate hives took flight. Today, Bee Downtown hives can be found on the properties of more than a hundred corporations in six cities.

"We don’t just put the bees here and have these magical little boxes that nobody knows about," says Bonner. "It’s our job to teach and educate and bring a little bit of that agriculture back into cities."

The latest city is Sandy Springs, where hives at the Kaiser Permanente Georgia Glenlake Comprehensive Specialty Center were unveiled at a ribbon-cutting ceremony this week. During peak season, each of the hives will house 40,000 to 50,000 bees, which will pollinate the surrounding area and then return to the hives and make honey.  

Kaiser Permanente Georgia will be able to harvest and keep the honey, but leaders say another "sweet reward" will be engaging employees in the beekeeping process.

"First, there’s lots of curiosity," says Kaiser Permanente Georgia Chief of Staff Ernest Brown. "But then they actually spend time checking out the hives, seeing the bees at work, and thinking about, ‘Can I be working a little bit harder, like those bees?’ Nothing really happens in our building without a lot of teamwork from the doctors, nurses, and the other staff members."

In other words, inspiration from one hard-working team to another.