When I saw that it was 45 degrees and sunny today, I just knew the bees here at the Ford Rouge Factory Tour would be active – so I put on my bee suit and headed over to our three hives in front of the Visitor Center.

Bees? At a factory tour?

Yes! The Ford Rouge Factory Tour is more than just a place to witness the marvels of modern automobile manufacturing; we are also a thriving ecosystem complete with crabapple and other flowering trees and bushes, plants and flowers – and bees!

After the trees and plants were in place, we realized we needed bees to help make this ecosystem complete and help pollinate and contribute to the overall healthiness of the system. We started with one hive, which was given to us in 2004 by a Ford Motor Company staff member who is also a beekeeper in his spare time. The bee colonies have now become so healthy that the bees have swarmed multiple times; we were able to catch a few of the swarms to start two entirely new hives, bringing the grand total to three. Wow!

Today, the bees took “cleansing” flights to release the waste they’ve accumulated over the winter and swept dead bees out of the hives. It’s normal for some bees to die off over the winter as a natural part of the lifecycle; on warm and sunny winter days, the hives get cleaned out and the dead bees are swept outside, where they become food for birds and field mice. When we open the hives to do maintenance later this spring, we’ll help sweep out any remaining dead bees.

The hives typically have the lowest populations in February to early March. Around mid-March the queen bee will begin actively laying eggs to create lots of new bees for the spring and summer pollen collection. Around this same time of year, we’ll also begin feeding the bees to ensure they are healthy for the coming season; we left all of the honey in the hives this year, so they had plenty of food to last the winter.

So who takes care of these bees? I do! I started training last summer with the same Ford employee who brought us our original hive so that I could learn to be a beekeeper as well. It’s going quite well; after I was stung in the head for the first time, my mentor told me that I had finally earned my “stripes” as a beekeeper!

You can see the hives for yourself – and learn more about how this area contributes to Ford’s sustainable manufacturing efforts – as part of our daily Living Lab tour, which officially re-opens on April 16 for the season; you can take the tour through October 15 – it’s free with admission to the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. We hope you’ll join us!