A new bee yard – yes, bee yard – at the Port of Hamilton

The Hamilton Port Authority (HPA) has partnered with the urban beekeeping company Humble Bee by providing space to install 12 hive boxes for a new bee yard adjacent to Sherman Inlet at Pier 15.

Each box will be divided into three miniature colonies with approximately 500 bees within each mini-hive. The site was chosen as a breeding location for queen bees because of its waterfront proximity. (Bees need water to cool their hive and dilute stored honey.) The new bee yard is a complement to the port’s first pollinator garden, which is also located at Pier 15. Planted last year in partnership with the Pollinator Paradise Project, the garden is part of the HPA’s goal to create a corridor of native plantings that provide food and shelter for bees, butterflies and other pollinators as they migrate across port land.

Honeybees are non-aggressive. Once their hives are installed, the bees will remain mostly out of sight except in the immediate colony area where more of them may be noticed pollinating flowers.