Through a partnership with Free Range Beehives, Colorado Public Radio recently installed three beehives on the roof of its new headquarters at Bridges Broadcast Center in Centennial.
“When we found out this was an option for our building, we began exploring it right away,” said Stewart Vanderwilt, president and CEO of CPR. “It’s a great opportunity for us to improve our environmental stewardship by taking an unused space and providing a home for thousands of honeybees.”
The hives were installed on August 22 with about 50,000 bees in each one. There are numerous pollinator-friendly plants in the area to keep the honeybee populations thriving. Throughout the fall, the bees will fill their hives with honey, about 90 pounds in each one. This insulation will protect them through the winter, and they will reemerge in the spring.
Free Range Beehive’s mission is to provide employee wellness programs centered around the health and well being of local honeybee populations by caring for beehives on corporate properties.
“Free Range Beehives is thrilled to be working with CPR to support honey bees along the Front Range,” said Mike Rosol, CEO and co-founder of Free Range Beehives. “Our organizations share similar values, serving our communities with respect, inclusiveness and curiosity. We strive to educate professionals in their work setting so that they can make better individual choices at home on how to support the honeybee population. It is great to partner with another organization that cares about and supports the communities we live in.”
While the beehives at CPR are on the roof and thus inaccessible to employees, the staff looks forward to the homemade honey at the end of the season.
