City buzzes with beehives project at Normandy Oaks park
Two hives with thousands of honey bees are coming to Royal Oak’s 40-acre park at Normandy Oaks.
The city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board last week approved a $2,400 deal with the nonprofit organization Bees in The D that city commissioners are expected to approve at their meeting Monday.
Each hive at the height of summer has about 60,000 bees, so Royal Oak will see up to 120,000 honey bees taking up residence in the Oaks Savannah nature area of the Normandy Oaks park.
Brian Peterson-Roest, co-founder and president of Bees in the D, said people should have no fear of honey bees stinging them.
“The bees that usually bother people are the yellow jacket hornets or wasps,” he said. “Honey bees’ main goal is to go out and find pollen and nectar to feed and grow the colony.”
Peterson-Roest noted that pollinators like bees and butterflies are an important part of a natural web affecting flowers, plants and human food supplies.
John Fedele, the city’s recreation superintendent, said park officials will see how the bee project does and may expand it to other parks if it’s successful.
“The bee hives add a great natural component to the Oaks Savannah, and we’re also helping the environment by increasing
the bee population,” Fedele said.
Bees in the D started six years ago. It manages about 60 different bee colonies with more than 170 hives
across five counties, Peterson-Roest said.
Many of the nonprofit’s colonies are on business properties, such as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’
Sterling Heights Assembly Plant. Other locations include rooftop hives at the TCF Center and the old Stroh’s beer factory in Eastern Market in Detroit to MLK Jr. High School and a park in West Bloomfield.
The nonprofit collects honey from the hives it manages if there is a surplus and sells it. Volunteers leave at least 80 pounds of honey in each hive so bees have enough to survive on through the winter.
Peterson-Roest is a fifthgrade teacher at Rochester Community Schools and an adjunct professor at Oakland University who teaches science for educators.
A major focus of the Bees in the D’s work is offering education programs.
“I’m looking forward to doing programs for residents in Royal Oak,” he said, adding that the mission is to educate people about bees and other pollinators that are a key part of the natural ecosystem.
City Commissioner Melanie Macey, who sits on the city parks and recreation board, favors having bee hives at the Normandy Oaks park.
“We’ll be able to support bees and pollinators,” she said. “Bees in the D will do educational pieces and elementary schools can arrange to have field trips to hives and see how the bees work.”
The two hives at Normandy Oaks will be a memorial to Stephanie Comptois, former chair of the parks and recreation board who passed away in April 2020, said Sarah Kindinger, current chair of the group.
“We’re doing this in her honor,” Kindinger said. “We think this is a great opportunity to open education to kids in the park and a unique way we can use our green space in Royal Oak.”
Comptois was a volunteer with Bees in the D, which has a 10-member board and about 200 volunteers.
Peterson got to know her several years before he cofounded the nonprofit, he said,
“I worked with her about 10 years ago at the Detroit Zoo as a guide with the zoo’s overnight programs,” he said. “We’re hoping to honor her with the hives and excited to bring them to Royal Oak.”
More information about Bees in the D is on their website at beesinthed.com