CLEVELAND — During the pandemic, many people were discovering new hobbies, hunkered down at home. Chris Bush could say he did the same, though through a particularly unexpected avenue. When he returned home one day, he found beehives on his doorstep.
“I came home to a note on my door saying, ‘Hey, I’m leaving, take my bees.’ And that's kind of the start of this whole thing,” he said.
A neighbor down the street was moving, and rather than taking his bees with him all the way to Florida, he decided to leave them in the neighborhood, entrusting Bush with his hives. From there, Bush began to learn everything he could about how to care for the bees.
“It was a hobby that just kind of took over and just grew and grew and grew,” he said. “And bees multiply every year, and you start with one and by the end you have hundreds. So it's kind of an ever going process.”
That hobby grew into a business called Hive Works Honey Company, with dozens of hives throughout Northeast Ohio. Bush and his partner are using the hives to help others in the community.
“Hive Works is an apiary that is a work training program for kids with disabilities,” Bush said. “So working in Northeast Ohio, providing social skills training for everyone.”
Bush’s partner is an occupational therapist, who felt there was a lack of opportunities for those with developmental disabilities, and wanted to find a way to use their work with bees, and selling honey at local farmer’s markets, to create new ways for kids and young adults to interact and gain skills.
“We thought we could find a way so people could have more of a social opportunity,” Bush said. “You're working on giving people change, looking people in the eyes and just working on all those work skills that you need to advance your career later in life.”
Bush said they currently work with United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Cleveland and the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities. He said while some kids and young adults feel comfortable around the bees, others help out at farmer’s markets.
“We had a couple of kids, they came, they were very shy, they couldn't look people in the eye, they didn't want to talk to anyone,” Bush said. “And after just a couple of weeks of working, you could really see them opening up, getting the confidence that they need to work. And that's kind of where we are. There's not a lot of places for people to build confidence and we're just kind of that confidence builder that they really need in their lives.”
While providing these opportunities, Bush said they’re also aiming to educate people about the importance of bees in our ecosystems.
“Saving bees helps us all, it makes a better environment, it makes a better planet, it makes flowers prettier, fruit tastes better,” he said. “Pretty much anything you can think of kind of has to do with bees.”
Bush also sees the important lessons we can all learn from these buzzing insects.
“If you put your mind to a task, that you can achieve it,” he said. “Because bees, once they decide they do want something, there’s no stopping them from getting it.”