COMMITTED TO POLLINATOR HEALTH

Howard Hughes has made a commitment to pollinator health by working with The Best Bees Company to install data-yielding beehives at The Woodlands, TX. The Best Bees’ approach to beekeeping includes expert care and data collection, ensuring quality service while improving the health of bees nationwide. This valuable partnership will provide insight into pollinator health while bolstering the bee population.

2 DATA-YIELDING BEEHIVES

100,000 bees

5 square MILES POLLINATED

The Apiary at The Woodlands

Two Beehives at Howard Hughes The Woodlands, TX

The Best Bees Approach

Our data-driven approach defines state-of-the-art beekeeping by implementing the best beekeeping practices for data collection.

At every beehive visit, our team of beekeepers – from DC to LA – collect standardized data from our client hives. This is then shared with our internal staff scientists as well as research partners at NASA, Google, and MIT.

The Data Shows:

- Where bees are thriving and why
- How to breed healthy queens
- The biodiversity of our local habitats

Facts about bees, honey, and more.

Honey is more than a sweetener! It is a natural prebiotic, meaning it promotes the growth of good bacteria in our guts. It also has anti-microbial properties, making it a trusted topical treatment or soothing face mask ingredient.
When honey bees swarm, they are at their most docile. The image we have of an angry cloud of bees, chasing cartoons or characters on television, created a false narrative of this natural phenomenon. Swarms are completely natural and not dangerous – this is actually how colonies reproduce to form new colonies when they've outgrown their home or have become too populated.
There are 10,000 bees in each beehive at the beginning of a season and 50,000 at the height of the season.
Honey bees are essential pollinators, responsible for 1/6th of our planet's flowering plant species. A single bee can visit up to 5,000 flowers per day and may cumulatively travel 500 miles during its lifetime.
Honey bees are an indicator species. Their social nature makes them easy to study and an incredible resource for understanding the nature and health of our native pollinators. To learn more about how native bees and honey bees coexist, head to our blog!

Planting for Pollinators

Change starts in your backyard. The easiest and most efficient way to save the bees is by planting a flower! Native plants provide food and shelter for pollinators of all kinds. Let your yard go wild. Avoid over-manicuring of outdoor spaces and steer clear of chemicals or pesticides. We can all help improve the green-ness of our local ecology no matter where we are, no matter your age or ability.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

Take Action

Advocate for bees

Use your voice, your IG, your Facebook page, to share information about bees. Look around at the physical spaces and resources you have, and what can be done with them. A vacant corner on a rooftop can have a big impact. Ask your employer: what are you doing with that empty space? Let’s turn it into a small garden or pollinator habitat.

Plant native wildflowers

An easy and efficient way to help pollinators is by creating more foraging and nesting habitat through the planting of flowers! If you don’t think of yourself as a gardener, try guerilla gardening: take a handful of native wildflowers, throw them in a vacant lot, and see what grows. Or, Consider participating in No Mow May this year!

Get bees

Professionally-managed beehives are a low-maintenance, high-impact option for those interested in expanding the bee population. Or, you can do it yourself: take a local beekeeping class and join the Bee Informed Partnership.

Small Bees, Big Impact