Sometimes, construction projects uncover more than infrastructure improvements... they uncover thriving ecosystems!
Recently, our crews at the Harbor Bridge project discovered a live honey bee colony living beneath a maintenance hole cover. Instead of choosing extermination, the project team followed environmentally responsible practices and partnered with a local honey farm to safely rescue and relocate the colony.
Approximately 45,000 bees were carefully removed and transported to a new home where they will be monitored for the next three months before eventually joining other healthy colonies dedicated to honey production. This successful relocation reflects the environmental stewardship principles championed by TxDOT and implemented by FlatironDragados, which prioritize protecting pollinators and wildlife whenever possible.
Did You Know? Bee-lieve It or Not!
- It takes the entire lifetime of approximately 12 honeybees to produce just one teaspoon of honey.
- A healthy hive has only one queen bee, and she can live up to five years. When a colony prepares to swarm, multiple queens may emerge, but ultimately only one queen remains to lead the new hive.
- Bees have an incredible sense of smell that is estimated to be 100 times more powerful than a dog's.
- Bees communicate through dancing, vibrations and pheromones, helping thousands of colony members work together as one team.
- A single honey bee may visit 50 to 100 flowers during one foraging trip.
- To produce just one kilogram of honey, bees collectively fly an estimated 90,000 miles.
- Bees don't discriminate when choosing a home. If a space is protected from the weather, has an entrance they can use, and provides enough room to grow, they may establish a hive. Beekeepers routinely relocate colonies from walls, ceilings, trees, water meters, and, in this case, a maintenance hole beneath one of Texas' largest transportation projects.
- The cavity beneath the Harbor Bridge project maintenance hole cover created an ideal environment for the colony by providing cooler temperatures and airflow that helped regulate hive conditions.
Protecting Pollinators, Protecting Our Future
Pollinators are essential to our food supply and healthy ecosystems. TxDOT encourages pollinator-friendly roadside management and works to preserve habitat whenever possible. By choosing live removal and relocation over extermination, the Harbor Bridge project team demonstrated that major infrastructure development and environmental responsibility can go hand in hand.