The Akron-Canton Airport hopes its new venture, selling honey produced by dozens of hives on the airport’s land, generates buzz for the plight of bees.

The airport has already started selling honey on site from its 96 hives — 60 of which are producing so far — at the Observation Deck Restaurant. In the first four days since it went on sale, eight bottles of 1946 Honeybee Co. honey were sold, said Lisa Dalpiaz, the vice president of air service and business development. And that was without the airport advertising its wares.

The airport brought on 60 hives from the Hartville Honey Bee Farm in 2023 and hopes the proceeds from honey sales will cover the costs of maintaining the program, which is run by the Environmental Services team. Like many airports across the nation and worldwide, Akron-Canton Airport is making use of the thousands of undeveloped acres that serve as a buffer between the airport and neighboring developments to help increase the population of honeybees.

“I would like to think the proceeds will sustain the operation and even grow it because I hope the local communities take the plight of honeybees as seriously as we do,” said Adam Dietry, the airport’s assistant manager of environmental services, in a statement.

In addition to selling the honey, the airport plans to start populating social media accounts with information about bees to raise awareness of their role as pollinators. The @1946honeybeeco account on various platforms will start sharing pictures and facts to engage people. 

“It’s so important to helping the population,” Dalpiaz said. “They touch basically everything you eat, except a Dorito.”

How much honey is for sale from the Akron-Canton Airport’s bees?

The first harvest resulted in about 15 gallons of honey, Dalpiaz said — enough to fill 60 eight-ounce and 200 three-ounce bottles for sale, with some honey left over. The eight-ounce bottles sell for $15 apiece while the three-ounce bottles cost $8 each.

Selling out of the honey stock will largely allow the airport to recoup its costs for starting the program — it cost $1,500 for the hives, colonies, safety gear and tools, while the labels, glass jars and lids to bottle the harvest cost the airport about $1,000. The first-year costs are higher than subsequent years, Dalpiaz said, but the bees’ output is expected to increase as more hives mature and more honey is available to be harvested.

For now, the sales will only be at the airport, but non-travelers can apply for a day pass to go past security if they want to shop.

Dalpiaz said 90% of the proceeds — up to $2,250 — will go back into the program. The rest goes to the concessionaire and staff to cover the costs of sales.

Because the airport has so much land, Dalpiaz said one of its goals is to help the community and the region with its property. Increasing the number of pollinators in the area is one way to do that.

And the more than six million bees that live on the property can be beneficial to the airport, too, she said. By testing the honey they produce, the airport can determine if there are any worrisome pollutants in the air. She said the airport is currently looking for a company to do that testing.

What kind of honey do the airport bees produce?

The bees are producing wildflower honey, pollinating on the airport’s 2,700 acres. Dalpiaz said she and others at the airport hope their efforts will lead travelers to consider getting their own bee boxes — or at least learning more about how they might plant flowers that would entice bees and help maintain their population.

“Those dollars go back to making sure the bees thrive,” she said of the sales proceeds.

The airport will track demand for its honey for the first year, then might expand to sell its product outside its secure area — or even outside the airport. Stuffed bee dolls might eventually be part of the offerings, and other products are also under consideration — including the Akron Coffee Roasters using 1946 Honeybee Co. offerings in its drinks.

With more than 15,000 people traveling through the airport each week on average, there’s plenty of opportunity for the honey to go quickly.

“When it’s done, it’s done,” Dalpiaz said.