Blue Cross Blue Shield Adds Beehives To Downtown Location, Releases Butterflies To Help Pollination

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma now has two beehives sitting on top of the downtown location.

The company said these bees will help pollinate 50 million flowers, trees and shrubs.

"Bottom line, the bees are just fuzzy and they're cute and they just make you happy; happy to be around them and they are a lot of fun," Christy Payne with Big V Honeybees said.

Italian Bees now live in two hives on top of the company parking garage. Christy Payne brought them over from two of her colonies in Collinsville.

She's been raising bees for six years with her dad and loves every minute.

"I just want to share my knowledge with people, so we can all have a better understanding, better appreciation, and take better care of them," she said.

Blue Cross Blue Shield started the bee program at their headquarters in Chicago in 2019.

Jason Brown said it is to promote the environment and help the bee population.

"Very excited to see our colonies grow, very excited to see what they produce, and more importantly see what they do for the surrounding neighborhood as far as pollination," he said.

The company also released butterflies Wednesday, so both the butterflies and bees can begin pollinating downtown.

"They have a range of about three miles, so a three-mile radius from our location here which includes Gathering Place and Woodward Park down the road," Brown said.

The bees should harvest about 100 jars of honey in the fall.

Payne said we can't live without bees, and we should protect them.

"Unless you want to just eat rice and grains and root crops, and I don't know about you, but I love strawberries and almonds, peaches and tomatoes, and we have to have them," Payne said.

Payne said she will visit the bees about every three weeks to make sure they are doing OK.