Rooftop bees at The Blackstone Hotel sweeten guest experience

Bees provide sweeter stay at Chicago's Blackstone Hotel

Chicago's Blackstone Hotel has some very special small guests. Good Day Chicago had a look at the hotel's beekeeping operation on the roof.

CHICAGO - Rooftop honey is harvested on-site on the roof of The Blackstone Hotel in Chicago.

The backstory:

It's a partnership with The Hive Supply that's aiming to produce 100 pounds of honey this season, thanks to five bee hives perched atop the hotel.

"We manage about 300 beehives all over Chicago and we teach at Chicago Public Schools and other schools in the area ... as part of the urban agriculture program really helping people understand and learn how to be beekeepers," said Leonard Rau, beekeeper at The Hive Supply.

Rau said the bees are not only making honey, but contributing to a healthier ecosystem and maybe sweetening your stay at the hotel.

The bees help pollinate plants throughout downtown Chicago. 

What they're saying:

The Blackstone Hotel uses the honey for their guests in small batch amenities, gifts, cocktails and food, like house-made cookies.

"For us, it's not only a partnership of getting honey and using it in our everyday life, it's part of our sustainability project ... along with our hydration station that we put to replace plastic bottle, and recycling the soaps that the guests have for other organizations. When you take all of this, its part of being a better sustainable organization and being part of the community as well, said Pierre-Louis Giacotto, hotel general manager

Rau says The Hive Supply writes on each jar of honey the neighborhood where it came from.  

"It's really important in our view to have local products in local environments," he said. "Guests "can not only experience the best of Chicago, they can taste it as well," Rau said.

The partnership is in its third year and, so far, Giacotto said guests love it.