Even before Chicagoland got its first 70 degree day of the year, area beekeepers were preparing for spring. Beehives—like the ones on the roofs of City Hall and the Chicago Cultural Center, in Garfield Park Conservatory, and the 100-plus hives in a North Lawndale co-op community— have already been checked to make sure the bees have survived the winter and have enough food to last them until the first dandelions, willows, and soft maples bloom. Keepers have cleaned and medicated the hives as necessary and might have ordered a few more thousand bees or a new queen, which are shipped through the U.S. Postal Service. more ›