 The city of Detroit in 2016 had 90,000 vacant lots. These vacant lots were filled with all different types of weeds. But here at Detroit High, we believe weeds are the bee's knees. What makes small business owners so special and inspiring, they really take an idea and they manifest it into a physical product and service. And I think that there's something so special and inspiring about that. My name is Nega Julia. I'm a writer, photographer, creator and Detroit local. In this series, I'll be taking you around the city and introducing you to the small business owners and entrepreneurs that help power it. This is Icons of Detroit. You know, many people didn't know what to do with vacant lots. A lot of people were giving up their hands. They wanted to do something, but they didn't have a budget to tend to these properties. So we began to jot down some ideas, but we knew that these ideas had to be radical. They had to be game-changing. They had to be breakthrough ideas. But in actuality, Nicole and I would go back to our day-to-day jobs until I got sick around December of 2016. I tried almost everything to get rid of it. Unfortunately, I was still suffering with this carbon cold that I didn't know what to do. I came across the power of local real honey. And over time, within the three weeks, my coffee went away. Surprised by the benefit of it, I began to read and learn more about local real honey. We would have to drive two and a half hours or more to get a local source of honey from an actual beekeeper. And so, you know, we have so many vacant lots. We are already thinking about the ideas. Why don't we just transform that vacant lot into a bee farm? And boom, that's where the idea of Detroit Hives came from. We have tours and people can come in or different schools can come in. And it's just a family spot where everybody can get to learn something new. We are a 501c3 nonprofit, whereby we work to create sustainable communities and bee populations by transforming or reimagining vacant landscape and the educational bee farms. And whatever happens at Detroit Hives, it leaves Detroit Hives. People are sharing what happened at this outdoor learning space. They're sharing their experiences about going inside a hive, overcoming their fears and most importantly, learning about the importance of bee conservation. I've always been a type of person who likes off-bee people, like people who don't go running towards the status quo, who stand 10 toes down in who they are and what they believe. And everything about it is just pure. So we took two beekeeping courses. We became certified beekeepers. So from there, we bought our first two bee hives. We became bee parents. We've been able to successfully expand and manage over 45 bee hives from there. Within a honey bee hive, everybody plays their part for the greater good at that hive. And not only is a job designated for each bee, the older bees actually show the younger bees their jobs and what they can do to contribute back to that colony. We're passing on this information that has been long lost, especially within the black community. You can educate youth or students of people of color that they can explore different career paths and environmental sustainability options. They don't always have to be what they've been exposed to. We're out here checking on our girls, getting our hives prepared for the wintertime. The vacant lot that we picked on East Warren was a dumping site, so we said this is going to be our East Warren apiary. We saw this as an opportunity that we can focus on changing the narrative on what people think about the city of Detroit, but also what people think about people of color in our communities. In fact, we were instrumental in working with the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy to pass a resolution to recognize the city of Detroit as an official bee city. That means that we now support the 450 native bees that reside right here in Michigan. We co-founded National Urban Beekeeping Day to highlight our urban beekeepers within the city of Detroit, but nationwide and also internationally. I guess you could say we put Detroit on the map. We use our honey to partner with local businesses to create hair products, lip moisturizers, even dog treats. We also sell our honey online. We have our sweatshirts, we have the t-shirts, and we have the honey. Now mind you, honey is definitely a byproduct of what we do. We're not really so focused on the honey. We're focused on the education and conservation. So we do use honey as a means to create community development opportunities to work with local businesses to drive economic mobility. We're really for the conservation of pollinators and we only take the asset supply. Yep, so we make sure to be really 60 to 80 pounds of honey in each hive so they can survive over the wintertime. Do what you love. Only do what you love. And there you will find a reason to right a wrong. You will find your why. You will stay motivated on those days where you want to quit or give up. So if you do what you love, people will see it and you begin to attract that. Do what you love.