Features
Hamilton’s Beekeeping Club is the bee’s knees
By Sophia Gaulkin ’17
April 21, 2016
Tags features
One of the newest organizations on campus this year is the Hamilton College Beekeeping Club. Olivia Box ’17 and Andre Burnham ’18, the co-leaders of the club, have both kept honeybees for a long time and missed the activity in college. “We thought this would be a great way to spread the art of beekeeping,” they explained. They also “hope to inspire future keepers of the bees.”
They said that they decided to make beekeeping an official club because of the importance of bees for environmental stability. Currently, bees are dying off. Time Magazine reported that over 75 percent of different crops rely on bees, making them a critical source of plant life and therefore survival for all species. Over the last decade, bees having been dying off at an alarming rate—also according to Time, up to 30 percent of all bees die per year, which is often the result of land-use changes that have destroyed the habitats of bees.
Box and Burnham expressed their concern with the present situation of bees: “No bees, no food, no farming, and no people. Bees fuel our lives,” they say; “without them, we cannot sustain our way of life.” They offer a way to help make a difference, however: “If you want to do something to help combat colony collapse disorder or climate change, beekeeping is a fun and rewarding lifelong hobby.”
Fortunately, the College has demonstrated support for this endeavor. Box and Burnham credit Dean Nancy Thompson as an incredible resource in the organization, as she originally helped Box purchase and set up the hives this past May. “Since then, she has provided support every step of the way.”
Beekeeping has created lots of buzz on campus. Students, too, have shown a significant amount of interest. “[Students] have been willing to devote afternoons in sweaty beesuits,” they say.
Beyond that, they have gotten a bit of attention in campus media. “There have also been some funny jabs at the club in the school newspapers. The Duel Observer was way funnier. Nice try, Spec.” Ouch, that stings. Hopefully this piece recoups The Spectator’s queen bee status. Okay, hive tried my best with this swarm of unbeelievable jokes, but I’ll stop before I drone on for too long.
Even though the club is new, they have made a great deal of progress, including the expansion of their apiary from two to six colonies. The two creators have big goals for the future. Box says, “I would like to see the club members become more comfortable with the hives and broaden their skills. Ideally, I’d like small groups to manage their own hive.” Burnham added, “I also have a passion for queen rearing. It is very important to know how to sustain a yard of bees, and knowing how to breed queens from your own stock is very helpful in accomplishing this.”
For the Hamilton community, the club hopes to work with Bon Appétit in the future to carry their honey. Mainly, they plan to continue to expand their apiary.
According to the co-leaders, new members interested in beekeeping should expect “to be part of not only the Hamilton beekeeping community, but also the beekeeping world (which is currently dominated by old men).” While club commitment itself is fairly low, it increases in the spring as the season picks up, culminating in the extraction of honey in the fall. Members can also expect to “get very attached to your colony over time.”
Beyond a globally conscious and personally fulfilling practice, beekeeping is an intellectual pursuit, too. “For example,” Burnham explains, “I have started a research project here on campus that focuses on fitness differences between local and Californian colonies.” He plans to look at how different climates and environments affect different strains of bees to survive in upstate New York, “especially in regard to productivity and resistance to viruses, parasites and other pathogens.” This is important work because most queens are brought in from California, since they can raise queens almost year-round. “It would be interesting to see if local bees are actually more suited for this environment than Californian counterparts,” he added.
Box also plans to engage in relevant research. This summer, she plans to research honey quality in Germany, working on a project that is determining if honey that is currently labeled ‘organic’ in Germany is truly organic.
Those who are interested in beekeeping can e-mail bees@hamilton.edu for more information. Even those who are allergic can still keep bees.