The Utah Beekeeper’s Association is cross-pollinating business with sustainability by producing locally made honey from beehives located on the fourth floor of the Union building.
Created by Tom Bench, a recent U graduate in environmental and sustainability studies, the program aims to educate the community on the importance of bees in the environment as well as issues surrounding beekeeping on a commercial level. ASUU and Sustainable Campus Initiative grants provide the program with funding. Part of the project is bringing in bees to pollinate plants on campus, but Bench said he also wants to provide research opportunities for students.
One of these research projects is led by Stephen Stanko, a sophomore in biology and current president of the association. Researchers work in tandem with NASA on long-term climate change models.
“[NASA has] long-term climate change models that they’ve built,” Stanko said. “A good way to measure [climate change] would be the start of spring. And a good way to measure the start of spring is the spring nectar flows.”
The initiative of the project is to measure when bees start bringing in honey to keep track of long-term trends for NASA’s research on climate change.
The Beekeeper’s Association also hosts two-hour classes for students from local elementary schools as a part of its education goals. These classes teach about the anatomy of beehives and demonstrate how hives are set up. Stanko said his favorite part of these lessons is bringing some of the drones into the classroom for the kids to play with.
“Even though we’ve explained to them a few times that drones don’t sting, they’ll freak out,” Stanko said.
To keep the hives healthy and give interested students an up-close view of the hives, the association has bi-weekly hive inspections.
These inspections make sure hives are free from infections and keep track of the bees’ progress. Inspectors also look for brood patterns, which is where the queen hatches her eggs, and make sure there is a correct amount of space in the hive.
“It’s kind of like going to see a general practitioner for a physical or a check-up,” Stanko said.
Students interested in involvement with the beehives have many options—from research to participating in the bi-weekly hive inspections, or by purchasing honey and contributing to the association’s fundraising efforts. For more information, visit the University of Utah Beekeeper’s Association Facebook page or email [email protected].
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