By Kori Casey, Staff Writer
Students are hosting a Bee Awareness Day this week to help inform other students about the advantages of having bees on campus.
The event is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center. It will include information, a bee sensory activity, a honey tasting, honey-themed dishes in the Caf, and a guest beekeeper.
“The first step in this process is organizing an event to inform students of the environmental and social importance of bees, ” said Scott Davidson, professor of philosophy.
Students in the OIKOS JR-SR Project course are organizing the event, as well as putting together a student group for the project.
“The student group will be in charge of looking into the establishment and management of a campus apiary,” Davidson said.
There isn’t a place for the bees to be housed because the project hasn’t been approved, he said.
If the project is approved, an expert will provide input on the safest and most beneficial place for the apiary, Davidson said.
If the project is approved, students in the organization would most likely purchase a colony of bees as well as the materials needed to build and manage the hive from a local beekeeper, he said.
The estimated cost of the bees is about $500, half of which would be covered by an application for a grant that supports new beekeepers, Davidson said.
“There is a long tradition of campus beekeeping that goes back more than a century,” he said. “Many urban college campuses have apiaries.”
The dangers of having an apiary on campus are no different than the existing dangers that come with the bees that already have made a home on our campus, Davidson said.
“The idea ties into this year’s OCUReads book, Farm City, which talks extensively of urban beekeeping,” he said. “Students can learn about bees and beekeeping as well as build a sense of community through this project.”
One benefit of an on-campus beehive is the honey a colony of bees creates.
“A successful hive can produce over 100 pounds of honey per year,” Davidson said. “It would be fun to share this with the campus community.”
Mariah Robinson, nursing sophomore, likes the idea of a beehive on campus.
“I don’t think it would be too dangerous if they keep it controlled,” Robinson said.
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