The college club where ‘Bee’ students (and puns) are encouraged

At the University of Maryland, just a long three-point shot away from the arena where the school’s basketball teams play, you’ll find about 100,000 bees living outside a greenhouse.

That’s where the five hives, managed by the school’s beekeeping club, are hosted. It’s a club for students who care about the pollinators and want to help the local environment.

Donning a standard beekeeping suit, mechanical engineering major Lila Wilson, a junior from Silver Spring, and other students in the club gather every Thursday to check on the hives they maintain.

“People are always surprised that we have hives on campus because no one notices this,” Wilson said.

There are other hives around campus and the area, which helps keep the population spread out.

Still, when the club met up on Tuesday, a new swarm was gathering next to the hives — a group of bees that didn’t have a hive, but needed one.

“We got certified as a bee campus, basically making campus more pollinator friendly,” Wilson said.

Bees aren’t the only pollinators, but they’re certainly very popular.

“(Bees are) more friendly. They’re more well known as pollinators.” she said.

“The pollinators can do amazing work to the natural plant life, to preserve the health of our natural landscape around the university,” Wilson said. “And having hives on campus is a great way to do that.”

This is just a fun hobby for Wilson, who was always curious about beekeeping, but isn’t necessarily buzzing to make a career out of it.

“We love bee puns here,” she said with pride. “I’ve always been interested in how they work together as a colony, and I’ve only gotten more interested as I’ve grown to the club. … It’s a great ritual — very interesting to look into a hive and be able to read it and be able to see what’s going on inside of it.”

Sliding out each frame, where thousands of bees can gather, she can spot the drones, the male bees who help a queen reproduce. And it’s important because while a queen bee can live around five years, the average bee only has about a monthlong life span. That means hive checks also require an inspection of the eggs laid in there.

On average, a queen bee lays about 2,000 eggs each day.

Wilson and the other members of the club will also assess the amount of pollen packed into each frame.

“It’s what they use as their food supply,” she said, holding up one frame. “And then the wet stuff is the nectar, which will be eaten and then vomited repeatedly until it turns into honey. If you didn’t know, I apologize, honey is basically bee vomit.”

Once a year, they’ll extract the honey from the hives, collecting gallons of it. There is enough for each member to go home with a few jars.

“I really do enjoy the process of taking care of bees, and I’ve convinced my family to let me use their backyard to get some hives when I graduate. So, I think it’s a great hobby for being out in nature,” Wilson said.

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