The NMU Plant Ecology Club plans to start a beehive at the NMU Hoop House or Superior Acre Permaculture this May. They ran a successful online fundraiser this past Monday and their goal of $280 was reached in the first day.
“Beehives are crazy superorganisms. It’s just really interesting to be able to work with them and learn about them,” Anna Slowik, graduate biology student and secretary of the NMU Plant Ecology Club said.
The club asked for $280 to cover the costs of the frames to build the hive, a bee smoker and the nuc, pronounced like nucleus, which is the queen bee and her colony of about a thousand honey bees. As of Wednesday the group is $80 above their goal. They plan to save the extra money raised for future needs such as expanding the hive capacity or getting another hive next year.
The idea for a beehive on campus has been trying to find a home for awhile. Nick Zoller, the club’s vice president and senior biology student with an emphasis on ecology said other groups have attempted to bring a beehive to NMU in previous years but it never happened.
“It’s hard to start a beehive because you have to be doing it at the right time of the year. You can only start it in this one-month period in the spring,” Slowik said.
NMU will join the list of schools like the University of Michigan and Michigan State in having their own beehive for students and community members to learn from.
The club regularly hosts workshops to train new members and anyone who wants to come out and learn. They plan on taking care of the hive all summer and will be creating a student organization specific to beekeeping in the fall. The intention is that the beekeeping club will feel more inclusive to students and community members who aren’t science majors but still are interested in beekeeping as a hobby.
“We need bees, they’re great pollinators. It’s also just overall good for the community of Marquette to have a big beehive pollinating all of our native flowers and plants,” Zoller said.
The nuc will arrive by mail in mid-May. It is basically a box containing the queen and her colony of honeybees. Plant Ecology members will then transfer them to the hive.
“They just build a whole architectural wonder in there with hundreds of hexagonal cells for all their little people to live in and stuff. Bees are awesome,” Slowik said.
For more information or to get involved, updates and volunteer information will be posted on the NMU Plant Ecology Club’s Facebook page: facebook.com/NMUPlantEcologyClub. The group can be reached via email at [email protected].
