Class of the month: Bees and beekeeping makes a buzz on campus

Introduction to honeybees and beekeeping is a class designed to teach students the basics of the honeybee and to study the relationship between the honeybee and humans throughout history.

John Ambrose, one of the two professors who teach the course and the interim dean for the division of undergraduate programs, said the course is appealing to students because it is unique.

“It introduces them to something they never would have thought about studying in college,” Ambrose said.

Rachel Bradley, a freshman in First Year College, was required to take the class as part of the orientation course for First Year College, but said she has enjoyed the class so far.
“It’s interesting. It’s different from all the other core classes I’m taking,” Bradley said. “You learn a lot more than you think you will.”

Chelsey Francis, freshman in First Year College and also automatically placed in the course, said she enjoys the class as well, though for a different reason.

“I decided to take it because I thought I wanted to be an agriculture major. I still do,” Francis said. “I like learning about the bees and taking care of the bees. I want a beehive at my house. I need to convince my dad to let me get one.”

Besides getting to do interactive activities, such as tasting honey and making honey wine or mead, students get to experience bees outside of the classroom.

Nathan Brinkley, a freshman in First Year College, said his favorite part of the class so far was a field trip to a pollination garden in Pittsboro and getting to speak to a professional beekeeper.

“The live beehives we saw were pretty cool,” Brinkley said.

Bradley said her favorite experience has also been the field trip to Pittsboro because of her experience seeing the beekeeper at work, handling live bees.

“The beekeeper was just able to pick up the bee with his fingers and I was like, ‘Woah, you’re holding a bee!’” Bradley said.

Students also get to witness a swarm demonstration, which involves worker bees following a queen bee by her pheromones.

Tyler Hefner, a senior in agricultural business management, said the class itself is interesting and it also fulfilled his departmental requirements for his major, but that he found the swarm demonstration especially fascinating and it was his “favorite part of the class.”

Students enrolled in bees and beekeeping also get to volunteer at big events, such as Bugfest and the State Fair.

David Tarpy, a bees and beekeeping professor, and Ambrose also have students volunteer at the State Fair each year at the beekeeper’s booths, fielding questions from fairgoers and speaking with North Carolina beekeepers running the booths.

Michael Cline, a senior in agricultural business management, and Hefner worked at the fair Friday night where a live beehive was on display.

Cline said people were most interested in finding the queen bee, which was painted to spot it easily.

Those who volunteered at the fair also had the objective of educating people about how important honeybees are, as they make up a $15 billion industry, according to the USDA.
Though much of that is attributed to pollination, honey is also a valuable part of beekeeping.

An activity Ambrose’s class does is analyze products with “honey” in the name to see how genuine their claims are, such as Honey Nut Cheerios and Golden Grahams.
Ambrose said people often do not recognize how important bees are to everyday life.
“There are all these kind of linkages that people don’t think about,” Ambrose said. “We’re taking this insect and showing how it’s interwoven in our lives.”