This month, bee keepers across the region began harvesting honey created during the summer. Grand Valley State University students and faculty members are part of this group and recently gathered honey produced on campus. Harvesting honey is only one part of the story. It appears the bees can have an impact on their college experience.
“This year, we extracted over 360 pounds of honey. And we have more than 300 jars of honey total and that’s great.”
That’s Megan Damico, President of the GVSU Beekeepers. Earlier this month, the beekeepers harvested the honey that came from the apiaries at the Sustainable Agriculture Project on the Allendale Campus and Meijer Campus in Holland. An apiary is a collection of hives. Megan says the beekeepers club and all that they do is an incredible learning experience for students from different majors and backgrounds.
“And I think it’s just an amazing process, of getting these students together from multiple different disciplines and showing them that bees are so important, not just to our food stems but to our environment and to our health.”
Honeybees are reportedly disappearing and researchers around the world, including Grand Valley faculty members and students are studying reasons why. They look at honeybee habitats and health. In fact, Megan says working with the bees has changed her life. She came to Grand Valley as a pre-med major… but after working with the bees, she says that’s now changed.
“I dropped my pre-med emphasis and I’m now interested in micro biology and next fall I’m going to get my PhD in honey bee gut microbiota, and continue to study these honey bees, but we have students from computer science, liberal studies and pre med majors, all sorts of disciplines and we’re able to come together to apply their skills and assets to our club.”
Megan says they welcome new members to the beekeepers club, you can contact them on their Facebook page or through the school. Meantime, the honey is for sale for 8 dollars per bottle. It’s being sold on the Allendale and Holland campuses throughout the week.
