Chilling with the honeys at UMass Bee Club
They have 136 members who meet up to be thankful for bees
This week I decided to join the UMass Bee Club. It wasn’t until after I made this decision I realized I’ve never actually been stung. So, I don’t even really know if I’m allergic to bees. This could be a huge mistake.
Luckily for me the club’s next event was the 2nd Annual Hot Drink Mixer where activities included “eating sweet honey treats, drinking sweet honey beverages, and feeling thankful for bees!”
And I know I’m not allergic to honey.
I got to the event a little early in order to talk to the Vice President, John Tyler. He gave me an idea about the basics of the club.
They have about 100 gallons of honey they get from their four hives, each of which holds thousands of bees. Think of the hives as a higher functioning and more productive Southwest. But, you know, with bees.
Most importantly he told me about the battle for queen bee.
Basically a few female bees are fed a type of nectar called royal jelly (actual name). The nectar is magic and makes the female bees almost turn into the Queen. They then fight TO DEATH until only one survives. That bee then becomes the hive’s Queen Bee. The Queen Bee is the only one who matters. More importantly she gets verified on Twitter (you can fact check me).
After talking with John, I spoke to the club’s president Alex Graham. Alex is a sophomore who joined the club before it was an actual RSO and before they even had hives. So basically at one point, the “Bee Club” didn’t have bees.
Alex took the club over when they decided they wanted to become an RSO and start having their own hives here on campus: “Our exec board had two members. That year we installed the hives with one of our then advisers. Before Graham joined the club it was just getting started – now it has 136 members on Campus Pulse.”
I asked Alex how the Hot Drink Mixer got started: “It was a random event that I started last year because we didn’t have a November event because it was too cold. So I decided that we’d just eat a ton of honey and be thankful for bees!”
She had lots more cool facts about bees, but this was the coolest: “The greatest thing we can take away from bees is the idea of overriding the individual.”
She added bees are super-organisms and they don’t worry about themselves. They put the greater good of the hive first… except when they fight to the death, I assume.