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Sanford Beekeeping: A Hive of Activity
There’s a buzz on Sanford’s campus. It’s not just students trickling between academic buildings or running across athletic fields—it’s the hum of over 10,000 bees housed in hives downhill from Kidder Hall.
The club’s efforts are, quite literally, bearing fruit. Honey produced by the bees over the summer will be collected in the fall, and, once cleaned and jarred by club members, it will be sold to raise funds for more beekeeping suits and supplies.
Throughout the 2023–2024 school year, some 15 students in Sanford’s Beekeeping Club have gathered weekly to suit up in beekeeping attire, load their tools into a wheelbarrow, and, equipped with a smoker, march by the Cab Calloway Pond to inspect the three campus beehives each containing thousands of bees.
Victor Lowell ’24, one of the club’s founders, has been beekeeping with his grandfather since he was five years old. When he heard his classmates express interest in a beekeeping club at the end of the 2022–2023 school year, he realized he had the knowledge and skills to share his love for beekeeping with his peers.
Aware of the significant undertaking involved in starting an apiary, Victor began forming a proposal for the club in the early summer of 2023, listing needed supplies, outlining safety precautions, and setting educational goals for the club members.
“Our main goal was for students to get as much experience with handling the bees themselves because it’s kind of a hard hobby to get into,” Victor said. “The main goal was having a whole lot of suits and enough hives so that a bunch of students can go through hives and really see what the system is like.”
After students were prepared with extensive instruction on how to handle bees, they began their hands-on experience, regularly inspecting the hives donated to Sanford by Victor and his grandfather. They checked on the bees’ health, monitored the queen’s egg-laying activity, and looked out for pests.
Upper School Physics instructor Mickey Maley, the club’s faculty sponsor, emphasized the importance of the heavy student involvement in the club’s organization. “This club is meant to be student-run,” he said. “It’s incredible to see how much they have learned and grown in such a short time.”
The club’s efforts are, quite literally, bearing fruit. Honey produced by the bees over the summer will be collected in the fall, and, once cleaned and jarred by club members, it will be sold to raise funds for more beekeeping suits and supplies.
Mr. Maley praised the “entrepreneurial mindset” that the club develops in students by aiming to be self-sustaining, but he also identified the value of the ecological conversation prompted by beekeeping as a unique feature of the club.
The Beekeeping Club “gives us a chance to really talk about the place that biodiversity holds,” he noted, pointing out that students must learn to ask questions like, “Why did we plant these wildflowers versus other types? If we have more bees, does that change the way our ecosystem looks as we’re pollinating more?”
“It’s a bit larger than just the bees themselves,” Maley said. “The students have experiences that they can tell stories about later on in life.”
One such story involved unintentionally releasing bees inside a classroom when a hive, thought to be empty, was opened indoors. Yet “the club was trained on exactly what we should do,” Victor said.
Although an initial wave of alarm came over the students, they exited the room, shut the door, put on their beekeeping suits, and remedied the situation by closing the open hive and catching any loose bees. No one was stung.
Despite that close call, students have taken up beekeeping with a passion. With the knowledge they gained in the club, one student set up a beehive on their family farm. Others have explored creating hives in their towns or at their homes.
Though he graduated from Sanford in June and is now continuing his education at Thomas Jefferson University, Victor was able to bring his grandfather to campus to speak to the club during his senior year.
“It was heartwarming to see a group of people that cared so much about beekeeping and wanted to keep it going,” he recalled from watching his grandfather—the source of his own beekeeping knowledge—teach his attentive classmates how to inspect a hive. “At the time, I was the only beekeeper there, but it was really wonderful to see a group of people that I trust so much carry on the club, which I love.”
This article was featured in the latest issue of the Sanford Magazine.
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Throughout the 2023–2024 school year, some 15 students in Sanford’s Beekeeping Club have gathered weekly to suit up in beekeeping attire, load their tools into a wheelbarrow, and, equipped with a smoker, march by the Cab Calloway Pond to inspect the three campus beehives each containing thousands of bees.
Victor Lowell ’24, one of the club’s founders, has been beekeeping with his grandfather since he was five years old. When he heard his classmates express interest in a beekeeping club at the end of the 2022–2023 school year, he realized he had the knowledge and skills to share his love for beekeeping with his peers.
Aware of the significant undertaking involved in starting an apiary, Victor began forming a proposal for the club in the early summer of 2023, listing needed supplies, outlining safety precautions, and setting educational goals for the club members.
“Our main goal was for students to get as much experience with handling the bees themselves because it’s kind of a hard hobby to get into,” Victor said. “The main goal was having a whole lot of suits and enough hives so that a bunch of students can go through hives and really see what the system is like.”
After students were prepared with extensive instruction on how to handle bees, they began their hands-on experience, regularly inspecting the hives donated to Sanford by Victor and his grandfather. They checked on the bees’ health, monitored the queen’s egg-laying activity, and looked out for pests.
Upper School Physics instructor Mickey Maley, the club’s faculty sponsor, emphasized the importance of the heavy student involvement in the club’s organization. “This club is meant to be student-run,” he said. “It’s incredible to see how much they have learned and grown in such a short time.”
The club’s efforts are, quite literally, bearing fruit. Honey produced by the bees over the summer will be collected in the fall, and, once cleaned and jarred by club members, it will be sold to raise funds for more beekeeping suits and supplies.
Mr. Maley praised the “entrepreneurial mindset” that the club develops in students by aiming to be self-sustaining, but he also identified the value of the ecological conversation prompted by beekeeping as a unique feature of the club.
The Beekeeping Club “gives us a chance to really talk about the place that biodiversity holds,” he noted, pointing out that students must learn to ask questions like, “Why did we plant these wildflowers versus other types? If we have more bees, does that change the way our ecosystem looks as we’re pollinating more?”
“It’s a bit larger than just the bees themselves,” Maley said. “The students have experiences that they can tell stories about later on in life.”
One such story involved unintentionally releasing bees inside a classroom when a hive, thought to be empty, was opened indoors. Yet “the club was trained on exactly what we should do,” Victor said.
Although an initial wave of alarm came over the students, they exited the room, shut the door, put on their beekeeping suits, and remedied the situation by closing the open hive and catching any loose bees. No one was stung.
Despite that close call, students have taken up beekeeping with a passion. With the knowledge they gained in the club, one student set up a beehive on their family farm. Others have explored creating hives in their towns or at their homes.
Though he graduated from Sanford in June and is now continuing his education at Thomas Jefferson University, Victor was able to bring his grandfather to campus to speak to the club during his senior year.
“It was heartwarming to see a group of people that cared so much about beekeeping and wanted to keep it going,” he recalled from watching his grandfather—the source of his own beekeeping knowledge—teach his attentive classmates how to inspect a hive. “At the time, I was the only beekeeper there, but it was really wonderful to see a group of people that I trust so much carry on the club, which I love.”
This article was featured in the latest issue of the Sanford Magazine.
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