---
title: "Clubs 101: UMD Beekeeping"
date: 2025-04-10T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/clubs-101-umd-beekeeping"
section: Articles
---
# Clubs 101: UMD Beekeeping

*April 10, 2025* — by [Karen Shih ’09](/author/karen-shih)


> Get the Buzz About Collecting Honey, Making Candles, Counting Queens on Campus

*Beekeeping Club 03272025 DS 8723 1920x1080 — Members of the UMD Beekeeping Club examine a frame from one of three hives they care for outside the Research Greenhouse. From left, Milo Rickert ’28, President Lila Wilson ’26 and Samidha Nageshwar ’28 check for disease, eggs and larvae, and the health of the queen.*

Smoke wafting from a can in her heavily gloved hand, Lila Wilson ’26 bent down in her bee suit to examine one of three student-managed hives up the hill from the Xfinity Center.


*White gloved hands hold a small smoker*


*Lila Wilson crouches and holds a frame of bees while wearing a bee suit — Lila Wilson holds up a frame from a hive, which can hold about 2,000 bees.*


**When It Meets:** Every Thursday, members learn during workshops at the greenhouse building, where they might make candles out of beeswax or learn how to care for hives. A recent presentation on the history of beekeeping even explored a litany of historic inaccuracies about bees, such as beliefs that they came from cows.

In warmer months, Saturday morning hive checks ensure the population is going strong. Wilson opens the lid for each box, then carefully removes their frames to look for eggs and larvae, honey production and signs of disease, as well as confirm the queen is identifiable and healthy.

**Who Can Join:** Anyone who’s curious, doesn’t mind suiting up from head to toe in protective gear and is willing to sign a waiver (stings do occasionally happen). Wilson started with no experience—her first role with the club was mowing the grass to clear a path around the hives in its old wooded location—and learned everything she knows from club adviser Eric Malcolm, the apicultural extension educator and apiary manager of the [UMD Bee Lab](https://www.umdbeelab.com/), as well as previous club leaders. Rickert, who grew up with hives in their backyard in Poolesville, Md., is an outlier, but their knowledge is a welcome addition. The group has about two dozen members.


*Bees fly around a light blue hive painted with purple, white and blue flowers*



**Sidebar note:**

Fun facts about bees:

- **Honey is bee vomit:** Multiple bees will consume the same nectar and throw it back up in succession. The chemicals in their special honey stomachs make it more and more dense, eventually creating the viscous amber goop we’re familiar with. “People get kind of disgusted when they find out,” said Rickert.

- **Queens are ruthless:** When a colony gets too big, the old queen will lay several new potential queens into cells in the hive to ensure at least one survives. But when the first one emerges, she makes a sound called “piping” that gets a response called “quacking” from the others that are still stuck inside. She kills all the ones she hears, ensuring her dominance.

- **They fly shockingly far:** A tiny honeybee can travel up to five miles from home to collect nectar and pollen. “They’ll work themselves to death a lot of the time,” said Wilson. “They don’t have that work-life balance.” Worker bees only live 30-50 days, while a queen can survive for up to five years.





**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [Entomology](https://today.umd.edu/topic/entomology), [Clubs 101](https://today.umd.edu/topic/clubs-101), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience)


**Units:** [College of Agriculture and Natural Resources](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-agriculture-and-natural-resources)