Tend to Honeybees in the Biology Club’s Nature Walk Through Campus Forests
Written by Janel Steele
A nature walk and honeybee visit is the perfect spring quarter event. Every Monday, Daniel Najera, biology professor, and some of the biology team take a hike to study the nature around campus.
They write things down in their notes, take pictures, and do other things as simple as listening to birds in the trees.
Najera and his team also take this opportunity to check on the honeybee colonies.
While students have never been able to join in before, they are are now invited to join in on a walk into Green River Campus’s forests.
The nature walks and visits to the honeybees happen at 2 p.m. every Monday in the Science Center building. The trails of the college seem to encompass the students entirely, taking their attention away from modern life and focusing it on the lush nature before them. At the end of the walk with Najera, students will find the honeybees.
The temperamental Washington weather can affect the mood of the bees, so Najera gives warning when they may be acting ornery due to poor weather. Soon after collecting the gear and food for the bees—patties with a mixture of honey, pollen and essential oils—students start on the trail.
Students can expect to have to stop every so often to either take a close look at the blooming flowers hidden with its surrounding green company or inspect some mossy trees.
After the walk, student Maisie Milton, who had yet to go on this spring event, was quite as excited as everyone else Milton heard about the nature walk with Najera through another student in the biology club. “This is the wild side of Green River,” Milton said.
After wandering deeper into the thick of the forest, students will eventually reach the honeybees sanctuary—their own nature reserve. Upon arrival, it is time to replenish the food that the bees have already devoured over the week. Najera and an experienced biology team member get suited up to separate the honey patties and put them in the apiary where the bees and their hives are kept.
Students must stand some feet apart in order to remain safe. Once the apiary opened, couple-thousand bees buzzed out, departing from their hives to fly around.
An interview with Najera provided more insight on the Green River honeybee colony. Donated by a beekeeper Najera is acquainted with, the college is able to keep them through the Foundation’s Honeybee Project.
Honeybees are generally active during spring when they go in search of plants from which they collect pollen and nectar. They are social creatures, live within colonies with a queen— additionally thousands of workers and a few male drones—and are very adaptable. While honeybees forage for food in groups, a colony can survive without foraging for several years by living on food reserves and huddling in large, compacted masses during winter seasons.
Like some other insects, honeybees behave defensively when intruders are near, guarding the entrance to their nests. However, honeybees are able to sting only once and eventually die soon after transferring its venom. Because stingers contain barbs and are attached to the worker’s intestines, they detach from the stinging bee’s body after attacking a victim.
Najera was stung twice in the feeding process but caught and held out the first bee to show the detached part of the body of the bee. Students reported being able to see the barb still pulsing. “It’s a defense mechanism, it’s not like they’re always angry. They simply try to protect their hives,” Najera said.
Once students are finished observing the feeding process, they can head back to the main campus or continue on the many trails available to them.
