During an evening run on campus as a freshman at Southwestern University, Layla Hoffen stumbled across an abandoned beehive. She asked the university’s environmentalists and professors but couldn’t find out who owned it. Having grown up around bees thanks to her mom’s passion for beekeeping, Layla asked if she could take over the hive. After getting the green light from the school, she began building an apiary with several hives near SU’s garden, spending her time between classes giving bees around campus a new home in her hives.
One such bee removal happened to be near SU President Laura Skandera Trombley’s office. “She caught wind of what I was doing and connected me with Konrad Bouffard, a Southwestern alumnus and the CEO of Round Rock Honey,” Layla says. “He urged me to start a beekeeping organization on campus. It wasn’t something I was interested in doing at first, because beekeeping requires a really experienced mentorship program, and I didn’t think I was prepared to do it as a freshman. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was the most important thing I could do for the environment.”
SWEET START
Thanks to a $5,000 grant from SU’s Sustainability Committee and donations from Round Rock Honey, Layla was able to build an equipment shed, fenced-in area for her bees, and an observation deck for curious onlookers.
Twelve student beekeepershave since joined forces with her at BEE-Co, or Beekeeping Education and Engagement Community. The student-led organization provides SU students with opportunities to learn about beekeeping, expand the pollinator habitat around campus, and foster a relationship with the environment. Their efforts have gained national recognition, with BEE-Co recently being named a Bee Campus USA by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. The title is bestowed on universities in the United States that are committed to preserving local biodiversity. Southwestern is the seventh university in Texas to attain the prestigious certification.
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Since launching BEE-Co a year ago, Layla and her fellow beekeepers have hosted fun, educational events, everything from honey harvesting, making beeswax candles, and painting hive boxes, to hosting an ancient beekeeping tradition during Earth Week in which beekeepers “tell their bees” about a wedding, birth, or other major life event that happened in their lives. During the storytelling, if the bees are buzzing, it is a good omen. She is looking forward to their next honey harvest in the fall for Southwestern students, staff, and faculty. “I’ve never done anything like this before, but it’s been really fun so far,” Layla says.
She adds, though, that it’s not just about the fun. “I thought it would be fun to go out and hang out with my bees, but as I started doing it more and more, it became a working relationship with the environment through interacting with the wildlife. When you have this working relationship with wildlife, you want to protect and advocate for them for reasons beyond yourself. I want BEE-Co to introduce students to that relationship to change the way a lot of people think about bees so they no longer see them as stinging insects, but as friends.”
Follow BEE-Co @beesouthwestern on Instagram to learn more.