UF Club, The Hive, Celebrates Growth and Pollinator Progress

The Hive, a University of Findlay student organization and beekeeping club, continues to be abuzz with activity as it reaches new milestones and fosters a growing membership.

This December marks one full year of UF being certified as a Bee Campus USA Affiliate, a distinction The Hive was instrumental in achieving. The Hive continues its progress with this distinction through the addition of pollinator patches that support monarch butterflies and native bee species.

“We want to show the campus community and the public how pollinator habitat can be incorporated into any environment, whether on a college campus, in your own backyard, on a city building rooftop, or out in a rural area,” said Lauren Sandhu, instructor of teaching in biology and faculty advisor for The Hive. “The possibilities are endless; you can make your pollinator patch as big or small, manicured or natural, and as cheap or expensive as you would like.”

Pollinator Progress on Campus

Over the past year, two pollinator gardens were added to Findlay’s campus. First, pollinator gardens were established in front of the Center for Student Life and Business building in April, followed by another garden planted in the Egner Center for Performing Arts courtyard in October. These gardens include plants such as columbine, goldenrod, mountain mint, butterfly weed, grey headed coneflower, foxglove beardtongue, and black-eyed Susan.

“These are plants that pollinators are drawn to and have high nutritional value in their diet. Just like with humans, there are some foods that are good for us, and others that are not,” Sandhu explained. “By planting these native plants, we’re providing our pollinators with food that’s good for them. Some of our native pollinators also rely on these native plants as host plants, which means they only lay their eggs on a specific species of plant. For example, monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed plants.”

Working with Bees Not Required

As for bees specifically, the club manages two hives, outside of the Frost Conservatory. Each hive consists of two brood boxes, which are larger and house eggs, larvae, and pupae. On top of the brood boxes there are several smaller boxes called supers, which are primarily used by the bees to store honey. Each hive can hold around 50,000 bees.

However, being part of The Hive doesn’t require working with or even being near bees. The organization has a broad science-based focus that extends beyond bees, such as supporting and creating habitat for native pollinators, studying aspects of honey and beeswax production, the life cycle of honeybees, and more.

“Students don’t have to have any interest or experience in beekeeping to join The Hive. Many students want to know how beehives work, or they have a general interest in native pollinators and pollinator habitat. We try to cover a different main concept during our meetings each month,” Sandhu noted.

Keeping Up with The Hive

The Hive became an official UF Student Organization in April of 2024. It started with around 60 members and now has just under 90 members. All UF students are welcome to join The Hive. There are no membership fees or costs to join.

For information regarding upcoming events and meetings or to see how the local bees are doing, follow @thehive_findlay on Instagram. Big plans are in store for Earth Day 2026, during the week of April 20, so keep an eye out for future announcements from The Hive.