MARION, OH (MARION COUNTY NOW)—Two Ohio State Marion Marine veterans are buzzing about a new initiative on campus, introducing beehives to the Larry R. Yoder Prairie Learning Laboratory. The eleven-acre Sandusky Plains tall grass restoration project has been underway on the campus since 1977, and now it has two new residents thanks to the efforts of Todd Lee and Eric Bailey.
Lee, a junior social work major from Delaware, Ohio, and Bailey, an engineering technology major from Columbus, Ohio, both attended the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association (COBA) Veteran Beekeeping School. Inspired by their experience, they collaborated to bring their vision to life, delivering two hives to the campus prairie at the end of the spring semester.
According to Bailey, the idea stemmed from organizing an outreach event with COBA at Ohio State Marion.
“We had Bob and Claudia Bowers from the Central Ohio Beekeepers charitable foundation come to campus to try to get veterans to sign up for Veteran Beekeeping School,” Bailey said. “Todd had brought up the idea of, why don’t we have bees at the prairie? The idea kind of took off from there. We started working with Bob and Claudia, they thought it was a great idea. We brought them out here and looked at it, and we went from there.”
Lee emphasized the multifaceted benefits of the beehives. “I believe the bees serve multiple purposes,” he said. “As Eric explained, when I came up with the idea, my first thought was that it’s a fantastic concept because it encompasses so many different aspects. It benefits the ecological health of the prairie and contributes significantly to the overall goal of conserving it.”
He also noted the positive impact of beekeeping on veterans. “Eric and I both being Marine Corps veterans realized in the beekeeping school how much the bees really help veterans on various levels,” Lee said. “Each person faces unique struggles and challenges, and bees can impact these differently. For me, I can say that confronting and overcoming my fears gives me a sense of confidence.”
Lee hopes the bee apiary will positively influence students and the campus, eventually becoming an ingrained part of campus culture. “It will only have a synergistic effect until it’s completely finished, which we hope will never happen,” he said. “Eric and I both work hard to communicate and promote the project in order to engage our campus community, including faculty, students, and other veterans. Therefore, we hope to see this become a long-term initiative.”
Bailey explained that each new hive has a queen bee marked in blue for this year, a color-coding system used annually. The commercially produced honeybee hives from Georgia are now in place with the aim of colony growth.
“There will be approximately 30 to 60 thousand bees when they build up their colony,” Bailey said. “Right now, what they’re going to do is they’re going to release that queen and within the next couple days we’ll come back and check and see if they release the queen and we’re going to feed them in the brood boxes. Then the queen will start laying eggs. From there they’ll build out the comb.”
The two hope that the growth of the colony and honey production could lead to future campus commercial ventures. “Maybe it can help support this project and maybe other projects on the campus,” Bailey said, adding their desire to involve others in the project.
Lee also sees it as an outreach opportunity for veterans, even those not attending Ohio State Marion. “We want to incorporate as many veterans as possible who are interested in engaging with bees and learning about beekeeping. It’s something that we can use as a platform to help multiple people who may be struggling,” Lee said.
Looking ahead, they envision a time when the hives produce enough honey to market and support their program or other campus initiatives, with Lee suggesting the campus food pantry as a potential beneficiary.
“They go up to a max of about 70 pounds of honey per hive,” Bailey shared. “Ohio State Marion’s prairie will have some honey now, prairie honey.”
Both Lee and Bailey expressed gratitude for the support they received. “We want to say thank you to the faculty because when we started this whole project we were like, we’re just going to give it a whirl, but we thought it was going to be a real struggle. And honestly, it wasn’t,” Lee said. “It has been a great process working with Ohio State Marion and working with Bob and Claudia from COBA charitable foundation. They were supportive and helped get this all accomplished.”
Bailey added their intention to involve the campus Veterans and Sustainability Club in the project.
Support for the project came from the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association and their foundation.
“We haven’t reached any real resistance from any angle. Everybody, the staff from Ohio State, COBA, everybody just like jumped in and said yeah, let’s do it,” Bailey said.
For more information on the veteran’s school for beekeeping or bees in general, contact the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association through their website centralohiobekeepers.org. Students and or veterans interested in getting involved with the project at Ohio State Marion can contact Eric Bailey at bailey.1768@buckeyemail.osu.edu or Todd Lee at lee.11081@buckeyemail.osu.edu.