Meet Our Bee Team

Meet Amber (left) and Kirsten (right) who came to work in the EH&S office also became our de facto summer interns for beekeeping. They are affectionately know as the “twins” because of their close friendship. This late spring and summer was a busy time as the newly established hives built up quickly. When Amber and Kirsten were not working on chemical inventory they were in the carpenter shop assembling a couple of extra beehives which came in handy when there is a swarm to capture or a hive split to establish. Kirsten, an Environmental Science major, took up the challenge of beekeeping to conquer her fear of bees, of which she had more than acquitted herself. Amber, also an Environmental Science major and student athlete on the women’s tennis team, is fearless and joined her friend on their journey of keeping bees.

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September 20

About Us

Introductions

Forbees is a blog primarily dedicated to the beehives currently on the campus of the University of San Francisco as well as the dissemination of information about beekeeping and promoting the health and well-being of honeybees and other insect pollinators on and around the campus. We are affiliated with the Office of Sustainability and the Environmental Health and Safety Office. The campus is currently a BeeCampus USA campus.

As of August, 2019 we have four beehives at various locations around campus. One is located in the interior courtyard at the Convent of the Sisters of the Presentation between School of Ed and the Masonic building. Another is located in the garden of Loyola House on the Lone Mountain campus. And two more are situated in the Community Garden adjacent to the School of Ed parking lot. Off campus we have three hives at Star Route Farms in Bolinas, California. This farm, recently acquired by USF, is one of the oldest continuously operating organic farms in California.

Every bee season hold new challenges for the beekeeper and this season has proven to be no different. We have had to move hives to accommodate construction, build additional beehives, capture swarms because we did everything right, split hives to create new hives, requeen hives, stimulate hives to requeen themselves, and don the ancient robes to perform the almost daily ritual of fire and food. Read on and all of that cryptic language will be explained. Beekeeping is an old art, practiced since the dawn of civilization. There are even cave paintings depicting early humans collecting honey from beehives. The bees do not give up their secrets readily so to become a competent beekeeper takes a commitment to the time, study, and hands-on experience necessary to achieve the meditative state known as “bee time”.

We invite and encourage questions and interest. In beekeeping there is usually more than one way to accomplish something when working with bees. This leads to many schools of thought on many different subjects. There is a saying that whenever you have two beekeepers there will be three opinions. So ask away, there are no dumb questions when it comes to bees.

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