Locally, nationally, and globally, honey bees are threatened. Hives and colonies are dying at alarming rates, at times reaching nearly 50%, from a multitude of causes including pesticides, invasive species and parasites, loss of habitat and food, and many others. The loss of honey bees and other keytsone pollinators can have disastrous outcomes for our food web and environmental health, and so to help boost their population and raise overall awareness of the challenges they face, UB Bees was founded in spring 2019. This environmental initiative has three main aims:
1.) Increase the amount of pollinators, and pollinator friendly flowers on campus to improve our ecological and environmental health.
2.) Provide a new and open resource for UB students, faculty, and staff to interact with the hives, and generate exciting learning and research opportunities.
3.) Improve UB's overall sustainability by providing local campus honey to dining halls and food banks.
To date, we have created opportunities for nearly 100 students to interact with the bees, started a new research project evaluating the use of a mushroom extract to reduce viral load, developed an outside the classroom learning activity for an undergraduate class, partnered with a local elementary school to teach their students about pollinators, and harvested nearly four gallons of honey! Our success is only growing, yet we need your help you continue growing and bringing these experiences and opportunities to the UB community.
UB Bees was created with funds and support from the Honors College Research and Creative Initiative Fund and UB Sustainability, however we have no active budget or funding. Please consider donating to UB Bees today to support our hives and project!
At this level you support us buying enough winter food for the bees for one hive
This gift will enable us to buy a new "super" which is the box where bees put their excess honey that we extract!
This gift will allow us to buy enough mite treatments to last the year!
Have you ever seen a swarm of bees before? This will allow us to purchase equipment to capture swarms in WNY and relocate them to our hives where they will be safe.
A new hive suit costs around $150, and your gift here will help us purchase bee suits to give tours and run workshops for students, faculty, staff, and the WNY community. You'll get a free tour/experience at the hives with Dr. Hoekstra and UB Bees student volunteers
A new package of bees is called a nucleus. This amount will enable us to buy a new hive of bees in the event that one of our hives die off over the winter :(
A new hive and all equipment costs around $500, and your donation will help us grown and maintain our hives as they get damaged from time and weather.
A huge gift! This will enable us to purchase a honey extractor and be able to harvest a lot of honey.