Four years ago, Tom Steenwyk, registrar and director of academic advising, realized that the bees housed by Calvin hadn’t lasted through a recent winter; in response, he decided to bring new bees back to campus.
Today, there is one beehive on campus at Calvin’s Community Garden off of Hampshire Street—a second hive did not survive this school year’s winter. This did not come as a surprise, Steenwyk explained, as it’s expected to lose bees during the colder season. This is so common that during winter 2025, “80% of all the colonies in Michigan and the region didn’t make it,” said Steenwyk.
Despite the lost hive, Steenwyk is not discouraged. This spring, he purchased two more hives of bees, which will arrive on April 22, as well as a nucleus colony that will arrive in May. A nucleus colony is a hive that comes with five frames, with the queen bee integrated into the hive, which is unlike a typical hive.
Preparing for new bees
In order to prepare for the bees that will soon be arriving to campus, Steenwyk held a hive painting event on March 20 for students interested in the bees to gather and support the installation of new hives. Painting the boxes serves both an aesthetic and a practical purpose; Steenwyk explained that the paint allows the wooden boxes to last longer, and that “there’s some research that suggests that bees, when they leave their box, orient themselves to where they are. And if their box color is different, especially if you have a lot of boxes in the same spot, they will come back to the box that they’re used to coming to.” Steenwyk shared that research suggests that pastel colors are best for the bees, so the group painted the hives light blue, light green, light yellow and light purple.
Students across disciplines attended the event. Aerin Baker, a senior chemistry major, was one of those students. Baker first became interested in the bees when attending a presentation for Earth Day last year. At this presentation, Steenwyk performed a hive inspection and allowed students to taste honey straight from the comb.
On why it’s important to have bees on campus, Baker shared her love for “the educational opportunities that come from it.” Lana Lyons, a senior studying English, Spanish, pre-law and ESL, emphasized the educational importance as well, saying that “it’s just been really exciting in the past few years seeing how Calvin has worked towards more sustainability in education … and being good stewards.”
Brandon Price, a senior civil engineering student, was involved in beekeeping while in high school. Price feels that “beekeeping is an interesting hobby, because it really draws people together. There’s a lot of mystery about what’s going on and how exactly it works. And so it creates community in a way that not all things do.”
Interested in the bees?
The current beehive is located at Calvin’s Community Garden off of Hampshire Street, and all future purchased hives will be placed there as well. The garden is accessible for all students who are interested in seeing the bees — though Steenwyk recommends keeping a distance of about 10-15 feet away from the hives.
The new bee packages will be placed on April 22, and Steenwyk invites all interested to attend. He will also be doing a second annual presentation about the bees on April 27 for a celebration of Earth Day.
For those who would like to be involved with or hear more about the bees on campus, reach out to Steenwyk at [email protected], and attend these upcoming events.
