Bee Campus

Located adjacent to the Oregon Tech Arboretum, the Oregon Tech bee hives support student learning, faculty research, and campus pollination.

The Oregon Tech Apiary serves three main purposes: promoting awareness about pollinator decline, acting as a living laboratory for student research projects, and providing the opportunity for students to learn the ancient art of beekeeping.

Students manage the hives through a campus club. Students from any program can join the club, which began in 2018 as a joint effort of Environmental Sciences and Mathematics. Club members monitor hive health, record hive weight and hive temperature, and use that data in research work. The club addresses pest issues and may combine weak hives with strong hives to protect colony health.

Oregon Tech also has a bee research class and a bee lab on campus for student researchers.

 Research projects include:

• In 2020, a group of CSET students led by bee club member Seth Worthylake developed a working prototype hive monitor that tracked internal hive temperature and humidity. With what they learned from the prototype monitor, club advisors wrote a successful Student/Faculty Innovation Grant, and in 2022, they received $11,000 from the Provost’s Office to establish more formal research in the apiary.
• In 2021, Renewable Energy student and bee club member William Stobaugh built a mite treatment system for his senior project. Using solar panels, the system heated the hive to a specific temperature range for a specified amount of time, under the theory that mites have a different tolerance band for temperature than bees. The system is designed to raise the temperature high enough to kill the mites and leave the bees unharmed, which, if finished, would have the potential to save hives from the mite problems experienced this summer. Strobaugh designed a working prototype for this, which could be tested by future students in the club.