This article originally appeared in the Fall 2011 edition of Bridges Magazine. The magazine is a publication of the TRU Alumni & Friends Association.

By Bart Cummins

There’s a quiet buzzing atop the roof of the Food Training Building and it has nothing to do with electricity or the solar panels located nearby.

Rather, it’s a honey of a project created last spring by Culinary Arts instructor Ron Rosentreter. What started out as an interesting experiment with two hives and a few thousand bees has turned into a world of spin-off possibilities that could eventually touch every faculty and school on campus.

TRU Culinary Arts Instructor Ron Rosentreter explains various aspects of beekeeping.

Plans are to incorporate honey into menu items at Accolades, TRU’s fine-dining restaurant staffed by students in the Culinary Arts and Tourism Management programs. As well, VIPs could soon be receiving small jars of the stuff as a memento of their visit to campus.

Rosentreter envisions public sales, with the money coming back to Culinary Arts. There could even be workshops, seminars, and a clothing line.

For students and faculty, the hives serve as another on-campus source for teaching and learning where they can incorporate any aspect of the production process into their coursework, whether in Arts, Business, Science, or Trades. Rosentreter’s hobby offers an abundance of learning opportunities that includes hands-on, theoretical, and research.

Removing a section of a hive.

So what got Rosentreter on this path in the first place?

“I’ve always been interested in bugs and even as a kid I kept a few black widows in the house,” says Rosentreter, who on this blue-sky day is dressed from head to toe in a white beekeeper’s suit. “Recently, a friend of mine got into bees. I started watching them and got interested in what they were doing.

When you start showing an interest in something, you get a little curious and then it grabs hold of you.”

That got him thinking TRU would be a good location for an apiary, and the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Not only does the roof offer plenty of space and protection, the bees have plenty of food opportunities on campus thanks to the abundant and diverse plant life.

So, armed with suggestions from local apiaries, enthusiasts, the Internet, and wherever else he could glean information, Rosentreter set out on the adventure.

One of the honeycomb collection inserts.

If there’s one thing that stands out as most important about this initiative, Rosentreter says, it’s knowing the university is playing a role in aiding a struggling bee population, which has been hit hard in recent years from the effects of climate change, pests, and disease.

“The bee population isn’t doing very well and the future of it may be backyard beekeepers that keep it going. I’m happy to be playing a role in their survival.”