Maddie Burke arrived at Quad Day as a freshman with a single mission in mind: to find the UIUC Beekeeping Club’s booth.

A booth located just outside the English Building finally caught Burke’s attention, mostly due to its thematically appropriate black and yellow display board. It was there she met Danny Ferriss, the UIUC Beekeeping Club’s founder and president at the time.

“It was a day of infamy for me,” Burke jokingly said.

It has been well over four years since that Quad Day and Burke, now a senior, is this year’s president of the UIUC Beekeeping Club.

Burke’s interest in beekeeping can be traced back to her friend’s older sister, who was a member of Washington State University’s own beekeeping club.

Burke’s suburban home in Carpentersville, Illinois, however, did not have the backyard necessary to raise and keep her own bees. 

“I feel like a lot of people that come from in or around Chicago, they don’t have a yard or acreage to keep bees,” Burke said. “I had never kept bees before and there was nobody in my family that kept any bees.”

Burke would assist Ferriss with club responsibilities during her freshman year, helping to organize the honey harvest and other major events. Ferriss acknowledged her commitment toward the club as his graduation neared, she said.

“Danny would say ‘I’m gonna go to a better place,’” Burke said. “‘I gotta make sure there’s people behind to take care of the club.’”

Burke was particularly excited some of the club’s bees, whose hives are located at the Sustainable Student Farm, lived through the winter this year. This is a first-time feat for the UIUC Beekeeping Club, she said.

“We’ve always struggled with it in the past, a big part of it is just Illinois winters because they’re so cold and unpredictable,” Burke said. “So that was a really big achievement for us. Part of it was luck, not gonna lie.”

According to Buddha Bee Apiary, “In the winter, honey bees cluster tightly inside of the hive to stay warm. The worker bees vibrate their bodies to generate heat.”

“It’s really hard on the bees because they will cluster to stay warm,” Burke said. “They’re super smart.”

According to Burke, however, it is Illinois’ inconsistent winter weather conditions that pose a threat to the bees’ ability to survive the season.

“(The bees) are a little simple sometimes because they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s warm, so obviously it’s springtime,’” Burke said. “But tomorrow it’s going to be cold again, so that typically kills them because they’ll uncluster, which loses a lot of warmth.”

Another project that Burke and the UIUC Beekeeping Club have been working on is the establishment of a pollinator garden on campus.

“This is kind of a garden with really pollinator-friendly plants,” Burke said.

The new pollinator garden will feature a wide variety of pollinator-friendly plants, ranging from those native to Illinois to those native to other continents entirely.

“Using any sort of native Illinois plants for any sort of native Illinois insects is really important,” Burke said. “Then also bringing in plants that are helpful to honey bees.”

According to the United States Geological Survey, “Honey bees are not native to North America. They were originally imported from Europe in the 17th century.”

“Honey bees are technically not native to the United States,” Burke said. “They are from Europe, Asia, Africa, on the other side of the world. They are Old World creatures.”

According to Maja Wlodarczyk, vice president of the UIUC Beekeeping Club, their organization has applied to receive funding from the Student Sustainability Committee, a group of undergraduate and graduate students dedicated to building a more sustainable campus.

“We actually have a bid in for the Sustainable Foundation for a grant to build the pollinator garden on the other side of Talbot at the vivarium,” Wlodarcyzk said. 

Wlodarcyzk is referring to the Shelford Vivarium Greenhouse, which can be found at Talbot Laboratory.

Liz Ducharme, treasurer of the UIUC Beekeeping Club, said the pollinator garden project has been in the works for the past few years. Acquiring the necessary land has been particularly difficult, she said.

“That’s a project we’ve been working on for a long time. We’ve been trying for about five to six years to get it started,” Ducharme said. “We’re hoping by fall we’ll actually have it up and running.”

Burke feels that the UIUC Beekeeping Club has gained a much larger presence and following this year, especially in comparison to previous years, she said.

“I felt like some of our older exec meetings when Danny was still president and my first year as president were pretty sparse, maybe averaging 10 to 15 people per meeting,” Burke said. “Now, I feel like it’s a pretty consistent 20-plus, which is really exciting.”

Much like Burke, Wlodarcyzk also noted the improvement in the UIUC Beekeeping Club’s attendance numbers.

“Overall, our club attendance has really skyrocketed this year, it’s probably about doubled or tripled,” Wlodarcyzk said. “I’d say that we’re pretty good at keeping people around.”

Wlodarcyzk, who will become president of the UIUC Beekeeping Club starting next year, said she and Burke became close friends because of their joint involvement in the club.

“We actually met through Beekeeping Club,” Wlodarcyzk said. “We ended up meeting up a couple of times to work on things at my place and at the library and stuff, so then we clicked pretty fast.”

Wlodarcyzk is most impressed by Burke’s willingness to reach out to the appropriate bee professionals when creating presentations for club meetings, rather than simply googling the necessary basic information, she said.

“Maddie’s done a really great job of getting that additional information and the additional impact we’ve been able to make as a group, instead of just kind of giving the factual information,” Wlodarcyzk said.

Despite Wlodarcyzk’s praise, however, Burke still believes that her successor’s presentations may be superior.

“She makes great presentations,” Burke said. “Probably even better than mine, not gonna lie.”

Burke wants Wlodarcyzk to be able to enjoy her new role as president of the UIUC Beekeeping Club while also upholding the responsibility that comes with it.

“You are in charge of something and you’re trying to provide something for a group of people that you’re in charge of, it’s kind of almost like a parental role,” Burke said. “You still get to have a lot of fun, but there’s that added layer of responsibility to it.” 

Looking back on her time as a member and president of the UIUC Beekeeping Club, Burke will miss the bees themselves, who inspired her to remain committed to the club, she said.

“I always get into those moods where I’m like, ‘Ah, there’s so much work and it’s hot and I’m stressed,’” Burke said. “And then you pull out the frame and you see all these little bees just moving around and doing their thing. I’m really gonna miss them, they’re truly incredible little creatures.”

Burke is confident that the freshmen, who are unfamiliar with and curious about beekeeping, just as she once was, will ensure the UIUC Beekeeping Club continues to thrive, she said.

“This club is really built on the backs of freshmen who are eager to try something new and prove themselves,” Burke said. “That’s kind of like the coolest thing ever because I was also once in that position.”

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