Veterans inspect bee hives for the Veterans Beekeeping School. Credit: Josephine Pajemola | Lantern Reporter
Over sprawling green fields, stacked wooden frames house bees clustering along the honeycomb, all moving in coordinated rhythm. Cultivated over years, the hives are cared for largely by veterans as part of a program started three years ago at Ohio State.
The Veterans Beekeeping School is beginning its fourth year on the university’s campus this spring to foster community, purpose and healing by blending agricultural practice with peer support.
The program, held on West Campus, is the result of the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association, or COBA, approaching Ohio State’s Military and Veterans Services. Here is where David Hibler, former Army combat medic and current Ph.D. candidate at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, specializes in veteran mentorship.
Hibler was a part of the first 20 veterans taking part in the 2023 edition of the program.
A lifetime gardener, Hibler attempted to raise a hive to pollinate his greenhouse.
“I was a miserable failure at it,” Hibler said. “The year after I’d given up, COBA came and offered the beekeeping program. And it was like, ‘Oh, I’ll give it another shot.’ And they really helped me out a lot.”
The program annually recruits a cohort to train for two years.
“They had seen the difficulties that veterans were having during the pandemic and how isolated they were,” Hibler said. “They wanted to start a beekeeping school, since that was their wheelhouse, so they could give back to the veteran community.”
Claudia Khourey-Bowers, the vice president of COBA and one of the program’s founders, said veterans approached the opportunity for various reasons. Some were interested in homesteading, community or simply wanting to learn about bees.?
“The result overall seems to be that everybody who sticks with the program gets a broad range of benefits,” Khourey-Bowers said.
The program’s participants have reported that beekeeping has lessened symptoms that doctors had told them would never improve.
“During that first cohort, we had individuals come back and start telling us within the first few months of starting the program that these service-connected problems like chronic pain or arthritis, PTSD; they’re all getting better,” Hibler said.
Joshua Davis, president of the Ohio State Student Veterans Association and in his second year at the beekeeping school, said the program has helped him relax.
“It’s helped me slow down a bit,” Davis said. “I deployed to Iraq and Syria 2022 to 2023 and there have been moments where I get kind of excitable or I struggle with the transitional changes.”
Yet, when Davis dons the bee suit and steps into the apiary, he finds tranquility.
“When you’re kind of in the hives, the bees have a frequency with their wings and it almost is kind of calming,” Davis said.
Veterans participating in the beekeeping program have told Hibler many stories over the years of how the demand to be present and calm during these activities has improved their quality of life.
Hibler said he recalled a veteran who self-isolated after leaving the military. Now, the veteran maintains a leadership role within the beekeeping school, actively connecting with and assisting other veterans.
“They’ve learned how to do this, and now they’re imparting it onto the literal next generation, the next cohort,” Hibler said. “It’s giving them purpose and a place in the community, which a lot of veterans lose after they leave the service.”
Although the beekeepers associations initially reached out to Ohio State with the goal of promoting beekeeping, Khourey-Bowers said that the community built has proven itself to be the most impactful aspect of the school.
Although the program was started by the beekeepers association members, Khourey-Bowers said the hope is for it to be entirely veteran-run.
Michael Hall, a member of the second cohort of veterans, now serves as a trustee on the association board. Two of his peers in the cohort went on to establish beehives at Ohio State’s Marion campus.
Before the pandemic, Hibler had no experience with bees.?
Now, he is on the advisory board of the beekeeping school and currently keeps three hives in his backyard.
“Even just being exposed to the bees being around, the pollen in the air, the little bit of honey I did, I physically felt a little bit better, and it gave me more purpose, more direction,” Hibler said. “You have to be there for the bees.”
