Queen strives to bee a role model to students
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 03/03/2010
Provided by Lisa Schluttenhofer
American Bee Queen Lisa Schluttenhofer poses with her bees.
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If the Purdue campus was a honey bee colony it would have one queen bee, and no one would be more qualified for the job than a honey queen.
Lisa Schluttenhofer , a sophomore in the College of Agriculture, is the 2010 American Honey Queen.
Schluttenhofer was the 2009 Indiana Honey Queen, and beat out five other state Honey Queens for the throne.
She was selected based on her knowledge of the industry and her enthusiasm for promoting the fact that honey bees pollinate over one third of the food supply.
“If you think the ABCs: Almonds, blueberries, and cucumbers are just 3 of the 90 crops that the honey bee helps pollinate,” said Schluttenhofer. “And their pollination value in the United States is $15 billion. They’re essential to our food supply and people don’t know that.”
The Honey Queen, like a pageant queen, crosses her ankles, folds her hands, sits up straight, smiles, and slicks back her hair like she polished it with her own beeswax. However, unlike most pageant queens, she has half a million bees in her backyard.
She has been a bee keeper for eight years and has eight hives, from which she sells honey, lotions and lip balms that she makes from the beeswax because, as Schluttenhofer says, “the best beauty secrets come from bees.” The proceeds from her products pay for her Purdue tuition, and she sells them locally.
Like all royalty, the Honey Queen is a busy bee.
Schluttenhofer will visit over 20 states this year and has already been to two promoting the honey bee and beekeeping industry.
Her responsibilities include classroom presentations; cooking demonstrations; visits to state fairs, festivals and farmers markets; and visiting state legislatures. Cooking demonstrations and classroom presentations to elementary students are her favorite because the students are excited that there’s a queen in the classroom who’s more knowledgeable than their teacher about bees.
“I present to all ages, but elementary students are my favorite. They ask the best questions,” said Schluttenhofer. “I get asked ‘Do bees sleep?’ a lot; it’s a fun question.”
Schluttenhofer is helpful and wholesome, like her honey.
She patiently presents, answers questions, regurgitates facts, and sacrifices her Saturdays for her crown – telling people how one bee only makes 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey during their lifetime, how they pollinate 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey and that cooking with honey makes your baked goods moister and fresher. She then goes on to demonstrate beekeeping and cooking.
Regardless of all the facets of her job and the industry, she still has a life outside of bees.
“I have lots of other hobbies: cooking, sewing, hiking, walking, fishing, anything outdoors really,” said Schluttenhofer. “But I do admit on Fridays I hang out, watch movies with my friends and do nothing.”
Though all of her bees are back home, she has a hive of her own in her dorm room, with bee pillows, posters, purses, magnets, blankets, and figurines swarming around her.
“I have boxes of bee parephenilia,” Schluttenhofer said. “Some of it makes it on the wall, some of it doesn’t. I sew with bee fabric. I love everything bee because I just think they’re so cool.”
The room is plastered with animals, as Schluttenhofer’s roommate loves cows almost as much as Schluttenhofer loves bees, making one wall plastered with bee posters, magnets and bee jargon like “Let’s BEE Friends,” while the opposite wall has a collage of cows.
Both roommates are very passionate about their parephenilia, but Schluttenhofer edges out her roommate.
“She has a pair of bee pajama pants for every day of the week,” said Heather Bradford, a sophomore in the College of Agriculture and Schluttenhofer’s roommate. “Well, at least there’s enough of them for every day of the week.”
Schluttenhofer’s passion for bees infiltrates her daily life and conversation when talking and hanging out with friends.
“When we’re at dinner and she sees a crop (that) bees pollinate, she likes to tell us about it,” said Bradford.
Schluttenhofer also uses bee jargon, though not too often.
“I try not to overdo it, “ said Schluttenhofer. “But my friends do get ‘Bee happy’ texts.”