BATON ROUGE — An amateur beekeeper from Baton Rouge is collecting and studying bees in hopes of starting a research study at his university.

Gabriel Marable began studying and researching bees in December. It was after this that he proposed bee research to administrators at Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi, which was approved in February.

He said there were a few setbacks along the way. but he collected bees and started an independent study over the summer.

Marable said he plans to bring the bees and the research to Alcorn in the fall and start a beekeeping club in hopes of fanning the flames of student interest.

“Just the thing of a club itself is to teach more people about beekeeping and all the unique things about it and how it can help agriculture because we’re an agricultural school. This is one of the main pollinators out there and we’re not using it and I feel like it’s a missed opportunity,” Marable said.

Within the past two weeks, Marable has collected almost 300 bees from home extractions, and he said he built his own beehive.

Marable said if the beekeeping club is successful, he hopes it will lead to a research study and they will be able to track bee activity across the region.

“We’re going to put cameras on (a bee) that watch the entrance that tracks the data of how long they’ve been out, how long they’ve been in. And put cameras around them to see how far they go, see where they go to mostly like what attracts them and stuff like that,” Marable said.

Marable said he hopes he continues to grow his collection and learn more about bees across the world.