July 15, 2020
Bees have been dying due to Colony Collapse Disorder for over a decade, but there is hope. Professional beekeeper Brian Lacy of Livehoneybees.com in Portland, Oregon, has noticed that urban beekeeping, ironically, has been more successful that rural beekeeping in bringing back northwest
honeybee numbers. "We use less pesticides in the city; we have a greater variety of food sources here; and more and more backyard beekeepers are joining our numbers."
Lacy has worked with Catlin Gabel School in Portland over the years to teach a whole new generation about beekeeping. "The kids are wonderful—full of curiosity and wonder," he notes. The campus has six hives in its apiary project, and they are teaching the students there the value of the honeybee. "One-third of the food we eat is pollinated by the honeybee," Lacy notes. "They provide food and honey for us, and we do the same for them."
I wonder if you have any tracking of the long term impact on the students who have gone through the program. As they leave the school, is there a transfer of the skills to their home lives?
ReplyDeleteEthan,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your post, and for Brian Lacy's very informative website resource.
Punahou, the school that I am an eighth grade English teacher at, started an apiary in 2013. Here are a couple articles of what was "buzzing" at our school during that time:
http://www.punahou.edu/bulletin/detail/index.aspx?LinkId=2425&ModuleId=69
http://www.punahou.edu/news/item/index.aspx?LinkId=131&ModuleId=61
Keep "beeing" awesome,
Dr. Mitsuda
Hello I am Taiga from Punahou School. I really didn't know about how bees were important in this world. I thought they just made flowers better and make them bloom. For them to actually pollinate 1/3 of our food makes bees really important.
ReplyDeleteHi! My name is Marisa and I am a student at Punahou School. This idea of an apiary is very clever. It is a sustainable way to increase the bee population and also a way to obtain honey. This will allow for more bees to pollinate. This is a very cool topic!
ReplyDelete