Bee-coming Leaders: A Bee School For Kids was created and developed by Beekeeper Markus Storhas & Holistic Nutritionist Tricia Sedgwick of The World In A Garden. It is an interactive school that introduces the world of bees to kids and encourages them to become future beekeepers, leaders in their community and stewards of our land and food systems.
This July’s Bee School was a resounding success as we hosted the program for the second year in a row. Alongside our registered students we offered two free sessions to 44 students from South Vancouver Neighborhood House (SVNH) as part of the Neighbourhood Small Grants.
In this workshop series, students learned about the honey bee lifecycle and had the unique opportunity to look inside our beehives under the care of our Beekeeper Markus. At first many of the students were nervous or frightened and wouldn’t get close to the buzzing hives, but they calmed down once Markus told them how gentle bees were and showed them how to carefully maneuver around the hives. Eventually a few brave souls volunteered to hold some stingerless male drones, and then suddenly everyone wanted to hold a male bee and crowd around to watch young bees hatching from their cells and worker bees taking care of the hive. They perked up even more when they got to taste honey straight from the hive and try honeycomb, which we call nature’s ‘chewing gum’! During each session there were sticky faces full of wonder throughout the garden, from kids to adults alike.
Markus also taught the kids how vital the bees are to pollinating our food system, how they make honey and wax, and how sustainable beekepers extract honey and keep most of the bees’ food supply intact. By the end of the workshop, even the coordinators that brought the kids were asking for a Bee School for Adults!
Bee School Video
We made a video featuring highlights from the 2014 program: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dfYGfHXkWY
Media Coverage
Straight.com: www.straight.com/food/677911/bee-school-teaches-kids-about-sustainable-f…
CBC: www.cbc.ca/player/News/TV%20Shows/The%20National/Only%20in%20Canada/ID/2…
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