Hi Robin,
Unsure what age group you will be working with but rather than telling and
showing do "doing". Let me explain. To make kids interested and learn they
must have fun. So for example I would tell them that bees must fly x (I
don't know the actual number) of minutes to collect one drop of nectar
followed by activity for kids running around nearby flowers collecting
nectar for 5 min. Then they would need to flap their arms/wings to
evaporate the water to make honey for 2min (again no idea for how long).
Perhaps have a honey comb so they can taste a spoonful of honey after all
the running.
Another activity could be looking for a home - swarming and searching for
suitable trees. Maybe have propolis to show them, it smells fantastic and
surly kids will like the stickiness.
They could make mini hives out of bamboo to take home?? And other similar
activities ...
On Wed, 14 Jul 2021 at 13:55, Oxnatbees <oxnatbees@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Robin
Technically, in theory, you could.
Is it a good idea, no.
As I found out last weekend - see the latest post on our blog,
oxnatbees.wordpress.com
It would be much easier, if the school is near, to have a field trip of
kids to the hives.
Paul
On Wed, 14 Jul 2021, 13:42 Robin Colyer, <robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Bit of thought experiment here. My children's primary school has a 'field
to fork' topic and I've volunteered to go in to talk about bees and honey.
I'll take a few obvious props - bee suit, smoker (not that I've ever
actually used it) etc... But I'm just wondering what views there are on the
feasibility of taking some actual bees in.
Is this a non-starter, or is there a way to do it? It would be great to
give the kids a chance to actually see the bees in action.
For example, suppose I made a small ventilated (but otherwise sealed)
box, a bit like a nuc box, to hold, say, 3 top bars with developed comb,
with removable sides revealing glass windows, so the kids could see the
bees working away on the comb... Could I take combs out of a hive like that
for a day and put them back again afterwards?? Not brood comb I guess... Is
that remotely feasible? Or is it a disastrous idea from a bee welfare
perspective??
Would love to hear some thoughts on this.
Thanks as always,
Robin
