The bee-keepers of the future, a class of up to 30 primary school children, can visit the Twickenham Apiary during the summer term. We start with a 10 minute film about Honey Bees followed by a Question & Answer Session. The children are encouraged and do ask questions, but we have a few up our sleeves, some of which reinforce what was said in the film, others more on the basis of “what does a bee have 6, 5, 4 etc of”. Sometimes children ask very good questions.
If, as is often the case, there are more than 15 children, the class is split into two. Half the children go into the nylon mesh bee observation hide in the Apiary, the other half go into the Discovery Centre. This is to ensure that every child gets the best possible view of the bees at work.
In the Apiary a beekeeper opens a hive and shows frames of honey and brings to the outside of the hide, frames of honey and brood. The size of the worker bees and drones are discussed and children may sometimes be lucky enough to see the Queen Bee. If the group is willing, a drone, (the male bee, who cannot sting) is brought into the hide and is allowed to walk across the children’s hands. This is very popular and aims to reinforce the idea that honey bees are friendly, to be encouraged and not automatically viewed as dangerous. Even the most reticent of children normally want to experience this.
In the Discovery Centre children look at the Dummy Hive, handle a frame of beeswax foundation and some wax products. They look at different coloured pollen, handle a smoker, smell a frame of capped honey, talk more about bees using the boards in the Centre and try on veils - another very popular activity.
After 20 minutes the groups swap. The whole visit lasts an hour. Feedback forms about the visit, completed by Teachers, are invariably positive.
Shaun Lamplough
School visits are made possible by the work of unpaid volunteers and by donations from benefactors, visiting schools and the general public. Donations enable T&TVBKA to continue to serve the community and to develop and maintain the Apiary.
