{"id":4264,"date":"2018-09-25T20:59:27","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T00:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/?p=4264"},"modified":"2018-09-25T20:59:27","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T00:59:27","slug":"our-un-bee-lievable-trip-to-the-apiary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/2018\/09\/25\/our-un-bee-lievable-trip-to-the-apiary\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Un-bee-lievable Trip to the Apiary"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Tuesday September 18th, the Outdoor School class was given the privilege of being able to visit and explore the University of Guelph Honey Bee Research Center. We were exposed to many different practices that are used to keep bees, as well as the difficulties Honey Bees in Canada, and around the world, have faced in the past decade. This trip gave myself and many others insight into the environmental impacts bees have on the world we live in, and how we as people may be endangering this delicate ecosystem.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Sign at the entrance of the Honey Bee Research Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To begin our trip, we embarked on a 25 minute walk through the beautiful University of Guelph Arboretum. Being immersed in nature was a nice way to begin our afternoon at the apiary. Once we arrived, Diane sat us down under some trees and began to tell us about her experiences with recreational beekeeping. She recounted some of her personal stories of bee keeping with her father, and then proceeded to share some valuable information about bees and their way of life. We learned about the different roles that each bee has, and that without these specific roles, the kingdom would not survive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Diane sat us under some trees for a nice discussion about Honey Bees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After our talk with Diane, we headed out back to visit the apiary, and met with two women who work and volunteer there. They got us all suited up in protective gear that would function to protect us from the potential risks of being stung. They proceeded to expand on some information Diane had shared with u<\/span>s previously, and demonstrated how to prepare a smoker and open up a hive. It was interesting to learn about the role of the smoker in preparing a hive to be opened. We learned that one of the main reasons a smoker is used when harvesting honey is to interfere with the bees\u2019 lines of communication. We were told that smoking bee colonies makes bees go into a survival mode, making whoever is harvesting the honey less of a concern to them. When bees smell smoke, it makes them think their hive is going to catch on fire, so their natural instincts tell them to try and save as much honey as they can.<\/span><\/p>\n

This slideshow requires JavaScript.<\/p>

<\/div>\n

The hive was then opened and frames were removed to show us the inner workings of a colony. It was unbelievable to see the amount of bees that were clustered on one single frame. We were told that some of their hives contained over 80,000 bees alone! Before allowing us to touch the bees, we were told that we needed to locate the queen. When asked why, it was explained that if the queen had not been located, there would be a possibility that we may accidentally injure her when we touched the bees. If we ended up harming the queen, the hive would be in danger of collapsing. <\/span><\/p>\n

This lead me to reflect on the delicacy of a Honey Bee hive. The hive relies on one single bee, the queen, who is the one that keeps ever<\/span>ything going. Without her, there would be no new bees and the hive would not be able to grow and thrive. However, the queen could not survive without the help of help of her 20,000-80,000 female worker bees. Much like the queen, these worker bees are an essential part of the hive. <\/span>They forage for pollen, tend to queens and drones, protect the nest and perform other tasks in order to ensure the survival of the hive. <\/span><\/p>\n

For such small delicate creatures, Honey Bees are resilient. However, resiliency has a threshold. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Being able to touch the bees on the frame was a once in a lifetime experience.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cColony collapse disorder is the bill we are getting for all we have done to the bees. It’s just a name that was given to a phenomenon that a hive is found empty. Food is there, honey is there, but the bees are gone\u201d (Gunther Hauk, Queen of the Sun,<\/em>2011). Beekeepers across the United States lost over <\/span>44 percent of their Honey Bee colonies<\/span> during the year spanning April 2015 to April 2016, according to the Bee Informed Partnership\u2019s tenth annual survey (Thomson, 2016). Rates of both winter loss, summer loss, and total annual losses worsened significantly compared to previous years.<\/span><\/p>\n

After watching the film \u201cQueen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us?\u201d directed by Taggart Siegel, my eyes were opened to the need for change regarding the bee industry. \u201cWe are in such a habit of exploiting, of using nature for our own ends, and the Honey Bees right now are saying \u201cIf you continue your ways, I’m withdrawing\u201d”(Queen of the Sun<\/em>, 2011). We choose to use harmful pesticides, such as n<\/span>eonicotinoids, in order to help increase our food production, however, in the process we are destroying our only chance at a sustainable future. As far as important species go, Honey B<\/span>ees are at the top of the list. They are crucial pollinators, pollinating around 70% of the crop species that feed 90% of the world. (BBC-What Would Happen if Bees Were Extinct,<\/em> 2014). If we don\u2019t protect the bees, we aren’t protecting ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Holding <\/a>
Holding baby bees <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Local <\/a>
Local Guelph honey for sale <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

So what are we doing to help the bees? The real answer is not enough. However, countless individuals around the world are petitioning to make recreational beekeeping legal. Bringing bees to urban areas will help to pollinate the cities as well as bring more of these crucial creatures to the area. A group of people in New York City petitioned to help legalize beekeeping in New York State by explaining that, \u201cThe ban (on beekeeping) is outdated and detrimental to the health and well being of our urban environment and our community.\u201d (Jacquie Berger, Queen of the Sun,<\/em> 2011). Zan Yassin, a third generation beekeeper in New York explains that all she’s really trying to do is<\/span> \u201cdo something simple for nature\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>It is upsetting to learn about all the negative issues regarding the bees, however, due to the out pouring of support, I am hopeful for the future of their survival. Because after all, if we don’t protect the bees, are we really protecting ourselves?<\/p>\n

\"Frame <\/a>
Frame from one of the hives. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Inspecting <\/a>
Inspecting the frame for the Queen <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"We <\/a>
We got to taste honey straight off the frame! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Morgan Mizzoni<\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Queen of the Sun. Dir. Taggart Siegel. Collective Eye Films, 2011. Kanopy. Web. 25 Sep. 2018.<\/li>\n
  2. Thomson, Jason. \u201cBees Are in Trouble. What’s Being Done to Save Them?\u201d\u00a0The Christian Science Monitor<\/i>, 11 May 2016, www.csmonitor.com\/Science\/2016\/0511\/Bees-are-in-trouble.-What-s-being-done-to-save-them.<\/li>\n
  3. \u201cWhat Would Happen If Bees Went Extinct?\u201d\u00a0BBC News<\/i>, BBC, 4 May 2014, www.bbc.com\/future\/story\/20140502-what-if-bees-went-extinct.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    On Tuesday September 18th, the Outdoor School class was given the privilege of being able to visit and explore the University of Guelph Honey Bee Research Center. We were exposed to many different practices that are used to keep bees, as well as the difficulties Honey Bees in Canada, and around the world, have faced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7CROG-16M","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4264"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4290,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4264\/revisions\/4290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/experimentalstudio.ca\/outdoorschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}