Attracting Younger Beekeepers

Introduction

I’ve just spent a lot of time over the last week researching and writing an article on thermoregulation and how the bees cope with keeping the brood nest from overheating during heat waves. Instead of filing a copy in ‘documents’ first, I took a short cut today and just copied my article from the original Word document then saved what I thought was the whole document. However, when I pasted it into the blog on WordPress only the last two references came through and everything else has been completely lost.

I shut down the laptop and went to the nearest garden centre for a late breakfast and to lose myself among the colourful flowers on display. I had a bacon roll and coffee and bought a wisteria which is one of my favourite climbers and will look lovely outside the bedroom window. I decided to rewrite an article I wrote a few years ago. I’ll start all over again with thermoregulation tomorrow while I can still remember the main structure of the article.  

Young Beekeepers

The average age of beekeepers in the UK is above fifty years. We don’t need a research project to confirm this statement—have a look round any local association meeting room and spotting the youngster is a bit like the “where’s Wally” challenge, but without a big crowd. I wonder if other bee clubs are the same, but spotting more than six beekeepers at my local association meetings these days is remarkable. But that’s another story.

Who are the young beekeepers then? Are they in their thirties or forties? If you’re over seventy then, yes, they probably are the young ones—but let’s consider the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of young as being “people who have lived or existed for only a short time.” So, I’m concentrating here on attracting youngsters under twenty.

This is a great time to engage young people in conservation and environmental education because any dreams we might have had of everlasting cornucopia are now delusional. That bubble burst with such a big bang that the shock waves are reaching and affecting many people first hand all over the world. Globally, we no longer live in a land of plenty. The threats to all bees from changes in agricultural and land use, climate change and weather, war, pesticides and disease are much more relevant in the context of food bio-security, and providing for an increasing population. People are taking notice now, especially with the recent turmoil of wars in The Middle East and Russia.  Back in 2017, due to poor weather in Spain, the rationing of iceberg lettuces and broccoli in British supermarkets was one of the first wake up calls about climate change and food security and took many by surprise.

Television documentaries and celebrity beekeepers have piqued an interest in bees among the public. Government pollinator initiatives have stimulated new programmes for schools for promoting awareness of bees and their role in our food production. If you have not yet promoted bees in a school setting, you will be astounded at the knowledge and awareness that many five- year- olds already have. As beekeepers we have a great opportunity to build on this. David Hennessey is a fine role model for early education using the ‘show don’t tell’ approach which is also a key tool for creating good novels. https://www.beelistener.co.uk/beekeeping/the-bee-sanctuary-learning-in-a-walled-garden-by-david-hennessey/

Preparations

Before engaging with young people and bringing them into our beekeeping world we need to prepare well and ensure that the environment is safe. Yes, we must undertake risk assessments with consideration of bee stings and allergies, but child protection is paramount. Children have been deliberately harmed by religious institutions, and other organisations, while they were supposed to have been protected and nurtured by them. Not even beekeeping is immune to this dark side of humanity so beekeepers need to protect both themselves and young beekeepers by setting up club protocols. In Scotland, a scheme called “Protecting Vulnerable Groups”¹ runs in tandem with Disclosure Scotland ensuring that those working with these groups, which would include children learning beekeeping, are assessed regularly to verify continued suitability for their role.

How prepared are you to pass on your skills?  Have you taken classes in beekeeping theory and practice? Perhaps you have taken beekeeping courses and exams available in your country, and are you up to date with current best practice? Do you read widely from a range of beekeeping literature, attend conferences, and network with other beekeepers to learn more?

Train the Trainers

Even those professionally qualified to teach will benefit from attending a “Train the Beekeeper’s Course” which is supported by Scottish Government because of the importance, for the future and welfare of bees, of having well educated and knowledgeable beekeepers caring for them. This course will prepare you to teach practical skills and more formal presentations with emphasis on planning the course/ learning experiences and assessing the outcomes in an organised, efficient way.

How to Start

Are ready to meet future young beekeepers? Let’s go then. You’ll find them in many settings and mostly all eager to be involved and ready for you to present interactive promotional sessions. Most nurseries, schools, rainbows/beavers/cubs/ guides/scouts/ youth clubs, to name a few, are keen to engage with beekeepers, and a good start is giving a talk then follow up with a visit to an apiary.

Think about community-based activities for all the family. Your local beekeeping association might host an open day in your local town or village featuring a summertime barbeque with honey tasting and a stall with promotional material including hive parts and products. Young folk love making crafts to take home, so set up a candle rolling table using unwired foundation and watch how they flock to feel and smell this amazing bee product.

An observation hive— set up with minimal stress for the bees— is a great visual aid, but only if the bees are behaving normally and not running frantically all over the comb. A good way to achieve this is to take the frame that the queen has just been laying on as it will be full of nurse bees that will hang around quietly on the comb. Young visitors will enjoy that, and feel happier than they would be watching frustrated foragers trapped indoors.

Nature Deprivation

Children don’t spend nearly as much time out of doors today as they used to, and many don’t get the chance to experience and enjoy relating to nature and the outdoors. There are many different reasons for this including parents’ concern for safely, lifestyles, attractive indoor activities and computer games etc. I had a roaming range of about five miles when I was eight and grew up on a fairly remote hill sheep farm in Argyll in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. Back then it was quite normal for children to have such freedom. I probably told my parents when I set off to ride my pony to the beach five miles away, but I used to be out all day and they wouldn’t always know where I was. Compared with a child of eight today our worlds stretched out forever. The average allowed roaming distance for a child today has shrunk enormously from six miles in 1919 to around 300 yards from home in 2008 according to Dr William Bird’s generational case study². Bird studied four generations of one Sheffield family and his work informs government environmental policy today.

Pulling not Pushing

Van Matre³ advocates pulling, rather than pushing, youngsters into outdoor education, and so in beekeeping we can find a good hook like honey tasting which also links in with the pollinating role of bees, now widely taught in schools. You can see the penny drop when you show children a loaf of bread, pack of butter, jam, apples, bananas, blueberries, and porridge oats and ask them what they would be eating for breakfast if we had no pollinators.

Even very young children can understand how bees communicate to their sisters where pollen and nectar can be found, if you show them real pollen on a flower, and the waggle dance. Letting them dress up as bees makes it more fun, and they really get hooked on the session. Ask them each to draw coloured flowers then place the pictures all on the floor all over the room. Cut up some yellow wool into very small pieces and scatter some on each flower. Then, when you explain how the bee moves from flower to flower picking up pollen, and mixing it by leaving some on other flowers, they really grasp the basic pollination concept whilst having fun acting it out as they move from picture to picture moving ‘pollen’ about.

Sharing feelings and observations with children helps them respond more freely than they might do otherwise to textbook explanations according to Joseph Cornell⁴, and I’ve had success with this technique. Rachel Carson⁵ endorsed this by claiming that, when introducing a child to the excitement of the natural world, “It is not half so important to know as to feel”. I tell children that I’m always amazed by the bees in my observation hive when they go out collecting pollen on cold windy days. I ask them to tell me what it feels like to put their hand, or cheek, up against the glass wall of this hive which is permanently set up in my bee shed over the season. They also tell me that they would be sad if there were no bees to pollinate our crops.

These children may, or may not, become our beekeepers of the future but we can foster an early interest which may be developed in later life. As all parents know, children usually come home from school and educate everyone in the family. Children can put pressure on families to change behaviours. So, give children a packet of bee-friendly flower seeds and the skills to identify honey bees, bumble bees and wasps, and you’ll have achieved something worthwhile.

Using Social Media Positively

Most young people like to use social media so you may have a better chance of encouraging them to join your local beekeeping association by using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Email, to advertise and share information. If children feel welcome, and that they can contribute in a meaningful way, they may attract more young people to join beekeeping. So, ask them to write a blog, or an article for the newsletter.

Involve the Parents

Usually, for child protection reasons, children under 16 must be accompanied by a parent/adult family member at most local association meetings so by encouraging children you will also be supporting their parents. A mentoring system whereby each child and parent/young adult will be supported and taught by a suitably qualified and experienced beekeeper for at least a year will enhance learning and progress.

Local beekeeping associations may lend hives, and other equipment for a limited period to encourage a young person to try beekeeping. They may offer free membership. Some young beekeepers may not continue as further education and employment leads them away from home, but the foundations will have been laid for the future.

The annual International Meeting of Young Beekeepers (IMYB) provides an opportunity for three young beekeepers to join a team from each participating country to take part in competitions and cultural exchange. Participants are aged between 12 and 16, and hold the BBKA Basic Beekeeping Certificate, or equivalent. You can help by raising awareness and interest amongst the eligible young beekeepers in your area, and by preparing them for selection.

Careers in Beekeeping

The ultimate encouragement for a young beekeeper, wanting to make a living from bees, would be to support them in an apprenticeship scheme. Few can achieve this individually but The Bee Farmer’s Association has made it possible to offer this option. In 2014 it launched a unique apprenticeship scheme in partnership with Rowse Honey and open to 16-24- year -olds. The apprentices gain skills and experience over a three-year period by working with the most experienced bee farmers in the UK, and overseas during placements.  On successful completion of the programme they are awarded a Diploma Towards Excellence in Bee Farming by the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers. How cool is that!

I hope that, like me, you feel optimistic about the future for bees and inspired to help young people understand the importance of honey bees and other insects in our world, and perhaps take up beekeeping one day themselves.

References

¹Protecting Vulnerable Groups, http://www.gov.scot/Resource/Doc/316712/0100858.pdf

²William Bird (2007) Natural Thinking: Investigating the Links Between the Natural Environment, Biodiversity and Mental Health. Sandy: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

³Van Matre, S., (2004) Earth Education, The Institute for Earth Education, West Virginia

⁴Cornell, J., (1998) Sharing Nature with Children, DAWN Publications, Nevada City

⁵Carson, R., (1965), The Sense of Wonder, Harper, New York