Educating the Swarms by Kayley

Educating the Swarms by Kayley - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

I tugged the top off the box and peered inside. As I surveyed the small insects busily storing their food and tending to their young, I smiled, put the lid gently back on, and moved to the next box. This was nothing new for me. In fact, it's my job. I'm a beekeeper. My dad has been a beekeeper for 13 years, and I officially joined him four years ago.

I love bees. Every time I watch them, I am amazed by their complex social world. There's something new to learn from them every day. But when I became a beekeeper, I realized that the only thing many people know about bees is that they buzz and sting. And so, I decided I should educate those around me about this fascinating insect.

I started by educating people about bees through 4-H. 4-H has many opportunities, especially through public speaking, but I had to actively pursue these opportunities because beekeeping is not an “official” 4-H project. Therefore, I needed to think outside-the-box to promote beekeeping through 4-H. I wrote talks about topics such as bee swarms, how to become a beekeeper in 3 easy steps, and how honey is harvested, and then presented them at local, county, regional, and even state levels through public speaking presentations and visual displays.

I loved sharing my knowledge of bees with people who are involved in 4-H, but I knew that people outside of 4-H also needed to know about the importance of bees. So many people don't realize that without bees, our whole environment would be destroyed. Bees are the number one pollinator in America, so without them, the agriculture system would be significantly impacted. But ironically, bees are being killed off as they do their important job of pollination because of the increased use of pesticides and herbicides. Most of the general public doesn't know anything about this dangerous situation, so I knew I had to do something, and thankfully, an opportunity came up last year that gave me just that opportunity.

Through 4-H, I was made aware of a program called Agriculture Innovators Experience (AIE). This program focuses on educating the public about a specific aspect of agriculture every year, and this year the topic was (you guessed it!) bees and pollination. I was selected as a Kansas representative for this program and was given the opportunity to take the message of bees as pollinators to over 100 school children. I explained all about the importance of bees, how they affect our nation's food supply, and how amazing they are. I led them in hands-on activities that showed them exactly how bees pollinate, how they “talk” to each other through dances, and how they are able to pollinate so many flowers and plants. I had to tailor my presentation to kids of different ages, making it simple and more interactive for the younger grades, and more detailed for the older ones. I was surprised at how much information even the youngest retained and how excited they were to learn and to do their part to save the bees. On return trips to one school, I found that I had earned the nickname “The Bee Lady” when some of the kids spotted me!

Another aspect of the AIE program was a social media campaign. They goal was to promote bees as pollinators using social media. I did not have a lot of experience with social media before this, so I had quite a learning curve ahead of me. I set up a Facebook page for my honey business, Brethour Bee Company, and made a series of videos about my life as a beekeeper. I posted the educational videos and pictures of different AIE presentations, such as the kids working on a pollination activity or asking questions. I was amazed at how many people can be reached through the internet! My posts received a total of about 2,000 views, along with many people commenting with questions they had about bees. I loved being able to reach so many people at the touch of a button.

I learned through AIE that there are many different opportunities you can take to educate people, but you have to be ready when one comes your way. Am I finished with bee education now that AIE is over? No way! I'm planning on building my honey business and continuing to impact people through videos and posts about bees and beekeepers alike!

Have I made an impact on my community or my world? When the children's faces lit up with understanding as they saw the importance of bees and then darkened as they learned about the trouble bees face, I can only hope that the answer is yes. Will it be an overnight change? Probably not. But if I start each day determined to make a difference, eventually it's bound to happen.

I heaved the lid on the last hive and looked happily back over all of them. Today, checking my hives worked like clockwork. I loaded up my equipment and headed back to the house to get ready for another day of changing the world, one step at a time.