To bee or not to bee; Pearson College students are choosing the former.
Amongst the backdrop of a brown and yellow November and the rustic scenery of a school embedded in the depths of rural Metchosin, a slightly audible buzzing drones underneath the rustling of fall leaves.
B次元官网网址淚 think itB次元官网网址檚 super great, because bees are one of those animals that we donB次元官网网址檛 often recognize for their work and their importance in our community,B次元官网网址� second-year student Emil Toft says of the colony of bees being cultivated on the schoolB次元官网网址檚 campus.
Toft helps care for the hive, nestled in the backyard of one of the school buildings. He and a fellow student inherited the job from graduates who have moved on.
They, too, will pass it on one day, but for now itB次元官网网址檚 their school job, one of the self-directed duties mandated for all of the roughly 160 students on campus. Toft just happened to choose to bee.
B次元官网网址淚 think it is a great relationship with humans and animals B次元官网网址� I definitely enjoy it,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淲e definitely want to pollinate campus and that is why we got the bees in the first place.B次元官网网址�
Starting off this year with no experience in apiculture B次元官网网址� the caring of bees B次元官网网址� Toft now handles duties ranging from harvesting the honey to feeding the bees.
He even vapourizes the hive to protect it from varroa mites that destroy the bees.
Under the tute-lage of Capital Regional Beekeeping Association member Derek Wulff, who cares for more than a dozen hives of his own, the student-led hive has been thriving on campus.
B次元官网网址�(Students) love to come in and pull at the frames and look at the bees and learn a lot about them. They are very inquisitive here,B次元官网网址� said Wulff. B次元官网网址淭he students love to dive into (it).B次元官网网址�
He not only mentors the students during the school year, he cares for the colony while students are away in the summer, taking the colony to help pollinate blueberry and blackberry farms in Metchosin as well as fireweed up in Jordan River.
Wulff said education is a big part of the equation at Pearson and he has been impressed with what the students have pulled off in less than two years.
TheyB次元官网网址檝e built the frames from scratch and plan to make more, to accommodate the potential of a second campus colony that would allow more students to get involved.
Toft, who hails from Denmark and has experienced boarding schools elsewhere, said PearsonB次元官网网址檚 school-wide policy to promote these self-directed studies has proven an extremely positive forum, and one heB次元官网网址檚 not experienced before.
B次元官网网址�(I like) the way that the students here are first of all encouraged to take leadership and create their own activities B次元官网网址� and find something that we really enjoy,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淏eekeeping is a great lesson in leadership and responsibility.B次元官网网址�
alim@goldstreamgazette.com
