Ettamarie Peterson
Many years ago, my son and his wife asked me if I would take on the job of being the Beekeeping Project Leader for Liberty 4-H so that my granddaughters could have that as one of their projects. Being a sweet (aren’t all beekeepers sweet?) granny, of course I said yes! The girls are grown up now, but I am still the beekeeper project leader and love it!
4-H is part of the County Extension Services of the Land Grant Colleges across the United States. It was started to help children learn about agriculture. Children can join 4-H as young as five years old and stay in until they are 18. Beekeepers can be five years old. This is great because we need young beekeepers. I read somewhere that the average age to start beekeeping is 50 years old. We need to get young people involved! They are fascinated by bees and generally have not developed the fears adults have. One aspect of 4-H I really like is that siblings can all be part of the same project and often parents become involved with it in one way or another. Many of my young beekeepers have parents that find themselves acquiring bee suits and get up close and personal with the bees along with their children. I do have to remind them not to do much but watch and maybe help with heavy lifting.
The projects start in September of each year and the children renew if they want to continue for the next school year. Since beekeeping is really a year around job, my beekeepers keep working with their colonies and me all Summer as well. In the Fall the once-a-month meetings are focused on learning about the life cycle of the bees, their changing jobs, the roles of the workers, drones and queens and nutrition needs. They also learn about basic equipment needed. Fortunately, many beekeepers have donated used equipment to our project. This means they need to evaluate how good that equipment is and learn how to clean and sanitize it. They learn there are various ways to make frames with or without foundation. They choose which method suits their needs. Learning about the various sizes of boxes and deciding what they want to use are lessons we have early in the year. In November we make candles from donated wax. The children have a lot of molds to use as our collection has grown over the years. In December we make honey cookies or beeswax lip balm. That is always a fun evening! This year while making beeswax lip balm, one of my beekeepers decided she and her cousins that are also in the project should start a business. She pointed out that they had harvested honey, made candles and now lip balm so they would have products to sell. Not bad for children still in elementary school! In January we start talking about swarm season and how to catch swarms. None of my 4-H beekeepers have ever bought bees! I catch lots of swarms and some of them have, too. We have made some wonderful swarm traps they take home to hang in trees before the end of February.
Different subjects have come up during the year. If a colony collapses, the children are encouraged to bring it to the meeting so we can learn what may have gone wrong. One meeting I brought in some drone comb full of larvae that they opened and found lots of mites. What better way to learn how mites are developed! They have looked at combs with various queen cells and determined which ones hatched and which ones were chewed open. I have an observation hive that is on display in my barn where we meet. Every month they look at it and determine how it is doing. They become masters at finding the queen and spotting queen cells being built. Looking at monitoring boards and discussing what can be learned about the colony is a great activity. I encourage the children that have working colonies to bring their monitoring boards to the meetings. We also look at hives that had colonies that died to determine as best as possible what killed them. They get a first-hand experience learning about bee diseases and predators such as yellow jackets. Sometimes they neglect a dead-out hive and they get a great lesson in wax moth damage. I use all mistakes as lessons. Some of the mistakes are even my own such as the time I put too large a swarm in a catcher box and most of the bees died of overheating. It was a horrible mistake. Luckily the next day I was able to catch another swarm and was more careful transporting the bees.
A good activity to do with the young beekeepers is learn about what is required on honey labels and design their own. I ordered samples of honey labels to show them for ideas. They need to understand beekeeping has rules and regulations they must follow by law.
Record keeping is an important subject 4-H members learn. They are encouraged to keep track of their expenses, hive checks, production of their honey if any, and hopefully any income the honey brings them. I have made a hive check sheet they can use to record what they see. This includes evaluating the temperament of the colony, its strength, the brood pattern, the honey and bee bread supplies, the queen and any signs of disease such as chalk brood. They learn before going into the hives for inspections, they should have a purpose and be prepared with the necessary equipment such as another super if it is that time of the year. When we do hive inspections, I take my camera along. If I am busy with the young beekeeper, I will hand the camera over to the parent to be the photographer. This is good for a couple of reasons. First, it keeps the parent busy and second, it makes them feel included. One of the most difficult things about being a beekeeping project leader is encouraging the children to ask and answer my questions while manipulating their hives and discouraging the parents to do those things. Most parents are good, but some get so excited or know so much they can’t stand back quietly.
I do involve the parents in many ways. One year I took advantage of the skills a couple of dads had in wood working. They helped the young people build nucleus boxes. They pre-cut many of the pieces needed and taught them good carpentry skills. Each young beekeeper was able to take home a nicely made nuc box that afternoon. Another time we made a “Buzz Board”, and I had a father wire it up. This was used by the children who came to the science and agricultural events. It said across the top, “What do I pollinate?” My beekeepers pasted different fruits and vegetables on the board. The children touched a screwdriver to a bolt on the picture. If the fruit or vegetable was bee pollinated, they would hear a buzz. My beekeepers were in charge of showing them how to do it and give them a honey stick as a reward. The Farm Bureau donated boxes of honey sticks for these events. This year one parent was a great help in our beeswax lip balm making as she is a quality control person in a cosmetic company. She taught us that the vitamin E was an antioxidant and kept the fats from going rancid. She also provided some interesting flavors to add to the lip balms.
Children love to teach other children. The observation hive also goes to the events. My young beekeepers stand by it explaining what is happening in the hive and helping the children find the queen. At these events we also have lots of photos, bee equipment and pieces of honeycomb for education. The young beekeepers can show the children the different comb sizes and explain about worker comb and drone comb. 4-H members are encouraged to do public service and these events count in their record books.
Another public service my young beekeepers have done is spend a day at a local nursery putting little bee stickers on bee friendly plants. They had lists of plants bees need and went around the nursery finding the various plants. We also took the observation hive to the nursery at the owner’s request. The public and the owner learned a lot along with the 4-H beekeepers.
Planting for bees around their homes and neighborhoods is encouraged. Last year they made seed balls to toss here and there. I asked for seed donations and had collected some seeds to use in this activity. A friend donated the clay we used to make the seed balls.
Working with young children can be a lot of fun. It is important to remember the younger children have shorter attention spans so make the meetings as hands-on as possible. Use the older ones to help whenever possible. I love watching the older children teach the younger ones.
Before becoming a 4-H project leader you must be screened by being fingerprinted and go through a training session to learn the rules of appropriate conduct and how to report any suspicions of child abuse. This training is now done on-line, and a certificate of completion is issued before you are certified by the County Director. The training is reviewed each year in the Fall. You will also be asked about your health and auto insurance coverage. Each local club has at least one community leader. That leader is very helpful in guiding you through the enrollment process and makes sure you have a list of the 4-H members that signed up for your project. A 4-H member from another club can come to your project if there is a cross-club agreement signed off.
As we beekeepers well know, beekeeping can be an expensive activity. I have been able to keep the cost down by letting other beekeepers know about the project. It is amazing how much used and hardly used equipment has been donated to the project. I received many used hive boxes, frames, wax, solar wax melters, two honey extractors, hive tools, smokers, and a variety of sizes of suits. Some of the hive boxes are not in the best of shape. Those are great for lessons on evaluating, repairing, and sterilizing used equipment.
There are many 4-H clubs in most counties but very few offer a beekeeping project unfortunately. We need more! Remember beekeepers do not all live in the country and 4-H is not just for country children. Beekeeping can be an intercity project. Go to https://4-h.org to learn more about 4-H and where your nearest club is.
Ettamarie Peterson has been the Liberty 4-H Beekeeping Project leader for many years and is looking forward to having her great grandson in the project in four years from now. His mother was one of the first beekeepers she had when she started the project. You can send an email to ettamarie@petersonsfarm.com if you have more questions.
