Mr. Bennett Townley
Have you heard the news? CVU is buzzing with bees! Not only are they used to help pollinate CVU’s vegetable garden and the twelve apple trees in the field next to the ponds, but the bees also offer Natural Resources students a hands-on learning experience as they learn how to harvest honey. Honeymaking gives these students a more engaging and potentially money-making experience as long as no one gets stung!
The bees arrived in early May of 2018 after CVU Senior Katelyn Wong was so inspired about saving bees and educating people on how endangered they are that she drafted the initiative to bring bees to CVU. “The bee population has been endangered for a good amount of time, and it seemed like although we as a culture are aware of this, it wasn’t an action item on our agenda.” Wong hopes that throughout the years, students who are not just in the Natural Resources program but in all classes can learn about the responsibility of beekeeping as well as how they are endangered and what we as a society can do to help.
Wong said an interesting fact about locating a hive is that the bees will transition better to the new location if it is within a radius of a couple of miles from the old hive’s location.
A shipment of European Honey Bees was delivered to Champlain Valley Union High School (CVU) from the North Woods Apiary in Westfield, Vermont, which is located up in the Northeast Kingdom in early May of 2018.
