MEXICO — Meroby Elementary School students — all dressed in white bee suits from head to toe — celebrated World Bee Day recently with a visit to the nearby MV Bees Academy, the largest school apiary in the state.
First grader Carob Anthony Andrews was asked if he had ever worn a beekeeping suit.
“Of course, because that’s my house,” he said, pointing across the street. “I come here a lot.”
World Bee Day is “when we celebrate bees pollinating and beekeeping all over the world,” fourth grade teacher Maggie Corlett said.
Kindergarten through fourth graders took part in activities throughout the day May 20. They went inside the apiary, which is just off Highland Terrace where the new K-8 Mountain Valley Community School is being built.
In its third year, MV Bees Academy began with a grant through the Maine Department of Education to construct a building and apiary and buy safety gear, equipment and honey bees for the program.
It’s the third full year of Meroby’s beekeeping class. Last fall, fourth graders from Rumford Elementary joined in.
Corlett’s students learn about bees’ connection to agriculture, food production and economics. They bottle the honey and craft it into lip balm and candles and sell their goods online, reinvesting all proceeds back into the bee program.
At the school, students created beekeeping art, had a bee tag game, tasted honey and read about bees.
Among those visiting the apiary on World Bee Day were Elaine Bartley, Sharon Gallant and Ted Lyman of the Office of Innovation from Department of Education. Bartley said the school apiary is the largest in the state.
“We are very thankful and very proud of this one, and the work that Maggie has done to make sure it keeps going, and all the folks who are working with her,” Bartley said.
Corlett said the success of the apiary is also dependent on area beekeepers, from what she calls ‘super-seasoned beekeepers’ to brand new ones, who donate their time to keep it successful.
One of the issues affecting the apiary is a bee virus.
“We’ve definitely had a lot of losses this winter,” Corlett said of the virus.
“Fortunately, we sold enough honey so we could purchase more bees,” she said. “So it’s not going to impact us terribly, but the honey and the products selling is what’s going to keep this sustainable. There is no budget in the district for this, not one penny. It sustains itself.”
Bartley said, “Our goal was not to just one-off deals, but projects that had the chance to systemically change the way school districts think about education. We go back and try to look at the different projects that we helped fund and try to bring other educators with us so that they can see it and have ideas for the future, should there ever be more funding available.”
Corlett said the when the new school opens behind the apiary next year, the apiary will need to expand to serve 1,200 students compared to the 250 students served on World Bee Day.
The public is invited to see the beekeepers at the apiary on the first Saturday of every month from noon to 1 p.m.
To provide for the financial needs of maintaining an apiary, the MV Bees Academy offers honey, queen bees and crafts made by students. This allows for the purchase of items such as mite treatments, sugar for feeding the bees and equipment replacement.
FMI about the products, visit https://sites.google.com/rsu10.org/mvbees, or contact Maggie Corlett at [email protected].
