Honey Bee Learning Opportunity

Posted on: October 18, 2023 | Category: News & Updates

The Application Period for Pollination and Queening Institutes Is Now Open! This is an excellent learning opportunity regarding the honey bee. Teachers are welcome to apply to one or both education institute offerings.

Full details below:

The Pollination Institute will be onsite for three days in and around Bakersfield, California. We will be spending a full day and a half with Bret Adee learning about how South Dakota’s bees are impacting our nation’s food supply. In addition to this, we will be spending the remaining time on California agriculture.

The Queening Institute will be onsite in Woodville, Mississippi, with a full day with Kelvin Adee to learn about how Adee Honey produces 35,000 new hives each spring at their queening site.

In addition to learning about queening, we will be spending the rest of our time learning about Southern agriculture. Both institutes are available for two graduate credits at $45 per credit. Both institutes require two curriculum activities to be developed based on institute experience to be collected into a new South Dakota honey bee curriculum focused on commercialized bees and their impact.

Pollination Institute: February 14-20, 2024
February 14: Roscoe, South Dakota, to Salt Lake City (pick up teachers along the way)
February 15: Salt Lake City to Bakersfield
February 16: Bejo Seeds, Dosanjh Bros Almonds orchard, almond shelling facility, blueberry/cherry pollination contracts with Bret Adee, and Morro Bay
February 17: Hive staging and orange juicing and processing facility with Bret Adee and China Ranch Date Farm, and Mojave Desert National Preserve
February 18: California Citrus State Historic Park, citrus, apply, and berry orchards, La Brea Tar Pits, and Griffith Observatory
February 19: Bakersfield to Salt Lake City
February 20: Salt Lake City to Roscoe, South Dakota (drop off teachers along the way)

Queening Institute: March 13-19, 2024
March 13: Roscoe, South Dakota, to Warsaw, Missouri (pick up teacher along the way)
March 14: Warsaw to Baton Rouge
March 15: Queening, grafting, and hive splitting and new hive formation with Kelvin Adee in Woodville, Mississippi and Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge
March 16: Crawfish and rice farm tour, crawfish packing tour, alligator chateau tour and exhibits, cotton plantation picking and tour, tobacco plantation and processing tour, Jackson Square, and French Quarter
March 17: Laura Sugar Plantation and banana grove tour, Oak Alley sugar plantation tour, Barataria Preserve tour, and Mississippi Delta tour.
March 18: Baton Rouge to Warsaw
March 19: Warsaw to Roscoe, South Dakota (drop off teachers along the way)

Teachers are not required to work with bees, but the opportunity will be available on both institutes to do so. Bee suits will be provided along with epi pens in case of an emergency due to an allergy.

If you are interested, please look through the itinerary link for details.

For questions and application submission, please email Spencer.Cody@k12.sd.us by November 9, 2023.