buzz … buzzzzzz

With high expectations from teacher Patrice Cox for Scientific Research and Design students, seniors Brandon Renteria, Joel Avalos and Ernesto Dominguez have been working hard on their research on how to make hive splits and queen cells; in other words, they are basically creating their own beehives and taking care of them.

“Something that I personally have enjoyed about working with bees is the people that I work with because it makes time go fast when my teammates and I go out to the field,” Avalos said. “It’s fascinating to see how hard the bees work to produce honey and how important they are to our ecosystem. It’s really cool how loyal they are to their queen and how bees follow her anywhere.”

Over spring break and the extended time because of the COVID-19, they are doing an apprenticeship with Roark Acres Bee Farm. During class, they spend time on building beehives and gathering up tools they may need.

“Working with the honey farm was never a requirement for them. It was just something they wanted to do, so I helped them get in touch with the right people,” Cox said. “How far they want to extend it is between the boys and the farm owners, but I believe they have continued to work there at least to some extent during this extended school closure.”

Renteria, Avalos and Dominguez arrive at the field early each morning and don their beekeeper suits; they start by lighting the smoker and walking down to the queen bee’s yard. They look out for good brood frames worthy of graphing – a bee brood refers to the eggs, larvae and pupae of honeybees and all the remaining frames are separated into different boxes. They later go into the equipment yard and make boxes or fix broken ones.

“I love honey and I researched that the bee population was going down so I thought I would like to help them out,” Renteria said. “I have learned how to get more hives out by taking the queen out and excluding her and making the workers lay the queen’s eggs. I have also learned that if you leave a hive open or if there is a weak hive, they will rob and kill that give and take all their resources. It’s been a really fascinating project to work on.”