Over 70 Morse High School students got their hands sticky this week while harvesting honey from school beehives to jar and sell in support of their new bee club. Students first took an interest in the endangered pollinators after countless biology lessons by high school science teacher and beekeeper Carolyn Nichols.
Joining the bee club was a no-brainer for 10th grader Amelia Hoag. In addition to her love of bees and honey, she said her grandparent was also a beekeeper.
While filling glass jars with the bee’s golden nectar, 10th grader Dennis Bramlett gave culinary suggestions, pointing out honey is “amazing” on pancakes and sourdough English muffins.
To process the honey, students took wooden frames that were extracted from hives and used a scraping tool to cut away excess wax into buckets, which would later be used to make lip balm. Students then placed the honey-coated frames into a radial honey extractor — a device that removes the liquid honey from the honeycomb without destroying the frame. Once extracted, the liquid honey is then stored in air-tight containers for a few days before bottling.
Carolyn Nichols shows bee club members how to cut away the beeswax and expose the liquid honey. Maria Skillings / The Times Record
Nichols said her bee-based curriculum has become essential in how students connect to science and the world around them.
“Honeybees provide a platform for biology students to learn concepts such as biochemistry, coevolution, ecology, immunity, genetics and behavior in a real-life setting,” she said.
Schools and private homes adding apiaries — a place to keep bees — is one of the top 10 ways to help increase the U.S. bee population, according to thebeeconservancy.org. Since 1947, the U.S. bee population has declined by 60%. Without bees and other pollinators, Americans would lose 100% of almond crops and 90% of apple, onion, blueberry, cucumber and carrot crops.
In order to launch the bee club, Nichols spent four years writing grants and raised over $7,000, in addition to pitching in her own money, to purchase beekeeping equipment. There are 25 students in the club and beekeeping suits alone cost $200 each, Nichols said.
“My civically minded students voiced concern about the destruction of the habitat and the plight of pollinators,” she said.
Nichols said her bees have done extremely well over the years and the state has taken notice.
“This fall, we were chosen to participate in the Honey Bee Genome Project that will sequence the DNA of our colony,” Nichols said. “In addition, we have been recruited to participate in the Honey Bee Health Survey — a comprehensive examination of the colony health throughout apiaries in the United States.”
Having received many inquiries from other Maine schools wishing to start an apiary on campus, Nichols said the only other school she knows to have bees currently is Georgetown Central School. The primary school’s bee program is run by local beekeeper and retired schoolteacher Karen Mace.
“I wanted to inspire students to become future stewards of pollinators and native plant species,” Nichols said.
For more information on beekeepers in Maine, visit mainebeekeepers.org/local-chapters/.
Elijah Reavely, grade 10, places a hive frame into the honey extractor. Maria Skillings / The Times Record
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