This email to YABeeP members is being posted on our website as it may be of interest to others who follow this blog:

1. Natural Beekeeping in Schools

Natural Beekeeping Trust

We have been contacted by our friends in the Natural Beekeeping Trust about a former student of one of their first beekeeping courses, Vanessa Clarke, who was a BT executive at the time. Vanessa went on to a Rudolf Steiner Waldorf Teacher Training course.

Now in her last months of teacher training Vanessa is proposing a project to further natural beekeeping which YABeeP would like to support.

Vanessa reports: " I am in my last months of study and for my final project, I have chosen to offer UK Steiner Waldorf schools practical ways of incorporating natural beekeeping methods into their curriculum.  There has been quite a lot of interest from Steiner Waldorf teachers - if I can make the integration as painless, efficient and economical as possible.

My vision is that Steiner Waldorf schools build and manage their own hive/s with the help of a local mentor.  If this is not possible, another suggestion is to have school children regularly visit local apiaries,  In order to determine the feasibility of such a project, I will be sending out two surveys - one to natural beekeepers and another to Steiner Waldorf teachers."

Depending on the results from the pilot, the hope is that the project will be offered to all schools - see attached.

YABeeP is asking members plus any other Natural Beekeepers whether you would be willing to help Vanessa getting the "evidence" she needs by completing the questionnaire (LINK HERE), and forwarding it to other natural beekeepers who are likely to be interested or might co-operate. This could be significant for future bees.

2. Brilliant Insect TV

Watch them again on BBC iPlayer

If you have not been watching the excellent series on Insects that the BBC has been running over the past couple of weeks spend a while to catch up on the BBC iPlayer.  2 must see programmes for those interested in bees are:

• Insect Dissection: How Insects Work - available on iPlayer (sorry, BBC iPlayer is only available in the UK)
• Planet Ant: Life inside the Colony - which is being repeated on BBC HD (Freeview channel 102) today at 19:00 hours or can be viewed on your pc. Ants and bees are very closely related.

Don't say we didn't tell you!

YABeeP

23 March 2013