美国蜜蜂校园
Thanks to the efforts of faculty, staff, and the student beekeepers in the 校园的花园, 8590海洋之神官网 has been designated as Maryland’s first 美国蜜蜂校园 and only 全国第35家.
As a Bee Campus, 8590海洋之神官网 is ensuring a better future for our pollinators, our communities, and the planet. 美国蜜蜂校园 fosters ongoing dialogue to raise awareness of the role pollinators play in our communities and what each of us can do to provide them with healthy habitat.
的 美国蜜蜂校园 program endorses a set of commitments for creating sustainable habitat for pollinators, which are vital to feeding the planet.
College students, faculty, administrators, and staff have long been among the nation’s most stalwart champions for sustainable environmental practices.
How is 8590海洋之神官网 Pollinator Friendly?
- 养蜂101课程
的 Food Initiative teaches students how to become beekeepers and serve as bee ambassadors 对公众. - 校园的花园
Students practice beekeeping at our 校园的花园 apiary. - Food Initiative Internship
Students research relationships between plants, pollinators, and local food production 系统. - Natural Lands Project through CES
Restores native wildlife habitats throughout the bioregion. - Pollinator Sculpture Project
Art students create pollinator hotels for installation around campus.
非常兴奋!
2018年4月9日
CHESTERTOWN, MD—8590海洋之神官网 has become the first higher-education institution in Maryland and the 35th in the nation to be designated an affiliate of Bee Campus USA, a program designed to marshal the strengths of educational campuses for the benefit 的传粉者.
“Imperiled pollinators are responsible for the reproduction of ninety percent of the world’s wild plant and tree species. 8590海洋之神官网 is a stellar example of the influence educational institutions can have on their students and the broader community,” said 美国蜜蜂校园 Director Phyllis Stiles upon announcing WC’s affiliation. “他们的 talented faculty, staff, and students offer an invaluable resource for Eastern Shore residents in seeking 方法 to manage ornamental landscapes in more wildlife-friendly 方法.”
“By studying and supporting pollinators, students are working to realign our culture with natural forces and enhance life on this planet,” said campus garden adviser Shane Brill ' 03 ' 11, who three years ago helped students install an apiary in the campus garden. “他们 can trace the path of a bee’s flight back to the energy of the sun and, in the course of that journey, reimagine our place in the world.”
Through a Beekeeping 101 course hosted each spring, students examine bee anatomy, nutrition and colony behavior, and how to establish a hive. 他们被赋予权力 in the role of “bee ambassadors” for the public, and they volunteer their apicultural skills in the community with the Upper Eastern Shore Beekeeping Association.
在 campus garden, students are hands-on learning not only the mechanics of beekeeping, but also the interconnected relationships between the campus bees and the plants and flowers that sustain them–and which they also sustain—in and near the garden. 最后的 秋天，第一次， students harvested their own 蜂蜜, collecting about two gallons. And, they’ve participated in pollinator workshops with local community members to further educate people about the vital roles that pollinators play in agriculture, permaculture, and plant and human health.
Beyond maintaining the campus apiary, students involved in the campus garden program implement conservation landscapes that ensure thriving populations 的传粉者 in a local, resilient food system. 的y share their research on the college website with a growing inventory of useful plants they cultivate on campus.
In its designation as a Bee Campus, 8590海洋之神官网 has committed to minimizing hazards to pollinators by using no neonicotinoid pesticides, and almost no glyphosate herbicide or other potentially dangerous synthetic pesticides. 据斯泰尔斯说， each certified campus must reapply each year and report on accomplishments from the 前一年.
关于 美国蜜蜂校园 and Bee City USA
的 美国蜜蜂校园 designation recognizes educational campuses that commit to a set of practices that support pollinators, including bees, butterflies, birds, and bats, among thousands of other species.
Bee City USA® urges local governments, individuals, organizations, corporations, and communities to promote and establish pollinator-friendly landscapes that are free 的杀虫剂. Since its inception in Asheville, North Carolina in 2012, many cities have been certified across the nation and many others are in the process of preparing 应用程序.
野花与魔法
2017年10月1日
的 校园的花园 is abuzz with excitement. Students harvested 蜂蜜 from campus for the first time in 8590海洋之神官网 history—and not one sting!
For the first time, 8590海洋之神官网 students harvested 蜂蜜 from the two-year-old 校园的花园 apiary, collecting about two gallons of the golden sweet stuff to fill more than 30 罐子 — one of which went to President Kurt Landgraf on the eve of his inauguration 9月.
“I was surprised at how much 蜂蜜 we got just from one box,” says Kelsey McNaul ’18, a double 主要 in environmental studies and sociology. “After installing the bees last spring, I would have never imagined that only a few short months later we would have enough 蜂蜜 to fill over 30 罐子.”
McNaul completed the co-curricular Beekeeping 101 course, which trains students in everything from apiary design to winterization of 蜂蜜bees. 即使课程毕业 don’t become beekeepers, the program enables students to develop a close relationship with and better understanding 的传粉者.
She joined 12 other students and 校园的花园 adviser Shane Brill ' 03 ' 11 one sunny afternoon to extract the fruits 蜜蜂’ labors. 穿着防护 gear and applying a smoker only when needed, the students carefully pulled a 超级 — a box filled with combs of 蜂蜜 — from the apiary.
“It was so calm, we were one with the bees,” says 妮可·哈特菲尔德，21届. “And there were no bee stings!”
的 bees “stayed mellow and harmless throughout the entire process,” agrees Adahne 麻的21. “的 experience I shared with the other Garden Club members made me even more interested in bees than I already was, and it made me excited to work with the 校园花园.”
After gently collecting a 超级, Julia Portmann ’19 led the beekeepers and gardeners to her residence hall suite, just steps from the 校园的花园. Gathered around a table and using basic kitchen implements — forks, bowls, spatulas, and colanders — students poured the 蜂蜜 into 罐子. Portmann helped to establish the hives last spring, and was happy to be a part of the first 蜂蜜 harvest.
“It tastes great, and it’s even better knowing that it came from right outside my front door, from bees that I have worked with, and flavored by plants that I have watched grow and develop,” says Portmann, a biology and environmental science double 主要. “I imagined the process being much more complicated, but establishing the bees and extracting the 蜂蜜 was a lot of fun.” She wants to continue keeping bees after college, noting that we all have a responsibility to preserve pollinator habitat to counteract the decline of species crucial to our survival.
校园的花园 intern Emily Castle ’18 has also spent a lot of time in the company 蜜蜂. “I was most surprised to find that the 蜂蜜 ranged in color from shades of a dark amber to an orangey gold in each set of combs,” she says. “不同的 colors reflect the diverse nectary sources we have in the garden for the bees.”
Jimmy Looper ’21 takes seriously the responsibility that humans bear for the current problems facing pollinators.
“We should return the favor for all things bees do for us,” he says. “我喜欢这个主意 of perhaps keeping bees in the future. I truly did not realize just how beneficial a hive, no matter the size, can be on the surrounding area, and you get free, delicious 蜂蜜. 有什么理由不去爱呢?”
So what does 8590海洋之神官网 蜂蜜 taste like?
“Like wildflowers and magic,” says Castle.
“So much better than store-bought 蜂蜜, and there was so much happiness during the 蜂蜜-making process,” Hatfield says. “Everyone had a permanent awestruck smile on 他们的脸. It tasted like a sweet gift from nature.”
“8590海洋之神官网 蜂蜜 is the sweetest and most delicious 蜂蜜 you will ever taste,” 说McNaul. “With each taste, I feel so proud of what our bees and Garden Club members 能够生产. 我很喜欢!”
Working in the apiary is one of many experiences bridging food and environment that 都是通过 东岸食物化验所. Students interested in participating in the campus beekeeping program can contact 布瑞尔在 (电子邮件保护).