Beginner Bee Keeping Course

Morgan Hampton

Name

4/13/2021

 

My Interest in Bees

 

Hello, I am Morgan Hampton. I live in Raymond Illinois where I am attending 8
th grade at Lincolnwood Junior high school. I am the 2019 Jr. Miss Montgomery County. I have met many
people through holding this title and have expanded my connections. My favorite part of
participating in pageants is the fact that I am a leader, and I can inspire others. I have many
younger people in our community looking up to me and I always do my best to be a role model. I
am a member of Country Roots 4 H club, based out of the Montgomery County area. This fall I
had the honor of joining FFA. Within my past six years of 4 H, I have participated in many
different projects ranging from poultry to sewing. Being in 4 H we learn many skills, such as
how to work as a team, how to help the community and how to keep the future of agriculture in
our area alive. While I have always showed livestock in 4 H. I plan to add a new project this
year, Entomology. I have decided to get into bee keeping because it allows me to be creative,
helps the environment, and is a topic that I think many more youth would be interested in if they
were made aware of it.

 

Beekeeping at first seemed very confusing, but then I learned that it’s a learning process
and you are never done learning. You get to use your creativity. Earlier this school year my
parents and I were having a discussion on what I should do this upcoming year for my FFA and
4 H project. Many suggestions were thrown around but there was one that really stood out to me,
bee keeping. I kept dismissing it as an idea because I thought that there was no way I would ever
be able to get started and keep my hives up and functioning alone. But while visiting a local
county fair I was walking past some of the stands and there was one for beekeepers. I asked mom
if we could stop and maybe get some information. We started talking to them. By the end of our
discussion, I had decided that I should look further into bees. When I started to do more research,
I learned that in the bee community there are several different ways people make and maintain
their hives. There is creativity in bee keeping, everyone has their own preferences. From the
people I have talked to whether they have been doing it for 20 years or two they can all agree
that it’s a trial and error process and you must discover what works best for you. From picking
the type of hive, feeding methods, and even your type of bee you can show your creativity. It’s
like building your own community and it is your job to maintain order. This is one of the factors
that leads me towards beekeeping.

 

Secondly, bee keeping helps our environment and hold the ecosystem together. Our
economic and agricultural well being depend largely on pollinating. Learning Information like
this inspires our youth to take action to try to preserve and maintain our agricultural. Bees are
like the behind the scenes workers in a movie and all the plants are the actors. Sure, the plants do
produce the byproducts, but without the bees there would be no production. Bees are also a large
part in many ecosystems .They support the growth of plants, trees, and fruits. Bees act as the
glue and help build the foundation of ecosystems. Unfortunately, the bees are face any issues
such as habitat loss, mites, and pesticides. It is important we do everything possible to help them,
because without them and pollination, many things in this world would be different. Over 30%
of crops and 90% of all plants require cross pollination. Bees are the top cross pollinators. Not to
mention the bees themselves give us many byproducts. One being the very famous jar of honey.
Honey is believed to have many health benefits and is oftentimes used in cooking. Bee’s wax is
also very useful product. It is used for things such as candles, wood polish, book binding thread,
lip balm and more.

 

Thus, I think much more youth would be interested in beekeeping if they were made
aware of it. And I plan to encourage others to do so. Beekeeping can be seen as a hobby, a
business, or anything else you may want it to be. I plan to sell honey and other products such as
Chapstick or bees wrap. I plan to manage m y own sales and business along with the assistance of
my parents. I feel it is important for kids to learn how to take charge and work hard for what they
want. By having my own business, I will learn how to properly manage money, improve social
skills, and turn challenges into opportunities. Many other teens would also jump at the
opportunity to develop skills such as these. And I think bees would be a great place to start. This
year I took intro to Ag, and we learned that bees are a large part of the pollination process.
Without pollination our environment would fall apart. Over 80 percent of all flowering plants
need pollination in order to survive. Facts such as this sparked my interest because I see that I
could have a small part in protecting and preserving something that does so much for the world.
When many people think of a bee, they just think of something that stings and makes the
classical, “buzz” sound. When they are extremely interesting creatures and I have enjoyed
learning about them and the w ay they live. Every bee in the hive has a job, and they can adapt to
their situation and learn how to survive. One topic that I hope to learn more about is how
pesticides have affected bees and what we can do to prevent the mass amounts of bees being lost
and the defects they are causing them. I hope that in the future we can bring pollinators more
attention in the classroom and we learn about the large part they play.

 

In conclusion, I like beekeeping because it allows me to be creative, helps the
environment, and is a topic that I think many more youth would be interested in if they were
made aware of it. I hope that through this experience I will learn many lessons and become more
aware of the hard work that is put into beekeeping.