Y9/10 Apiary

Excursion to Windjana Apiary

On 18 November, the Apiary 9/10 elective class went out on an excursion to Windjana for a day of fun and informative hands-on learning. The students went to the Bob’s Beekeeping Windjana apiary and were taught about bees, hives, and beekeeping by professional beekeepers. 

It was an exciting day for the class. Starting at 8:50, the students made their way to the apiary and were immediately met with warm smiles and happy introductions, their main teacher, Bron, one of the head beekeepers in the apiary, guided the students to their seats and were happy to introduce the students to the area and to the other beekeepers that would be helping them throughout the day. Students were able to enjoy the scenery of the lush area, as well as admire the tall gum trees and the beautiful horses that belonged to the ranch next door. 

After students were settled down, sitting next to their peers and ready for anything, they were able to begin their learning process. While throughout the year the students had been able to learn about the geography of bees and beekeeping, learning about the importance of bees around the world and in Australia, the students were now learning about the commercial/business side to bees and beekeeping. Bron walked the students through the various parts of commercial beehives and how beekeepers handled them, happy to answer any questions slung her way by the eager class. The students learned everything about how the bees used the hives to why the hives were made the way they were, even learning some of the specific details used in the hives to keep everything optimal for the bees. 

Once the students had learned about the hives, they were able to learn more about the beekeepers. While learning how beekeepers worked the hives in order to get the harvest they wanted, students were also taught the safety precautions that were used to help beekeepers stay safe. This discussion of safety not only helped the students in a later activity, but helped them to understand their next one, where they were taught how to safely use a smoker. Students were paired up and showed great responsibility and care in lighting their fires and understanding how smokers worked and were used by beekeepers in order to safely collect honey and honeycomb from bees. Their apiary guide, Bron, even sung her praises for the students, as each pair was able to successfully complete the task and get their smoker working without any incidents. 

After their task well done, the students were able to learn a bit more about what they were going to be doing next. They were walked through how to wear their beekeeping suits and were told, much to the students’ delight, that they would be able to get some true hands-on learning with the bees themselves. The group was able to get dressed up, a number of students remarking their apparel’s similarity to that of the workers in Shrek 2, before they set off to the beehives. There, the group was able to not only hold some of the honeycomb racks, but they learned how to remove them from the hives themselves. It was here that the students got to see in person everything about bees that they had learned about, remarking on pollen filled spaces and egg filled domes as well as identifying worker bees and drones and how to identify them from each other. 

With bright smiles on their faces, each student was able to see the bees up close, each getting some one-on-one teaching with the beekeepers and seeing evidence of what they had been learning. It was oh so disappointing when the students had to return the bees back to their hives and were able to wrap up their day. After having learnt how to take care of bees and witness a hive in person, it lit a fire in many to start beekeeping someday in the future. 

With their suits away and final words said, the students were able to make their way back home, all with happy smiles on their faces as they reminisced about the day well spent at the Windjana apiary. The only possible downside to the lovely day out was the lack of honey eaten during their journey while they were all busy thinking bee. 

By Dino M (Year 10 student)

Ms Jemma Ford

Teacher