Farmers Leading Youth (FLY) BeeKeeping

Project Abstract

Neighborhood BUG’s Farmers Leading Youth (FLY) program uses gardening as a tool to educate youth. Along with leadership, mentoring, sustainability and marketing, we help students view gardening as a way of longevity. The concept we will focus on in this project is beekeeping. These concept will give the students the ability to see how a natural cycle can maintain balance and sustainability in nature. Beekeeping activities will occur during summer giving excitement to young minds. Two beehives will be built and maintained by students for real life education and the entreprenuer aspect of hive products.

Detailed Project Plan and Timeline

Neighborhood BUG has been beekeeping for a year as a part of our Growing New Agricultural Talent (GNAT) program as a way to promote urban agriculture and natural life cycles. As a part of a summer program, we found that many of our youth were interested in beekeeping.

Deciding that this was also an important concept for students to learn, we began teaching them the basic science of beekeeping and not introducing them into the hive because of equipment and safety issues. The funding from the SARE program will help to teach the students in a hands-on real life experience of beekeeping. Students will endure a 22 week program. Attending every Saturday of the month 10:00 am – 2:00pm, students will learn the art of beekeeping and attend different urban farms to experience different techniques. During this summer program students will also learn how to sell and market products that can be made from products of the hive such as honey, wax and propolis. These products will be sold not only at the Detroit Eastern Market but also at three workshop/learn shops that the students will host. These workshops will serve as a platform for students to communicate to the public/community what they have learned about beekeeping and promote products that will be made from the hard work.

The partners involved to deliver this program are Co-Founder of Miles Apiary, Jessie Miles, will deliver entrepreneurial aspects of beekeeping. Owner and operator for over 20 years, Mr. Miles have been a successful apiary in the City of Detroit. Keep Growing Detroit is another established organization that provides resources and training in several areas of agriculture and has a beekeeping training Sweet on Detroit that the students will have an opportunity to meet the instructor Mr. Kido Paleck. We also work with Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) that has a 7 acre farm in the city called D-Town Farms. They currently have 8 hives and work with all ages to deliver education on urban agriculture.

Resources Used

Neighborhood BUG is a member of the Southeastern Michigan Bee Association (SEMBA), and Michigan Beekeeping Association. We understand the benefits of keeping bees not only for nature and our garden but as a profitable way of living. While delivering this 22 week program for the students, we will work with local groups to deliver knowledge to the students. Co-Founder of Miles Apiary, Jessie Miles, will deliver entrepreneurial aspects of beekeeping. Owner and operator for over 20 years, Mr. Miles have been a successful apiary in the City of Detroit. Keep Growing Detroit is another established organization that provides resources and training in several areas of agriculture and has a beekeeping training Sweet on Detroit that the students will have an opportunity to meet the instructor Mr. Kido Paleck. We also work with Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) that has a 7 acre farm in the city called D-Town Farms. They currently have 8 hives and work with all ages to deliver education on urban agriculture.

Along with these resources we will use curriculum from beekeeping beginners guides, video clips, guest speakers and field trips. During this time students will have the opportunity to attend the Spring Beekeeping Conference in Lansing, MI to learn the techniques of apiaries, products and best practices.

Outreach

The youth will participate in several activities over the course of the 22 weeks. These weeks will be captured as learning tools for future classes and demonstrations offered. Students will make a video of lessons learned, lessons they will teach and presentations they participate in. Neighborhood BUG has an active website and facebook page. Students will be required to post learning lessons from each class to the company’s facebook page. The website will have highlights of activity and information updated on a weekly basis.  Video presentation will help with the workshop and outreach of community members, to show the beauty and technique of beekeeping from a student perspective. With the newly made videos, students will have the ability to host workshop presentations and sell products from the hive, (honey, wax, and value added products). Youth will be required to host three workshops, with minimum 10 participants to outreach into the community. Youth will also sell value products at the Detroit Eastern Market Corp, at the Grown in Detroit Stand. Students will also create a t- shirt design as uniform when outreach and product sells occur.

Student and Community Impact

The impact to community will be greatly received. Youth will provide trainings and workshops with the guidance of Neighborhood BUG staff. To help students achieve this goal, we will give students a weekly lesson quiz, evaluations of instructors and processes will ensure participants will abide by program guidelines in regards to participation, attendance, behavior and safety in the training environment. Participants will engage in several hands-on activities of working in the hives not only at our training facility but also attending local field trips for experience and ideas of other systems facilities. Building of the hives, inserting the packages and basic gardening techniques will show impact of learning for the students.

The community benefits from natural raw honey and products of the hive that are low cost. They will also receive education and awareness for trained professionals with hands-on knowledge and experience. All participants of workshops provided will be documented with sign in sheets that include name, address, phone, and email. This will help keep record of how many people were reached as well as how many workshops were held.