A big part of what we want to do involves outreach/education. Bees have such a bad reputation that anytime someone gets stung by something, they blame bees. The truth is that stinging is really a last line of defense for bees. Especially honeybees: one sting and they’re dead.

I’m also an assistant leader for a local Cub pack: 1^st Bayridge ‘A’ Pack. Last fall, when we were planning the year, it sounded like a natural fit: Greg could join us at a meeting and we’d show the boys the equipment and tools we use and give them the basics of beekeeping and what bees are all about. I couldn’t have guessed how interested the boys were, but they were enthralled. It’s not often that a group of 20 8-10-year-old boys will sit still, listen attentively and ask some amazing questions, but this was one of them.

We were doing this in aid of the “Pack Specialty” badge. Scouts Canada has a couple of open-ended badges that are up to the individual Cub or the Pack to design the requirements and we thought that beekeeping would be a fun one.

This was a two-part process: first, the Thursday evening meeting, then the following Saturday out at one of the hives. It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But, they actually listened and behaved well around the ladies. Nobody got stung and everybody gained a new appreciation for the benefit that we gain from the honeybee’s toil: