Students are learning how un-bee-lievably important a common insect is in the ecosystem as classes study apis mellifera, or the common honeybee.
Eric Ribble, a second generation Peaster alumnus, teaches horticulture science, small animal management, and equine science as part of the Peaster’s FFA program. Four years ago Ribble started the school’s first bee apiary.
“They are a little temperamental. If things aren’t going right, they will leave you,” Ribble said of the bees. “We’ve had them going good before and then something will happen and they leave. We’ve had a few tragedy stories too, but we keep trying.”
Students are involved with the program from kindergarten to high school. The youngest learn horticulture in the classroom and occasionally study bees captured in a jar. Older horticulture students are allowed to don bee suits and study bee habits and their productivity up close.
It’s not easy keeping bees. Although intelligent animals, bees don’t have time to communicate their wants and needs with us humans. They are just too buzzy.
“When the bees are doing good, we go down there about once a week with the kids and feed them and check on them. It is a great experience for the kids to see them up close,” Ribble said.
The Peaster horticulture classes are dual credit with Weatherford College. Ribble explained bee colonies need time to mature to reach the point of producing enough honey for harvesting, so the Peaster bees are for study and enjoyment only.
Fellow ag science instructor Brent Wicker said there are very few school bee programs, but told of a school district in Hawkins, Texas that has grown their bee program into a profitable honey business over the years.
“Our program is a good way to explain how big of a role the bees play in our ecosystem and gives the students hands-on experience with the responsibility of caring and raising them,” Wicker said.
High school principal Doug McCollough said the bee program reaches far beyond the hive.
“The impact extends beyond the classroom as students gain a sense of responsibility and pride in contributing to the health of local ecosystems,” McCollough explained. “As they work with the bees, they learn firsthand how crucial these pollinators are to the community’s agriculture and overall biodiversity, preparing them for future careers in sustainable farming and environmental science.”
Students have been learning the importance of bees in the ecosystem and in the economy. According to the U.S. Forest Service, bees are needed to pollinate numerous varieties of plants, vegetables, and nuts, including berries, cherries, watermelons, peaches, corn, pears, apples, and strawberry crops. Because of the increasingly diminishing numbers of bees in the wild, many bee farmers, or apiarists, lease and deliver colonies of bees to farms to pollinate crops. And, of course, bees are the primary pollinators of flowers.
Bees and plants cannot survive without each other. Bees produce their nutrition by converting nectar from plants into honey for carbohydrates and fermenting pollen into a food substance called bee bread for protein. In return, when bees trample around in blossoms collecting nectar and pollen they move pollen from the male parts of a flower to the female parts to allow plants to reproduce.
Ribble was inspired to make agriculture a career by his father, Orville Ribble. According to the instructor, in the 1950s his father believed the school identity as the Peaster “Stars” was not a strong mascot and suggested school administrators switch to the current greyhound mascot. The elder Ribble had a graduating class of six boys and one girl.
Furthermore, Ribble now teaches Hannah and Cloe Pilgrim, granddaughters of Donald Pilgrim, Ribble’s former high school ag instructor.
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