All A Buzz About Bees a 4-H Apiary Entrepreneurship

Published: 2020
By Brenda Richey

In partnership with the 'Reason to Live' Native Suicide Prevention Program and Lake County MSU Extension Agent Breton Homewood, the youth of the Flathead Reservation were given an opportunity to support food sovereignty and security. With Homewood's expert guidance and a grant from the Indian Lands Tenure Foundation, Flathead Reservation MSU Extension was able to purchase all supplies needed to start a 4-H Apiary Entrepreneurship. The Elmo After School Program, Two Eagle River School (TERS), and Nkwusm Salish Language School were each selected to receive three beehives and weekly 4-H Apiary Club activities. Prior to the March 2020 stay-at-home order, the Elmo after school youth helped to paint and decorate new hives for soon-to-arrive bees. In April, Elmo after school families watched from a safe, socially-distanced location as Homewood transferred over 9,000 bees into nine new hives. Three of the hives would remain in Elmo while others were taken to new homes. In June, with their science teacher filming live on Facebook, TERS students were able to watch "bee" action, as Homewood re-homed three hive boxes onto school property. The final three boxes intended for Nkwusm are also at TERS and waiting for fewer social distancing restrictions to allow more interaction with students involved. While COVID-19 certainly has changed our world, the youth of the Flathead Reservation are moving forward with innovation, learning ways to create value-added food items, support food sovereignty practices and combat food insecurity issues in their communities.