Eco Warriors are Preserving Honey Bees at Begawan Learning Centre

January 31, 2022, the Thematic Class at the Begawan Learning Centre commenced a new theme, Bees and Butterflies. This theme encourages students to recognise the role of bees in pollinating plants, the life cycle of bees and butterflies, their habitat in the wild, and look at how to take concrete actions for the conservation of bees and butterflies.

At the beginning of this theme, the Eco-Warriors have been specifically looking at bees. To provide a fun “Learning by Doing” experience for students, the Begawan Learning Centre collaborated with bee experts from the Tri Hita Karana Foundation, Pak Cakra and Pak Panca, who gave a beehive making workshop at the Centre.

Before they practiced making beehives, Pak Cakra and Pak Panca explained the different types of bees, their favourite food, their character and their sound. Students tasted honey harvested directly from the Klanceng (Trigona) beehive brought by Pak Cakra, and some harvested from a nest of wild honey bees (Apis cerana) near Begawan Learning Centre.

Then it was time for the Eco-Warrior to make boxes into beehives, working together in groups, some sawing wood, some driving nails with hammers, some painting boxes.

At the end of the activity, the Eco-Warriors had been able to make four beehives which were installed around the Learning Centre near the garden, and we are hoping that the bees will live comfortably in these beehives. The students have also started planting a variety of flowers liked by bees in the garden to encourage the bees to stay nearby.

Thank you, Eco-Warriors, for looking at how to preserve bees, so necessary for nature! (Ketut Desy)