Beekeeping in City Park and at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Why do it?

Supports ecosystems in City Park

Creates opportunities to teach about bees and pollinators

Possible community engagement: planting pollinator gardens or helping maintain hives could be done with members of Denver community

Adults: classes on pollinator ecology and urban beekeeping

Schools and teachers: part of Our Colorado program? Maybe a middle school program?

Families: events based around planting or collecting honey

Exhibit components: Discovery Zone? Wildlife Halls? Facilitated collections carts?

Materials

Hives and apiaries

What kind? How many?

Beekeeping suits and protective gear

Smokers and other supplies

Area for bees?

Where in City Park? Is any land development needed?

Fencing, signage, other equipment to protect bees from people

Insurance for members of the public?

Pollinator garden nearby

Plants, fertilizer, land development, maintenance, man hours

Conservation Dimensions

CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT: visitors to DMNS can record how many bees they observe in a certain area, staff can set up experiments about plant preference that visitors can record data for, other data collection. Perhaps done with iPads?

Education

Technology for Citizen Science

iPads and experimental setup

Bus funding for field trip groups?

Development of programming for adults, schools, families or teens?

Teen Science Scholars?

Provides a space for bees

Increase plant biodiversity in City Park

Provide pollinators for new plants and trees that bees are crucial for, helping horticulturists establish new gardens in City Park

Maintain existing plants as well

Apiarists can take care to prevent CCD

Education programs can help laypeople, DMNS visitors, etc. understand the ecological role of bees

Visitors that have fond memories of the bees may be more motivated to help conserve them

Provide education on how people can support bees with small lifestyle changes

Educate people on the devastating possible effects of bee extinction, help people understand CCD

Maybe not just bees? Include plants that other pollinator like as well and create programming on plant preference, coevolution of mouthparts and flower structure, etc.?

Topics for research

Beekeeping as a science

Conditions bees need for good hive and colony health

Materials for building hives and apiaries or buying hives and apiaries, costs of all materials in teal branch

Best practices

Other successful urban beekeeping projects or organizations that specialize

DMNS program development

How much does your average new program cost to boot up? Could this project serve as a DMNS experience to complement any existing Field Trip Adventure programs?

How could ticket sales or other paid programming support this?

Are there any citizen science programs or urban beekeeping programs already in existence that could become part of this project?

Where do we get the bees?

How can the onsite experience be taken home by visitors?

Process and cost of creating a plant landscape that would support bees

Research needed

Relationships between biodiversity and beekeeping

What gaps exist in our knowledge of beekeeping, bee conservation, the ecological role of pollinators, citizen science, museums' roles in inspiring conservation that this project could fill?

More into CCD and how beekeepers can prevent it

Pedagogy of conservation, relationship between experiences with animals or other museum experiences and increased conservation behaviors

Project Goals

Educational

To increase awareness of the ecological role of honeybees, bumblebees, other bee species and other species of pollinators

To help park visitors and/or museum guests better understand the plight of bee species and the need for conservation.

Including the commercial role of pollinators as a dimension of the exhibit: how would the loss of pollinators, specifically bees, impact YOUR life?

To better guests' understanding of human impacts on bee populations.

To help guests better understand the ways that they can support local beekeepers, pollinator conservation efforts, and change their lifestyle to help pollinators

Emotional

To increase positive feelings toward and reduce fear of bees in laypeople.

To set the 'baseline' mentioned by Moore (2005) in the CSC assignment on valuing biodiversity. Getting kids to understand the importance of bees can help sensitize them to the need to conserve, going forward.

To tie pollinators to aesthetics and food.

Conservation

To provide a safe and healthy habitat for bee colonies

To increase pollinator populations in City Park

Ideally, to also increase plant biodiversity in City Park with the planting of pollinator gardens and by supporting plants already there.

Scientific/Research

To provide a potential venue for the study of bee colonies, social structures, reproduction, disease, etc. by local and regional entomologists.

To increase population numbers.

Organizations currently involved

Butterfly Pavilion: exhibit on bees

Marissa Copan!! Christine Leahy!!

Xerxes Society for Invertebrate Conservation: provides guides for habitat restoration

Local beekeepers associations

Colorado State Beekeepers Association

Colorado State University: Colorado Environmental Pesticide Education Program