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