Through a partnership with DC Honeybees, Global Bees helped install two beehives at a rural school near Cusco, Peru. DC Honeybees is a Washington DC-based organization that aims to propagate beehives within the metro area, as well as raise awareness about Colony Collapse Disorder, which is a “perfect storm” of factors that has decimated U.S. populations of honeybees.
DC Honeybees Executive Director Katy Nally worked with school officials in Peru to purchase the bees, install the hives and educate students and staff about beekeeping and the importance of pollination. The school, which was founded in 2000 through a partnership between Peru and Spain, currently has about 300 students ranging from ages 3 to 14. As a secondary source of income, the school runs a small farm adjacent to the property that has potato fields and pasture, plus a number of animals such as sheep, pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs and ducks. The school typically raises these animals to sell the meat at local markets, or to feed students and their parents. It was the goal of Global Bees and DC Honeybees for the two hives installed at Almeria to produce enough surplus honey to be sold at markets, thereby providing additional income for the school. The initial honey harvest is expected in March or April of 2014.
In addition, having two beehives on site will provide much-needed pollination for the alfalfa and clover crops that are cut each day and fed the school’s farm animals as their main source of nutrition.
While volunteering at Almeria, Katy Nally taught the school’s groundskeeper how to manage the hives and provide sugar syrup as a supplementary food source in the beginning weeks. She also brought out a group of secondary school students to explain bee behavior and how hives operate.