A school apiary

From kindergarten to 12th grade, the Steiner-Waldorf school in Verrières-le Buisson welcomes more than 360 students in the great outdoors. It is located in a green setting south of Paris in Essonne. Its park is planted with trees and offers children large recreation areas in the heart of nature. The school, under contract with the National Education, bases its pedagogy on the work of Rudolf Steiner and is part of the international movement of Steiner-Waldorf schools. 

Our project consists of installing for educational purposes an apiary in natural beekeeping in the school park.

Natural beekeeping

Ecological beekeeping,&nbsp ;respectful of the bee and its environment, which is also ours. In Warré hive  and Horizontal Mellifera hive, it is a gentle beekeeping that completely respects the bee by getting as close as possible to its natural rhythm. It allows very little intervention during the year, therefore disturbing the colony very little and relieving the beekeeper who spends more time observing his bees than working on his hives. Olivier DUPREZ, trainer in natural beekeeping has agreed to support us in this project. Olivier Duprez organizes&nbsp ;internships in Paris and Normandy.

We would like to install 5 hives. To be able to install this apiary and then manage it safely by teachers, we also need to buy the equipment, train a large number of teachers to be able to be both available for the bees and available to initiate the students in complete safety . Nearly half of the school's teachers and staff are interested in following training in natural beekeeping. Parents and volunteers are also interested.

It is planned to spread the installation project over 2 years.

• Training will be organized with Olivier Duprez for adults throughout the year in groups of 12 people (parents, teachers, volunteers, etc.) on the school site.
• Purchase of equipment and wetsuits for adults and children from different ages.
• Installation of hives but also a protective fence to prevent any access to the hives of unaccompanied children
• Communication with all classes on respect for the space reserved for bees and implementation of safety rules.
• Initiation of children to beekeeping.
• Planting trees and shrubs with honey flowers.
• Conferences open to the public.

The honey will be used for the snacks of the children of the kindergartens and the evening nursery. If we have a good harvest, we plan to sell it at the school Christmas market. The wax will be used to make candles for the Christmas market.