Tell Your Beekeeping Story

Published on January 14, 2020

Congratulations!

You have successfully established a Beepods hive at your school. Now it’s time to let the world know and tell your beekeeping story. If your school community is aware of your hive and the positive impact it is having on the students, you are much more likely to get funding for essentials such as operating equipment, replacement bees, and your annual Beepods membership. Promoting your hive also spreads the word about the joy of school beekeeping and makes it more likely that others will follow in your footsteps. (BTW–Did you know that bees follow each other’s smelly footprints?)

So how do you go about promoting your beekeeping? Here are some tips.

School website

Parents and prospective parents rely on school websites for obtaining important information. For starters, make sure there is a link to your beekeeping club from the homepage. In addition, let your school marketing department know about any beekeeping events at the school whether that involves students from the school or visitors such as scouts. This information should be included in the school calendar, announcement page, and homepage banner. If your bee club is selling honey put an order form on the website.

Emails

Schools often send weekly emails to parents with a run-down of the week’s events. Make sure your hive events are included along with photos of students. Email is also an excellent tool for sharing hive highlights with staff or specific individuals such as science teachers or principals. If your school emails a newsletter to parents, be sure to submit regular contributions.

Social media

While “going viral” might not be a popular phrase among beekeepers, social media is an excellent way to let people know the great things happening at your hive. On your school’s Facebook page (did you know bees can recognize human faces?) you can share photos of your students engaging in hands-on beekeeping or promote upcoming hive events or honey sales. Consider creating a beekeeper blog so parents and community members can follow your progress. This can also be helpful as a form of record-keeping so you can keep track of your hive happenings and remember what you need to do each year. You might try having a different student write the blog each week as an assignment for your class.

Youtube

Your school may have a Youtube channel, and if so, it may welcome videos from your outdoor classroom. You don’t need any fancy equipment. Just remember to bring your cell phone outside with you and stand close enough to students so that the audio is decent. Video can be especially helpful if you are demonstrating specific beekeeping tasks. You can reference this video for training future students and students at other schools will benefit from it as well.

Keep your hive thriving by sharing your successes with your school community and others interested in adding a Beepods hive to their school. Beepods members also have access to our resource center where they can serve as a mentor or seek assistance from expert beekeepers. Let the world know about everything you’re accomplishing. Beekeeping at school is a story worth sharing. Isn’t it time to share yours?