Oldenburg
The socio-educational day group of the non-profit association Work and Education has been able to look forward to more than 15,000 black and yellow striped members since Thursday. No, it is not children who are new to the group, but a whole colony of bees. The nine children between the ages of six and 14 try their hand at beekeepers. She supports Thomas Rathsack, who has been a beekeeper for twelve years and provides the starting material and the beekeeping clothing.
The bees are coming
The idea of the bee project began in 2020 when the children visited the 60-year-old beekeeper as part of a summer vacation program. There they learned a lot about the bees, where they live, how they communicate with each other and collect pollen. Afterwards, both the children and the teachers of the facility “got a taste for it,” says facility manager Wolbert Walker. Less than a year later, on Thursday, World Bee Day, Rathsack brought a colony of bees to the day group at Kanonierstrasse 7. In advance, the day care facility designed the garden with flower boxes and raised beds to be insect-friendly.
Together with the intern Jendric Schürmann, the beekeeper carried the beehive into the facility’s garden and opened the gap through which the bees can fly in and out. And they did that immediately, while the five children of the day group were watching with excitement – the group was split up due to corona. Ten-year-old Milan Borodziuk asked directly: “How did you get all the bees in there?” The beekeeper explained that he had waited until all the bees had returned to the hive in the evening and then closed the gap.
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Pedagogical potential
The first of the group to dare to approach the bees was Maximilian Kruse, also ten years old. But he wasn’t nervous because he learned a lot about the insects when he visited the Rathsack apiary in 2020. He thinks it is great that they are right in the garden of the facility, because “finally there’s more going on out here”. He is also curious to see what Rathsack will teach them in the future. Because every Thursday the beekeeper comes by to teach the children more about bees.
The 60-year-old started by making bees to bring the children closer to their anatomy. But otherwise, bees also have great educational potential, says the beekeeper. “For example, the subject of fear can be treated well with bees, but also subjects such as the environment and welfare,” says Rathsack. That is also the aim of the work and education association’s bee project, to bring the children closer to nature and how to deal with the environment in times of Corona, alternating lessons and homeschooling, says facility manager Walker.
