It was the culmination of months of hard work for the high school's bee club, as a group of dedicated students, lead by Nate Brown, completed their first large-scale honey extraction of the year.
At the end of last year, students built bee boxes out of wood, moved them to the perfect location, and regularly inspected and cared for tens of thousands of bees in the months to follow. While the club is still fairly new, Caelen Mathis, a 10th grader, said it's "probably the best club" he's ever been in. "They're interesting. It's a cool club. Mr. Brown brought it up during tech, and I thought it might be something cool to do," said Mathis.
Caelen wasn't alone, as the interest among students only grew. Today, high schoolers from grades nine through twelve are coming together after school to learn more about beekeeping, while making new friends in the process.
"I've been enjoying it, because you have new opportunities and you get to meet new people, but you also get to experience and learn different things about bees," said Sheldon Scott, a freshman.
Last week, bee club members brought the boxes, capped with honey, into the tech room. After much anticipation, they were able to extract large amounts of honey for the first time. The process began with using a heated knife to break up the capped honey. It was then moved to an extractor, before being poured through filters.
"It's cool to be a part of it. We're making something, and we're going see the finished product, which is such a cool thing," said Zero, a senior.
The extracted honey came from a variety of different sources, giving it a unique, sweet, and delicious taste. While the beekeeping process will begin to slow down in the cool months, students were excited to see all their hard work come to fruition. "It shows what you've done has paid off," said Scott.
Throughout the year, bee club will also make candles, along with a variety of other products, while learning more about the importance of bees.
We're excited to see this club grow over the 2024-2025 school year.