Bobcat Stories

The Bosque School Bee Club meets every Friday at the Bosque School Bee yard to assess general hive health, teach students and faculty how to safely work with honeybees, and learn about the benefits of bees in agriculture. Last summer, students entered the products they created from the hive into the 2024 New Mexico State Fair and won first prizes in honey, comb honey, beeswax products for lip balm, and beeswax products without additives for their dipped beeswax candles.  

The Bee Cause and Whole Kids Foundation have generously funded the bee colonies, suits, and equipment used by the club. Students designed and built the Bosque School apiary during the Bosque School Environmental Architecture Immersive in 2023. The unique design includes found wood from the bosque, special stands for the bee hives, a home for native bees, and a place for planting flowering plants to help feed honeybees.   

This fall, the Bosque Bee Club joined with the ABQ BioPark and Botanic Gardens, where the club helped establish a total of five beehives, including “top bar” and “Langstroth” style. Once a month, the students visit the BioPark apiary and teach BioPark staff how to manage both styles of beehives throughout the different seasons. At their last ABQ BioPark visit, students taught staff how to prepare the beehives for winter, including making sure the bees had plenty of food. They also assessed for varroa mites and treated them if necessary. The students had the chance to visit the brand-new expansion of the Heritage Farms and see the new Highland cows on exhibit. This group is led by co-chairs senior Abigail and sophomore Hannah, with the teacher assistance of Jim Daly and Meg King. 

The Bosque Buzz truly appreciates the real “buzz” of the Bee Club and thanks the Opel family for sharing their beekeeping expertise and providing the details and photos for this story.