Healthy Communities • YMCA Camps and Outdoor Education
What’s the buzz at Cedar Glen?
23 October 2017 - by Gord Dunlop
In 2016, YMCA Cedar Glen Outdoor Centre partnered with Sticky Bees Urban Honey to build an apiary onsite and create educational programming for our summer day campers. Fran Freeman, head beekeeper, and John Coffman have been beekeeping for over 10 years and they bring a wealth of passion and knowledge to the programs at Cedar Glen.
As a part of our Junior and Senior Farm Camps, Farm to Table Camp, and Environmental Science Camps, campers visit the enclosed apiary, which is separate from the active beeyard where the hives are kept. Campers interact with both Fran and John through wire mesh screens that allow them to ask questions while removed from the yard, but still be engaged with our beekeepers as they tend to the hives. They also learn about the pollination process and natural predators of bees. To top it off they get to sample a bit of the bees’ hard work.
We rely on bees for more than just the honey they produce; they are the glue that holds our food supply together. Honey bees help to pollinate 70% of the world’s crops, and approximately 1 out of 3 bites of food you eat comes from plants pollinated by bees. That’s why Sticky Bees and Cedar Glen are committed to increasing the number of worker honey bees in our local area. Bees are essential to the success of Cedar Glen’s Organic Farm, and indeed to all farms across the world.
In conjunction with our farm, the beehives are managed using sustainable and organic practices. The honey produced is available for sale in the fall season. Contact us for more information on the amazing honey pollinated from the wildflowers grown in the various meadows found in the Oak Ridges Moraine.
As a part of our Junior and Senior Farm Camps, Farm to Table Camp, and Environmental Science Camps, campers visit the enclosed apiary, which is separate from the active beeyard where the hives are kept. Campers interact with both Fran and John through wire mesh screens that allow them to ask questions while removed from the yard, but still be engaged with our beekeepers as they tend to the hives. They also learn about the pollination process and natural predators of bees. To top it off they get to sample a bit of the bees’ hard work.
We rely on bees for more than just the honey they produce; they are the glue that holds our food supply together. Honey bees help to pollinate 70% of the world’s crops, and approximately 1 out of 3 bites of food you eat comes from plants pollinated by bees. That’s why Sticky Bees and Cedar Glen are committed to increasing the number of worker honey bees in our local area. Bees are essential to the success of Cedar Glen’s Organic Farm, and indeed to all farms across the world.
In conjunction with our farm, the beehives are managed using sustainable and organic practices. The honey produced is available for sale in the fall season. Contact us for more information on the amazing honey pollinated from the wildflowers grown in the various meadows found in the Oak Ridges Moraine.
