School beekeeping by bee-my.world e.V. by bee-my.world e.V.

School beekeeping by bee-my.world e.V. play Click here and watch the video!
  • Backers

    15

  • Funded

    1.335 €

  • Stage goal

    21.040 €

Added value for the environment

The project saves or improves the areas of ...

human

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ground, water, air

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climate

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animals and plants

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biodiversity

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material and cultural assets

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energy and use of resources

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Resources used

The resources used are ...

produced sustainably

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eco-certified

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fair-trade

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of regional origin

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used efficiently

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recycled, upcycled

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renewable (e.g. energy)

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This self-assessment by the project starter serves as a decision support for the crowd. Not all criteria must be met, but all alternatives should be considered.

Summary

Already as a child you have to understand the importance of the bee and the impact of wrongdoing in nature. It is a prerequisite for sustainable environmental awareness. We want to create this basis with the school beekeeping.

Description

A species-appropriate beekeeping is the focus of our project. The sooner children and teenagers learn to recognize the importance of the bee and how misconduct can affect nature, the more natural a rational environmental behavior becomes.
In the meantime, we have founded the association bee-my.world to present the charitable status of the project. In our first event, we focused on the school beekeepers, for which more schools have now applied than expected.

We as bee-my.world e.V. manage a school beekeeping in a primary school in Graben-Neudorf. The father of one of our students told us some time ago about the miraculous change of his 10-year-old son. Since attending school beekeeping, he has been discussing sustainability and biodiversity with his parents. The experience of this father has encouraged us in our intention to carry out school beekeeping nationwide. To organize and implement this is our project. Because if children make their families aware of the environmental problems, our work has served its purpose.

What is the funded money used for?

7.270 € creative teaching material & books by Undine Westphal for school lessons
9.000 € Beekeepers' compensation for the annual tuition costs for 10 schools
760 € Care of disease and mite treatment equipment
7.200 € Purchase of the equipment for the honey harvest
21.040 € Obtaining the basic equipment including bee colony for 10 schools

For apiaries in schools and day-care centers, we will have beehives built that are suitable for children. We call them miniHive.

beehive and miniHives (for children)
That is, they are smaller than normal beehives and thus easier for the students to handle. As a first step, schools and day-care centers are going to be equipped with two miniHives, two large hives for the teaching staff and a bee colony so that the children can experience the emergence of a bee colony and understand its importance. For the start of the school beekeeping we would like to collect the necessary money through crowdfunding.
Gradually, we want to expand the project to more and more schools.

Some schools manage to receive subsidies from the municipality or from foundations and the like. According to experience, these subsidies are around 1,600.00 to 2,000.00 euros. Through crowdfunding, we would like to offset the difference between the grants and the calculated costs.
At a young age, we awaken the awareness of nature, the environment and sustainability among the children. By dealing with bees, we promote empathy and responsibility. Both are an important factor for the children in life when dealing with other people.

The project is being realized in collaboration with Undine Westphal, a school beekeeper and author, who has already published a number of books about children and bees, and as a beekeeper she has many years of experience with school beekeeping.

Teaching material for the students and beekeeping services

All services that we can provide ourselves, we finance from our own resources. The material for the beehives and the teaching material, as well as the bees with the beekeeping service, we have to leverage. For the theory we need children’s textbooks and have prepared pollen models. In addition, we use a solitary bee tube, in which the children see the development of solitary bees – from the egg to the juvenile, build insect hotels with the students and show them the anatomy of the bee on appropriate bee models.


For the preparation of the school beekeepers, our beeCourses are used, with the help of which Undine Westphal prepares the beekeepers for their work with the children.

On this occasion, we would like to point out that we are still looking for beekeepers and / or parents who actively support us. Information is available on our website.
Schools receive funding from some municipalities or sponsoring associations. The subsidy is different in the municipalities. Here we have created templates for you to include additional supporters. The costs for a school beekeeping amount to at least 3,500.00 Euro for 10 pupils, as we mentioned in the video. Although we have established a school beekeeping business, the students still have no opportunity to hurl honey and experience the production of various bee products or perform a Varroa treatment. Both are important criteria for learning how to increase the resilience of the people through careful dosage of honey-, pollen-and propolis harvest, and to understand that varroa treatment – such as formic acid – destroys the micro-habitat in the hive. We show the students innocuous alternatives. Only when complete equipment is available these criteria can be taken into account for proper beekeeping in a school dairy. The cost statements we have under full_costs_school_beekeeping and, running_costs, attached. Explanations are also enclosed.

The communication and transparency between students, teachers, beekeepers and supporters is through a ticket system, a portal (HiveHistory) and Odoo an expandable all-in-one management software.  Here also all funds, which we receive, are managed transparently. We make sure that every donor can always see on our page: verein.bee-my.world, what happens with his donation and which progress we make. The possibility of inspection is anonymous by a code known only to the donor.
The support from our side takes place via a ticket system, in which with the help of forms and explanations a simplified communication and a fast information flow is made possible.

Protection of children is important

well protected group of young beekeepers
A big cost factor is the protective suits for the children and teenagers. We do not buy them from a low-cost manufacturer or the Far East, but we sew in Germany. They are made of natural materials. They are not blousons, but overalls that also protect the legs of children. Elasticated sleeves and legs make the suits adaptable for all sizes from 1st to 4th grade and guarantee a secure fit. For teens and adults, the suits are larger and – as previously described – also customizable. The sturdy body fabric is made of 100% pure cotton and is fully washable. The thick cotton fabric is largely puncture resistant. The hat is attached to the suit, so it can be easily put on.

Innovative is the zipper, because it not only closes the suit, but also the hat included in one piece. This makes working easier for larger groups of children, where the correct closing of the suit, especially the hat, is in the hands of the teacher.
our new beekeepers’ overall

Since this project affects us all, we decided to do crowdfunding. With small amounts from many people and with the active participation of our supporters, we want to help make the world a liveable and endearing place.

If our funding target is not achieved, we will reduce the number of schools and day care centers that need to be supported accordingly.

Why is the project an EcoCrowd project?

We want to promote sustainability and environmental protection with our project

In addition to training children and teenagers to become environmentally conscious small beekeepers, we want to teach sustainability with our school projects. Waste is not produced. We build kits for insect hotels from the remainders of beehive production in our in-house carpentry and build them together with the students. What is left of residual wood is then processed into wood briquettes.

We organize ‘bee parties’ with children, such as on our honey harvest weekend. We give advice for flower boxes with bee-friendly seeds for a successful biodiversity. In cooperation with like-minded people, we organize family fairs with an affiliated beekeeper workshop. We also invite school classes to our beehives to raise awareness of the students and to raise their interest in school beekeeping.

    

In the short time we spend with these children and teenagers, we want to educate as much as possible about bees, sustainability and biodiversity. Experience has taught that children carry these issues into their families and discuss with their parents. This is a big step in the right direction.

Tell us something about yourself.

The bee-my.world e.V. was founded to promote school beekeeping and thus train young people in their dealings with nature. The founding members of the association come from a wide variety of industries, but all have one common goal: to raise awareness of sustainability and environmental protection and to consistently implement it in everyday life. Together we sought and found a meaningful approach. Nothing works better than schools and daycare centers.
Our team consists of beekeepers, programmers, a business consultant, journalists, craftsmen and freelancers. All are active in the field of bee, environmental and nature conservation, without being activists. With the school beekeeping companies, we have created a basis that will allow the next generation to handle their habitat more carefully.


The bee-my.world e.V. team

A. Gerlein, Plant Mechanic, Web Consultant – K.-H. Zwickert, medical technician – V. Binfet, logistician and beekeeper – N. Freund, software developer – D. Wehrum, web-designer

C. Müller, Management Consultant – K. Wylach, Editor

We believe in the the future, because ...

we have confidence in human beings

Herr

Gilching, DE

Deborah adar

Borchen, DE

Quentin und Aurelia Valentin

Karlsruhe, DE

2000

Karlsruhe, DE

Daniel Drubig

Wolfach, DE

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