Heritage Day at Gibsonville Elementary School

Tony Abbruzzi introduces tales about honey bees, with Cynthia Pierce and Linda Leister.
Tony Abbruzzi introduces tales about honey bees, with Cynthia Pierce and Linda Leister.


Our club was invited to talk for about 15 minutes about honey bee anatomy; general beekeeping tools and equipment; and the importance of pollination during the newly resurrected Heritage Day Event at Gibsonville Elementary School on November 13, 2015. Our team was composed of Cynthia Pierce, Tony Abbruzzi, and Linda & Geoff Leister. The morning sessions included 10 classes of well behaved and attentive students from Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades. The afternoon sessions were attended by 8 classes of equally attentive 3rd and 4th graders, as well as very engaged and honey-bee-savvy 5th graders who tested our bee grey matter databases. As usual, the most exciting part of our presentation came near the end of the talks when the suspicious red cover was removed from an observation hive containing a deep frame covered with hundreds of worker bees, larvae and a laying queen.

Cynthia introduces the kids to some basic honey bee anatomy.
Cynthia introduces the kids to some basic honey bee anatomy.

Discussion by Cynthia about the bee stinger and its removal kept the kids attention.
Cynthia talks about the bee stinger and its removal that kept the kids’ attention.