Workshop abuzz with new hope for honeybeees

KNYSNA NEWS - "What an incredible bunch of young adults. They planted a whopping 500 trees today! It was a privilege to give them the info on honeybee conservation. There is huge hope for Mother Nature in these young people."

That is what Owen Williams of the organisation Hope for the Honeybees said recently after the Greenpop and their Eden Festival of Action participants paid a visit to his education centre in Rheenendal.

Hope for the Honeybees, in partnership with Greenpop’s Eden Festival of Action, hosted an introductory beekeeping workshop with several of the programme participants last week.

The festival, which is currently being held at Peace of Eden, next door to Hope for the Honeybees, is a three-week festival of mass positive environmental impact hosted by award-winning NPO Greenpop. They have been planting indigenous trees, hosting eco-education workshops, painting environmental murals and actively participating in the Eden District in light of the 2017 fires.

The workshop involved a brief introduction of the Cape honeybee, its traits and characteristics, and the many aspects of a hardworking beehive, including comb, honey, wax, and pollen.

Hope for the Honeybees, funded largely by Gift of the Givers, has been active since the fires, in which millions of bees were killed and thousands of hives burnt. Their primary goal currently is to assist in the regeneration and restoration of the honeybee colonies in the area.

"There is huge hope for Mother Nature in these young people," said Owen Williams of Hope for the Honeybee in Rheenendal after he recently educated some of the conservationists of the future on the Cape honeybee.