Busy Bees: Makin' Life Sweet

As we turn the corner to spring, our honeybees and native pollinators are waking up, and starting to forage on some of the earliest flowering plants! In the IslandWood garden, our honeybees are starting to buzz and awaken from their winter slumber. We are starting to see bumblebee queens bumbling on the flowers in the forest too.

Join our volunteer beekeeper, Charles Schafer, and IslandWood naturalists for an afternoon to delight the mind, senses and heart in our beautiful garden setting. We will hear stories and sing songs about bees, have a honey tasting, and also listen to a fun and lively presentation all about the buzz in your neighborhood.

After learning about bees, we will get to build our own pollinator hotels! Your ticket price includes everything you need to get started to attract and support native pollinators in your own backyard. They are an incredibly docile and ecologically valuable species, worthy of our attention and support. We'll even have some live bees to meet, for those that want to hold a "baby" bee!

Photo by (c) Doug Wolfe

THINGS TO KNOW

• This class is rain or shine, so please dress in layers and always bring a rain layer, gloves and hat at this time of year. Our Garden Classroom is a covered space, so we'll be dry for our beekeeping lesson and craft no matter what.
• In addition to learning and seeing the bees, we will also have hands-on time with friendly mason bees. We will be sending you home with the supplies needed to invite mason bees to your own backyard, balcony or "back 40."
• Though we have a low-risk (tremendously low) of being stung by any garden insect, if you or a family member have a known allergy to bees, this is not the program for you.
• Due to the content and pace of this program, we are listing the suggested age of participation as 5 years and up.
• Infants (under one year) worn in a baby backpack, sling, or baby-wearing device or in a stroller and attended by the caregiver are also welcome with you, no ticket needed for an infant.
• Please remember our campus policy is 'no dogs unless they are a service animal.'
• We always cap off our programs with a sweet treat of our homemade cookies too, which we will enjoy at the end during a storytime.

This class will be led by our Sr. Naturalist, Christina Woolf, our Garden Manager, Mel Church, and our volunteer beekeeper, Charles Schafer. Christina and Charles have been working together for over a decade, and we can't wait to reveal the secret life of bees to you! They sure are sweet.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

IslandWood, 4450 Blakely Avenue NE, Bainbridge Island, United States