Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre - Mfnerc

WORD WEDNESDAY - Bees and Honey
Have you ever wondered about Bees and Honey? Well, let us learn about Bees and what some Beekeepers in Northern Manitoba are doing to help feed the North with their program.
Did you know? In Pre-Columbia, the Mayan civilization cultivated stingless bees and harvested their honey. They regarded bees as sacred.
In 1924 in Bicorp, near Valencia, Spain a local teacher was exploring in Cuevas de la Arana/Spider Caves. He came across something quite extraordinary, a cave painting of a human climbing on ropes or a ladder, collecting honey from hives attached to trees. These paintings are thought to be anywhere from 7000-15,000 years old.
In 2015, Archeologists discovered honey in a 3000 year old Egyptian tomb. The honey was still edible! We know that the ancient Egyptians were beekeepers as they documented the process in drawings.
All these societies used honey for medicinal purposes too.
In fact, every civilization and even religion regards honey with the utmost respect.
Let’s Learn About Bees - Super Simple. (2018, September 18). Super Simple. https://supersimple.com/article/lets-learn-about-bees/
In a program with the Manitoba Indigenous and Northern Relations, a Northern Healthy Food Initiative, some Beekeepers in Manitoba are focussing on food security in the North. Please watch the video of one of them teaching us about bees. In addition, a slideshow presentation of what they are doing to provide healthy food for our Northern communities.

Watch Bee-Keeping Video with Myrtle: https://mfnerc.org/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/18-f589cfb1bb28231e3343b0d3edac15e1/2020/06/Beekeeping-Video-Myrtle-Fourre.MOV

View slideshow about Beekeeping:
https://mfnerc.org/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/18-f589cfb1bb28231e3343b0d3edac15e1/2020/06/BEEKEEPING-Powerpoint1.pdf

Some activities you may like to try:
1. Ask a language speaker to teach you about the following words about amoo: insects, wings, nectar, pollen, hive, buzz, stinger and honey.
2. Other ideas could be:
a. Paint a small rock to look like Bees.
b. Draw a picture of what Bees look like and label the parts.
c. Taste honey from a jar.
d. Bake a recipe that calls for honey as an ingredient.

Here is another YouTube video for children about Bees:
https://youtu.be/ta154f5Rp5Y

#MFNERCWordWednesday