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The Sweet Story of Two Educators with a Passion for Beekeeping
Description
They are educators by day, but when their work is done with students in our schools, they head home to their honey bees.
On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to the backyard of a beekeeper. Find out why Bastian Elementary School Assistant Principal Amber Allen and Kauri Sue Hamilton teacher Alexa Allen have a deep passion for honeybees, overseeing the health of their hive, and honey production.
Audio Transcription
[Music] Anthony Godfrey:Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They are educators by day, but when their work is done with students in our schools, they head home to their honeybees.
On this episode of the Supercast, we take you to the backyard of a beekeeper. Find out why Bastion Elementary School Assistant Principal Amber Allen and her daughter, Kauri Sue Hamilton's school teacher Alexa Allen, have a deep passion for honey bees, overseeing the health of the hive and honey production.
We're here with Amber Allen in her home with her family to talk about beekeeping. Amber, you're an assistant principal at Bastion Elementary.
Amber Allen:
I am.
Anthony Godfrey:
How much of your time is spent with beekeeping on the side? That's a busy job already.
Amber Allen:
Well, fun fact, my husband helps me. My daughter, Alexis, she works at Kauri Sue. She's a teacher there. And the rest of our family, we all get together and we will harvest the honey together as a family. Bart and I kind of do the daily, go out and check on them. I talk to my bees. We can talk about that later.
Anthony Godfrey:
Yes.
Amber Allen:
We have to make sure that other pests don't get inside, so we have to protect them. We also have to check on the babies, which is called a brood. That's probably a weekly endeavor that we do.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm excited to get into it. Introduce yourselves to the folks listening.
Alexa Allen:
All right, I'm Alexa Allen. I am a teacher at the Kauri Sue Hamilton school, and I teach our secondary and post-high kids.
Bart Allen:
I'm Bart Allen, I just help these two. I'm Amber's husband and Alexa's father.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, so tell me what got you started with beekeeping in the first place?
Amber Allen:
I was getting my master's degree at UVU and I read a book about leadership and how a beehive represents leadership. I came home and I said, “Bart, we've got to have bees.”
Anthony Godfrey:
(laughing) - You wanted the analogy to go further than this.
Amber Allen:
I wanted to be a part of it, like entrenched in it. He works at the Salt Palace and at the Salt Palace, they have beehives there by the Japanese Botanical Gardens.
Anthony Godfrey:
I did not realize that.
Bart Allen:
Yeah, we keep them in our Japanese Botanical Garden on the third west and first south.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, wow.
Amber Allen:
So he's familiar. He knew the right connections. He knew how to get us started. So that's really where this all came from.
Anthony Godfrey:
How many bees do you have? Do you know is this quantifiable?
Amber Allen:
In the beginning yes, and I will show you a picture in a few minutes. When a hive comes- there's about 30,000 bees in the hive and it comes in the mail.
Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.
Amber Allen:
About 30,000, but within a few days-
Anthony Godfrey:
Airmail I assume.
Amber Allen:
No, the mail.
Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, okay.
Amber Allen:
Like the mail person.
Bart Allen:
The mailman delivers it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Gotcha.
Amber Allen:
Okay once the queen gets started, the worker bees start having their babies- I can't tell you anymore how many