Boy Scouts Beekeeping Merit Badge Update
Dec 12th, 2010 by Robo
As you may be aware, Christopher Stowell, a Boy Scout and 14 year old beekeeper from Oklahoma, recently led a campaign to reinstate the Beekeeping Merit Badge.
BSA recently announced its response to Christopher’s request, and the news is mostly good. While BSA is not agreeing to reinstate the Beekeeping Merit Badge, it is agreeing to incorporate beekeeping activities into several different existing merit badges.
Emphasis of the importance of bees and beekeeping will be added to or enhanced in eight existing merit badge pamphlets: Bird Study, Forestry, Gardening, Nature, Plant Science, Pulp and Paper, Environmental Science, and Insect Study. All of this will be accomplished by the end of 2015. One of those badges, Environmental Science, is needed for a scout to attain Eagle rank. Although the BSA is not reinstating a merit badge specific to beekeeping, it is making changes that provide opportunities to expose over 100,000 boys a year to the joys of beekeeping.
Beekeeping projects, such as working with a colony or harvesting honey, will be considered for addition to one or more of those merit badges so that interested scouts can earn advancement recognition for their beekeeping activities. The BSA believes this will increase the awareness of honeybees and their critical impact on our environment, and training America’s young people about caring for this important natural resource.
HOWEVER WE AS BEEKEEPERS NEED TO SUPPORT THIS EFFORT!
BSA does not currently know how many people will be willing to act as mentors for scouts who want to learn more about beekeeping. BSA may be reluctant to include a great deal of beekeeping activities as options for earning the merit badges unless the beekeeping community demonstrates that it will provide mentors to boys who want to learn about beekeeping.
RIGHT NOW, there are three things that you can do to help.
First, BSA has invited all associations and experts in the beekeeping community who are interested in helping with this project to e-mail us at merit.badge@scouting.org. Please put “bees” in the subject line.
Second, if you are interested in serving as a merit badge counselor, contact your BSA local council to initiate the process.
Finally, if you are willing to be a mentor, please contact BSA directly and let them know you are willing to be a mentor. BSA has requested that interested beekeepers e-mail them at: merit.badge@scouting.org and please put “Honey Bees” in the heading. Just write a few words letting them know that you are willing to act as a mentor, and please give BSA a way to contact you and let them know what states and counties you are willing to mentor in.
Just write a few words letting them know you are willing to mentor. Give them a way to contact you and let them know the areas of your state/county wher you are willing to act as a mentor.
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Please reinstate the Bee keeping merit badge. I am a Eagle Scout and enjoy bee keeping with my 2 boys.
I am a Boy Scout with Troop 175 in Toms River NJ and I would LOVE to do the Beekeeper Merit Badge so please bring it back……….
We are a beekeeping family and our younger son us a scout in Troop 591. We were very disappointed to find out the beekeeping merit badge was discontinued. Please reinstate this merit badge. Beekeeping is very important to our environment and there are many different aspects involved in keeping an apiary. This is a topic that should stand on it’s own and not be lumped into several other merit badges. Any scout would be proud to earn and wear the beekeeping merit badge.
The beekeeping merit badge should continue. Bees are an integral part of our lives and food supply. Without bees we would suffer terribly. Most people when they think of bees think of honey or being stung. Few recognize that bees are not aggresive and that they perform an incredible role in pollinating not only our food supply but our need as a planet to reproduce plant life. All people who have made migrations have always carried with them the honeybee. Utah has the honeybee as it’s state symbol.
With the overall problems destroying bees being documented regarding CCD (colony collapse disorder) it’s moreso important that this remain a merit badge boys can study. Otherwise – bees are seen moreso now than ever as pests that should be sprayed and destroyed when found. Bees are not a footnote in the world of insects or an honorable mention in Environmental Science or other merit badge. It’s an industry affecting billions of people and employs millions of bee keepers as a result of the their value to us. For example, no one hires someone to bring ants onto their property to help them with their farm or orchard needs but bee keepers transport bees thousands of miles every year to put food on our tables.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070223-bees.html
I am a EAGLE SCOUT, and a Assistant Scout Master for Troop 288. San Antonio TX. My two sons Mark & Lukas also reached the EAGLE SCOUT rank. As a beekeeper, I have kept bees in HOUSTON TX , LAREDO TX, & now San Antonio TX area . Each area of TX, I have worked bees in offers different challenges: I am currently working with scouts fromTroop 288 , to potentially earn their BEEKEEPING merit badges: I am also a ALAMO AREA BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION member. I would be honered to be a beekeeper merit badge counselor.