service learning blog post

I went to the first event that Gwen told us about, the honey extraction event on September 23rd. I volunteered a total of two hours and Gwen Schlichta can confirm this. The Edmond's Community College Honeybee Program organized this event. The goal of this event was to safely extract as much honey from the combs without harming the combs. During this event I was tasked with sorting the honey combs into light and dark honeys, peeling the wax caps off, and then spinning the combs to extract the honey.

I personally forgot to take photos because I am a genius, however I was lucky enough that I was caught in one of the photos taken by the organizers. I am in the back placing decapped combs into the honey extractor in the air force hoodie and black snap-back. 

Honeybees have been endangered in society for quiet some time now. I've always enjoyed honey, like many other people, and have helped neighbors who had hives in the past. Seeing such a huge turnout by people for such a simple task is heartwarming and gives me hope for their population. This event helps people understand that bees really aren't bad and they deserve to be protected. By cleaning out these honeycombs it gives the bees new storage for the bees to refill once again. While the bees refill these combs they pollinate the local plant life and help maintain the environment. If bees were to go extinct or stop pollinating the earth would undergo drastic changes.

Questions:

1) If bees are to go extinct one day how quickly would it occur

2) Why do the colors of the honey differ from comb to comb

3) Why do bees make so much excess honey

4) why are some combs have hill-like structures in them