Washington Elementary fourth-grader McKenzie Ross peered curiously at the swarm of yellow and black honeybees behind the glass case, as her classmates swarmed around her to get a closer view.
Their teacher, Amynda Behm, said the children have learned a lot about North Dakota agriculture in class this year and she thought the Living Ag Classroom at the KMOT Ag Expo was just great.
Some 837 children from schools in Glenburn, Bottineau, White Shield, Burlington, Velva, Mohall, Kenmare, Dunseith, and Minot toured the living ag classroom on Wednesday and Thursday during the Ag Expo, said Marsha Schettler, who was in charge of making sure the kids got from station to station in an orderly fashion. Schettler said the Living Ag classroom has been held for 15 years and is intended to give children an understanding of and appreciation of agriculture in the state.
Article Photos
Andrea Johnson/MDN --
McKenzie Ross, a fourth-grader at Washington Elementary, looks at bees on display at the Living Ag Classroom during the KMOT Ag Expo Thursday afternoon.
Where else would they learn that a farmer receives only 20 cents from a $2 loaf of bread, as they learned at the North Dakota Wheat Commission booth?
At the North Dakota Honey Promotion booth, presenter Bonnie Woodworth told the children that those honeybees live on average just 45 days during the summer months.
"They wear their wings out," said Woodworth.
One honeybee makes just 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey during its lifetime. It takes 900 honeybees to make enough honey for a one-pound jar of honey. Honeybees like blue, purple and yellow flowers the best, especially yellow. They can't see the color red, which looks grayish to them. When they pollinate almond crops in California, it's one of the largest "pollination events" in the hemisphere, said Woodworth. There would also be a lot less food without the honeybees, since they pollinate crops for one-third of the food that people eat.
Other presenters at the Living Ag Classroom included the North Dakota Beef Commission, the North Dakota State University Extension Service-Ward County, Farm Safety 4 Just Kids, North Dakota Oilseed Council, Northarvest Bean Growers Association, North Dakota Dairy Council, North Dakota Farmers Union, North Dakota Soil Conservation, and North Dakota Farm Bureau.