What’s the buzz at Easttown Library?
The Easttown Library is encouraging local children and adults to “bee” readers through the library’s summer reading program.
The theme of the library’s summer program series is “Bee Creative,” and it will feature a visit from a local beekeeper and a variety of offerings at the library.
The Easttown Library, a part of the Chester County Library System, aims to bolster student reading while school is not in session.
The “Bee Creative” summer reading program will allow the library and local businesses to sponsor beehives in impoverished communities around the world through the aid organization Heifer International.
The library’s goal is for patrons of all age ranges to read 14,000 books by Aug. 14, which would pay for 22 hives. To participate, readers are required to log the amount of books they read on the library’s Web site.
Easttown Library director Alan Silverman said the purpose of the summer reading program is to support literacy and reading in the community, and he encourages all to participate.
In keeping with the buzz of the honeybee theme, beekeeper Brian Marcy will present a program about honeybees on June 30 at 7 p.m.
Marcy, of Doylestown, has been an amateur beekeeper for three years. He gained an interest in the activity after taking a beekeeping course at Rutgers University about nine years ago.
Marcy said professional beekeepers make a living from honey production and transporting bees to pollinate farmers’ fruits and vegetable crops such as blueberries, pumpkins, apples, radishes, plums, watermelons, eggplants and cucumbers.
“About one-third of everything we eat is pollinated by honey bees. We would have a very boring diet if it weren’t for honey bees,” Marcy said.
Marcy, who has two bee colonies of his own, doesn’t pollinate but collects honey, and on occasion, rounds up swarms of bees for area residents.
Marcy’s colonies produce about 50 to 100 pounds of honey per year.
Honey is a by-product of the food that bees store in the winter. Honeybees collect more honey than they need, and the beekeepers take the excess.
A colony houses about 30,000 to 50,000 bees and no more than 1,000 of the bees are drones. Over 90 percent of the honey bees in a colony are female worker bees; the drone bees are male.
Marcy is vice president of the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association, and a member of the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association and the Eastern Apicultural Society of North America.
The beekeeper often digs his bare hands into a hive and has been stung about ten times in his three years of beekeeping.
“Bees aren’t typically very aggressive. Either bumping the hive too much or moving too quickly can cause the bees to be agitated,” Marcy said.
One myth Marcy hopes to dispel, when speaking at the library, is that all bees have stingers. Only female worker bees or queen bees can sting. However, queen bees tend to stay exclusively in the hive so it is unusual to be stung by a queen.
At the library, Marcy will talk about the natural history of bees, how bees communicate, common myths and how to identify a honeybee from other insects. Marcy will also talk about honey and beekeeping and field questions. He will bring beekeeping equipment and have a live beehive on display in a sealed glass container.
In addition to the honeybee program, throughout the summer, young library patrons and their families can also participate in arts and craft programs, reading and writing with animals, video game nights, Star Wars trivia, story time, and drawing and science workshops.
Silverman recommends students read at least 30 minutes each day in the summer to avoid “summer slide” and improve reading skills.
“When schools close their doors for the summer, the educational process that our children have been engaged in for the whole school year should not end,” Silverman said. “Children who do not read during the summer may experience a loss in vocabulary skills, reading and comprehension when starting the next school year.”
The theme of the library’s summer program series is “Bee Creative,” and it will feature a visit from a local beekeeper and a variety of offerings at the library.
The Easttown Library, a part of the Chester County Library System, aims to bolster student reading while school is not in session.
The “Bee Creative” summer reading program will allow the library and local businesses to sponsor beehives in impoverished communities around the world through the aid organization Heifer International.
The library’s goal is for patrons of all age ranges to read 14,000 books by Aug. 14, which would pay for 22 hives. To participate, readers are required to log the amount of books they read on the library’s Web site.
Easttown Library director Alan Silverman said the purpose of the summer reading program is to support literacy and reading in the community, and he encourages all to participate.
In keeping with the buzz of the honeybee theme, beekeeper Brian Marcy will present a program about honeybees on June 30 at 7 p.m.
Marcy, of Doylestown, has been an amateur beekeeper for three years. He gained an interest in the activity after taking a beekeeping course at Rutgers University about nine years ago.
Marcy said professional beekeepers make a living from honey production and transporting bees to pollinate farmers’ fruits and vegetable crops such as blueberries, pumpkins, apples, radishes, plums, watermelons, eggplants and cucumbers.
“About one-third of everything we eat is pollinated by honey bees. We would have a very boring diet if it weren’t for honey bees,” Marcy said.
Marcy, who has two bee colonies of his own, doesn’t pollinate but collects honey, and on occasion, rounds up swarms of bees for area residents.
Marcy’s colonies produce about 50 to 100 pounds of honey per year.
Honey is a by-product of the food that bees store in the winter. Honeybees collect more honey than they need, and the beekeepers take the excess.
A colony houses about 30,000 to 50,000 bees and no more than 1,000 of the bees are drones. Over 90 percent of the honey bees in a colony are female worker bees; the drone bees are male.
Marcy is vice president of the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association, and a member of the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association and the Eastern Apicultural Society of North America.
The beekeeper often digs his bare hands into a hive and has been stung about ten times in his three years of beekeeping.
“Bees aren’t typically very aggressive. Either bumping the hive too much or moving too quickly can cause the bees to be agitated,” Marcy said.
One myth Marcy hopes to dispel, when speaking at the library, is that all bees have stingers. Only female worker bees or queen bees can sting. However, queen bees tend to stay exclusively in the hive so it is unusual to be stung by a queen.
At the library, Marcy will talk about the natural history of bees, how bees communicate, common myths and how to identify a honeybee from other insects. Marcy will also talk about honey and beekeeping and field questions. He will bring beekeeping equipment and have a live beehive on display in a sealed glass container.
In addition to the honeybee program, throughout the summer, young library patrons and their families can also participate in arts and craft programs, reading and writing with animals, video game nights, Star Wars trivia, story time, and drawing and science workshops.
Silverman recommends students read at least 30 minutes each day in the summer to avoid “summer slide” and improve reading skills.
“When schools close their doors for the summer, the educational process that our children have been engaged in for the whole school year should not end,” Silverman said. “Children who do not read during the summer may experience a loss in vocabulary skills, reading and comprehension when starting the next school year.”
