Students from DeWitt's Montessori School learn a sweet lesson as they harvest honey from a school hive

Pompey, NY -- Eleven sixth-graders from the Montessori School in DeWitt donned protective bee suits and spent Friday harvesting honey from hives at the school’s Land Lab in Pompey. The children learned all about how the honey harvesting process works. “So often children don’t’ have a clue about where their food comes from, and this way they get to...

View full sizeDick Blume / The Post StandardMontessori students Malachi Emmanuel (left) and Maja Cannavo clean off boards that have honey on them during the school's honey harvest at Henneberry Hills Farm, in Pompey.

Pompey, NY -- Eleven sixth-graders from the Montessori School in DeWitt donned protective bee suits and spent Friday harvesting honey from hives at the school’s Land Lab in Pompey.

The children learned all about how the honey harvesting process works. “So often children don’t’ have a clue about where their food comes from, and this way they get to participate in all parts of the process, and also see the end product,” school principal Mary O’Connor said.

The students wore full bee suits, and any gaps were closed using tape. They also wore netted helmets, and then ventured out to calm the bees using “smokers.” “This is really fun,” said Max Witter, 11. “Wearing the bee suit felt like a spacesuit. We got to feel the bees in the colonies, and see them marching all over. ’’

The youngsters extracted the “supers” or boxes, which are like file cabinets, and then took out the wooden frames, or files, within them, sixth-grade program coordinator Leslie Oliver said.

The wax coating was removed from each of the wooden frames, and the frames were put into a large centrifuge where the honey was spun out and put into a heated storage tank.

View full sizeDick Blume / The Post StandardMax Witter carries a box with honey boards as students from the Montessori School in DeWitt harvest their bee hives Friday at Henneberry Hills Farm in Pompey.

The kids bottled their own jars of honey and brought them back to the school, where they will design labels and sell the honey to make money for their end-of-the-year trip to Montreal.

Students also learned about the importance of bees in the ecosystem, O’Connor said. “I hadn’t really thought about how honey came from the hives before this,” said Maja Cannavo, 11.

Contact Elizabeth Doran at edoran@syracuse.com or 470-3012.