A beehive in a Dubai school caused more than a buzz when it was discovered by pupils during their playtime.
It started when three pupils spotted the hive in a tree near the Deira International School cafe. Teachers contacted the Terra pavilion at Expo City Dubai, which focuses on sustainability.
It was not long until a trained beekeeper arrived on site to carefully guide the colony into a secure cardboard box and relocate the insects to Expo’s pollinator garden.
The school is part of the 100 Hives programme launched by Terra to spread information about pollination and biodiversity in urban areas.
The bees finding a temporary home in a sprawling green campus in Dubai’s Festival City came at the ideal time, with the school preparing to launch a small apiary on its grounds next month.
“Children were outside playing when they saw the hive in the tree,” Michael Taylor, the assistant head of primary at Deira International School, told The National. "The beehive was on the playground outside the cafeteria where we had 1,000 children eating their lunch. So there was a little bit of panic, some excitement.
“Some people's first thought was to try and move the bees. But the number-one thing to do is to be calm. Normally bees will move on their way peacefully within 24 to 48 hours. But for us, because they were right next to the cafeteria, we did have to guide them on their way and we made sure we did it safely by contacting Terra.”
He is among three teachers who signed up for a beekeeping course at Expo's Terra sustainability pavilion. They will in turn teach groups of four pupils and over this year about 150 pupils will learn how to keep the school hives healthy under the watchful eye of Terra experts.
Lessons to be learnt
The 100 Hives project guides schools and communities in the UAE to safely relocate swarms and helps children understand the right steps to take when hives are spotted.
At the Dubai school, the tree was cordoned off and as children gathered at a safe distance, the school called Dr Meriem Hammal, a veterinary surgeon and pollinator programme manager at Terra. She carefully placed her hand inside the hive to estimate the size, asked teachers to prepare a sugar-water mixture that was lightly sprayed on the bees to act as a gentle glue and then guided the colony into a cardboard box and later to a new home in Terra.
“The sugar-water spray encourages the bees to stick together when they get moved,” Mr Taylor said. "If they get nervous, then some bees start to fly away and you can get a swarm.
“Once we sprayed the bees in a light coating, then Meriem used a blunt tool to guide the queen bee into a box and naturally the other bees either followed or were stuck together, so sort of fell into that box.”
Mr Taylor’s beekeeper training came in handy when the hive was spotted.
“I knew nothing about bees until 10 months ago when I started working with Terra,” he said. “The main thing is not be scared because once you stay calm you see beautiful insects ready to thrive. Often if exterminators come in, that will cause aggressive behaviour because the bees will fly out in panic.”
A small honeycomb drew curious children with many questions about bees. “I kept the honeycomb in my office and I had children running in at lunchtime. They wanted to see what the bees have been building, check what they were protecting,” Mr Taylor said.
“They were fascinated by something they thought was scary and discovered the bees are working hard to create amazing honeycombs. Yes, some of us got to put our fingers in the honeycomb and taste some really sweet honey, much better than supermarket honey!”
The bees were identified as native to the UAE, Apis florea, the Asian honey dwarf bee. Deira International will be the first school in Dubai to introduce an apiary and fit in with Expo City's ambition to include children in conservation.
“One of our objectives of the 100 Hives programme is to protect and raise awareness about the importance of bees in our ecosystem, and we are happy to assist our 100 Hives partners in this mission,” Dr Hammal said.
Stuart Hardy, assistant manager at Expo’s Terra, said it had tied up with five schools this year and will expand to about 20 next year. “Deira International is the first pilot school where hives are being installed, allowing us to refine the model before scaling,” he said.
“Nearly 100 schools have expressed interest in Terra Expo City Dubai’s 100 Hives programme, 40 have completed the full readiness and pre-inspection process. We are actively engaging partners who want to help accelerate access to nature-based learning across more schools in the UAE.”
'When will the bees be here?'
The school is counting down the days until March 9 when three hives will be housed on its grounds. Teachers said pupils regularly ask: “When are the bees coming to school?”
A shaded natural green space near the football pitch is being prepared with flowering plants and a bamboo fence will protect the apiary. The plan is for the number of hives to grow to 15 and for junior beekeepers to experience opening a hive, identifying types of bees, study the insects and learn about harvesting sustainable honey.
The secure area will be open only to pupils accompanied by trained teachers. The long-term aim is to offer this as an afterschool activity to learn about conservation and later offer the honey in the school canteen and the wider community.
Three junior trainees enthusiastically shared their knowledge that panic would trigger a response from bees.
“Why I want to be a beekeeper is because bees are really nice … they’re cute, they're fluffy,” said Alfie Thomas, age seven. “If you don’t move, they are not going to sting you. We can be friends of bees.”
Dylan Thomas, aged nine, told his classmates not to run from bees. “I want to be a beekeeper because I'm not scared of bees. My classmates run away from them and I sit by them, I like bees,” he said. “They have a nice colour and they don't sting you if you stay still. They are scared of you because you are a giant. I like seeing bees because they are really beautiful.”
Musa Ahmed, aged nine, said: “I think bees are fascinating because they are so small but their impact on the world is so good,” he said. “If you kill bees since they are already an endangered species, they might go extinct and our whole planet with it.”
Saira Ali, a primary school computing teacher, said once people realised the vital jobs bees perform their fear would probably subside.
“Bees are defensive because they're looking after their hive. They have actually got jobs as soon as they're born. They might be a nurse, they have guards, they have some who go out and forage, they have some laying eggs, everybody's got a role," she said.
"It's just so nice to see how that society works and to spread that message to get rid of people’s fears. It will be really fun to do that with the children getting the message across.”
