Beekeepers have appeared in a variety of interviews on South Dakota Public Broadcasting. Members of the Rapid City beekeeping club have explained the folks usually keep bees either for the honey or the bee. Of course, the notion of a hoard of honey is appealing. Many beekeepers will say that they become enthralled by the insect. There is so much to learn about their behavior.
Marla Bull Bear of the Lakota Youth Project explains that their Honey Lodge business began as an earnest effort to help protect the bee.
"Then, with all the things that it's not just the honey. It's the beeswax that we can make all of these other things and we can explore and make our recipes and our diets healthier. That's another emphasis that we're walking towards, is to help our youth to regain a sense of health. It's unfortunate as a nation, as a country, we really struggle with eating healthy diets, getting back to natural sweets and natural honey and eating the plants from the land and the leaving out those processed things that are not so good for us is really important for our youth to keep that in mind as well. It's one thing to help them emotionally, to help them with their leadership skills, to help them with their thinking processes and their critical thinking skills, but if we don't have healthy kids, they're going to still run into road blocks," said Bull Bear.
Bees in Honey Lodge's hives turned out to be very productive, with enough honey to share with their beekeepers. Honey is an appealing alternative to refined sugar and can be used as a substitute in many recipes.
Marla Bull Bear joined MJ Adams in the kitchen to share some of her findings.
Bull Bear shares that without pollinators, we would lose our food supply quickly. Maintaining a habitat for all pollinators is critical for the health of our country, "Whether it is voting or keeping a beehive in your house, by your garden, you're helping to make things just a little bit better. It all matters."