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Massachusett 4-H Newsletter - Summer 2008

Reprinted by permission of the The Republican

Amherst 4-H Busy Bees Club seeks members

Monday, July 28, 2008
By DIANE LEDERMAN
dlederman@repub.com

AMHERST - Melvin G. Atwell is hoping that the newly hatched 4-H Busy Bees Club will not only inspire a love for the honey makers but provide at least part of solution to what's ailing bee colonies all over the country.

Atwell, who lives in Chicopee, recently approached Thomas M. Waskiewicz, the 4-H educator at the University of Massachusetts Extension, about launching such a club.

Waskiewicz said that 4-H "is focusing on science now" and the idea was a perfect program to get involved with. "It's a win-win situation," he said. "It's going to have some real value in the area to homeowners, to farmers. It's exciting."

The club will focus on helping investigate the Colony Collapse Disorder which gained national attention when beekeepers in more than two dozen states found that up to 90 percent of the bees had disappeared without a trace after winter in 2007.

The disorder is still occurring although there were enough bees to pollinate crops in the area this year, experts have said. Still, the cause of the disorder is unknown.

That's where Atwell is hoping the fledgling club will offer assistance. "I would like to help out in some way."

He wants the youngsters - there were only three at the inaugural meeting and all three were his grandsons - to help by "gathering data by contacting beekeepers throughout the United States."

He said the information could assist researchers at UMass who are analyzing bees donated by local and commercial beekeepers to determine the types of microbes they carry.

He said they will also build what he's calling a four-by-eight-foot super-hive in which they will be able to step inside the hive to see how the bees are working.

The club members will also learn about creating their own hives. "They have a lot of learning to do," he said.

Atwell got involved in 1994 after he saw a television program. He happened to visit a friend in Pelham and saw some boxes in the corner. His friend explained that the boxes were bee hives he was going to burn. Atwell said no he wasn't and he has been an apiarist ever since.

His son-in-law, Paul Kosloski, started four years ago, and his two grandsons Michael P. Kosloski, 13, and Thomas G. Kosloski, 17, of Leverett, have been helping out. And while the brothers have learned a little from their father, the club, "seems like it would be fun," said the younger Kosloski." Their cousin Patrick J. Chagnon, 12, who lives in town, has been learning a little about hives from his mother, Carla S. Chagnon, Atwell's daughter. Atwell, who's a retired janitor from the Amherst schools, said, "I've been around kids all my life. I feel I could help children who are interested."

Anyone 10 to 18 is welcome. The club will meet every other Wednesday at the Amherst Regional Middle School beginning Sept. 10. They can call Atwell at (413) 695-4840 for more information.