My name is Robert Rawluk, or, as I’m known to many young and elder people, Bob the Beekeeper.I have worn many hats in my life. A laborer, a plumber, an artist, an art teacher, a florist, a furniture store owner, a cabinetmaker, an engineering teacher, and finally, a beekeeper.
My beekeeping began about 16 years ago when an 11-year-old girl read about the decline of the honey bee. She began silk screening shirts, selling them for $10, and used the money to buy a first-time beekeeper their first hive. The agreement was that I would buy at least two more hives in the future to give to two new beekeepers. I agreed to the terms and began embarking on what would become one of my most rewarding endeavors. In the past 16 years, I have probably given at least 30 hives to new beekeepers!
Being a retired public school teacher with 30 years of teaching experience, it has felt very natural for me to share what I have learned with others, especially youth. My beekeeping presentations to libraries, nursing homes, schools, home-taught students, and retired organizations are regular occurrences. I always find it fascinating how little people know about our pollinators, which include honeybees.
I grew up on Long Island, next to my European grandparents’ vegetable farm. Though lacking formal education, they were filled with wisdom about the environment. They understood the connections we had with nature regarding what, where, and how to plant, how to forage, and how to not disturb the natural order of the environment. They taught me about the symbiotic relationship we have with all living beings, and that we needed to be respectful of that relationship.
What I want to communicate with others is that honeybees are not our only pollinator. We have hundreds of pollinators in our environment that are misunderstood, and are destroyed intentionally, or unintentionally. They all have an important role in our delicate ecology that needs to be respected. Creating living environments for these misunderstood pollinators is a goal that I try to pass on.
Here is a lesson plan about bee-keeping that was developed for a CCC program in the Southern Tier: Lesson Plan by the Southern Tier Bee-keepers Association