Rhys and Sloan Pullen with beekeeping equipment. Photos provided

Campolindo High School students Rhys and Sloan Pullen were recipients of the Sustainable Lafayette's LEAF grant last spring. As part of their grant application, they proposed putting bee hives in the community and holding outreach meetings to teach the Lamorinda community about bee keeping and how to become a backyard beekeeper.
Rhys and Sloan started keeping bees in their backyard after joining the Bee Project with Lamorinda 4H. They then joined the Mount Diablo Bee Keepers Association to continue their education and continue to be leaders in the Bee Project with 4H.
They used the $1,000 grant to buy two bee hives from a new bee keeper who developed an allergy and they started Lamorinda Bees. The hives are located in the Moraga Bluffs on a 6-acre property where they hold their meetings. In the meetings they cover the history of bee keeping, why bees are in trouble, what we can do to help them, and how to start a bee hive. They conclude the meetings by opening the two hives (veils provided) and showing participants the bees, honey, comb, and parts of the hive. They also open one of the jars of honey so everyone can taste honey from the hives.
In the spring they plan to hold a honey harvest meeting to cover how to process honey.
Their next outreach meeting is scheduled from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 3.To sign up or to get information about future meetings, visit the Lamorinda Bees Facebook page or Lamorinda Bees Instagram for the Sign Up Genius. ?Sustainable Lafayette also posts information about their meetings on their website at https://www.sustainablelafayette.org/.
Rhys and Sloan are happy to help answer your bee questions if you are contemplating getting a hive and are grateful to Sustainable Lafayette for helping make this project happen and to help teens make a difference in the community.

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