Annual Bee-Coming Sustainable event held at UH Hilo ag farm highlights beekeeping program
“Fifteen years after it’s inception, the Adopt-A Beehive program with Alan Wong is doing well in promoting the importance of honey bees to our local and global well bee-ing,” says Professor of Entomology Lorna Tsutsumi.
By Susan Enright/UH Hilo Stories.
The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo’s agricultural farm laboratory in Panaʻewa hosted a special event on April 12 to honor the “bee-coming” community of students, donors, local farmers, island chefs, and others who are part of the university’s collaborative bee program.
The foundational buzz of the annual “Bee-coming Sustainable” event is a community-based partnership between Professor of Entomology Lorna Tsutsumi from UH Hilo’s College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management and coordinator of the apiary program located at the university’s farm, and renowned Chef Alan Wong, local restaurateur and co-founder of the university’s “Adopt-A-Beehive with Alan Wong” program.
Wong, known as one of 12 co-founders of Hawaiʻi Regional Cuisine, teamed up with Tsutsumi and UH Hilo to build awareness and promote local solutions to sustaining the honey bee industry in Hawaiʻi.
“Fifteen years after it’s inception, the Adopt-A Beehive program with Alan Wong is doing well in promoting the importance of honey bees to our local and global well bee-ing,” says Tsutsumi. “The program supports the beekeeping courses and certificate at UH Hilo that teaches good practices to students so that they can properly manage and maintain honey bee colonies at the UH Hilo farm laboratory in Panaʻewa.”
“The program was the brain child of world renown Chef Alan Wong who believes that supporting the local honey bees through education is a win-win for students and the community and, of course, the honey bees,” says Tsutsumi.
The program awards scholarships to beekeeping students and participates in local events to promote the importance of honey bees. Since it’s inception, the program has awarded over $27,000 in scholarships to beekeeping students at UH Hilo. Every spring, the program invites community adopters to the UH Hilo farm to see the hives that are managed for them by the beekeeping students, meet the students, and engage with bee-minded people who together celebrate the importance of bees.
“The program, just like the bees, are not just surviving but thriving!” says Professor Tsutsumi.
(Photos by Roberto Rodriguez, III/College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management/UH Hilo.)
Adopt a beehive!
Readers of this story who would like to adopt a beehive at the UH Hilo apiary, and support the research and development of healthy beehive practices in Hawaiʻi, are invited to visit the UH Foundation website to learn more about how to file “adoption papers.”
Adopters will receive periodic reports and photos of the assigned bee colony from the UH Hilo student taking care of the hive.
Adopters also will receive a personal supply of honey and honey products, along with invitations to join Chef Wong at bee- and agriculture-related activities held on campus or at the UH Hilo Agricultural Farm Laboratory in Panaʻewa.
Story by Susan Enright, public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
