If you happened to get your hands on a bottle of “Rocket Fuel” this Christmas, you can count yourself lucky. The aptly-named honey, harvested and bottled by Catholic High School’s Beekeeping Club, was only available for a short time, during the school’s Christmas Shop Dec. 6.
A very, very short time, in fact.
“We had about 150, 170 pounds that we sold,” said Paul Spencer, Catholic High teacher, beekeeper and sponsor for the club. “The honey sold out in 80 minutes.”
The rush on Rocket honey was the finishing drizzle on the Beekeeping Club’s inaugural year in existence. Attendance at club functions was as brisk as the sales of Rocket Fuel honey, a testament to the allure of arguably the most unique club in any high school in the city.
“(The club) is something that I never thought would happen. It’s unusual, I think,” said club member Calvin Zawislak. “I know we have several unusual things at school, but we didn’t think more than 40 kids would join, and we had over 60.”
Zawislak, a freshman, has been around bees for as long as he can remember. His dad, John, is an apiculture instructor for the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and one of the state’s foremost authorities on bees. As a new parent in the school John Zawislak offered his talents, and Spencer loved the idea of starting a beekeeping club. John helped secure the school two loaned hives containing roughly 80,000 bees, which were delivered to the school roof. Whether there would be enough workers to the harvest in the form of club membership was yet to be seen, but after the first meeting, it was clear there was a swarm of interest.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to learn about something not many people have the opportunity to learn about,” Calvin said. “It’s something a lot of people are undereducated about and think poorly of.”
Given his extensive experience, Calvin was immediately a resource for club members who learned how to collect honey in a process called extraction during which the honeycomb frames of the hives are put into a centrifuge that spins the honey free. From there 750 pounds of honey was strained, bottled and labeled by club members.
Club members also learned the important role bees play in the overall ecosystem, pollinating 70 percent of food crops, and of the threats bees face throughout the United States.
“I think it’s a good lesson of good stewardship, being a Catholic school,” Spencer said. “I think it’s a great theological lesson because God gives us a limited time with finite resources and we’re called upon as Catholics to do with those resources, in that time that we’re given, his work.
The CHS Beekeeping Club is investing its profits into its own bee colonies, in the hopes of feeding an even larger demand in 2016. For Calvin, whose Catholic High experience began with an activity he’s known and loved all his life, it’s a sweet thing indeed.
“Personally I would like to see three or four hives on the roof,” he said. “This is probably one of the only clubs in the school that pays for itself, with interest. I would like to see it grow, and I would like to see people’s awareness and eyes opened to the fact that bees are such a big part of our agricultural development and our world.”