Building beehives and insect hotels in 2022

We are pleased to present another EGK-Gesundheitskasse engagement:

Thalheim primary school engagement with 72 children:
Every other week, Thalheim school holds a “weekly market”, where nursery school children and pupils work together on joint projects. The goal this time was to learn something about wild bees and build 12 beehives and insect hotels.

Collecting cones and building beehives and insect hotels

On 18 March, we joined the children and their teachers on a hunt to collect pine cones and branches for beehives. Some of the children were allowed to oil the cut wood to protect it from the weather.

On 1 April, the older pupils teamed up to build 12 beehives with the help of Daniel Wenger (carpenter), who provided us with the wood, and Markus Dietiker (forest warden), who helped us set up the hives. The younger pupils helped with sawing up the bamboo canes and branches. They sanded the bricks to prevent the wild bees from injuring themselves. The nursery school children then filled the little hives with pine cones, bamboo canes, twigs, bricks and straw. 
The children were rewarded with delicious waffles baked by the fourth-graders themselves in the school. Each child was given an EGK gym bag containing the book “Felix und Lisa in der Natur” (Felix and Lisa out in Nature) and a packet of Ricola sweets to take home.

On 6 May, it was finally time for Markus Dietiker to set up the beehives with the help of the children and their teachers. We set out with hollow punches, mallets, drills and roof battens. Two beehives were placed in a ruderal area by the school building. Five hives were set up along the path to the hunter’s lodge and around the village. Those who had finished helping made mandalas out of flowers and stones.

All in all, three successful half-days resulting in 12 beehives and insect hotels, a few mandalas made of flowers and lots of tired, happy children.

Reward for the children
Besides playing football, the children also like to play floorball during the breaks. They’re already looking forward to the new rackets and football provided by EGK-Gesundheitskasse as a thank-you for their valuable work for nature.