by Greg Peterson
Surrounded by a swarm of 150,000 loudly buzzing bees on a hot summer day, a group of Marquette County teens turned nervous faces and trepidation into smiles and a education that they heard loud and clear – to protect rather than fear pollinators.
At first only two teens wearing protective beekeeping gear entered the apiary behind the Negaunee township home of Jim and Martha Hayward. The others wearing only shorts and t-shirts soon approached when they discovered that honeybees are not aggressive.
Beekeeper Jim Hayward, a Marquette dentist, fits a protective suit on Zaagkii Project volunteer Elliott Burdick, 17, a Marquette Senior High School (MSHS) senior and Taylor Dianich, 16, MSHS junior (left behind Hayward), as the Zaagkii group of teens prepare to check out the honeybee hives on June 25, 2009 in the back yard of Hayward's home in Negaunee Township, MI. (Photo by Greg Peterson)
Bees and butterflies “are a part of the web of life because they pollinate all the flowers and fruit trees that provide us with food,” said Dr. Jim Hayward, a Marquette dentist who has four honeybee hives on a shaded hillside.