To bee or not to bee

WILLIAMSBURG — Bees — and their keeper — visited students at Williamsburg’s Mary Welsh Elementary School last week, part of Pollinator Days sponsored by Bayer Crop Science.

“It’s the first year that we’ve done the inspection beehive,” said Bayer’s Derek Schwarting, but pollinators are essential for the success of Bayer’s business. Bayer provides a range of products and services to enable sustainable agriculture for farmers worldwide. It has test acres in Iowa County used to improve its products.

“We are doing some projects on our sites with bees,” said Schwarting, co-chairman of the sustainability committee for Bayer.

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Because the students in Williamsburg live in a rural community, Bayer makes students aware of conservation, pollination and farm safety during Pollinator Days.

Students moved from station to station behind the Williamsburg school last Friday, in sight of wind turbines that have changed the agricultural landscape. Steve Rimathe, a Bayer employee and beekeeper from Urbandale, explained how bees gather pollen and turn it into honey, and why that’s important to farmers in rural Iowa.

At another station, sustainability committee chairman Jeremy Hunziker, taught students how to make seed balls. Students rolled mud into balls the size of golf balls and filled them with seeds of grasses native to Iowa.

“You can toss them out your window,” said Schwarting, or plant them in a garden. Because the seeds are native to Iowa, they will grow where they land without disrupting the natural ecosystems in the state.

A pollination race helped students learn the different stages of pollination. They learned about the role corn tassels play in pollination and about property personal protection equipment for employees to keep them safe in the cornfields during hot summer days.

Guess the Seed Count made students familiar with various seeds of different sizes.

In the school parking lot, students saw a John Deere tractor and learned how to be safe around the enormous equipment used in agriculture. Bayer also had a truck and trailer and utility vehicle on site and made students aware of the dangers surrounding the vehicle and how students can stay safe around them.

Like many activities, Pollinator Days took a hiatus under COVID. “It’s been a few years since they’ve last done it,” Schwarting said.