As both a hobby beekeeper and a scoutmaster, I've just learned
that as of Sept. 1, 1995 the Boy Scouts of America no longer
offers the Beekeeping merit badge.
 
What a loss! There goes a lot of very good PR and method for
interesting future beekeepers in the USA. I hope this is not a
sign of a significant decline for the beekeeping industry and
hobby in the US.
 
I would have though that might have been salvaged by intrucing
more of the polliation service aspects to the requirement of the
badge, see http://www.hiwaay.net/hyper/Scouts/mbreq.cgi?28 for
the list of requirements. Was the National organization aware
that this was going to happen? I didn't hear anything about it
until two days ago.
 
I had hoped to help my scouts understand the interconnections of
nature by working them through the beekeeping merit badge over the
next 12 months.
 
What a great loss to both the boys and the industry!
 
--
Paul
 
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