{"id":215676,"date":"2025-05-12T14:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T00:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=215676"},"modified":"2025-05-12T14:35:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T00:35:48","slug":"uh-hilo-bee-coming-sustainable-highlights-beekeeping-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/12\/uh-hilo-bee-coming-sustainable-highlights-beekeeping-program\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> Hilo agriculture farm hosts Bee-Coming Sustainable, highlights beekeeping program"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"people
Visitors attend the Bee-Coming Sustainable event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Hilo\u2019s agricultural farm laboratory<\/a> in Panaʻewa<\/span> hosted a special event on April 12, to honor the “bee-coming” community of students, donors, local farmers, island chefs and community members who are part of the university\u2019s collaborative bee program.<\/p>\n

\"Samples<\/p>\n

The foundational buzz of the annual “Bee-coming Sustainable” event is a community-based partnership between Professor of Entomology Lorna Tsutsumi from UH<\/abbr> Hilo\u2019s College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resource Management<\/a> and award-winning Chef Alan Wong, who co-founded of the university\u2019s “Adopt-A-Beehive with Alan Wong<\/a>” program.<\/p>\n

Wong, known as one of 12 co-founders of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Regional Cuisine, teamed up with Tsutsumi and UH<\/abbr> Hilo to build awareness and promote local solutions to sustain the honey bee industry in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.<\/p>\n

“Fifteen years after its inception, the Adopt-A Beehive program with Alan Wong is doing well in promoting the importance of honey bees to our local and global well bee-ing,” said Tsutsumi who is the coordinator of the apiary program located at the university\u2019s farm.<\/p>\n

\"Beehives\"
Beehives at the UH<\/abbr> Hilo ag farm are labeled with their adopter\u2019s names<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Honey bee education<\/h2>\n

The program supports the beekeeping courses and certificate<\/a> at UH<\/abbr> Hilo which teaches good practices to students so that they can properly manage and maintain honey bee colonies at the UH<\/abbr> Hilo farm laboratory in Panaʻewa<\/span>. It also awards scholarships to beekeeping students and promotes the importance of honey bees. Since its inception, the program has awarded more than $27,000 in scholarships to beekeeping students at UH<\/abbr> Hilo.<\/p>\n

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Royce Lee (center) of Hwarang ʻOhana Youth Organization presents a check to Chef Alan Wong and Chancellor Bonnie D. Irwin for Adopt-A-Beehive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“The program was the brain child of world renown Chef Alan Wong who believes that supporting the local honey bees through education is a win-win for students and the community and, of course, the honey bees,” said Tsutsumi.<\/p>\n

Learn more about how to adopt a beehive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every spring, the program invites community adopters to the UH<\/abbr> Hilo farm to see the hives that are managed for them by the beekeeping students, meet the students, and engage with bee-minded people who together celebrate the importance of bees.<\/p>\n

For more go UH<\/abbr> Hilo Stories<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

—By Susan Enright<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bee-coming Sustainable is a partnership between UH<\/abbr> Hilo Professor Lorna Tsutsumi and award-winning Chef Alan Wong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[222,593,14,907],"class_list":["post-215676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-agriculture","tag-college-of-agriculture-forestry-and-natural-resource-management","tag-uh-hilo","tag-uh-hilo-stories","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t