The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG-Last fall, Waitsburg School's Superintendent Mark Pickel read an article about getting kids active in programs after the pandemic. The article encouraged schools to utilize faculty and staff members' talents, interests, and expertise to develop new student programs. Pickel contacted preschool teacher Eleanora Montgomery and her husband, Mark, who are skilled beekeepers.

Mark Montgomery grew up in Western Washington, where his father raised bees as a hobby. After graduating from WSU in 1986, he volunteered as an extension agent with a beekeeper's cooperative on the island nation of Dominica. While there, he met and married Eleanora. They have been beekeeping in the Waitsburg area for over 20 years.

The couple introduced the Beekeeping Club to students at an informational meeting in early February. The club is open to students from the fifth grade through high school who will learn basic knowledge about bee biology, Langstroth hives, and backyard beekeeping.

Last week, club members met at the high school shop to construct bee boxes. Bee suits for the club have arrived, and bees are expected to come from Spokane by the end of April. Soon the club will receive smokers for bee handling and honey extractors.

Beekeepers check hives every seven to ten days to ensure the bees and the queen are alive and healthy and to check the food supply. The club will meet bi-weekly, year-round after the bees arrive. Before the end of the school year, the club will set meeting dates for the summer break to attend to the hives.

Eleanoa, Mark, and Superintendent Pickel say the students are excited to learn the art of beekeeping. The club is already investigating how to use honey and wax in products for sale. The money from any sales will go back into the program.

For more information contact Eleanora Montgomery at

emontgomery@waitsburgsd.org.