The Foreign Honey Bee

There are around 20,000 bee species worldwide.
North America has about 5,000 bee species.
On the West Coast we have approximately 430 species of native bees.
In Vancouver alone there are 56 different species of native bees...

And that doesn't include the honey bee.
Learn more about what caused the honey bee to spread from its European origin to the world over at one of our upcoming workshops:
beethefuture.eventbrite.com




Here are a few photos from a beekeeping class organized by the Environmental Youth Alliance. Thanks to Erin for bringing her amazing pizza box bee specimens to class!

All About Our Upcoming Honey Bee Workshops

The harvest season is finally here!
Join Bee The Future in learning about a bee that helped to pollinate your fruits and veggies. The honey bee is well know for its honey, but there are many other things to know about the hardworking bee.

Sept 20 - All About Beeswax: learn about beeswax, how it's made, how it has been used in the past and present and what are the benefits to this amazing bee product. We will be making beeswax lotion samples! Bring your own glass container. Snacks provided along with samples of local honey!

Sept 21 - Stone Soup (Lunch and Learn): enjoy an amazing stone soup! Bring a vegetable from your garden harvest or local vegetable to contribute to the soup. We will be making the soup as a group, and enjoying an engaging conversation about honey bees in this Lunch and Learn event. Bring your own bowl, spoon and inner poet! (There may be a small poetry slam)

Sept 27 - The Vanishing of the Bees: there is trouble in hives all over the world. With record disappearances of whole bee colonies, some are starting to worry about what this means for our food future. Join us for a documentary screening of "The Vanishing of the Bees" followed by discussion including solutions of what we can do to help the bees. Coffee, tea, juice and cookies provided.

Summer/Fall 2013 Workshops Announced

Bee The Future Workshops are back for Summer/Fall 2013!

For last year's workshops our focus was on the mason bee.
This year our star bee is theeee (insert drumroll)... Honey Bee!

Details on each workshop coming soon, with the release of our 2013 Workshop poster.

For now here is a taste of what you can expect:

Sept 20 | All of Your Beeswax!
Sept 21 | Lunch and Learn Stone Soup
Sept 27 | "Vanishing of the Bees"

We Wouldn't Bee Here Without You

We here at Bee The Future are honoured to have been mentioned in the Spring 2013 Vancouver Foundation Magazine.

Thank you to the Foundation for their support in our project!

Check out the digital version of the article and a photo on page 18 and 19:
http://digital.canadawide.com/i/134411

Release The Bees!

This is a much delayed post. The weather finally became beautiful and warm in the city so I took this opportunity to release the bees. Here's a photo-by-photo recap of how I did this and some tips on where to place your mason bee house.

Thanks BEE diverse for the cocoons!

 The Release Box

After removing the mason bee cocoons from the cool temperatures of my fridge, I crafted a little release box for the 10 cocoons.

Here they are looking like raisins nestled on tissue.

             Waterproofing... just in case

Because the release box was made from a cardboard I thought it would be best to cover it with something a little more waterproof.

Not the prettiest vessel to emerge from but it does it's job.

 Where to Place the Release Box

I had to figure out a way to attach the release box to the mason bee house. Gotta love string and tape. I wanted it to be close to the bee house so they would choose it as their nesting spot.

The release box is in the shade of the bee house, it should not be in direct sunlight. 







I put-up my mason bee house up in the south-west corner of my house, south-east would've been preferable but they will still get lots of sunlight here. It took 3 of us to put it up believe it or not... It was a very political process apparently. In the end it went up onto a post by our fig tree, about 5 feet off the ground which is the ideal height.

Hopefully I'll see one of my mason bees emerge!

Later this week I'll be opening the release box up to see what the empty cocoons look like, as well (and the sad fact) to see how many cocoons didn't made it through hibernation. Pictures and more tips on mason bee house placement to come.

Spring Has Sprung

Welcome back everyone! Like the bees we were hibernating through winter but are ready to spring into mason bee action again. Though it's not officially spring (not until March 20th) some bees have already hatched and are pollinating the crocuses and other early bloomers around town.

I haven't yet seen any mason bees, but I've been keeping my eye out for them. Have you seen any around your garden yet?

 

Can you spot the bee?

In the next blog post this week I'll explain how to put up your mason bee house and give you tips on location. I'll also be posting pictures of my mason bee cocoons that I recently put outside to hatch and release.

It's nice to bee back :)