Public Education

The Comox Valley Beekeepers Association recognized that common agricultural practices, such as pesticide use, tilling, weed removal and planting monocultures, harm bees. Since bee health is crucial for agriculture, our farming systems must better support the bees that pollinate our food. Currently, there is no baseline data on the bee species in Vancouver Island's [...]

Varroa mites continue to plague beekeepers in BC resulting in colony losses, but groups like the Comox Valley Beekeepers Association continue to look for methods to reduce the mites. Previously effective methods like using chemicals such as Apivar are becoming less effective as the Varroa mites grow resistance. As part of their 2023/24 Bee [...]

Many recognize the honey bee as a pollinator in British Columbia, however; the province is home to nearly 600 species of bees. The Native Bee Society of BC (NBSBC) is striving to collect more knowledge about the nearly 600 species of bees found in BC. With the success of their 2022/23 Bee BC project, [...]

The BC Honey Producers Association (BCHPA) is helping smaller bee keeping operations address Varroa mites as part of their 2023/24 Bee BC project. For their project, the BCHPA created Oxalic Vaporizer supply kits to enable the borrowing of treatment equipment. The Oxalic Vaporizer treatment method has proven to be effective but comes at a [...]

The Native Bee Society of BC (NBSBC) completed a 2022/23 Bee BC project that focused on training master melittologists in identifying and recording bee forage information. This included researching bee forage and creating reference collections. The goal is to share those reference collections at community outreach events to encourage people to plant bee forage [...]

In 2019, the Bee Awareness Society completed a project to create an education program in local schools. Here's a summary of the project: Summary of Achievements: We successfully implemented and completed our full curriculum for the Bee Awareness Full Day Education Program to all three schools. The children were educated through stories, games, [...]

In the increasingly complex landscape today’s pollinators must navigate, mounting pressures from food and habitat shortages continue to exact a sizeable toll on both domesticated honey bee and wild bee populations. Fortunately, BC natural beekeepers like Kate and Ryan are doing their best to bolster bee numbers! Since 2017, the pollinator-loving pair has been propagating [...]

The Bee Awareness Society is thrilled to offer a “live learning tool” to local schools in the West Kootenays. Using observation bee hives, the Society teaches students about the vital role that honeybees and other pollinators play in food production. “There are fewer honeybees, bee species and other pollinators available for pollination,” project coordinator Linda [...]

It’s been a busy summer for Morgan Creek Farm as they embarked on their bee education and planting project! Together with local students, the Nanaimo family farm has transformed a previously sparse pasture into a thriving habitat for pollinators.For farm owner Aaron Grant, the project began as a way to teach local residents about “the [...]

There are close to 3,000 farms and hundreds of community gardens in Metro Vancouver that rely on native bees for food crop yield and quality. But with native bee populations declining across North America, Metro Vancouver is at risk of becoming one of many communities to face the challenge of [...]