Sweet honey, wax candles, and the fatal run in with a bee hive in the classic film, “My Girl,” might be the only things that come to mind when we think of honey bees today; you could even say we have taken them for granted. Leonard Foster, the main apiarist at the UBC farm, does not fail to appreciate the honey bees as he notes his allure with them to be “absolutely fascinating, the social structure of the hive, the intricacies of the waggle dance and questions like what makes a queen a queen?” Just in the last few years supervised populations of European honey bees have experienced considerable losses. Leonard explains the reasons for the decreases are different in Canada than the US. He reveals that “in Canada it is fairly clear that a couple diseases, Varroa mites and Nosema, are responsible for a lot of the losses. A lot of bees in Canada end up starving or succumbing to the weather.”
Leonard feels that “if beekeeping was a little more profitable a lot of it (depopulation) would not happen. For example, if a beekeeper could hire an assistant to help feed bees and insulate them better or move them to a warmed building over winter then losses from starvation and exposure would be dramatically decreased.” In a food industry that might not appreciate beekeeping as much as needed, he expresses that “beekeeping is incredibly hard work for very little return and if it was valued more highly it would help the industry enormously.”
In a city with a poverty rate climbing, the “Downtown Eastside homelessness increased 373% between 2002 and 2008.” The topic of food security seems to be right along there with it; the faculty of Land and Food Systems here at UBC highlights this issue focusing on such aspects as Affordability, Accessibility, and Sustainability. Leonard believes “that by-and-large the problems affecting bees are not irreversible. Thus, while at some point bees will decline to the point where it has a big impact on food, the system will ultimately be able to correct itself when priorities shift.” I guess the question is will our priorities shift?
In 2005 the City of Vancouver Policy Report addresses Hobby Beekeeping or “urban apiculture” in Vancouver with several recommendations; predominately under the guidelines from “section 4.1 of the Health By-law, the prohibition against operating an apiary or keeping of bees in the city of Vancouver.” This policy also briefly outlines the Provincial Bee Act which “requires anyone who operates honeybee colonies to be registered with the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (BCMAL) – if a person is contravening this registration process, BCMAL Apiculture staff have the authority to destroy or dispose of the honeybees or beehive equipment in the possession of the unregistered individual.” Later in this report, proposed benefits for urban apiculture include “increase biodiversity and pollination for horticultural plants in backyard, community and public gardens.” It suggests that “hobby beekeeping is considered to be part of a broader Urban Agriculture strategy currently being developed under the umbrella of the City’s food policy mandate.” Leonard notes, “Vancouver only recently started allowing back-yard beekeeping again and they could certainly do more to encourage that, for example, subsidizing beginner beekeeping courses.” Perhaps priorities have started to shift in the city of Vancouver over the last four years.
At the UBC farm “bees play a pretty predominant role in a lot of the Farm’s outreach activities,” says Leonard, but “Getting more people out to those activities and holding more educational activities would certainly help.” Native to McBride BC and son to two teachers, Leonard has been studying bees since his senior year at high school; since his time at the UBC farm (2005) he has learned one positive aspect of this recent depopulation; it is Leonard’s hope through this struggle to make people more aware, but most importantly “value what bees do for us more.”
You forgot to mention the wonders of royal jelly! Bees are definitely the most underrated and under appreciated labourer in the agriculture industry. We rely on them so much yet a fair portion of the populace fears them simply because they have a stinger. I for one, can’t wait to start my own apiary.
Good article. Bees are very important to gardeners and farmers all over the place, yet they are being largely overlooked by many people, even as we are losing some of them.
Great Post,
thought you might enjoy my machinima film about bees and permaculture
Bright Blessings
elf ~