Well, because bees are essential to the human food supply. One-third
of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the
honeybee is responsible for 80 per cent of that pollination.
“I'm a gardener,” said Kim Hoelzli, a brand new beekeeper in
Thamesford, just outside London. “Several years ago I noticed a
decline in the insects that were visiting the garden. I started reading
about attracting pollinators and providing them with habitats.”
Hoelzli started actively planting things like bee balm and sage and
doubled the amount of basil she was growing and let half go to flower
every year to encourage native bees to visit. “While researching this, I
sort of stumbled upon honey bees.”
The decline in bee populations has been a growing concern over
the last ten years or so. One of the chief culprits in the die off appears
to be neocotinoids - a new family of insecticides that have successfully
battled some crop pests. However, the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association
- among others - reports that neocotinoids come with devastating side
effects, compromising the bees’ immune systems; leaving bees more
vulnerable to viruses, reducing their navigation skills, affecting the
bees’ capacity to forage and communicate forage opportunities to
other bees and by reducing the availability of a diversity of
uncontaminated plants.
While membership in the Ontario Beekeepers’ Association has
increased 120 per cent over the last four years, and now numbers
around 1000,there is still work to be done. Like Hoelzli, many avid
gardeners as well those who are concerned about food safety and
security, do their bit by caring for their own hives. Being an apiarist - a
fancy term for a beekeeper - doesn’t have to be a large scale operation,
but it does take some planning and preparation.
“Eventually I took an introductory beekeeping course through the
Ontario Beekeepers Association's Tech Transfer Program and I was
hooked,” says Hoelzli. “We got hands on time with hives under the
guidance of an instructor and it was really incredible to hold frames
with bees all over them. The bees didn't bother with me or the rest of
the class at all. They just continued to do their own thing. It was so
cool to watch.”
The OBA’s website has a practical, getting started section for
wanna-beekeepers. While beekeeping can be physically strenuous,
there are tools and techniques that make it accessible to most people.
There’s also a bit of a start-up cost.
“Setting up from scratch cost me about $700. That included all of
my clothing, my equipment, the hive and the bees,” says Hoelzli.
“Buying an established hive that comes with the brood boxes and
honey supers might be less money, but I didn't find one in my area to
explore that as an option. Also, if you know someone who is splitting a
hive, and willing to give you bees, that would reduce costs as well.”
Hoelzli keeps her single hive at a friend's farm. They have allowed
a section of their land to revert to meadow land to help provide habitat
that has a lot of wildflowers and clover, which bees like. “We also
cooperatively have a large two-family garden at the farm and it gives
the bees another source of pollen and nectar.”
For more info, click the link!
Ontario Beekeepers’
Association
Local Beekeepers’
Associations
Bees Act of Ontario