Queen Bee!
The Frontlines of Ontario Bee Rescue
We
couldn’t live in a world without bees, and we wouldn’t want to, either. These small, buzzy creatures make a massive impact— without bees, humankind would lose more than a third of our food! Honey bees perform about 80 percent of all pollination worldwide. Between pesticide use, habitat destruction, nutrition deficit, air pollution, and global warming, bees need our help! Fortunately, we have the power to make an impact to save the bees—starting with leaving bee removal to the experts who aim to protect them.
DID YOU KNOW? A honey bee produces about 1/2 teaspoon or less of honey in her lifetime. The colour and flavour of the honey depend on what kind of flowers the nectar is gathered from.
Ontario Bee Rescue operates from Meadowlily Farm, a small hobby farm of five acres surrounded by over 180 acres of parkland, Meadowlily Nature Preserve and Meadowlily Woods, in London, Ontario. Bruce and Joanne, the owners of Meadowlily Farm and the Ontario Bee Rescue, were introduced to beekeeping by Richard Durnin, a 3rd-generation beekeeper who saw that Meadowlily Farm would make a great protected spot for bees. Durnin took Bruce under his wing and started teaching as much as he could about caring for bees, sharing something new each time he came to visit the farm. When Durnin passed away, Bruce and Joanne decided to take over caring for the bees to honour him.
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Bruce took two weeks off work to meet with beekeepers, watch videos, do research, and learn as much as possible about beekeeping. A few months later, Bruce and Joanne started Ontario Bee Rescue. Once word got out that Meadowlily Farm had bees, phone calls started pouring in from people asking for help removing swarms of bees from their backyards. Bruce and Joanne started going on rescue missions to safely remove the swarms at no charge, bringing them back to the farm.
© JOANNE CROCKETT AND LEE MANN
Long Live the
