Mason Bees on Vancouver Island
How to Care for Mason Bees: To successfully raise mason bees in your backyard, you’ll need to provide three essential components...
Beekeeping Resources
Beekeeping resources to help you learn about bees, hive management, honey and more!
The Waggle Dance
Honeybees need to communicate for a number of reasons- one in particular is to indicate where the best resource patch (nectar, pollen, resin) is located and how to get there....
'Dead Outs'- What to do when your hive doesn't make it through winter.
Despite our best efforts, we may lose our precious colony over the long, cold, wintering months. While losing a colony may not be uncommon, it is always deeply upsetting and... Read More
The ‘smoker:’ why do we use smoke in a honeybee hive?
You may have seen photos of beekeepers posing near the hive with metal contraptions billowing with smoke. These are our bee smokers, or simply known as a ‘smoker.’ The... Read More
How to Protect your Honeybee Hive from Wasps
Every year as the weather increases in temperature and we begin to relax into thecomfortable rhythm of summer, we are joined by our favourite pests—the wasp. Here's how to protect...
The Honeybee Sting
The Honeybee Sting - Myths and Facts Contrary to popular belief, the only members of the colony that possess stingers are the females. The female members of the colony... Read More
Why Bees Produce Beeswax
How Beeswax is Made One of the main components of a beehive consist of an incredible substance called beeswax. Beeswax is produced by 4 pairs of glands located on the... Read More
Varroa Mite & the Sugar Shake Method
Whether your beekeeping journey is well on its way or you recently received your first nucleus colony, you've probably heard a fellow beekeeper utter the words ‘varroa mite.’ Although what... Read More
What is a Swarm?
Have you ever seen a clump of bees hanging off your neighbour’s tree, wondering “I don’t remember seeing that yesterday?” That is a swarm- half of a beekeeper’s precious colony... Read More