Secrets of bee hotels Saturday, August 8, 2015 Urbanites of all sorts have taken to building "bee hotels" for the "pollinator" bees that don't produce honey but, as Maclean's notes in its June 1 issue, not all is going well with these artificial nesting sites. Researchers tracked 200 bee hotels in Toronto over three years and found that wasps occupied three quarters of them. The advice? Put the bee hotel where a northeast sun hits it. Bees like warmth in the morning. More than four storeys high and introduced bees abandon them. Ground level is better. Make the holes into the rooms big enough for larger females. Furthermore, parasites resulted in heavy losses and no solutions were offered. Another researcher told Maclean's the problem may be with the city itself. It's just not conducive to bees and he says the same rules don't apply in orchards. "At their worst, bee hotels may act as population sinks for bees through facilitating the increase of parasites and diseases as a result of functional responses to unnaturally high nest densities and nesting site entrances set up in two-dimensions rather than in the more three dimensional arrangement found in nature." The study's authors don't advocate quitting, just doing more research on what does work. "We advocate for due diligence on the part of retailers and promoters of bee hotels to avoid 'bee-washing' . . . as applied to potentially misleading claims for augmentation of native and wild bee populations." The study on bee hotels can be found at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0122126 BF Soil Mapping: has electrical conductivity technology's time finally come? Thai chicken in Canada?
Mother’s Day Q&A with Anna McCutcheon Thursday, May 8, 2025 Mother’s Day is only a few days away (that’s another reminder), and this week Farms.com has connected with moms in ag for their thoughts on motherhood, its challenges, and how being a parent has changed them. Anna McCutcheon (AM) and her husband Mark are the first generation on their... Read this article online
Looking for the Perfect Mother’s Day Gift for Women who work in Agriculture? Thursday, May 8, 2025 Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and what better way to show appreciation for the incredible women in agriculture than by supporting products and services created by women in agriculture? Whether she’s managing livestock, growing crops, running a farm-based business—or all of... Read this article online
Creating Safe Farms for Kids Wednesday, May 7, 2025 The Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) is hosting the second annual Kids FarmSafe Week from May 12 to 18, with the theme “Nurturing the Future of Agriculture.” The initiative aims to raise awareness about health and safety risks for children and youth on farms. According... Read this article online
Encouraging Consumers to spend 1 Percent More at Farmers Markets Could Make a Big Difference Wednesday, May 7, 2025 A recent study led by University of Northern British Columbia professor David Connell reveals that farmers’ markets, while growing in popularity, still make up only a small share of household food spending. The research was conducted across 70 markets in British Columbia and involved... Read this article online
2025 Election Results Prompt Concern and Reflection Among Prairie Farmers Tuesday, May 6, 2025 Users on Agriville.com weigh-in on the 2025 federal election outcome As news broke that Mark Carney’s Liberals had won the 2025 federal election, many western Canadian farmers on Agriville.com shared their reactions. The mood was largely one of disappointment, with concerns about the... Read this article online