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?
Potato industry on PEI to save up to $7 million because of cuts to bridge tolls Tuesday, July 29, 2025 Effective August 1, 2025, tolls on the Confederation Bridge will drop dramatically, with personal vehicle tolls falling from $50.25 to $20. Commercial vehicles will also benefit from these reductions. In addition, ferry tolls in Newfoundland and Labrador and other regions will see... Read this article online
Soil Compaction Challenges Tuesday, July 29, 2025 Ontario’s spring planting faced challenges from soil compaction, impacting crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat. Despite some areas experiencing rapid planting under ideal conditions, other regions, even those with lighter soils, struggled due to excessive rainfall. The team at OMAFA –on... Read this article online
2026 Grains Innovation Fund is now open Tuesday, July 29, 2025 Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO), the province’s largest commodity organization representing Ontario’s 28,000 barley, corn, oat, soybean, and wheat farmers, is now accepting applications for its . “This year marks another exciting chapter for the Grains Innovation Fund,” stated Paul... Read this article online
Applications Open for Grains Innovation Fund 2026 Monday, July 28, 2025 Grain Farmers of Ontario (GFO), the province’s largest commodity organization representing 28,000 farmers, is now accepting applications for the 2026 Grains Innovation Fund. The fund offers grants up to $75,000 to support innovative projects that promote the use of Ontario’s grains such as... Read this article online
Sowing the Seeds of the Future -- A Fresh Look at Farm Succession in Canada Monday, July 28, 2025 “You’ve worked the land for decades—through changing seasons, shifting markets, and long days that begin before sunrise," says Jason Castellan, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Skyline when he spoke with Farms.com. “You know every acre, every decision, every responsibility that... Read this article online