Gardeners encouraged to keep bees

By Olivia Waldriff and Connor Robinson

BELLEVILLE – An area beekeeper told a crowd at the Brighton Garden Club on Tuesday night that more people should be keeping bees to pollinate their gardens.

Nancy Cole, a beekeeper in Yarker, north of Kingston, spoke to a crowd of about 40 people.

“Without the bees and without native pollinators in particular we wouldn’t have these crops.”

She talked about how 75% of crops need pollination. With the number of bees declining, Cole encouraged the gardeners to keep their own beehives to help pollinate their gardens.

Cole started beekeeping 23 years ago after moving to her farm property and realizing that she had nothing to pollinate her crops with. After finding a local beekeeper and using his bees, the keeper suggested that she started to keep her own bees. She now has a goal for a total of 40 hives on her property. 

After teaching at St. Lawrence College for 20 years she retired and started speaking about the importance of bees at various places around Ontario.

But she also didn’t sugarcoat some of the challenges. 

“Twenty years ago I had very few winter losses. The past couple years I’ve lost more then 75% of my bees,” said Cole.

A bee pollinator pal information board, Photo by Connor Robinson QNet News

She also touched on other issues. Along with the loss of a valuable source of pollinators there is the obvious loss of honey. There were also questions raised regarding the legality of keeping bees on one’s property and the possible economical benefits. Cole said beekeeping isn’t a get rich quick scheme, and in recent years there have even been cases of people stealing beehives.

For more information people can visit feedthebees.org based out of Delta, British Columbia