Group name: Bees on Bowen
BOB is Bees on Bowen, an informal group of beekeepers and enthusiasts on Bowen Island. BOB was started in early 2008 to connect recent graduates of a beginners’ beekeeping class. The list of beekeepers, gardeners, honey locavores, and general bee well-wishers continues to grow. Bees on Bowen seeks to be a gathering place and outlet for that interest.
Contacts:
- Stuart Cole, stuart_cole@shaw.ca, x 2774
- Ian Kennard, icken@telus.net x 9518
Membership: Membership is currently informal and open to all those interested in learning more about bees and beekeeping. With strong support for apiculture initiatives, we encourage BOB members to join and become active members of BAA.
Courses:
Stay tuned …
Meetings: BOB get-togethers are usually timed around Bowen beeyard visits, generally once per month from May through September, and occasionally during the rest of the season.
Discussion Group: BOB maintains an online discussion group for active and aspiring beekeepers. You can ask to join the group by following this link.
Projects / Initiatives:
Bee forage initiative
- BOB would like to encourage a greater variety of major nectar producing flowers on the island to augment the main honey flow of blackberry blossoms (blooming in late June / early July). Greater floral diversity, over an extended period of time will be key to honeybees’ success on the island given the relative lack of agriculture and cultivated gardens. See the sidebar for a link to a list of bee-friendly plants.
Queen breeding program:
- Bowen beekeepers can improve the health of their honeybee colonies by selecting for and breeding survivor stock well-adapted to our local environment (and resistant to mites and diseases that challenge beekeepers worldwide). Bowen’s marine isolation from other bee populations can be both beneficial and a handicap in this goal. We may be able to better control some of the variables but we have a smaller bee population size to work with. A first step in a queen breeding program will be to increase the genetic diversity of our honeybees and increase colony numbers to better select positive traits from.
