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New civic program has them buzzing

Efforts to increase the mason bee population have been a surprising success, says local beekeeper

Delta's mason bee experiment has been a surprising success.

That's the assessment of beekeeper Bobby Olszowiec, a Delta resident who installed mason bee boxes outside of municipal hall and at Ernie Burnett and Diefenbaker parks in the second year of a civic project.

"If the honeybee completely collapses we're at a big problem if we don't have any backup. The mason bee is an alternative and will visit way more flowers a day," he told the Optimist recently at the bee box facing the parking lot outside municipal hall.

Last year was the initial test of the program, but the bee box Olszowiec built and used appeared to be damaged by a vandal. This year more boxes were used and produced healthy populations.

"The one (box) at Diefenbaker Park was a huge surprise this year. I was watching all spring and summer and it was huge, even though we went through all that wet, cold weather."

Olszowiec, who started as a beekeeper eight years ago with 12 bees, said the solitary mason bees aren't honeybees but are extremely valuable pollinators nonetheless.

"These mason bees are harmless. Their sole purpose in life is to reproduce and to pollinate crops and flowers," he explained.

Olszowiec said mason bees are resistant to several mites believed responsible for devastating bee populations around the world, although they have an enemy mite of their own that can devastate bee chambers.

A bee box consists of stacked pieces of wood or plastic on a raised platform. Small holes are drilled into the wood or plastic to provide a home for the bees.

The bee box faces southeast to maximize morning sun exposure.

There are approximately 40 to 100 bees within a box that live there from May to August, according to a section on Delta's website explaining the program.

Mason bees can be found all over Delta and, since mason bees do not make honey, they do not swarm and are gentle. Male bees do not have stingers and in a typical bee box there are only two females for every 10 males. A mason bee will only sting if handled roughly or if trapped under cloth-ing, the website explains.

Mason bees are hairy and busy animals. A bee may travel up to 500 metres from its home, pollinating 75 flowers per trip. To collect enough food for one mason bee egg, an adult must make 25 trips. At 75 flowers per trip, that's 1,875 flowers pollinated.

A standard bee box may house up to 80 eggs requiring the pollination of 150,000 flowers, the website notes.

When the bee boxes are cleaned, Olszowiec collects the eggs and stores them in a fridge. Each female mason bee can lay up to 36 eggs.

Mayor Lois Jackson said civic staff are running the program, monitoring the progress of the bee boxes and looking for new ideas.

She said local farmers use bees as an invaluable pollinating tool, but they're paying big dollars when they use honeybees.

Two years ago Delta council adopted a bylaw amendment to permit beekeeping as an accessory use to single family and duplex dwellings and for educational purposes.

Prior to that, beekeeping was limited to farming zones.

The new bylaw states, "Bees play a valuable role in food production and hobby beekeeping can contribute towards enriching and maintaining biodiversity as well as leading to more productive harvests of backyard and community gardens."

Earlier that year, Allen Garr, representing the B.C. Honey Producers Association, made a presentation to council. He noted a disease or parasite is destroying bee colonies around the world and backyard colonies in singlefamily areas could be an important way to boost bee populations.

This year the Delta Chamber of Commerce launched a Feed the Bees campaign in collaboration with the Earthwise Society. The campaign encourages the public to plant bee-friendly plants, adopt mason bee hives and other initiatives.

sgyarmati@delta-optimist.com