The Buzz
- Native Bee Society of BC
- Aug 5
- 23 min read
Updated: Aug 7
Newsletter of the Native Bee Society of British Columbia August 2025
Volume 6 | Issue 2
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Editors-in-chief: C. Thuring & M. Marriott
Contributors: Lori Weidenhammer, Sarah Johnson, Gwendolyn Williams, Christine Thuring, Sky Jarvis Cover image: Colletes on nodding onion, Lac du Bois Grassland, BC (Lori Weidenhammer)
Buzz Straight to Article:
Native Bees' Needs: Caring for Mason Bees, August Edition
by Gwendolyn Williams
One of our most beautiful and special native B.C. bees is Osmia lignaria, also known as the Blue Orchard Mason Bee. You may have seen this gentle blue bee filling the holes in your window frames with mud, or out on the flowering red currant on a cool early Spring day. If you are the owner of a Bee Hotel/House, you may have seen them climbing in and out of the tubes with yellow pollen on their bellies.
Now that we’re well into summer, these little beauties have finished up their life cycle for the year by creating as many little mudded-up nest cells as possible before reaching the end of their lives. But their season isn’t over yet! The larval babies she left in those nest cells next to a ball of carefully chosen pollen are eating their way to pupation before they can go into diapause for the winter months (like hibernation).
The larvae have been securely walled in with mud, but are not completely safe from intruders! Cocoxenus indagator, also known as the Houdini Fly, native to central and southern Europe is now an invasive part of our landscape, and a kleptoparasite to our Blue Orchard Mason bees. When the baby Houdini flies hatch, the larvae consume (steal) the pollen provisions that were collected by the Osmia bee for her larvae. The baby bee dies of starvation, and the fly larvae thrive.
In a natural landscape, these flies would struggle to find every well-placed mud cell left throughout the forest, hidden as they are in beetle/ woodpecker holes, woody stems, and snags. Unfortunately, the increasingly popular human-created Mason Bee Houses act like a buffet for predators! Bee hotels make it easy for Houdini fly to find their prey. They are happy to find hundreds of cells in one convenient place.
For more information on these little klepto-parasites, and what you can do to prevent their expansion, please check out this article about Houdini fly from a past issue of The Buzz Newsletter.
Spreading Houdini fly is just one reason why the owners of Mason Bee hotels must be extra vigilant caretakers, or consider not owning them at all. Believe it or not, yet another non-native species has appeared to these lands, which could threaten these native species and the ecosystems they are part of. We'll cover that in a comprehensive article once more is known.
Bio
Gwendolyn Williams is an artist, tattoo artist, and citizen scientist on Vancouver Island, BC. She is a life-long nature lover and gardener, and comes from a family of farmers in the Okanagan. Now, an apprentice-level graduate, she is working towards her parataxonomist certification with the Master Melittology Program of Oregon State University (OSU). She is a board member with the Native Bee Society of BC.
Dr. Sheila Colla: A Tribute
by Sarah Johnson, on behalf of the Native Bee Society of BC
Dr. Sheila Colla
May 4, 1982 – July 6, 2025
Photos: 1) Zurry Donovan, 2) Marc Michalak
If you have ever been interested in bumble bees, you have surely stumbled across Dr. Colla’s name at some point. She was a prolific conservation scientist at the forefront of sounding the alarm for bumble bee declines in North America during the early 2000s, and continued to fiercely advocate for wild bees throughout her professional life. Heartbreakingly, that life was recently cut short by a rare, aggressive cancer.
Sheila was a force to be reckoned with well beyond wild bees. It would be exceedingly difficult to come up with a comparable example of another person as unabashedly unrelenting as her in her willingness to jump to the defense of anyone or anything she felt needed defending. She had a special talent for sensing unfairness, and she never let any fear she may have been feeling hold her back from standing up for what she felt was right. For anyone observing it often appeared as if she were fearless, though surely she was simply unwavering in her commitment to transforming fear into action.
Both bees and humans lost an exceptional advocate last month. However, Sheila’s legacy remains as a reminder for us all to be brave enough to take a chance on standing up for what we believe in. We extend our deepest condolences to her family and friends during this difficult time, and recommend visiting her lab website for more details on her worldly impact on wild bees and what can be done now to support all the beings she held dear, including her husband and young children.
Event report: Getting Personal with Pollinators
by Christine Thuring
On Tuesday, July 22, the Native Bee Society of BC was pleased to partner with the Green Roof Infrastructure Network (GRIN) on a walking tour celebrating the integration of pollinator habitat within the built environment. Titled, “Getting Personal with Pollinators”, the 1.8 km walking tour visited a range of pollinator habitats in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver, including:
a native pollinator meadow, seeded 2 years ago
a 23-year-old green roof garage and its water-sensitive garden
Tatlow Creek and its meadow planting (completed spring 2024).
Fifty people registered and all who attended represented a diversity of backgrounds, interests, and disciplines (including, but not limited to, art, ecology, engineering, landscape architecture, roofing, public health, and, of course, native bee lovers!). Many thanks to the volunteers who helped make the tour what it was (2 from the Native Bee Society, 5 from GRIN), and to all the receptive participants!
The sites
The first site was an all-native pollinator meadow, which was seeded two years ago (Feb. 2024) beside a bike path. This project is dear to my heart, as it manifested through a grant with Pollinator Partnership and collaborative partners at the City of Vancouver. To learn more about the seed blend (and why native plants are better for native bees), check out this informative blog post.
The second site was the green roof garage and home garden of award-winning landscape architect, Randy Sharp. After 23 years, this low-maintenance green roof is still doing great. It was originally built as a prototype, and helped kick start the modern green roof movement in BC. Details about the project were recently published on the GRIN blog.
The last site was Tatlow Park where, after 10 years’ of planning and work, a buried creek was raised back into daylight last year. We were joined by staff from the City of Vancouver’s Green Infrastructure Implementation Team, whose explanations about stormwater catchment, combined sewer overflows and 6PPD-Q (“the coho killer”) captivated everyone’s attention.
Walking along Tatlow Creek to our concluding picnic refreshed the pollinator focus, as it is bordered by nice plantings, including a meadow that was absolutely dominated by gumweed. Someone said they counted at least 30 sleeping boy bumbles in the yellow flowers!
The event concluded with a picnic at Volunteer Park. Refreshments were sponsored by Park People, who make awesome things happen in city parks across Canada. Snacks included lots of vegan and gluten-free options. The 5 gallon thermos of ice water was welcome, and the massive watermelon was demolished!
Post-event, one participant who lives locally remarked:
“What a fantastic tour and walk. I'm looking at my neighbourhood in a whole new way now. Thanks to you and COV staff for the wonderful time”.
Bio
Christine Thuring is an inter-sectional plant ecologist with a passion for creating conditions for biodiversity and healthy communities. Her consultancy, Ecotone: Restoring Biodiversity, engages her accreditations as a Meadow Maker and Pollinator Steward, both from Pollinator Partnership, and as a Green Roof Professional. Christine is co-founder and current President of the Native Bee Society of BC.
“Poopling” and other Odd Behaviors of Bees
by Lori Weidenhammer
I hope you enjoy this eclectic article about three new projects I’ve created on iNaturalist as well as a report on the Bees, Butterfly and Botany Project which is happening this summer.
Vitamin P: Weird ways bees get their RDA
When you’re looking at thousands of bee observations on iNaturalist, there are always some that stand out as particularly odd and curious. Lately, we’ve received a few of those from the Native Bee Society Bee Tracker Project, so I decided to create a special project to keep track of the weird stuff. Have you ever observed bees sticking their tongues in odd places, like the steps of an outhouse, a mud puddle, or even a ripe sample of coyote scat? If you took photos of strange bee-havior, we’d love to see them and add them to the poopling project!
When butterflies drink from mud puddles and shoreline clay and sand, the behaviour is called “puddling”. This is most observed in male butterflies, and is thought to help with reproductive success. Butterflies have also been observed on rotten fruit, scat, dead animals and even tears. These weird sources of food are thought to supplement the diet of nectar with nutrients, including amino acids, and minerals such as salt. This summer I saw a butterfly perched on some scat on the trail, along with an enthusiastic little dung beetle that was in poop heaven. When I mentioned this behaviour can also be observed in bees, someone suggested it be called “poopling”, which seems like an apt term. Bumble bee scientist (and founding NBSBC President), Sarah Johnson, has observed bumble bees licking urine and I was intrigued when I saw three species of bees licking the steps of an outhouse. I’m guessing some dudes may have “sprinkled while they tinkled” and some of their pee got tracked to the steps on shoes and boots. Sarah has also observed bees sampling her salty backpack straps, as she notes in her article on the Yellow-banded Bumble Bee Bombus terricola from the March 2022 issue of The Buzz (see the paragraph that starts, "I was not much of an experienced backpacker...").
I would love for you to keep an eye out for unusual ways bees collect their recommended daily allowance of minerals and vitamins from sources such as human sweat, urine, feces, sports drinks, seaweed, mud and rocks covered in salt. I’ve called the project: Bees Ingesting Minerals from Alternative Sources.
To add observations, simply join the project and it will become an option in your “add project” menu on the right side of the page for observations. If you add observations to projects, you are more likely to get specialists looking at the observation and it may end up being part of a research paper. If you see it with your own eyes, or see an iNat observation that fits the project we’d really appreciate more examples of these odd behaviours!
Here are some of the observations I’ve added to the project so far:
Bryan Saraurer observed five Bombus melanopygus licking what he thought might be wolf scat on a forested trail in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. They are clearly females, (likely workers) with pollen loads in their corbiculae.
An observer named “salmonskyview” observed a yellow-faced bumble bee licking seaweed on the shore of Gabriola Island. This also appears to be a female bumble bee, sticking her proboscis into the wet sea lettuce, tucking into her salty snack. She does not have pollen on her corbiculae.
I was intrigued by an aggregation of over a dozen leafcutter bees observed by “aborelli” that appeared to be licking a backpack—turns out this was where a sports drink had been kept and so the bees were licking the mineral rich sugary residue.
An observer named “frans56” photographed a wet patch licked by an aggregation of leafcutter bees in sandy soil in east Kootenay, BC—a bit of a mystery. It could be urine, or a wet spot on a sandy beach, where one often sees butterflies puddling.
I saw a western bumble bee licking the soil on a road in a campsite alongside butterflies. This was at Canyon Flats Recreation Site in Christian Valley, BC.
There is already a larger project with a wider scope called Nontypical Apidae Forage Observations. Along with bees foraging on the sources I’ve suggested in my project, it also includes bees foraging on atypical plants and rotting fruit.
If you have a garden, providing some wet soil can help insects that seek mud. For example, blue orchard mason bees need a good source of wet clay in the spring, and there are other species of Osmia that mix mud into their nesting materials, mostly chewed plant pulp. I always go to the Xerces Society website for information on making your garden better for bees and they do have some tips on creating a water source to support pollinators. Let us know if you have success with creating a puddling spot for bees.
Here’s a bonus weird bee-haviour fact: The Asian honey bees (Apis cerana) collect poop from birds and water buffalo to protect their nests from giant hornets (Vespa soror) which is related to the hornet that was found in the US. They place the feces around the entrance of the hive as a deterrent.
Petal Cutting Bees
The other two iNat projects I’ve created are related to the behaviour of petal-cutting bees. These are Megachile species that prefer to use petals rather than leaves to line their nests. You may have learned to identify the traces left behind in leaves that have been harvested for nesting materials from leafcutter bees. I present here some photos of the mix of oblong cuts (used lengthwise to line the nesting tunnel) and circular (used as walls between nest cells). If you see what you think is leafcutter activity, you can post them in an iNat project created by “maribritt”.
I am very intrigued by the bees that use petals to line their nests. You may observe the typical round and oblong cuts, but in flower petals instead of leaves. Where Clarkia amoena is native it is favored by the silver-tailed petal cutter bee. In places where the sagebrush mariposa lily grows, it will use these petals. I have seen many examples of petal cutter traces on mariposa lilies on Campbell Mountain in Penticton and in the Lac du Bois
Grasslands this summer. When we led our bee walk on a trail that had an abundance of these lilies, I explained to folks that we may observe this petal cutting bee in action. Sure enough, one of the park rangers caught the bee in the act of cutting the petals and caught her in a jar to show us! We released her to continue furnishing her nest. It’s intriguing that this species uses green plant stalks rather than aged dry stalks as nesting sites. Keep an eye out for this bee-haviour!
I have created two projects, one for observations of the bees cutting and carrying petals. The first is called Flowers modified by petal cutting bees, so we can see what petal-cutters use for their sweet nest linings. (You could also add plant stems if you see them nesting in them.) I have also seen them use shrubby potentilla petals, gaillardia and coneflower petals. The second is Megachile using petals as nesting material, for observations that include photos of the bee interacting with nesting material, i.e. cutting or carrying petals and nesting in plant stems.
Be sure to check out Bob McDougall’s extraordinary projects on iNaturalist, including his Bee-haviour umbrella project. Umbrella projects give us a view of the larger picture of patterns of observations from more projects with a narrower focus. Bob’s umbrella project includes projects observing bees nesting, mating, robbing nectar, checking in to bee hotels, holding slumber parties, and more!
Bio
Lori Weidenhammer (she/her), aka Madame Beespeaker, is an interdisciplinary artist based in Rock Creek, British Columbia. Lori is a community-based artist and educator, engaging people of all ages to explore environmental issues related to bees through many different media. As a food security volunteer, artist and activist, Lori gives talks and works with community members on a range of subjects, including eating locally and gardening for pollinators. She is a founding member of the Native Bee Society of British Columbia. A revised edition of her book Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide for Saving the Bees, has recently been released by Douglas and McIntyre.
Native Seeds from Birks for Bees
Applications Open for Vancouver Pollinator Habitat Creators
Pollinator Partnership Canada, with generous funding from Birks, is seeking to provide native plant seed for pollinator habitat projects in six Canadian cities, including Vancouver! Seed packs of two species are available to Vancouver residents: Wild Bergamot and Western Yarrow. You can select one or both species, and whether you would like to receive seed this September for fall planting (apply by August 31st) or next April for spring planting. Projects that engage a group or community, such as community gardens and school gardens, will be prioritized, but individual home garden projects will also be considered depending on the volume of applications.
Apply using this link if you have a pollinator habitat project in Vancouver that would benefit from native plant seed!
Bees, Butterflies and Botany: The Fun-ology Begins!
by Lori Weidenhammer
Darren Kirby and I received a grant through the NBSBC from the BC Parks Foundation to study the phenology of bees and their top foraging plants in the southern interior during the summer months as well as giving talks to communities and bee walks in BC parks. It’s valuable to see bees in the field as well as in photographs on iNat because it trains your brain to identify the bee from different angles and perspectives and take note of the details of their behaviour in situ. I advise getting out there and getting off the screen as much as you can anyway when the bees are active because it’s good for your physical and mental health. If you check my iNat observations, you can see what I saw on the trip so far. It’s been interesting to look at bees and bee plants through a phenological lens to see how location and elevation affects the blooming and fruiting progress of plants, which is connected to the phenology of bee-haviour.
If I expanded the phenology project next summer, I would add more plants to the list of popular plants for bees to include clovers, selfheal, and spreading dogbane. There are a variety of clovers that have seeded into our natural areas because of human disturbance and especially in areas near agricultural areas that grow food for cattle. Some parks have cattle grazing grandfathered in, so those weeds will continue to encroach on wild areas. These agricultural weeds include red clover, black medic, white and yellow sweet clover and alsike. They are a mixed blessing as they provide nectar for bees when other sources can be scarce. Selfheal is both native and introduced, and it’s often found in damp soil around lakes and ponds. One lake we visited, Shadow Lake in Wells Gray PP, had the tallest self-heal I’ve ever seen—over 1 foot in height and it was full of bumble bees. Spreading dogbane can be abundant in parts of BC and it feeds many species of bees. I was seeing copious amounts of tiny Heriades bees on it in Schuswap lake Provincial Park at the edge of the road.
The real star of the show, in terms of southern interior bee forage plants, at this time of the year (high summer) is snowberry. I was looking high and low for bees in Shuswap Lake Provincial Park. The phenology was quite advanced there and bee season was almost over! As we drove into the park the fireweed in the burn sites was mostly gone to seed. Luckily in the parking lot where we had lunch just before our walk, I finally found a patch of blooming snowberry that was full of the half-black bumble bee (Bombus vagans). It was discovered just in time to be able to bring folks on the walk to see them! So far, B. vagans has been the most commonly observed species of bee in our observations.
One of my favorite photos on the project so far includes a close-up of the chompers on a rain-soaked female leafcutter bee resting on an aster. She used these serrated mandibles to cut the leaves or petals for nesting material.
So more than one kind of leafcutter was visiting the sagebrush mariposa lilies—as you can see this black and grey leafcutter bee (Megachile melanophaea) has pink pollen on her belly from the lilies. I believe the campanula pollen is ivory in colour.
When you see these fat black huckleberries, (aka mountain or thinleaf huckleberries) Vaccinium membranaceum, you know they are well-pollinated and that there must have been good conditions for the bees to visit the flowers in the spring when they were blooming. I like to know the bears in Wells Gray Provincial Park will be feasting well on these this summer!
One day on the trip, just before dusk, we came upon the largest meadow of nodding onion I have ever seen.
This was in the Lac du Bois Grasslands, and there was also sagebrush mariposa lily and native bellflowers on the same site. Colletes bees love nodding onion, so I was thrilled to find one foraging here.
I am so grateful to the Native Bee Society of BC and BC Parks for supporting this project, which allows us to do research and connect people of all ages to bees and the plants that sustain them. Please check out the remaining dates here on our events page. We’d love to see you! Feel free to DM me @beespeaker for any iNaturalist related questions or comments. My revised edition of Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide to Saving the Bees was recently reviewed by Ecofriendlywest. I highly recommend following them on social media or signing up for their newsletter for their up-to-date news on ecologically related issues in Western Canada.
Bio
Lori Weidenhammer (she/her), aka Madame Beespeaker, is an interdisciplinary artist based in Rock Creek, British Columbia. Lori is a community-based artist and educator, engaging people of all ages to explore environmental issues related to bees through many different media. As a food security volunteer, artist and activist Lori gives talks and works with community members on a range of subjects, including eating locally and gardening for pollinators. She is a founding member of the Native Bee Society of British Columbia. A revised edition of her book Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide for Saving the Bees, has recently been released by Douglas and McIntyre.
Genera Profile: Melissodes
Genera Highlight! We have 11 species of Melissodes (Summer Longhorn Bees) in BC. They are active from summer to fall and vary pretty drastically in size and appearance; from just 7mm to 17mm. They can be light or dark coloured with lots of fluffy hair, and often stripes! Melissodes exhibit sexual dimorphism; the males all have extremely long antennae, making them distinctly different looking than the females. These ground nesting bees prefer to dig on flat ground or vertical banks and unlike most other types of bees, each nest has only one nest cell. Many Melissodes are specialists on Asteraceae and rely on them exclusively to provision their young.
These bee genera profiles are currently available for free download on our website. This project is supported by the BC Bee Program; delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation with funding from the Government of British Columbia. @Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC
Recent Events
We've been busily buzzing around the province over the summer months conducting bee schools and bee walks and field trips and collecting. We hope you have had a chance to join us out in the field or online, or have gotten up close and personal with our native pollinator friends in your own backyards or on holiday travels around BC. Below is a taste of what we've been up to the past few months.
Nanaimo Mini Bee School (Two-day Bee Biology and Identification Workshop), May 10–11, Nanaimo, BC
Taught by Bonnie Zand and assisted by Jade Lee, this workshop explored the diversity of common bee species observed on Vancouver Island. Day 1 was spent examining bee specimens using digital microscopes and learn about the key ID features that can be observed in the field and in photographs. On Day 2, participants put these learned skills to the test with a day of mentorship on Field Collecting techniques. You can read more about this workshop in this Nanaimo News article and listen to instructor Bonnie Zand's interview on CBC radio)
BC Native Bee Course 2025, June 11-15, Penticton, BC
The 2025 Native Bee Course and Field Trips were held in Penticton and Okanagan-Similkameen this year, taught by lead instructor Lincoln Best and co-instructor, Bonnie Zand. It was an intensive week of learning and sharing knowledge both in the lab and in the field. Thank you to everyone who took part! If you missed it this year, keep an eye out in spring 2026 for news of next year's "Big Bee School"!
Pollinator Week/Month Events and Fundraising, June, 2025
Giant thanks go out to all the pollinator week/month donors and event hosts who raised funds in June for the NBSBC and Bee Atlas! Special shout-outs go to the following bee heros who raised a combined total of $6,126 for the NBSBC:
Elaine Sedgeman - offered $500 donation matching during pollinator week
Satinflower Nurseries - raised $550 selling pollinator plant baskets with half proceeds going towards NBSBC
Sarah Johnson - raised $230 for the bees selling plants at a market event
Matthew Young - hosted a "Bee Walk and Talk" at the River Wood Community Garden
Bonnie Zand - led a Bee Walk at the Courtenay Airpark educating the public about native bees and the BC Bee Atlas
And an extra special thank you goes to an amazing bunch of bee-friendly tattoo artists who raised an additional $6,271 by raffling flash piece tattoos to benefit the NBSBC!
Bees, Butterflies and Botany, July 12, 13, 14, 15, and 17, various BC locations
These walks and talks with native bee enthusiast and educator Lori Weidhammer got underway in July in libraries and parks around BC (Clearwater Library, Wells Gray Provincial Park, Kamloops Library Lac Du Bois Grasslands Protected Area and Shuswap Lake Provincial Park). Read Lori's article in this issue for the full story on this project, which is supported by the BC Parks Foundation. If you missed these events, there are still four to come in August - see our Events page for more details!
Getting Personal with Pollinators, July 22, Vancouver, BC
See the article above for NBSBC President Christine Thuring's account of this Green Roof Infrastructure walking tour she hosted recently with GRIN BC Green Roof Infrastructure Network (GRIN) and the City of Vancouver in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood. If you couldn't join us on the day, but happen to be in the neighbourhood you can recreate the walking tour by following the route map (see her article in this issue) - but please don't visit Randy Sharp's back garden uninvited! You can still catch a glimpse of his 23-year-old green roof from the alley behind his house.
Stable Harvest Farm Tour and Collection Event, July 27, Langley, BC
We were so honoured to spend a sunny Sunday in Langley, BC, at the beautiful and immaculate Stable Harvest Farm on July 27, 2025. Syd Belzberg, or “Farmer Syd’ as his staff affectionately nick-named him, invited members of the Native Bee Society and Master Melittologists to visit the incredible grounds of Stable Harvest Farm for a tour and bee collection event. We learned about the farm’s long history, from a horse racing track and stable in 1989, to, in 2020, an educational farm that utilises organic sustainable farming practice, and eco-system conservation to create a paradise for animals and pollinators that also produces 90K+ pounds of produce per year; all of which is all donated back into the community through school and meal programs, and the food bank.
Image 1: Farmer Syd is introduced to a bee collection by Master Mellitology students Gwendolyn Williams and Jade Lee. Image 2: MM student amid rows of blooms. Image 3: MM students, nets in hand, in the sunflowers.
Image 4: NBSBC President Christine Thuring and Board Member Maureen Marriott. Image 5: Gwen captures a specimen. Image 6: The happy tour group commemorate a successful day on the farm. Photos: Christine Thuring
We toured the grounds, petting farm animals and visiting the wildlife areas that beavers and owls call home. After the tour, we were invited to roam through the pristine rows of vegetables and flowers to see which pollinators are thriving there - and we were not disappointed. There was row upon row of gorgeous Dahlia, Cosmos, Celosia, Sunflower, and much, much more. There were entire fields of Phacelia and Clover. A stretch of border had a newly established native plant garden, and a field beyond that was slated to be converted to bee-forage next year. Each row of vegetables in the open greenhouses were lined with two rows of Zinna. Master Melittologist students dispersed into the garden, happily collecting a small sample of the diverse pollinators there to study later. We are incredibly thankful to the owner and staff of Stable Harvest Farm for such a treasured experience! We plan to come back annually - so keep an eye out for the next opportunity to visit with us. And if you can’t wait that long, check out stableharvestfarm.com for their Family Days, educational programs, Bee Camp and much more!
Prince George Mini Bee School (Two-day Bee Biology and Identification Workshop), Aug 2-3, Prince George, BC
We just wrapped up another successful and sold-out Mini Bee School! We are so grateful to all the local native bee enthusiasts who joined us, and to BC Nature and the BC Naturalist foundation, as well as the Prince George Naturalists Club and UNBC Sustainability for their support in bringing this workshop to Prince George for the first time!
Taught by Bonnie Zand, the workshop focused on recognizing common bumble bee species and common solitary native bee genera, and examined bee specimens using low magnification digital microscopes in the lab.
Enthusiastic students in the Prince George Mini Bee School lab component. Photos: Bonnie Zand
In the field we discussed the use of iNaturalist and the NBSBC’s BC Bee Atlas as tools for supporting native bees. We also looked for examples of important native bee habitat features and discussed practical conservation measures that community members can take.
Upcoming Events
Bees, Butterflies and Botany
August 8, August 9, August 15, August 16
Lori Weidenhammer continues this series of walks and talks sharing her love of plants and pollinators for four more dates in August. You can read more about this project, which is supported by the BC Parks Foundation, and see some of the beautiful bees Lori has been observing on her walks in her article in this issue and on her iNaturalist account. If you will be in the vicinity of any of the remaining walks (Kootenay Family Place, Syringa Provincial Park, Rock Creek Riverside Center or Kettle River Provincial Park), you can RSVP to attend via our Events page!
Native Bee Study Group, Wednesday, August 27, 7pm, on Zoom
Join us for our August 2025 meeting. Our online study group meets on the fourth Wednesday each month (except December) at 7 pm via Zoom, hosted by Bonnie Zand. This group is open to all levels of bee knowledge. We look forward to seeing you there. RSVP here.
Cowichan Mini Bee School (Two-day Bee Biology and Identification Workshop), Saturday, September 6-Sunday, September 7, Vancouver Island University Cowichan Campus, North Cowichan, BC
Have you always wanted to know how to ID the amazing diversity of bees buzzing around your flowers? Where do they nest, what do they eat, and how can you support them? Join our Bee Biology and Identification workshop! Taught by Bonnie Zand, this two-day session will start in the classroom from 9am to 4:30 pm to provide you with identification strategies for common native bees, as well as in depth information on their nesting, overwintering, and flower preferences! The following day, from 10am to 3pm, we will go on a "Bee Quest", exploring local natural areas and observing bees and their habitat in the field.
This workshop is suitable for beginner to intermediate students and will focus on recognizing common bumble bee species and common solitary bee genera. We will be examining bee specimens using low magnification digital microscopes, focusing on features that can be observed in the field and in photographs. In the field we will discuss the use of iNaturalist and the NBSBC's BC Bee Atlas as tools for supporting native bees. We will also look for examples of important native bee habitat features and discuss practical habitat conservation measures that community members can take.
Saanich One-Day Mini Bee School, Sunday, September 21, Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, Saanich, BC
Join the Native Bee Society of BC's Bee Biology and Identification one-day workshop at the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific (HCP) on Sunday, September 21, from 9am to 4:30pm (with a one-hourlunch break). Taught by NBSBC's Bonnie Zand, the workshop takes place in the HCP Pavilion and will provide you with identification strategies for common native bees, as well as in depth information on their nesting, overwintering, and flower preferences.
Suitable for beginner to intermediate students, the workshop will focus on recognizing common bumble bee species and common solitary bee genera. We will be examining bee specimens using low magnification digital microscopes, focusing on features that can be observed in the field and in photographs.
We will cover:
How to use digital microscopes and handle specimens
Bee anatomy, terminology
Bees Vs Flies Vs Wasps Vs Honeybees
Practice Identification sessions
Overview of Bee diversity - families/common genera
Bumblebee ID
Biology and ID of short tongue bees
Biology and ID of long tongue bees
Habitat enhancement and support for native bees
This workshop is hosted by Adult Community Education at the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific (HCP). Register on the HCP website.
Keep an eye on our website Events page and our BC Native Bees Instagram for all the latest buzz on what we're up to in the months ahead!
If you would like to represent native bees/NBSBC at an upcoming event in your community, or know of an event that would benefit from having a native bee representative attend, please send us an email to start a conversation on how we can be involved.
Plant-Based Foodie: Bee-Inspired Cuisine
Coconut Bars
Recipe shared by Sky Jarvis
Ingredients:
2 cups Unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup Coconut oil
1/3 cup Coconut milk
3 tbsp Maple syrup
1 cup Dark chocolate
1 tsp Coconut oil
Instructions:
Mix coconut products and maple syrup to make a sticky mouldable texture (if too dry add more syrup or oil).
Spread and lightly pack the mixture evenly in a tray lined with parchment paper. Freeze for 10 minutes.
In a pan melt the chocolate and coconut oil. Scoop and spread onto frozen coconut layer and return to freezer for 5-10 more minutes.
Cut into squares and thaw to serve (or eat frozen)
Do you have a vegan recipe to share? It can be anything (snack, main, drink, dessert) and it doesn't have to be fancy. Send it to us via email with the subject heading, “Newsletter: Plant-based Foodie.”
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