Island residents come together to give bees a home

Even bees need help finding a home.

That was the do-it-yourself project on Saturday morning building wooden bee houses at Stratford Town Hall. The event was hosted by the Stratford Area Watershed Improvement Group with the help of a $1,200 grant from the World Wildlife Fund's Go Wild program for materials.

Bees are threatened

Winston Maund, chair of the group, explained that building bee houses is consistent with the group's goal of promoting the environment and sustainability.

"Everything works in a cycle and bees are part of that cycle for pollination,"he said. "The bee population is down and it's getting killed off considerably in high numbers around the world."

Maund added that a lot of people don't realize how important bees and pollination are for food production.

"I think if you check with the apple growers and the vegetable growers and even the nurseries that grow flowers, they depend on the bees too, so it's really high importance and I think people need to take more consideration,"he said.

Maund said it is easy for people to build the bee houses. All anyone needs to do is drill holes in a block of wood and put a roof on top for shade. If the bee house is hung in the right place, bees should come.

• Build a backyard bee house in 4 easy steps

"Put it somewhere there's not a lot of human traffic, and you'll get the common bee. It's for the common bee that doesn't go to a big beehive,"he said.

Maund said it wasencouraging to see families and children attend the event.

Important for the environment

One family that participated was Shelley Diamond and her six-year-old granddaughter EilidhDiamond. Together, they pounded nails and built a bee house that will hang outside their home.

"I think it's very important to the environment, and if we don't look after them and do something to preserve them, we're going to be sorry down the road,"said Shelley Diamond.

She noted that Eilidhwanted to participate because she is interested in "any kind of bug," but bees in particular.

"Because she knows there's not an abundance of bees around and she's concerned about them,"said Shelley Diamond.

Eilidh Diamond added that she also likes bees "because they make honey" and that she will be checking the bee house often to make sure it is being used.

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