The honey bee decline and how you can help

Honey bee colonies have experienced the greatest decline this winter since 2005.

Honey bee keepers are reporting an average loss of 30-60% of their honey bees hives this year. When honey bees are stressed from overuse and high loads of varroa mites they are often unable to survive the winter. Not only is this tragic for the honey bee population and the livelihoods of the beekeepers, but this loss could have a major impact on our food source. Early springtime blooms like almonds and other fruit crops will not have enough honey bees for pollination this year.

That’s where mason bees can step in to help!

Thanks to our rental program, we have a surplus of bees this year that we can offer to farms. By using more mason bees as pollinators in our agricultural system, we can help to alleviate some of the stress on the honey bee populations.

That means you can have an impact on your food sources! The more backyard hosts we have, the more bees we are able to produce to provide to these farmers.

Mason bee season is almost here!
In addition to our bee kits you can receive by mail, we also have a number of handout events in Washington and Oregon state.

Event calendar.