July 2020 Newsletter
How We Can Help Bees in Urban Environments
The main season for pollen and nectar gathering is from March to the end of July. During that time the bees are busy stocking up enough honey for the winter before the season ends, by gathering nectar from fruit trees, blackberry bushes, and a variety of flowers. Many of these flowers are only available to the bees because people have planted them in their gardens. One thing you can do to help the bees out with their hard work is plant bee gardens. Some of the flowers that bees love are: Zucchini flowers, Broccoli/Kale flowers, Blackberry flowers, Lavender, Clover, Ammi (False Queen Anne’s Lace), Chives, Cosmos, Cornflowers, Calendula, Digitalis (Foxgloves), Echinacea (Purple Cornflowers), Sunflowers to just name a few. West Coast Seeds is our favourite place to get seeds for our vegetable garden and they have an excellent page on seeds for your bee garden. https://www.westcoastseeds.com/blogs/garden-wisdom/plant-flower-seeds-for-bees.
Once you have a little patio or garden patch for the bees, you can watch them as they gather nectar and pollen. One bee gathers 1/10th of a teaspoon of nectar in her lifetime! The average worker bee lives for only 6 weeks in the summer and flies 600km in her lifetime collecting nectar. These little insects work so hard we can only marvel them and help by creating bee friendly neighbourhoods.
Bees have been doing increasingly better in urban areas than in agricultural areas, which may come as a surprise to many. One of the major factors is that in the city we don’t use insecticides in a wide spread manner and there is a large variety of flowers available to them all summer long. The variation of flowers helps the bees be healthier and the honey they make has a very unique mix of flavours and colours.
With summer finally being here, we have our natural Insect Repellent and Bug Bite Relief ready for you to protect yourself from the sometimes-nasty bugs. Enjoy the sun and make sure to nourish your sun-kissed skin by moisturizing with our Body Lotion! These are perfect essentials to keep you protected and feeling good throughout the summer, and now you can get all three products 15% off with the code SUMMER2020 when you order on our website (enter code at checkout), starting today until Monday, Aug 10th. Be sure to follow us on Instagram or Facebook so you don’t miss out on other exclusive discounts.
We’ve also been adding some of our family’s favorite recipes (made with our own honey) to the blog on our website. Check them out here at https://www.healingbees.ca/blogs/our-life-with-bees.
We love hearing from our customers! You can follow us on social media or leave a review on our website. We hope you stay safe and healthy, and enjoy the summer!
Sincerely,
The Healing Bees Family