By Dee & Tadhg Howard, Owners of Pure Honey Products
World Bee Day, celebrated on May 20, is a chance to remind everyone how important bees are and celebrate the hard work they do to pollinate our plants and crops in the beautiful Creston Valley, keeping our ecosystem healthy and happy.
Bees are known as diligent and determined workers, friends of flowers, and producers of honey, which sweetens our morning coffees and teas.
Bees also play an important role in agriculture. More than one third of the food we eat depends on pollination by bees. Pollination is vital to life on our planet - ensuring food security and maintaining a vibrant ecosystem for plants, humans, and the bees themselves.
In December 2017, the United Nations General Assembly declared May 20 International Bee Day to draw attention to the importance of protecting bees and other pollinators. The date coincides with the birth of Anton Janša, an 18th century Slovenian beekeeper and pioneer of modern beekeeping. May is also marked by the blooming of flowers in the northern hemisphere and the autumn harvest of honey in the southern hemisphere.
Bees are the guardians of biodiversity in our ecosystems. Their presence or absence can indicate the state of the environment around them, alerting communities to the presence of potential threats or changes.
Today, bees are declining in abundance. This provides an opportunity for all of us to promote actions that will protect and enhance pollinators and their habitats, improve their abundance and diversity, and support the sustainable development of beekeeping.
Pure Honey Products promotes education, women in beekeeping, and sustainable farming practices with modern techniques. Our main inspiration is our kids and the drive to raise them in an agricultural environment. We recognize that bees are an integral part of life and the fruit industry. We strive for better bee health, more sustainable agriculture, and environmental prosperity.
Even though bees face an array of challenges including climate change, habitat loss, and pesticides, we feel public awareness of these problems is more widespread than ever. People have been learning about planting pollinator gardens and the dangers of using chemicals on private and public land. We all have a chance to grow our appreciation for bees, especially this week after World Bee Day.
Pure Honey Products’ main focus is hive health and sustainable beekeeping. They strive to create a symbiotic relationship that allows the bees to flourish and produce honey from the idyllic Creston Valley and surrounding Central Kootenay backcountry. They care for their bees without the use of chemicals so the bees thrive and produce the very purest honey and beeswax. They offer pollination services, live bee sales, and honey and beeswax products. Dee also teaches the beekeeping course for the College of the Rockies. For further information, visit www.purehoneyproducts.ca.
READ MORE: Pure Honey uses world-class methods of beekeeping in Creston Valley
