The ThunderBlogs

The crowd chuckled as Hannah Carpendale delicately held up a drone between her fingertips and continued to explain the social organization of a beehive. Carpendale, 22, was one of the eight youth who, as part of an apprenticeship program with the Environmental Youth Alliance, were taking care of two hives at the Means of Production community garden.

The culmination of the summer-long apprenticeship program was a mini-symposium held on Sunday under a single tent in China Creek park. Locals were invited to learn more about bee species and their habits. Yellow and black balloons marked tables that displayed an assortment of beekeeping books and paraphernalia. A little table of honey goodies was set up, and hot cups of ginger -lemon-honey tea were served up to the few people who braved the grey skies to attend.

Brian Campbell, master beekeeper of the Blessed Bee Farm in Richmond was there to support the youth. “What’s happening is that there are about half as many beekeepers as there were 25 years ago. Older beekeepers are giving up and so it is important to engage with youth and teach them about beekeeping.” He also talked about the importance of preserving the rapidly declining bee population, citing the carrot-seed shortage that had recently troubled West Coast Seeds as a case in point “We already see the impact on our food. No bees to make the seeds means no seeds to plant the carrot.”

Campbell said that preserving the delicate balance between flora and fauna is a matter of immediate concern. “People need to take personal responsibility for their actions. The use of pesticides is incredibly harmful to B.C.’s wild bees. They are being killed off and this means that we lose native plants, which means we lose native wildlife.”

The youth-led presentations included an overview of the evolving BC beekeeping bylaws, beekeeping practices from around the world. In his presentation titled “Other reasons why bees are better than you and I,” Bryan Brent talked about how bees were being used to diagnose illness because of their acute sense of smell. According to Brent, bees can detect pheromones for cancer, diabetes, and tuberculosis. They have also been trained to find land mines by smelling out TNT residue.

“The idea is to bring awareness into the community, bring bees to them, educate, inspire and connect to this sacred species,” said Shielagh Mckenna, the program coordinator with the EYA who mentored the youth through their apprenticeship.