Brandon University gets unique new buzz code

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This article was published 23/04/2022 (1338 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon is buzzing over 80,000 new residents.

The university is hosting a pilot project in which two honeybee hives will be set up on its grounds this spring.

The hives will provide educational opportunities and pollinate Brandon’s urban flora, and promote healthy beekeeping, project lead Deanna Smid said.

“I hope that this could be the start of something that will help beekeepers and also help the natural world,” Smid said. “We are certainly going in with a lot of optimism and maybe some idealism as well.”

Smid, an associate professor at Brandon University, championed the project with a handful of her colleagues. While she has no experience beekeeping, she hopes to learn the tricks of the trade, she said.

Beekeeper Michael Clark will be there to help. Clark’s family has been operating a bee farm near Brandon for more than a century.

Clark, 42, was born and raised in the business.

It is difficult to estimate how many bees the urban apiaries will support, but Clark estimates when the colonies peak in July, each hive could host from 40,000 to 80,000 bees.

Together, they have the potential to produce around 90 kg of honey by summer’s end. That’s enough to fill roughly 180 500-ml jars, most of which the university will donate to food banks.

The initiative, which staff have dubbed “Bee U,” comes at a time when Manitoba’s bee industry is facing a potential threat. Bee farmers across the country are suffering unprecedented losses this season and Manitoba is among the hardest hit, Clark said.

“Depression has definitely set in, I will say that… you could see that the sky is falling, and you don’t know if you will survive,” he said.

Many apiaries, including Clark’s, have lost up to 70 per cent of their hives.

The province’s abundance of monocrop agriculture, coupled with a late killing frost last season, likely contributed, he said.

Clark knows many keepers who are leaving the business. The situation is so dire, he and his peers have petitioned the Manitoba Beekeepers’ Association to host an emergency meeting next week.

They are desperate for a financial intervention, he said.

“That’s why I’m also looking forward to the university, because I think it will take my mind to build something, instead of seeing what I am seeing here,” he said.

The university will be the first location in Brandon to host urban bee colonies. It plans to install the hives atop Harvest Hall.

The one-storey building, which has a flat roof, will be low enough for the bees to forage for food while protecting the hives from vandalism.

The bees will remain there until August when staff move them to another location over winter.

If successful, BU may expand the project.

Brandon bylaws don’t allow for urban beekeeping, but Smid submitted a variance that was approved by the city April 19.

“The planning commission’s sentiment was that it made sense to do something to help with bee populations,” senior planner Andrew Mok said Friday.

The variance will allow BU to host the hives for at least five years.

It is too early to say whether the city will amend the bylaw or open up beekeeping to others, but data from the university and public consultations could influence future policies, Mok said.

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