Introducing The Preservation Beekeeping Council

Hello everyone! Two years ago my mentors and friends Jacqueline Freeman and Susan Chernak McElroy founded an organization dedicated to the preservation of bees. Senior member Thea Hayes is the managing director and has done a wonderful job of helping the club to move forward on its projects. She's also helped me edit my food forestry flyers.

The name of the organization is The Preservation Beekeeping Council. The focus is wide ranging and includes honey bees and native pollinators. As an organization we’ve come pretty far in the past two years; in a time of great losses in the insect world we have stabilized and expanded pollinator sanctuaries.

Our projects are pretty wide-ranging. So far we’ve been able to become organized at catching swarms regionally (Pacific Northwest) and are working to put out bee housing everywhere we reasonably can. Our members are active in building and using modified langstroths, log hives, skeps, and new bee friendly designs by a member of ours who came up with them himself. Our members have also put out housing for bumblebees and mason bees.

One of our biggest victories has been working with the city of Camas (Washington) to officially become a Bee City. This means that the city will adopt policies and programming to support pollinating insects. Things are still in the preliminary stages of exactly how things are going to move forward, but I’m hoping to be involved with planting an demonstration food forest on public acreage that is said to be owned by the city. Fingers crossed.

If you’re interested in more information please contact me! We have members all over the place including a woman in Maine who is setting up a large acreage pollinator sanctuary. We always welcome donations and volunteers so that we can expand the good work that we do! See the link below for the official website.

https://preservationbeekeeping.com/

Wow, it's great to have a group doing this important work. With the crazy weather we had this spring in my area, I was really aware how few bees I was seeing when some of my trees were in bloom. One of the hardy pollinators I saw first was a bumble bee with lots of black on it, but I'm no good at identifying insects - again reinforcing that supporting native bees is important too.
Their website is lovely and I enjoyed reading one of their blog pages. I'll have to visit the site again when I have time.

We updated Camas City Bee Code! Hobby keepers may now keep their bees in any hive style, including skeps and logs. Citizens are not allowed to destroy bee nests, but must have them gently removed and rehomed if necessary. And it is unlawful for keepers to import bees from out of the area and by mail.

This was encouraging news to read in the projects portion. I think this type of thinking will go a long way towards having healthier bees.

Jay Angler wrote:Wow, it's great to have a group doing this important work. With the crazy weather we had this spring in my area, I was really aware how few bees I was seeing when some of my trees were in bloom. One of the hardy pollinators I saw first was a bumble bee with lots of black on it, but I'm no good at identifying insects - again reinforcing that supporting native bees is important too.
Their website is lovely and I enjoyed reading one of their blog pages. I'll have to visit the site again when I have time.

Thanks Jay! Depending on the time of year that may have been a queen bumblebee. They usually awaken first and have to do EVERYTHING themselves--the foraging, nest building, and rearing the first brood. They really are incredible.