From celebration to theft: a buzzy week for a local food forest
Henderson said mason bees are an important part of the garden ecosystem. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm
It has been a busy week for Beaufort Food Forest after celebrating their first annual Mason Bee Day to then finding out their mason bee cocoons had been stolen.
Located near the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital at the City-owned Beaufort Park, volunteers and community members came together to celebrate the day by playing mason bee cocoons in the garden that will hatch later this spring.
But by the following day, volunteers were shocked to find that the mason cocoons had gone missing.
CHLY met with Beaufort Food Forest lead volunteer Allen Henderson outside a coffee shop to talk about the mason bees and the garden.
Mason bee houses are placed throughout the Beaufort Food Forest. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm
“I've been lucky to be able to volunteer at the Beaufort Park food forest, and it's a city-owned, volunteer-maintained community food production demonstration,” Henderson said. “Nearly two acres of land, over 50 fruit and nut trees, lots of raspberries and other bushes, and it's maintained by a small group of volunteers, and it's become quite a community-based place.”
The food forest, much like a community garden, is an open garden with various different edible plants and trees.
Henderson started volunteering with the food forest five years ago, the same year the garden first got mason bees.
He said mason bees are an important part of the garden ecosystem.
“Well, most people love blossoms on trees, but what they may not realize is that if those blossoms aren't pollinated–usually by bees or flies or bats or even birds–they won't turn into fruit. So it's the simplest of natural processes,” Henderson
Mason bee cocoons in plastic tubes have been attached to the mason bee houses in the garden. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm
After having mason bees in the garden for the last five years, Henderson decided he wanted to celebrate all the hard work volunteers do for the garden and created the food forest’s Mason Bee Day. This event allowed volunteers to come together during the same that the mason bee cocoons were ready to be placed in the garden.
Mason bees are solitary hole-nesting bees native to Vancouver Island. The Orchard Mason Bee is the most common type of mason bee found in Vancouver Island and Western North America. The mason bee, unlike the common honey bee, does not make honey and does not have a queen, meaning the bee does not have these things to protect. This makes them less likely to sting humans.
Mason bee homes and cocoons can be purchased and used in gardens and on farms to help pollinate the nearby plants and crops.
After the mason bee cocoons were stolen from the food forest, Henderson said there was a rush from volunteers to get the bees back. One volunteer made a Facebook post asking for the return of the cocoons that were reshared all over social media.
Henderson explained that this year’s cocoons were laid last year and the volunteers were able to harvest and store them until this spring. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm
“Some people are sad that there's been theft, but there's so much vandalism and damage around that I've stopped speculating about why people do it,” he said. “It's so impressive how our volunteer group responded.”
Henderson explained that this year’s cocoons were laid last year and the volunteers were able to harvest and store them until this spring.
While they have not been able to track down the original cocoons, Henderson said one volunteer ended up donating new mason bee cocoons that they now have placed around the mason bee houses.
With the recent theft being big news around the community, Henderson said he hopes it means more people will learn about the food forest and they take this as an opportunity to connect with nature and the community.
“It really humanizes modern life,” he said. “So I hope everybody gets a good chance to commune with nature this year.”
Mason bees are solitary hole-nesting bees native to Vancouver Island. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm
Henderson said that mason bees tend to hatch when the weather becomes a bit warmer and it becomes summer so it may take some time until they start to hatch.
“A couple of years ago, on one more morning in early April, at 10 o'clock, there were no bees in the air,” he said. “By 11 o'clock, the air was just full of assorted bees and flies and a whole bunch of other pollinators. So it's really an enjoyable connection to nature to see all these things that you hadn't expected.”
So for the time being Beaufort Food Forest remains quiet until the garden warms and welcomes its new, buzzy, residents.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.