Did you know that the colour of a beehive’s honey depends on the flowers and nutrition sources that they involve themselves with? French beekeepers were absolutely baffled when they found blue honey leftover by their hives; turns out that their bees had been mingling with blue candy shells from the nearby M & M’s factory! To understand the Honeybee industry a little better, we paid a visit to the Surrey Honeybee Center. They sell honey, rent beehives to farmers, and even teach a beekeeping course for Kwantlen Polytechnic University. After taking a short tour of the establishment, we sat down with some pollinator experts to discuss research opportunities in the field, potential gardening projects, and the role of weeds in pollinator networks – a dialogue that has heavily influenced our “Starting Conversations” initiative.

Our thanks go out to Cassie and Lee Gibeau for making this happen!