WATCH: Getting up close and personal with local bees

• Why are bees so important
• Family run business offers tours

Honeybees may be small, but they have a big impact on agriculture.

However, a slow, rainy start to summer has their efforts behind schedule.

Bees build up their food stores throughout spring, summer, and fall. When winter ends, most of their resources are used up, so they need to get out and forage for food.

“The wet weather can prevent the bees from flying and that cold weather can prevent the forage from being available to them,” Lisa St. Laurent, from Arlo’s Honey Farm, told Kelowna10. “This year specifically, we saw at least a two- to three-week delay in blooming in a lot of the orchards that our bees are in.”

That means the bees are a bit behind schedule, but beekeepers like St. Laurent make sure the bees in her care stay fed and healthy.

The St. Laurent family took over the farm in East Kelowna during the pandemic, as their neighbour – the original owner - was looking to retire. Now, the whole family is involved in taking care of the bees, doing tours, and selling honey products in their farmgate store.

“As a family, we love people coming in, working with bees, and we love that we’re doing something great towards agriculture and supporting it,” she said. “I was passionate about bees before that, so I’d taken some courses, and really wanted to bring some hives onto the property.”

There are several hives on the farm, but most of them are hosted in surrounding farm, vineyards, and orchards, such as Tantalus Vineyards and CedarCreek Estate Winery.

These off-farm hives help pollinate crops – a crucial role in agriculture and our food supply chains.

“Without that pollination, we’d have to do it by hand,” St. Laurent said.

And while bees may look the same to most people, they are far from it. She said the insects have a range of identities and roles to play.

“Each hive tends to have its own personality even and I love going from hive to hive and seeing difference in their behaviour,” St. Laurent explained. “I think a lot of people don’t realize that grapes aren’t pollinated by bees, however, the cover crops are.”

For St. Laurent, the honeybees are calming and incredible creatures and she’s happy to educate others about their importance.

“I love honey as well, so I appreciate how much they work to generate the honey for us,” she said. “There’s a lot of incredible vendors around town here, selling local honey, and that’s hugely because they need those proceeds to go back and take care of the bees.”