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W: Britt Bates P: Kevin Huibers Save the Bees. It’s a hashtag, it’s graffiti, it’s the name of a Greenpeace campaign. But, as grandiose of a goal as it might seem, Kimberley and Cranbrook are actually doing their small but mighty part to, indeed, save the bees — all thanks to a local family who are boosting the populations of native bees in a collaborative and fun way. Randy and Krista Moody, the husband-and-wife team behind the popular and charming local business Moody Bee in the Platzl, are the purveyors of a project that brings mason bees to Kimberley. This past Spring, they sold mason bee cocoons — and small wooden houses for the bees to nest in — to over three hundred families in the East Kootenays. “It was amazing to see how people got on board,” Krista tells me, as she and Randy sip lattes in the late-summer sunshine. “People really loved their bees — taking meticulous care of their cocoons and really looking after them.” Randy nods in agreement. “You could see something in people. Like a...” His voice trails off as he searches for the right term. “A childlike wonder.” The Moodys tell me about how, after mentioning in a Facebook post that mason bees might prefer blue houses, locals were coming in with paint chips from Home Hardware to see if theirs was the right shade of blue. Krista laughs heartily. “It was really charming.” People may feel like they’re just enjoying the presence of bees in their yard, when in fact, they are also contributing to an important global cause. Bees are imperative in sustainability efforts, pollinating a third of the food we consume and providing diverse habitats for all kinds of animals. Sadly, due to modern agriculture and the use of pesticides, bee populations are dropping to lower numbers than ever before. It’s
not without the help of families like the Moodys and the enthusiastic communities they foster, that bee populations can rise and stabilize again. Mason bees, native to this area, are huge, friendly, and benign creatures; there’s never been a reported allergy to them, and they almost never sting anyways, making them safe for families and schools to adopt. They pollinate 60 to 100 times more than honeybees, making them a vital part of our natural ecosystem. Now, having them help out around your home garden is easy, thanks to the Moodys. Krista tells me that the initiative was so successful this past spring that they plan on doing it again for years to come; and in the late summer, they’re starting to introduce a different species of native bee, the leafcutter, that thrives during the fall. Once spring rolls around again, they’ll make another species available, too, in addition to the mason bees: the widely-loved, adorable, and cartoon-like bumblebee. “Once you have your house and cocoons you’re all set up for good; you don’t need to buy anything the following spring. The bees should just come,” Krista explains. Randy chimes in: “The houses actually get better and better each year, because the bees like them weathered.” This isn’t a common project for communities to adopt, making Kimberley and Cranbrook fairly forward-thinking when it comes to bee repopulation. Randy explains to me a “shortsighted” study out of the City of Toronto stating that these types of programs don’t actually work, due to the frequency of wasps taking over and inhabiting the bees’ houses instead. In fact, in our area, “we didn’t see a single instance of this happening,” Randy says.