May is Bee Month: Celebrate Your Local Bees!
Blog post courtesy of Honey Candles
This month East West Bookshop is joining Honey Candles as they celebrate their annual Bee Month. Several years ago Honey Candles decided to dedicate an entire month each year to celebrating all that bees do, recognizing their importance in our environment and looking for ways to help them thrive.
Bees pollinate our crops putting food on our tables and pollinate our flowers providing beauty to our gardens. They offer us delicious honey that sweetens our tea, and natural, sustainable wax that is crafted into candles to brighten our homes. These are just a few reasons to get on board with the "Save the Bee" movement.
Bees play a vital role in our eco-systems - they pollinate approximately one third of our crops making them essential to food security, healthy agricultural systems, biodiversity and so much more. Unfortunately, the bee population has faced a number of threats over the years including colony collapse. Saving the bees has become increasingly important and fortunately the movement is gaining momentum.
There are many things we can do to support these hard-working pollinators. From the products we buy to the flowers we plant, there are simple ways to support bees and other pollinators. Purchasing products that use ethically sourced honey or beeswax means you are supporting apiaries, and helping the bees.
Another easy way to help is to ensure bees in your area have a dependable food source by planting pollinator friendly plants that are native to your area or by simply letting the dandelions and other blossoming "weeds" roam free rather than trying to keep them at bay with harsh herbicides or by digging them out.
At Honey Candles we strive to support bees both as a company and in our personal lives. Our bee-friendly candles all use beeswax sourced from ethical beekeepers. Our Peek-A-Bee Pillar * (see image below) program donates $2 from every Peek-A-Bee Pillar purchase towards funding vital honey bee research. This research, done by the University of Guelph’s Honey Bee Research Centre, focuses on bee health as well as bee genetics and disease. Honey bee research is integral in supporting pollinator populations and ensuring healthy colonies for years to come.
This May we invite you to celebrate the bees with us and join the conversation around supporting their threatened populations. You can start by sharing this post with your friends and talk about how you help bees in your neighborhood.
Shae's note (candle buyer):
Beeswax candles are clean burning and are some of the best candle waxes out there. They also have no fragrance added--only their natural honey scent, straight from the bee hive.
*Peek-A-Bee pillars will be sold at East West Bookshop starting at the end this week! Keep a close eye on the candle section. When you buy a peek-a-bee candle, $2 will go towards bee research. But purchasing any style of honey candle helps too! Visit the candle section of the bookshop to see the honey candle selection.
