Secrets of bee hotels Saturday, August 8, 2015 Urbanites of all sorts have taken to building "bee hotels" for the "pollinator" bees that don't produce honey but, as Maclean's notes in its June 1 issue, not all is going well with these artificial nesting sites. Researchers tracked 200 bee hotels in Toronto over three years and found that wasps occupied three quarters of them. The advice? Put the bee hotel where a northeast sun hits it. Bees like warmth in the morning. More than four storeys high and introduced bees abandon them. Ground level is better. Make the holes into the rooms big enough for larger females. Furthermore, parasites resulted in heavy losses and no solutions were offered. Another researcher told Maclean's the problem may be with the city itself. It's just not conducive to bees and he says the same rules don't apply in orchards. "At their worst, bee hotels may act as population sinks for bees through facilitating the increase of parasites and diseases as a result of functional responses to unnaturally high nest densities and nesting site entrances set up in two-dimensions rather than in the more three dimensional arrangement found in nature." The study's authors don't advocate quitting, just doing more research on what does work. "We advocate for due diligence on the part of retailers and promoters of bee hotels to avoid 'bee-washing' . . . as applied to potentially misleading claims for augmentation of native and wild bee populations." The study on bee hotels can be found at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0122126 BF Soil Mapping: has electrical conductivity technology's time finally come? Thai chicken in Canada?
Soybean Cyst Nematode Is in almost every soybean producing state and province Wednesday, April 29, 2026 Understanding Detection, Prevention, and Management of Soybeans’ Most Costly Pest Soybean cyst nematode (SCN), , remains the most damaging pathogen affecting soybeans in North America, costing U.S. farmers more than one billion dollars in lost yield annually. Updated national surveys... Read this article online
Farmland Rents Lag Land Values Wednesday, April 29, 2026 Farm Credit Canada (FCC) has released a new economic analysis highlighting a growing gap between farmland values and rental rates across the country, a trend that will likelyreshapeexpansion decisions for Canadian producers. According to the analysis, Canada’s average farmland... Read this article online
Ontario Funds for New Grain Innovation Projects Wednesday, April 29, 2026 Grain Farmers of Ontario has announced the successful applicants for its 2026 Grains Innovation Fund. The fund supports projects that increase the use, value, and demand for grains grown across Ontario. These efforts help build stronger domestic markets while encouraging innovation in... Read this article online
Drone Seeding Offers Hope for Ontario Wheat Farmers Wednesday, April 29, 2026 Farmers in parts of Ontario often struggle to plant winter wheat at the right time. The ideal planting period usually comes before soybeans are harvested, which can delay wheat seeding and reduce yields. This timing conflict makes it difficult for farmers tomaintainproper crop rotation and... Read this article online
Colouring a Safer Future for Farm Kids Tuesday, April 28, 2026 Teaching children about farm safety is an essential part of protecting the future of Canadian agriculture. With that goal in mind, the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association (CASA) has launched the Kids FarmSafe Colouring Contest, a creative initiative designed to help young people learn... Read this article online