The bees of Parliament - 750,000 of them sit atop Senate building

OTTAWA — The Senate of Canada, a beehive of activity? Remarkably, yes.

Thirteen hives — each one decorated with the painted flag of a province or territory — now sit atop the newly renovated Senate of Canada Building in downtown Ottawa. They’re home to 750,000 honey bees.

The hives were installed last May as part of the Senate’s relocation to the former Government Conference Centre, a move necessitated by the decade-long renovation project on Parliament Hill.

The bees have flourished in their new surroundings: The Senate colonies have grown rapidly from an initial population of 100,000.

“We understand the bees are doing quite, quite well,” said Thierry Montpetit, senior director of the National Capital Region at Public Services and Procurement Canada. “I think even the beekeeper who was part of the team taking care of them was pleasantly surprised.”

Staff from the nearby Fairmont Château Laurier manage the hives. The harvested honey will be used as part of culinary dishes served at the hotel.

Government officials approached the hotel with the partnership idea after learning that Fairmont operated rooftop apiaries at some of its other facilities in Canada. Since the Château’s roofline does not lend itself to an apiary, federal officials offered a site at the temporary Senate building.

“We thought that maybe it’s a way to raise awareness on the importance of bees in an urban environment — and to educate people about the importance of a healthy bee population,” Montpetit said.

The country’s bee population has been in decline for years.

According to Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), no single factor has been identified as the cause of that decline.

A number of factors could be at play, the PMRA said in a recent report, including loss of habitat and food sources, viruses, pests and pesticide exposure.

This past week, a study published in the journal Biological Sciences found that crop yields in British Columbia and the United States were being damaged by a lack of honey bees and wild bees.

The study, published Tuesday, assessed more than 130 farms growing apples, blueberries, cherries, almonds, pumpkins and watermelon. It found that blueberries in B.C. were among the crops most affected by the reduced number of pollinators.

Last year, a University of Maryland study found that U.S. beekeepers lost nearly 40 per cent of their honey bee colonies in the previous winter. It was the worst decline in 13 years.

In Canada, the commercial value of bees to the pollination of crops has been estimated at more than $2 billion.