Beekeepers Guild of Santa Barbara Announces Springtime Schedule

With Santa Barbara’s long-awaited springtime flower blooming season already strongly underway, Santa Barbara’s Beekeepers Guild is hoping to encourage local residents and homeowners to help our county’s bee population thriving. You don’t have to be a beekeeper to do this, the guild says. In fact, planting flowers that bees like may actually be more important to bee livelihood than acquiring a hive.

With that in mind, the Beekeepers Guild of Santa Barbara is now inviting local residents to nominate their neighbor’s gardens (or their own) to win one of 10 coveted “Plant Bee Friendly” awards. This is a community competition for green thumbs and hobbyist landscapers to present their gardens, while supplying much needed nectar and pollen for local pollinator populations.

In order to qualify, each nominated garden must contain the following:

• Flowering plants/shrubs/trees that are attractive to pollinators. Plants with year-round or successive blooms are preferable, providing pollinators with continual forage.

• Organic and pesticide-free growth. 

• A variety of flowers/colors to attract a variety of pollinators, as not all bees are the same.

• A clean source of freshwater. 

• Drought-tolerant, California-native plants if possible.

Nominations for this year’s prizes will be accepted until May 31. You can find additional information, including a recommended list of pollinator-friendly native plants for your garden, at www.beeguildsb.org.

Meanwhile, the SB Beekeepers Guild is offering a five-session “Beyond Beginning Beekeeping Class” for interested participants. Beginning April 14, and each Wednesday per month for the next six weeks, you can Zoom-in for a class with Juanita Collins the guild’s Community Education Director, in order to learn more about the honeybee.

When: Wednesdays at 6 pm
Dates: April 14, May 12, June 9, July 14, and August 11
Where: Online (Zoom details will be emailed to registrants)
Cost: $40 members/ $60 non-members. Remember, you must register to attend at www.beeguildsb.org.