Wpg Free Press: Bee expert skeptical of Fairmont’s plans for bee hotels

The Winnipeg Free Press has been reporting on the Fairmont Winnipeg hotel wanting bees on their roof.

But, as the paper reports:

Winnipeg bee expert Rob Currie, head of the entomology department at the University of Manitoba, said he thinks it’s a longshot to expect that species of bee to make it up to the roof at all.

“If they’re not actually introducing them, there’s no way that a solitary bee would be able to find it,” Currie said. According to Currie, wild solitary bees only forage around 50 to 150 metres from their nests, compared to the six or seven kilometres urban honeybees can typically travel. That means a rooftop location would be hard for Winnipeg’s downtown bee population to stumble upon.

“I would be highly surprised if anything nested in there,” Currie said.