The 2021 Free Seed Packet Offer Ended on 8/31/2021.
Be a Keeper.
Plant the Seeds.
#BringBackTheBees
Where's Buzz the Bee?
Buzz is missing because there is something serious going on with the world's bees. With deteriorating bee colony health, bees everywhere have been disappearing by the millions and it's time we all did something about it1.
How to Help the Bees
Redeem your free seeds and plant! Bees need wildflower pollen and nectar to stay happy and healthy so planting sunflowers, a variety of wildflowers, is a fun and easy way to help the bees.
THANK YOU CANADA!
WE’VE GIVEN AWAY OVER 18 MILLION SEEDS TO CANADIANS
Thanks to Canadians like you and the support of our retail partners, we’ve distributed over 520,000 sunflower seed packs to help the bees.
Why we need Bees
1 in 3 bites of Food We Eat
is made possible by bees and other pollinators, who spread the pollen that crops need to grow. That includes many of our favourite foods like apples, almonds, coffee, and of course, honey.
Bee Facts for Keepers
Everything you need to know about our friends the bees!
Why the Buzz?
The honey bee’s wings stroke incredibly fast, about 200 beats per second, thus making their famous, distinctive buzz. A honey bee can fly for up to nine kilometers, and as fast as twenty five kilometers per hour3.
The bee is the only insect that produces food eaten by man3.
Bees can recognize you
Honeybees make out faces the same way we do. They take parts—like eyebrows, lips, and ears—and cobble them together to make out the whole face. It's called "configural processing," and it might help computer scientists improve face recognition technology4.
Bee species have different tongue lengths that adapt to different flowers5.
Nature's most economical builders
In 36 BC, Marcus Terentius Varro argued that honeycombs were the most practical structures around. Centuries later, Greek mathematician Pappus solidified the "honeycomb conjecture" by making the same claim4.
There are over
20,000
species of bees in the world3.
City Stickers
Bees love to live in urban settings where there are short flight paths and a variety of different plants and flowers to sample just as much as they love the country5.
It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee's flight around the world3.
Life In Color
Bees have good colour vision. That's why flowers are so showy. They especially like blue, purple, violet, white and yellow5.
Why are Bees Disappearing?
Honeybees have thrived for 50 million years. So why have colonies recently started dying en masse? Renowned entomologist and bee specialist Marla Spivak reveals four reasons why, and what we can do to help in this Ted Talk.
Let's Plant!
Here are some expert tips from our partner:
1
Choose a sunny location to plant your seeds (when in bloom your sunflowers will face east).
2
Plant seeds 1" in the ground, and 18"-24" apart. If planting more than one row, plant rows 30" apart.
3
Keep moderately moist until germination (10-14 days).
Veseys
During the last four years, Vesey’s has led the seed industry through their efforts to assist the planting of Bee Friendly Flower Seeds across North America. With over one billion seeds planted during this time, Vesey’s recognizes the importance of strengthening the bee population for the benefit of our natural food supply.
About Veseys
Now entering their 82nd year, Vesey’s Seeds of PEI is Canada’s largest mail order gardening business featuring a variety of catalogues that include seeds, bulbs, tools, accessories, starter plants and more!
To learn more and see first hand the thousands of gardening products Vesey’s has to offer simply go to www.veseys.com
Be A Keeper. Plant the Seeds.
#BringBackTheBees
1. Canadian Association of Professional Agriculturalists, Statement on Honey Bee Colony Losses (2015).
2. Klein, Alexandra-Maria et al “Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 274,1608 (2007).
3. ”20 Amazing Honey Bee Facts!.”www.benefits-of-honey.com, http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-bee-facts.html, 8 December 2015.
4. Reilly, Lucas.”13 Fascinating Facts About Bees”. mental_floss, http://mentalfloss.com/article/53691/13-fascinating-facts-about-bees, 18 November 2013. 8 December 2015.
5. Suzuki, David. “Create a bee-friendly garden”. David Suzuki Foundation, http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/food-and-our-planet/create-a-bee-friendly-garden/, 8 December 2015.