World Bee Day 2026🐝
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
World Bee Day was established in 2017 and occurs annually on May 20th. The purpose is to acknowledge the significant role that bees and other pollinators have in ecosystem health. My name, Debborah, means ‘bee’, and I have always had a fascinating for these amazing insects. There are some 800-900 species of bee in Canada,[1] but the common honey bee is not native to Canada - and was brought here as livestock.
“Zero Hunger (SDG 2): Bees play a pivotal role in food production. World Bee Day 2026 is a reminder that nearly 75% of our food crops rely to some extent on pollination, primarily by bees. A world without them could mean a world without fruits, nuts, and many vegetable varieties.”
“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don’t they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”
Traditional wooden beehive, Jiaoyao, Leishan, Guizhou, China (April, 2025)
The conservation of bees in Canada is focused on native bees, not honeybees. Honeybees can carry diseases that infect our native populations, and they also compete for food sources. Please take some time today to learn a little more about native bees and what you can do to protect them.
Previous posts: World Bee Day 2025, and World Bee Day (2024)
More information can be found on the UN website about bees and pollinators: https://www.un.org/en/observances/bee-day
[1] Pollinator Partnership Canada - Pollinator Profile: Bees.
[2] RELX (2026) World Bee Day 2026. Accessed online March 27, 2026.
