Caring for Bees in our Parish

Honey bees around the world and in Switzerland are in rapid decline http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1194910/icode/. In fact, the JPIC team was unable to purchase honey bees to start our beehive due to a bee shortage in Switzerland. So the team reached out to a local company, and the company donated about 30,000 bees to the parish. The JPIC team hopes to install another beehive in the spring of 2020. Bees are vital to our food security as one third of world food production depend on bees for pollination https://www.worldbeeday.org/en/about/the-importance-of-bees.html. 

Future plans of the JPIC-LSC team include putting a little garden plot of lavander plants beside the bee hive as a source of food during spring, summer and autumn.  We are also looking at the possibility of having a green roof of sedum plants  https://www.sempergreen.com/us/solutions/green-roofs/everything-about-sedum  at the rooftop, a practice already done in some buildings in Geneva like the HUG.  Doing so, would cool the air (reduce the urban heat island effect) as well as absorb carbon dioxide from the air. 

Below are photos of Fr. Paul and Yvonne Moussy (Our parish’s current property manager and the JPIC member who started and donated the first bee hive to the parish).   

Our immediate plans for this autumn is to clear the parish’s garden plots to prepare for the planting of tulip bulbs.   We welcome parishioners who would like to get involved with the greening of our parish, our share in taking care of our Common Home.  Should you want to be part of our greening, kindly send us an email at lsc@johnxxiii.ch and annieyuson@icloud.com.