Toronto’s condo boom knows no bounds as two condo’s were recently erected in the orchard of the Spadina House Museum. Luckily these are bee condo’s. Artist Sarah Peebles built two of these bee condo’s to go into the Spadina House garden as a part of the Resonating Bodies Art project. Resonating Bodies’ projects seek to shed light on Canada’s biodiversity with a focus on pollination ecology with special attention paid to native bees. This is done through art installations in the Greater Toronto Area that investigate the activities of bumblebee colonies, solitary bees, and wasps by means of audio and visual displays.

The two installations at Spadina House are visual pieces that provide habitat for local wild solitary bees. Solitary bees usually find their living space in hollow branches or in holes bored out by other insects. The condo is a natural living environment for these solitary bees and the windows to the condo allow you to observe their activities of gathering nesting supplies and food provisions for their offspring.

Currently there is construction occurring next to Spadina House throughout the week. This makes the weekend the best time to view the bees as they are more active when there is not so much disturbance. Unfortunately I could only go during the week and didn’t see any bees, but seeing the interesting dwellings that have been constructed was well worth it.

Tags: "Spadina House", art, Bee, Bee art, solitary bees