CEAC (Cochrane Environmental Action Committee)

Compost Giveaway - May 23!

Let’s talk dirt… the good kind. 🌱

Compost is the secret ingredient to healthier soil — and, on May 23, we’re giving it away while supplies last. So grab a bucket (or two) and come get your hands dirty… in the best way.

📅 May 23, 2026
⏰ 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
📍 Overflow parking lot on RancheHouse Rd

It’s first come, first served — so don’t muck around.

Holding off on the "spring cleaning" can make a big difference for pollinators and other beneficial creatures.

Before you grab the rake, consider giving pollinators a little more time. Delaying spring yard cleanup helps protect native bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects still sheltering in leaves, stems, and soil. A little patience can make a big difference.

Learn more: https://www.rockyview.ca/news-and-events/news/buzz-yard-cleanup-why-delaying-yard-work-helps-pollinators 🐝🌿

That bumblebee flying low and slow along your foundation isn't foraging. She's house-hunting.

A queen bumblebee in late April has already mated, already hibernated through winter, and already emerged. She's been feeding on early flowers for a few weeks, building her fat reserves back up. Now she needs a nest site. And she's being extremely picky.

She flies low — inches off the ground — in a methodical zigzag along walls, foundations, rock borders, and garden edges. She investigates every hole, crack, and gap. She goes into some, backs out, moves on. She's checking cavity size, drainage, insulation, and entrance concealment.

What she's looking for: an abandoned mouse burrow. Underground, dry, insulated with old mouse bedding, with a tunnel entrance small enough to defend. Most bumblebee nests in suburban yards are in former mouse holes under sheds, along foundations, in old stone walls, or in undisturbed garden borders.

When she finds one, she moves in alone. She builds a small wax cup, lays the first batch of eggs, and incubates them with her own body heat — vibrating her flight muscles to generate warmth. She does everything herself for the first two weeks. Then the first workers emerge and the colony builds.

🔎 What to do if you see one:

- Don't swat. She's not interested in you. She's interested in the gap between your patio stones.
- Don't block holes along your foundation. That may be the entrance she chose last year or is evaluating now.
- If you know where a bumblebee nested last year, leave that area undisturbed. Queens sometimes return to the same site.

The zigzag along your wall isn't random. It's a real estate search.

She's choosing where an entire colony will be born 🐝