The Bees Will Be Emerging Soon, but Sadly We Won’t Be

Running a small manufacturing business is a hard thing to do, and for the last 2 years our small-but-mighty team gave everything we had to make beautiful products that people - and bees - love. In the end, the gap between where we are today and where we'd need to be for all of us to make a living at this was just too big, so sadly, we have to wind down our operations here. 

What's next, and what does this mean for our customers?

While this version of Scopa is winding down, we still remain fully committed to helping people appreciate wild bees and their importance to our ecosystem.

To this end, we'll be keeping our shop running (but shrinking it, and going part-time) and will continue to make bee blocks and accessories for our existing customers, along with helping with any questions, repairs and touch-ups you might need. We just won't be making large numbers of bee homes and doing craft and art shows like we have in the past.

We think there is still a very important role for us to play in pushing for high quality bee habitats that emphisize insect appreciation and understanding, that support a wide range of species (not just the ones used in large-scale agriculture), and that set a standard for how they should be built for the health of the residents. To support this, we plan to continue to do outreach events, offer workshops on how to build high-quality habitats, and are exploring other initiatives that we'll now be able to take on since we won't be spending so much of our time growing our shop. We may even get back in the business of making more homes in the future, but likely at a much smaller scale.

When will this transition happen?

We'll be scaling back the shop starting at the end of this month. After that, we'll be taking a short break to dust ourselves off (literally, it's very dusty in here), reenergize, and figure out a plan forward. We don't have a set timeline yet, but if you're interested in keeping up with what we're up to, send me a note and I'll be sure to keep you in the loop.

Finally, I just want to say thank you. This has been an incredibly meaningful couple of years. Our homes have found their way to every province in Canada, half of the US states, and at least 5 countries worldwide, and it was your support that made that possible.

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Ryan Brideau