[getsmart-l] "Most cities around the world keep bees,"

[Rose Kudlac]

Pollination services aside, I found it interesting that the article refers
to the members of the Toronto Bee Co-op as 'volunteers'. People who have
hobby farms, backyard vegetable gardens and fruit trees or tend plots in a
community garden aren't generally referred to as volunteers, but as people
who produce some of their own food.
Ever since my husband has been a member of the co-op, he brings home buckets
of honey every year at harvest time, as do the other co-op members. The
honey is split with FoodShare, whose industrial kitchen has been invaluable
for extraction and processing.
Rose Kudlac

> Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:36:27 -0500
> From: "John O'Gorman" <jcogorman at sympatico.ca>
> Subject: [getsmart-l] "Most cities around the world keep bees,	"
but
> 	not in Markham. We need pollination HERE!!
> To: <getsmart-l at list.web.net>
> Message-ID: <BAYC1-PASMTP0338C5E5824E314DAF1E0DCF1F0 at CEZ.ICE>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
> 
> "Most cities around the world keep bees, whether it's legal or not. In
> Paris, there are hives on the roof of the opera house. In New York, high-
> rise bees produce honey for the Union Square Market. And in Vancouver,
> city councillors recently introduced a loophole to allow apiculturists to
> keep bees in the city. So far, there's been no relaxing of the rules at
> our own City Hall. Instead, dedicated beekeepers are quietly finding ways
> to work around the act. "
> 
> I specify my home of Markham, but your hometown is probably affected just
> as much!? We used to have honey bees arround when we moved here back in
> '86. We were in the middle of farms and various hives were kept close to
> Yonge and Steeles. However, now, with the loss of agricultural land, the
> perversion of paving and the influx of hive-killing mites and diseases
> (that also hit wild swarms) we must depend upon the far fewer wild bees
> for pollination of fruits and vegetables in our gardens.
> 
> This re-establishment of bees can be a campaign for the various
> horticultural societies - please pass it on.
> Regards,
> John
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> 
> TORONTO BEES: RAISED ON THE ROOF
> 
> Buzzing on city honey
> SASHA CHAPMAN ?schapman at globeandmail.com Globe and Mail Feb. 23/08
> 
> Much ink has been spilled over the worldwide disappearance of honeybees
> over the past couple of years. There are many threats to this sensitive
> species, from parasitic varroa mites to industrial agriculture to the
> mysterious colony collapse disorder that seems to be plaguing hives south
> of the border. But the biggest threat to our city's bees may be the
> Ontario Beekeeping Act, which makes it illegal to put a hive within 30
> metres of an urban dwelling. Which is a shame, because Toronto honey
> tastes so good.
> 
> Most cities around the world keep bees, whether it's legal or not. In
> Paris, there are hives on the roof of the opera house. In New York, high-
> rise bees produce honey for the Union Square Market. And in Vancouver,
> city councillors recently introduced a loophole to allow apiculturists to
> keep bees in the city.
> 
> So far, there's been no relaxing of the rules at our own City Hall.
> Instead, dedicated beekeepers are quietly finding ways to work around the
> act. A couple of years ago, Brian Hamlin, a beekeeper with hives' all over
> Ontario, found a secret corner on the Toronto Islands where he could
> install a few hives. He now produces a couple hundred pounds of raw honey
> each year, which Murray Graziano sells at the Golden Orchards stall in the
> St. Lawrence Market. "We only have two jars left," Mr. Graziano says.
> "People wait for it."
> 
> FoodShare is a non-profit organization that works to bring healthy,
> affordable, local food to Torontonians. About five years ago, it tucked a
> dozen hives underneath the Gardiner Expressway near its offices on Eastern
> Avenue, where the bees were kept out of the public eye and had easy access
> to the Don Valley. They thrived, producing about 700 kilograms of honey
> each year for FoodShare and the volunteer Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative
> that tends them. (FoodShare sells 500-millilitre jars for $5 at its
> offices.) Complex and full of character, FoodShare's semi-solid honey is
> more interesting than a lot of country honeys and certainly better than
> the Chinese and South American honey that is sometimes added to the mass-
> produced "Canadian" brands.
> 
> "I suspect it's because the forage in the city is so diverse," says Cathy
> Kozma, a real-estate agent and one of the volunteers who tends FoodShare's
> hives. "In the country, it's all monocultures."
> 
> But when FoodShare moved its offices to a larger location at Bloor and
> Dufferin a year ago, their new landlord, the Toronto District School
> Board, wasn't keen on having bees as tenants, and the hives were
> temporarily banished to Guelph, while a cadre of volunteers tried to find
> a new Toronto home for them. Honey production plummeted.
> 
> "You could tell that the bees weren't happy," Ms. Kozma says. The
> volunteers weren't very happy, either - they had to drive to Guelph to
> tend the hives.
> 
> The bees are finally returning to the city next month, though not to
> FoodShare's offices. Some will be housed, improbably, on top of the
> Fairmont Royal York, across from Union Station, and the rest will be
> installed at the Brick Works in the Don Valley. Although the Fairmont is
> situated in the middle of downtown, the bees will be kept on a 14th-floor
> roof garden - more than 30 metres above street level, or any other "urban
> dwellings" nearby.
> 
> David Garcelon, the executive chef at Fairmont, got the buzz when he was
> harvesting herbs in the hotel's rooftop garden and noticed somebody else's
> honeybees foraging there. "Wild honeybees are virtually non-existent in
> the city, so we figured somebody had to be keeping hives close by maybe on
> the island," Mr. Garcelon says. The chef began to wonder if he could put
> his own hives on the roof.
> 
> He contacted the Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative - the same volunteer
> organization that tends FoodShare's hives. Soon, they were talking
> logistics, trying to figure out how many hives they could build in the
> rooftop garden. "When we first started talking about it, people thought we
> were crazy," says Mr. Garcelon, who spent months convincing hotel
> management that the project was worthwhile.
> 
> Last fall, the chef and his apprentices built a couple of hives. Now, they
> are just waiting for some warmer weather to move the bees from Guelph.
> This year, Mr. Garcelon hopes to harvest 200 to 300 kilograms of honey,
> which he will use in the kitchen and package as gift items for guests.
> 
> The rest of the hives will go to the Brick Works, where Evergreen plans to
> use the hives as a program piece, for public education.
> 
> Honeybees are far less likely to sting people than the carnivorous yellow
> jackets that plague our picnics, and there are good reasons to keep them
> in the city. They pollinate our gardens, helping our flowers bloom and our
> vegetables grow. And they are also a good indicator of the health of our
> environment.
> 
> In the meantime, FoodShare has not given up hope on housing its own hives
> - it continues to negotiate with the TDSB and make nice with its
> neighbours, in the hopes that one day it might be able to install a few
> hives on its roof.
> 
> Sasha Chapman's column " INSATIABLE"  appears every other Saturday
> Special to The Globe and Mail
> 
> 
> 
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