Anyone into bee keeping?

My cousin has been into it for about 6-7yrs now , she has small acreage and it’s a ‘hobby’ . She joined a local association so they share some expensive stuff like a centrifuge to separate honey from comb faster . The wax also has value . She likes the idea that you sell the honey, sell the wax , pollinate the crops nearby and it takes up little space . And unlike livestock , no piles of poop .


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crankcall said:
My cousin has been into it for about 6-7yrs now , she has small acreage and it’s a ‘hobby’ . She joined a local association so they share some expensive stuff like a centrifuge to separate honey from comb faster . The wax also has value . She likes the idea that you sell the honey, sell the wax , pollinate the crops nearby and it takes up little space . And unlike livestock , no piles of poop .


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I'm thinking the same thing, my wife also wants to get into candle making and I want to start doing some wood working projects.
She can use the wax, I can make poorly built hives... Trying to create a hobby where everything is useful and no piles of poop...
 
Jampy00 said:
I'm thinking the same thing, my wife also wants to get into candle making and I want to start doing some wood working projects.
She can use the wax, I can make poorly built hives... Trying to create a hobby where everything is useful and no piles of poop...
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If you are willing to sell blocks of honeycomb, I'll buy. Avoid the hassle of separating.

A local apiary is in an old school mechanics garage. Ramp up to second floor, hydraulic lift outside etc. The spin the honey on the top floor and bottle on the ground floor. Lots of head to speed up the process.
 
GreyGhost said:
If you are willing to sell blocks of honeycomb, I'll buy. Avoid the hassle of separating.

A local apiary is in an old school mechanics garage. Ramp up to second floor, hydraulic lift outside etc. The spin the honey on the top floor and bottle on the ground floor. Lots of head to speed up the process.
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Good to know.
I have two stories as well, so this is a good idea to consider if things ever got to that size of operation.
 
mimico_polak said:
Neighbours are doing it and the honey is delicious. The hardest part is keeping the bees alive over winter.

They basically took majority of my ridgid insulation last year to insulate the hives. I think they have 2 or 3.

Lot of work to keep alive, but delicious honey makes its way to me every year.
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I don’t know what jurisdiction had the regulation that the hives had to be a certain distance from property lines. Even 50 feet makes it impossible for the city unless you have a massive lot.
 
nobbie48 said:
I don’t know what jurisdiction had the regulation that the hives had to be a certain distance from property lines. Even 50 feet makes it impossible for the city unless you have a massive lot.
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Shockingly we have provincial laws for that (Ontario Bees Act). 30m setback. Apparently repealed in 2019 on a date to be determined (but afaict that date hasn't happened?).

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"Location of hives
19 (1) No person shall place hives or leave hives containing bees within 30 metres of a property line separating the land on which the hives are placed or left from land occupied as a dwelling or used for a community center, public park or other place of public assembly or recreation. 2002, c. 17, Sched. F, Table."
 
nobbie48 said:
I don’t know what jurisdiction had the regulation that the hives had to be a certain distance from property lines. Even 50 feet makes it impossible for the city unless you have a massive lot.
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Jurisdiction doesn't matter if you have good neighbours.

Same as there are tons of people in the area that are raising chickens in their backyard. Someone called PEEL Region on a guy a few streets away, and they shut him down.
 
mimico_polak said:
Jurisdiction doesn't matter if you have good neighbours.

Same as there are tons of people in the area that are raising chickens in their backyard. Someone called PEEL Region on a guy a few streets away, and they shut him down.
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Jampy is fine but it would really suck to invest all the time and money in bees and get told you had 72 hours to make them go away. It is an interesting grey area in law though. As regulation appears to be provincial (and potentially in purgatory), would municipal by-law officers enforce it or do they stick with municipal by-law issues? I can't image cops bothering to enforce a setback issue.
 
There is a business in Milton called Backed By Bees , they are placing colonies on the roofs of shopping malls around the Oakville / Burlington area . It’s educational, they place them near skylights and you can see what’s going on, good for the environment and a secure location. Bee hive Rustling is now a thing, queens and hives are worth big money . Stealing them is apparently easy since they are usually placed in the middle of nowhere.


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crankcall said:
There is a business in Milton called Backed By Bees , they are placing colonies on the roofs of shopping malls around the Oakville / Burlington area . It’s educational, they place them near skylights and you can see what’s going on, good for the environment and a secure location. Bee hive Rustling is now a thing, queens and hives are worth big money . Stealing them is apparently easy since they are usually placed in the middle of nowhere.


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Ages ago the art gallery in Winnipeg had a hive in a large glass case inside the gallery. There was a plexi tube to the outside.

The honeycomb evolved into looking like a wedding dress.

It isn't rare for people to find the wall cavities of their houses filled with bee colonies.
 
crankcall said:
There is a business in Milton called Backed By Bees , they are placing colonies on the roofs of shopping malls around the Oakville / Burlington area . It’s educational, they place them near skylights and you can see what’s going on, good for the environment and a secure location. Bee hive Rustling is now a thing, queens and hives are worth big money . Stealing them is apparently easy since they are usually placed in the middle of nowhere.


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Such a screwed up world. Farmers need bees to propagate their crops but then poison the bees that do the job accepting them as collateral damage and have to rent transient hives to take over the task. The pollinators don't want the honey because to them it is dead weight and unmarketable due to antibiotics fed to the bees to fight off bee parasites and mites.
 
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