Urban Bees Project

In 2001 FoodShare's Urban Agriculture program funding from Heifer International to set up a beekeeping in the city project. Not being beekeepers ourselves, we hired an expert apiculturist to teach us everything we needed to know. Every other week for 4 months we had lessons in beekeeping, and being community-minded, we opened these workshops to the community.

A good thing it was too because a dedicated group emerged from and formed the Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative in the fall of 2002. Together, FoodShare and the TBC kept 6 hives in the first year. Today in 2006 we have a total of 12 hives between us. The TBC look after the hives and receives support from FoodShare in return for half of the harvest. And from the very first year the honey was exceptional, even by expert beekeepers' standards.

To read and download an article in the June/July issue of Briarpatch on the Urban Bees Project and the Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative by TBC member Jennifer Skelton and photos by Laura Berman, click here.

If you are interested in more information about the Toronto Beekeepers Cooperative, email torontobees@yahoo.ca

And if you'd like to buy some of our fabulous honey, contact Ravenna at 416. 363. 6441 xt 225 or ravenna@foodshare.net