INSATIABLE: TORONTO BEES RAISED ON THE ROOF:
Buzzing on city honey

SASHA CHAPMAN, The Globe and Mail, February 23, 2008

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 a bargain $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 appears every other Saturday

Special to The Globe and Mail