How to start beekeeping in Calgary

By Daniel Swan (aka "Metropropolis)

2021 Version. First released, 2010.

Are you starting out, or considering beekeeper, and overwhelmed by choice or not sure where to start?

This document provides a simple and accessible starting point that will leave you well positioned to grow later.

Keeping your equipment and style simple will give you space to develop a strong foundation without being overwhelmed.   Once you've got the basics down, you'll know where you want to go next, and how to get there.

Those pursuing "natural" practices will find theses recommendations compatible with all "natural" management practices.

For best results, start preparing mid-winter. Even better, start preparing a year in advance.

To start beekeeping, you'll need the following 6 things:

0) Determine if beekeeping is appropriate for you.
1) Equipment 
2) Bees
3) Education
4) Community
5) A permit
6) A sense of responsibility

0) Is beekeeping appropriate for you?

Beekeeping is challenging, demanding, frustrating, and wonderful.    90% of people who start quit after 2 years, finding there's a lot more to it than expected. 

Many take it up after hearing that bees are becoming extinct.   Fear not: Barring some significant losses 14-10 years ago, the bee-pocalypse is exaggerated, misrepresented and misunderstood.... and simply not happening. 

Honeybees are beloved by humanity as both livestock and pets alike, and humans ensure their interests are taken care of.    Please sleep easy knowing that the honeybees will be (mostly) ok with or without the assistance of another new beekeeper.

Some start with financial intent.   Be warned that beekeeping is not an easy way to make money.   It is often said that you can make a small fortune in beekeeping, provided you start with a big fortune.

But, if you're willing to sink a great deal of time, effort, and heart into an amazing hobby, for its own wonderful sake, then beekeeping is for you.

1) Equipment and costs:

There's a lot of stuff one can buy, but much of it isn't really necessary.

Here's a basic setup that will serve you well.   Note, best-practice is to start with 2 hives[1]:

$0 4 cinderblocks, scavenged.

$40 2 screened bottom boards

$40 2 Hive bodies, size "Deep"

$200 40 "Deep" frames of drawn comb. [2]

$40 4 Honey supers, size "Medium"

$120 40 Medium frames, plastic

$60 1 Hive top feeders

$30 2 inner hive covers

$40 2 outer hive covers

$10 1 hive tool

$50 1 Bee Jacket

$30 1 Smoker

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$660 (Not including shipping, OR bees)

All of these items can be ordered from suppliers like Bee Maid, Apihex, or Worker and Hive.

2) Bees:

Bees can be purchased in two formats, known as "NUCs" and "Packages".

"NUCleus hives" are miniature beehives that come on their own comb, and "Packages" are thousands of loose bees in a screened shoebox.

Typically NUCs are created by local beekeepers, and packages are imported from New Zealand en masse in the spring.

Both have their pros and cons.

For the new beekeeper, I strongly recommend packages:

- The are available earlier than Nucs, allowing the newbeek to start their journey sooner.

- Less likelihood of disease transmission.

- Package installation requires slightly more effort. The thought and planning required builds experience right from the start.

Packages are available via bulk purchases from the beekeeper association. Nucs are available from local vendors such as worker and and hive or Apihex.

A package of bees will cost around $230 (2018-2020).     Nucs run from $225-300, depending on seller.

NUCS can be considered a "Plan B" for those who weren't able to reserve a package in Feb, or when Covid interrupts package imports, as it has the last two years (2020,2021).

3) Education:

Courses:

A COURSE IS ESSENTIAL.   For over 10 years I've watched various strong willed or frugal individuals attempt to skip their bee course, and invariably they have a frustrating experience.   99%+ of these people quit at the 2 year mark.   

In the meantime, they'll be beekeeping reactively, and highly reliant upon the assistance of others.   

Some skip a bee course, assuming they can youtube or google their way through. They can't.

Without foundational knowledge, the new beekeeper will remain in a reactive state, struggling to figure out what "Just happened", instead of anticipating what needs to be done next.

Courses are available via The Calgary Beekeepers Association, and various vendors.  There's also a great online courses out of Edmonton and B.C.  Shop around.

Books:

There are so many great beekeeping books, but no single one is enough. I recommend, in the

following order:

Beekeeping for Dummies - Covers the basics.

Beekeeping for Idiots - Covers basics, innovations, and "natural" practices.

The Practical Beekeeper by Michael Bush I,II,III - A comprehensive manual.

Beekeeper's handbook - An illustrated reference for specific techniques.

Beekeeping in Western Canada - Geared towards large-scale, and a bit dated, but a useful regional resource.

Internet:

Any question a beginning beekeeper would want to ask has already been asked and answered 1000 times on the internet and can be found by searching google or youtube.

Opinions vary greatly, but you'll soon get a feel for what will work for you. Those who use this as their primary resource do so at their peril. It's best used to clarify and round out learnings from other resources.

Some folks eschew other forms of learning, thinking they'll just "google" it.     All forms of learning and needed, and google will always be there for you.   

Take regional differences such as climate into account when reading online. Remember:  "All Beekeeping is local".

Mentoring:

The relationships formed by showing up and participating at bee meetings will lead to opportunities to visit and assist others.   Those who have already taken initiative towards their own education will more likely find such doors opened to them.

Also, the Calgary and District beekeepers association organizes "Saturday at the hive" tours, in which a handful of beekeepers get to tour an established apiary and ask questions.

4) Community:

You'll want friends for advice and support. The more experience you can expose yourself to, the more will rub off on you. It can take time to build relationships, but is essential to long term success.

The Calgary Beekeepers Association has been around since the 1930s. Members vary from hobbyists to regional honey producers. Members primarily keep Langstroth, but some also keep Warre and Kenyan Top Bar. Styles range from Commercial to Urban.    They hold formal meetings every second month, and every month in between have a "Bees and beers" meetup.    

There is also a club mailing list to ask questions on.

See http://www.calgarybeekeepers.com for details.

5) A permit:

Once you purchase your equipment, you need to get a permit from the government of Alberta to keep bees. There is no cost to register, and information is used for the purposes of tracking and disease outbreak notifications.

See "Beekeeper registration form" at:

https://www.alberta.ca/beekeeping-registration

A note on municipal legality: Previously, the City of Calgary has preferred not to get involved in the regulation of beekeeping. This is changing in 2021, with the proposal of beekeeping-related bylaws. Stay tuned.

6) A sense of responsibility:

In the confines of the city, beekeeping can easily affect our neighbors, and other beekeepers.  Consider your neighbors when placing your hives so the flight path doesn't point towards their yard. Keep hives out of direct sight if possible.   Learn about swarm prevention, and take proactive steps to ensure your bees don't take off in search of another home.

Also, swarms can attract unwanted attention and make others uncomfortable.  

The Calgary Beekeepers Association has drafted guidelines to help urban beekeepers make responsible choices. Google "Calgary Urban Beekeeping Guidelines".

Appendices:

Sources and resources:

https://www.calgarybeekeepers.com - Calgary Beekeeper's association

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Calgary-and-District-Beekeepers-Association/303479772509 - Calgary Beekeepers Association Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1703298533260143/ - Calgary and area Beekeepers Facebook Discussion group

http://www.beemaidbeestore.com - Alberta supplier of equipment, Queens, and Packages.

https://apihex.ca/ - Apihex Calgary 

https://workerandhive.com/ - Worker and hive Bee Supply

http://www.bcbeekeepers.com/bcbba/bcbba_contacts.php - Regional sources of Nucs

http:www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/prm13239 - Alberta Apiculture

http:www.albertabeekeepers.org - Alberta Beekeeping Commission.

http:www.honeycouncil.ca - National industry association.

http:www.beesource.com - Online Forum

http:www.biobees.com - Online forum - Emphasis on Kenyan Top Bar Style.

Notes:

[1] 2 hives are recommended, as one can be used to "jumpstart" the other in case of queen loss.   If you have only one hive, and it loses its queen, you're dead in the water.


[2] Providing drawn comb to the bees will make a first year honey harvest possible. Without providing comb, the bees will spend most of short nectar flow period building honeycomb instead of storing honey.  Drawn comb must be obtained from a commercial apiary, as they are not sold by Bee Maid.  Installing a package on bare, undrawn comb is inadvisable.

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Usual Disclaimers Apply.

This article was first released around 2010, and has undergone various revisions since then.
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Making Meadshine: From hive to hooch.

I'd always wanted to try distilling, but just didn't have room in my life for another hobby.

That changed in March, with the shortage of hand-sanitizer.

Wanting to make my own, I ordered a still from Wal-Mart.

It arrived in June, by which time hand-sanitizer had become available again.     It was put aside for later.   Around the same time my neighbor Justin also expressed interest in distillation, so we made a commitment that we'd unbox and distill together.

Christmas break presented the opportunity to embrace our holiday spirits.

Materials:

A Basic Still from Wal-Mart.   Cost: Around $200.  

A Book on distillation.  The "Home distillation handbook", purchased at "Grapes to Glass" in Glendale.   A concise and practical book that told me exactly what I need to know without unnecessary  recipes or theory.   Recommended.

Hot Plate.   Preferable to gas burner, as open flame and concentrated alcohol play very well together.

Feedstock:  

    Any fermented liquid containing Alcohol can be distilled.  In my case I had a carboy of mead that had spoiled.  Neglect had allowed it to go slightly sour.  It is still good for distilling.

The theory:  

    Distillation works off of the theory that alcohol has a lower boiling point than water.   We heat our feedstock just-enough, and it turns the alcohol into vapor, which is cooled in a condenser coil that reliquifies it.  The condenser output is redirected into another vessel.    

The main event:

1)  Unboxing and assembling the still was done in minutes.      We hardly glanced at the instructions.   It was great to have Justin with me, as his skills as a trained chemist cut through a lot of fussing and uncertainty.   He knew exactly what we were doing and how we were going to do it.    The still was basic and looked almost home-made, but was well designed and of sufficient quality.    

2)   We filled the boiling vessel with the spoiled Mead, clamped on the condenser lid, and turned on the hot plate.    We filled the condenser with snow.      The design suggests it's meant to use flowing tap-water as a coolant, but the snow worked well enough.

3)   The temperature sensor indicates what vapor is coming out of the still.    At 57C, it was evaporating Acetone, which is considered an undrinkable waste product.   Same for Methanol at 64C.    Anything up to 70C was captured in a jar marked "Foreshots/Poison" and set aside.      "Foreshots" is the technical term for the undrinkable crap that comes out first.

4)  By 70C, Alcohol was already coming out, drip drip drip.     It was completely clear.    We let this run for a few hours, keeping the temperature around 85C.     This is higher than the boiling point of Ethanol, but lower than the boiling point of water.      Doing this means that the output will be mostly-alcohol, and lessly-water.

5)  Over the course of 3 hours, the alcohol drip-drip-dripped into a jug.      Periodically I'd top up the water in the condenser with snow to keep it cool.   

6)   When the output became more water than alcohol, we turned off the hot plate.    Tasting indicated there was no alcohol left over in the feedstock, which was simply discarded.

Conclusion:  

    

    Justin's assistance was essential to imparting a deeper understanding of the chemistry, but I still would have muddled through just fine on my own.   Justin really helped me understand the temperature-specific nature of the different outputs.    Distillation seems scary from a distance, but this isn't much harder than brewing a pot of coffee.

It's really all about knowing your boiling points and watching your thermometer.  Your main outputs will be acetone (56C), methanol (64C), ethanol, (78C), water (100C), and acetic acid (117C).     You separate your distillates by what comes out at what temperature.     It's not perfect and there will be some overlap, but it's foolproof enough.      The huge temperature spread between your key distillates provides forgiveness.

The volume of the distillate was about 1/5 of the original feedstock.      If we estimate that the feedstock was 8% Alcohol, and then times by 5, we can guestimate that the resulting alcohol will be 40% (8% * 5).        My palate tells me it's higher than 40%.   We're not exactly running a hospital here, so a margin of error of +/-50% is tolerable.

The resulting mead-shine is clear and potent.    It burns the tongue and mouth.    It doesn't taste like mead, nor is it flavorless like Vodka.     It has subtle floral notes similar to Soju.

I'm currently sitting on liters of mead-shine that I'm not likely to drink, but instead look forward to sharing it with my beekeeping colleagues in the summer.      

Perhaps I'll make another batch of mead and fortify it with this spirit to make mead Brandy.   

We can call it Bee-randy.

Boilerplate warning:   Can't you go blind from distilling, you ask?  Yes, you can if you drink the Methanol.   That's why we capture it up front and set it aside for other use.     Furthermore, I've learned that the amount of methanol is dependent upon the feedstock, and that distilling a liquid fermentable (as opposed to a mash of solids) will have less Methanol content to begin with.