I Fought The Law and The Law Won

Today officially marks the start of the one week countdown I have to move my bees before I start getting charged $500/day for every day I don't.

That's right, today an animal services officer stopped by to issue a warning notice because they had received a complaint. This took me by surprise because I had spoken with all my neighbours beforehand and none had brought up any concerns. The officer was nice, non-offensive, and very informative. I suppose she was just doing her job, but she seemed comfortable around the hive as she took pictures. Apparently she used to work with bees. I spoke with her about where I could move my bees within the city and she mentioned that she had a friend who had a place, but then wouldn't provide me with any contact information. I'm not sure if she was trying to be nice to soften the news or if she actually did have somewhere I could move my bees to.

So I started contacting people. The first on my list was Medhat Nasr, the provincial apiculturist; he provided me with the name of Edmonton and District Beekeepers Association president and was very curious about these "sites" the animal services officer spoke about. Next I started scouring the UofA website for contact information of anyone who might be connected with UofA farm land that is within the city limits and less then 10 minutes away from my house. I just heard back from one of the professors and it appears to look promising but I need approval from the farm manager. Hopefully I will hear back from him soon.

Next on my agenda was finding out who the complaint came from and talking with them to learn what could be done differently to avoid any issues in the future. Because heaven forbid once beekeeping becomes legal they start calling the city every day about my bees to the point where the city has to make me move them again. So I took a very educated approach. I started off with the neighbour I knew hadn't phoned in the complaint, the one who was standing in my backyard as I hived my bees, sure enough it wasn't them. Next was the neighbour who I am pretty sure is straight shooting enough that if he had had any issues he would have come and talked to me in person. Again as predicted they weren't the culprits. Although they did have an honest complaint about some bees that were hanging out in their hot tub cover, we discussed it and went on our merry way. That left the third, who I was 95% sure had phoned in the complaint. As soon as I started talking to her it became apparent that my initial evaluation of her was completely wrong, turns out she's a few bricks short of a full load. Highlights of the conversation included that she found out keeping bees in the city was illegal from a lady at the market and a dream she had about bees in her BBQ so she had to go out and check. Which brings me to the pinnacle of my complete disgust. In an effort to figure out if my bees were causing serious problems I asked, "So have you been having any issues with my bees on your property?" to which she replied (and I am not making this up) "Oh yes, they are buzzing all over the place in my garden and are on all my flowers."

Excuse me while I go bang my head against a wall.