I have been spending the past few days pouring over the Edmonton zoning map online, it's actually a very cool little tool. Edmonton bylaw states that it is perfectly fine to keep bees on property that is zoned as Agriculture (AG), Urban Reserve (AGU), or Industrial Reserve (AGI). Sounded easy enough, I'd just look at the map and find some places to check out. Talk with their owner, bada boom bada bang, done. It turned out a bit more complicated then that. All the AGU areas on the map are most definitely owned by the city, they are parks and open area in which the city can change if they need to build something. All the AGI areas are primarily owned by large companies, oil and utility, and while in time I may somehow convince them, the time it would take getting through all the red tape would be too long. The few AGI and AG zoned lands on the southern side of the city that did seem possible, I drove out to and had a look. The outlook was bleak. Despite all my efforts in what little free time I had, I couldn't seem to meet up with any of the property owners or the land wasn't quite what I thought it was based on Google Maps. The farm manager from the U of A had called me back and unfortunately because of a canola project they were currently working on, that required minimized pollination, a hive wouldn't be allowed.
However, I am very glad that I went to the Edmonton and District Beekeepers Association, EDBA, meeting this Tuesday because I met so many other great beekeepers. Some of them have been keeping bees in the city for years and others, like me, were just starting their hives up in the city....obviously with more understanding neighbours. Through some contacts at the meeting I met up with Mario. He's a beekeeper who started with 1 hive in 1999 and has been growing ever since. He has a 26 acre plot of land which is literally on the other side of the road from the city limits. It fits perfectly with what I need and is less then 15 minutes away. On Sunday I will be making the move and I'll post some pictures of that venture.
As for my bees, they are doing great. I did a quick inspection today to make sure things were looking good before we move them. A new friend, Bea, from my Bust Into Beekeeping course came out to help and get her feet wet in the world of beekeeping. The inspection went well, I had a few concerns regarding getting the cover off and my Mann Lake foundation. The first hurdle I had to overcome was getting the cover off. The cover I purchased is a little different than the average telescoping cover, as it's basically a sheet of plywood cut to size with 1/4 inch rests stapled to the bottom. It's great because there is a little entrance at the top which allows for better ventilation. The issue was that it leaves a 1/4 gap between the top of the frames and the lid, an area perfect for burr comb. The bees had made nice lines of burr comb on the 3 inner frames that securely held the lid in place. I'm glad Bea was there because as I started lifting the cover off I didn't notice an entire frame was coming up with it. Had she not been there, the wax would have eventually broken and that frame would have landed hard on top of the hive with PO'd bees.
After we sorted the cover out, I started pulling frames to inspect. Full healthy brood pattern is all I found on the first, so I had pulled another because I was looking for eggs. Eggs would tell me that, up to 3 days ago, the queen was healthy and laying. I did find some eggs in the second frame, they look like small pieces of rice in the bottom of the honey cell. I also pulled out the Mann Lake frames closest to the brood nest and was disappointed to find the bees hadn't drawn out any comb on them. They did seem to draw out a small piece in the center, but it had turned into a piece of burr as apposed to the nice comb shape everyone thinks of. I may end up swapping those out for black frames on Sunday because Alvin, the bee supplier, said he really notices that bees will draw out black plastic foundation before white. It also could be that the bees are still building in numbers and have yet to expand outwards.
My nice neighbour stopped by yesterday to update me on the hot tub situation. Apparently when he pulled his filter up for it's weekly cleaning he found 60-100 dead bees (this might correlated with the Mann Lake issue). I was a little shocked by this number, so I asked him if we could start monitoring it daily by checking the filter. I'll keep everyone posted on what the findings are. I wish I had more time to experiment with the placement/size of my water source to see if I could find a solution but the problem is really moot because my bees are gone on Sunday.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of my inspection. I did have a glorious plan to record some video on my camera and make an episode of "NewBee TV" but it didn't quite pan out. In a way I'm glad, because in all honesty I had too much to focus on with just the inspection. Once I get more comfortable I'll get the ball rolling on "NewBee TV".
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