Things are no longer abuzz on top of Town Hall.
Craig Nakamoto, a local beekeeper who initiated an urban beekeeping project in 2016 to place beehives on the roof of Town Hall, recently removed his last beehive from atop the Algonquin Theatre. Nakamoto’s agreement with the town and staff became “a little too stressful” and Nakamoto took the last hive down on June 23.
At the beginning, Nakamoto said town council supported and really liked the idea but it was a combination of things that ultimately put an end to the project.
“Any contractor on the roof has to be escorted and I guess I didn’t realize at the beginning I would be classified as a contractor,” said Nakamoto. “I would have to schedule ahead of time and I had to be escorted. I did it all last year and this spring, but it just became too much of a hassle.”
Nakamoto stated every time he checked on the bees a staff member would have to accompany him and would basically end up sitting and watching him for an hour. That was a huge waste of their time and it bothered him a great deal. Also, arranging a time when he could maintain the bees became difficult because having the right weather conditions is paramount. It can’t be windy or raining and the temperature has to be close to 20 degrees.
I talked to town maintenance, signed a waiver, I had insurance and said, ‘Let’s work something out,’ but they were not interested.
The bees did swarm a few times last year and Nakamoto says he was warned that if there was another swarm the bees were going to be taken off the roof. Bee colonies propagate by swarming, which is natural and therefore can’t be avoided.
Town CAO Denise Corry said that the swarming posed a problem due to the location. “They would swarm down into the pedestrian area and there were some pedestrians that were concerned,” said Corry. “He was very kind and explained to us the process of what happens with bees…and why they swarm. We had asked him during those times when bees are likely to swarm if he could check the hive more regularly.”
Due to provincial working at heights regulations that the Town must follow, a staff member had to accompany Nakamoto each time he checked the hives, said Corry. “It was quite a process to check them…It was difficult for him to go up there and do the inspection. He did ask if there were other locations on municipal buildings, but staff would have to follow the same protocol.” Corry added that it was not staff direction for him to remove the hives, but rather his decision.
A swarm of bees came to rest outside the Algonquin Theatre Sunday morning (June 19, 2016). Photo: Craig Nakamoto.
Back in the fall, Nakamoto did combine two hives to make one larger one and it did well through the winter. This spring, in an effort to avoid swarming, he created two new hives and left one on Town Hall and took the other to his apiary near Aspdin Road. The hives have now been relocated to the Aspdin Road property.
Nakamoto is hoping to establish another partnership in or around town with an organization, possibly a school. Last year he took the frames of honey to Muskoka Montessori School for the kids to help process. They untapped it and bottled it and the kids seemed to enjoy the educational aspect of making honey.
In Nakamoto’s opinion, nobody on the town staff management wanted the project to succeed and despite all the good press the project was receiving, the town never took advantage of it from a marketing perspective.
“It was a good experience and I’m sorry it didn’t work out,” he said.
Don’t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter here.
Someday I’d like the invisible “someone at the Provincial level” that creates all the Provincial rules that municipalities must follow to actually materialize in the flesh at some public meeting and answer questions about how and why the rules were created.
These rules seem to carry immense weight and control characteristics but they seem never to have been debated by those upon whom they are forced to apply. Strange.
Just to be clear, the town staff was always courteous and easy to work with. The maintenance team was always very professional and did their best to accommodate me and my sometimes last-minute requests for access. When I said that it was too much of a hassle – I didn’t mean just for myself, I meant for myself AND the town staff! They have a lot to do and I felt that my scheduling was often disruptive to their schedule.
I don’t think I ever said that swarming can’t be avoided, I think I said that while swarming can normally be avoided, sometimes it can’t. This hive has been trying to swarm since early May and I did destroy all the swarm cells every week and I split the hive twice before I finally removed them.
As I said, I think this project worked out well – apart from the hassle for myself and the maintenance staff. It was carefully planned out by myself, and the council and town staff asked the right questions and deliberated the pros and cons carefully before we started.
Contrary to what some beekeepers might think, rooftops are a great place to keep bees and it is being done all around the world – including several town halls in Canada.
We keep bees. I think it’s completely wrong that “Bee colonies propagate by swarming, which is natural and therefore can’t be avoided.” Bees do swarm when not managed properly but it is the urban beekeeper’s job to properly manage the hives to ensure that they don’t swarm. By doing splits well before the hive decides to swarm you can, in the majority of times, control swarming. True, some times hives just seem to want to swarm, but that should be rare.
Obviously keeping the hives on the roof was a bad call as the beekeeper needs easy and quick access to the hives. This is a great example of a good idea, poorly thought out and implemented. Insert your own comment about what this shows about our municipal government here…
They don’ t make the rules , the Province does , and if they don’ follow them then the Taxpayer are on the hook for the heavy fines. All the best Craig !
You can bring them to my yard…I would escort you only to see how it worked…no hassle here….if they, The Town, don’t have full control over something they make rules and say they have to follow but when in full control no rules apply…sad thing about this town