Urban beekeeper Mike Hamilton lobbied Edmonton’s city council to pass a bylaw allowing the practice in the city.
In April, 2015, Edmonton's City Council passed a bylaw amendment allowing beekeeping in the city after a successful urban beekeeping pilot project. Mike Hamilton was among those that lobbied for the change. He and his wife now have two hives in their backyard in southeast Edmonton and manage the rooftop hives at the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald. They also operate the @yegbees Twitter account, and run the Edmonton Urban Beekeepers Facebook group.
What do you like about bees?
They are incredibly fascinating and even the most experienced beekeeper will tell you they don't know everything. You are managing a colony of 60,000 insects that operates in a very collaborative and democratic way. There's all sorts of behaviours that we don't understand yet. For example, the queen is raised by the worker bees from an egg that was laid by her mother. When she lays that egg, they take it and feed it royal jelly, and that then turns on or off certain genes to turn her into a queen. If she starts laying poorly or they're not happy with how she is doing, they will take one of her new eggs and replace her with it. We don't even know how they decide that, or who decides that, which bee or group of bees. There's just so much to learn.
Is there anything you wish the general public knew about bees?
Acceptance of urban beekeeping in Edmonton has been great. The level of misunderstanding that I was expecting was far higher than what it is. If there's anything that I wish people would understand, it's that bumblebees – the larger fuzzy black and yellow bees – are really harmless. Many people find that they have nests under their deck, under their stairs, because they usually nest in the ground. But bumblebees won't harm anyone, unless you actually put your hand in their nest.
Sometimes I see someone swat a bee. A bee flies over, and everyone starts yelling and swatting at it. Does that bother you?
I understand it, though, right? You have this flying thing you know is able to sting you, you can't predict where it's going to fly and you feel vulnerable. Your instinct is to defend yourself, I get it. I think what I'd like to see people do is take more time to just watch bees. If you're ever in a garden, anywhere where there's a lot of flowers in the summertime, you can just sit and watch. Watch the bees come and go. If you look closely enough, you can see their tongues getting nectar out. Bumblebees will vibrate their wings to loosen up pollen that's on the inside of the flower. There's a lot off behaviours we can observe, and I think gain a lot of understanding and a lot of comfort.
Do you think some of the trouble comes from mistaken identity with wasps?
Absolutely. Most of [the yellow and black flying insects] we interact with are wasps. They are predators, they do prey on insects, they will take food from other things. They will rob a beehive of their honey. They're more aggressive, they can sting and it doesn't affect them. A bee, they sting and they die.
Do you ever get tired of all the bee puns people make when they talk about bees?
No, I'll drone on and on about them myself. They're endless. You get a bunch of beekeepers together and we make them, too.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Jana G. Pruden