Summer is busy for bees — and for the growing ranks of Calgary’s backyard beekeepers for whom these tiny livestock provide delicious honey and a meaningful hobby. Alberta is a terrific place to learn this ancient craft: our province is home to the largest beekeeping industry in Canada, representing approximately 40 per cent of the country’s honeybees.
Even for hobbyists, approved training is required to keep bees in Calgary. That’s where groups like the Calgary and District Beekeepers Association come in. The now-95-year-old club’s active membership sits near 300, and it’s led by a small, but mighty colony of volunteer educators and mentors, like Liz Goldie.
If you had a bee-related question for The City of Calgary between 2012 and 2022, you likely encountered Goldie, who keeps two hives in Scenic Acres. She reassured residents with guidance like, “If you plug the crack in your hot-tub lid, honeybees won’t drown in there looking for a drink of water.”
During her decade-long tenure on the association’s board, she also helped The City develop its beekeeping bylaws. (Calgary approved its beekeeping licence via the urban livestock licensing program in 2022.)
Like many urban beekeepers, Goldie enjoys the often hundreds of pounds of honey her bees produce annually, but that isn’t the only attraction. Beekeepers do good by helping grow honeybee populations, which contributes to urban ecology and sustainability and, ultimately, to the global reliance on bees to pollinate agricultural harvests and maintain food security.
Goldie also sees beekeeping as a powerful path to self-confidence. The club is exceptionally social, and bee-mentors talk new beekeepers through animal-husbandry tasks with encouraging conviction. Goldie’s advice goes like this: “‘Are you zipped up? Okay, job number one today is to open your hive! You can do this!’” It’s a sweet gig.
The Calgary and District Beekeepers Association is a non-profit organization that promotes awareness and education of its members and the public about honeybees and good beekeeping practices. To learn more, find approved courses or volunteer, visit calgarybeekeepers.com.
For more about beekeeping in the city, visit calgary.ca/pets/licences/urban-beekeeping.html.
