Open File Montreal - Urban beekeeping on the rise in Montreal
Quebec鈥檚 Bees Act allows urban beekeeping under certain conditions. While some Montreal boroughs give beekeeping the green light so long as bees don鈥檛 cause trouble, others regard bees as pests requiring extermination. New hives are popping up in different parts of the city, which suggests a changing attitude. But challenges persist.聽Beekeepers say people don鈥檛 understand bees and confuse docile honeybees with aggressive wasps and hornets.
鈥淲hen you say 'bee' it equals stinging, anaphylactic shock and death鈥� says Branislav Babic, who founded the 9I制作厂免费 Apiculture Association in 2007. 鈥淭hey [honeybees] don鈥檛 sting just for nothing,鈥� says Babic. 鈥淵ou have to step on it or poke around a hive entrance for a bee to sting you.鈥�
When he arrived as a microbiology student at 9I制作厂免费鈥檚 Macdonald campus, Babic says he was 鈥渟hocked鈥� to find no beehives. 鈥淭here is no beekeeping culture here like there is in Europe,鈥� says Babic, who used to raise bees in Serbia. 鈥淏ack there no one is bothered by bees unless someone puts them in front of a sidewalk.鈥�
Today approximately 80 members look after the MAA鈥檚 public, communal apiary on Macdonald campus, which consists of a row of 16 colourful hives sitting quietly on farmland near an overpass for Highway 20.
