Join the Beekeeping Collective

The Santropol Roulant (SR) Beekeeping Collective is seeking new volunteers to build a collective that will keep our urban hives healthy and happy!

About Us

SR’s Beekeeping Collective is a group of beekeepers working to support the perennity and the sustainability of the beekeeping community in Montreal. We promote the interests of bees and beekeepers to maintain a healthy and vibrant urban beekeeping practice in Montreal. Our hives are located on the rooftop of Santropol Roulant (111 Roy St.) and McGill’s Frank Dawson Adams Building.

What is a collective?

Collectives are non­-hierarchical organizations in which each member has equal power. The SR Beekeeping Collective encourages the expression of multiple points of view, and members respect and listen to each other. Responsibilities such as facilitation, note­taking, and presentations rotate between members, ensuring that each member has a place in the collective, no matter what their level of experience, education, language, age, gender, ethnic origin, political opinions, or sexual orientation. Working as a collective is, above all, a way to learn from each other. The collective is defined by its members and, therefore, is always evolving.

Our objectives are to

• Maintain the health of our beehives;
• Offer hands­-on experience to help train new urban beekeepers;
• Experiment with beekeeping in an urban setting;
• Connect citizens to the source of their food;
• Highlight the importance of honey bees as pollinators;
• Dispel common misconceptions about bees;
• All while remaining financially sustainable and having fun while we work as a collective.

Being a member of the collective gives you the opportunity to

• Gain thousands of new winged friends;
• Learn how to manage urban beehives by working in them;
• Learn alongside other (novice) urban beekeepers;
• Have your voice heard and be an equal member of the collective;
• Share your knowledge and experience.

Each member of the collective has the responsibility to

• Contribute to maintaining the health of our hives and their surroundings;
• Take ownership of their own learning process on urban beekeeping;
• Share their knowledge with the community;
• Attend weekly meetings (2h/week) held on Mondays from 6-­8pm;
• Keep up with the collective’s internal communications;
• Dedicate a few hours (3h/week on average) outside of weekly meetings to ensure that our activities run smoothly (hive inspections, blog, public requests, outreach, etc.);
• Be involved on a weekly basis from March to October (beekeeping season) and on a monthly basis from November to February (beekeepers’ vacation!);
• Stay in touch with other members through our mailing list.

How to apply

• Attend one of two open house workshops being offered at Santropol Roulant for prospective collective members. The workshop will be offered at Santropol Roulant (111 Roy St) and held on January 27th (10am-12pm) and February 1st (6pm-8pm). Sign up here!
• After attending the workshop, you will be asked to complete a short application questionnaire before February 10th. Note: You must attend one open-house workshop in order to complete the application.

Please note that the first meeting will be held in early ­March.

Because of the nature of the work, we can only accept a limited number of new members every season. We will respond to all applications by early March. Thank you for your interest in Santropol Roulant’s beekeeping collective!

For more information, our check out our web page or our Facebook page, or email us at apiculture@santropolroulant.org.