Local Buzz Andelsbirøkterlag – Community Supported Beekeeping (CSB)

Next information meeting: 21.02.2022, 17:00-17:45

“We want to build a community around beekeeping, promote local food and facilitate learning about pollinator communities”

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About Local Buzz CSB

Local Buzz Andelsbirøkterlag was founded by Idil Akdos in 2021, as Norway’s first Community Supported Beekeeping (CSB) scheme with the support of Oslo Living Lab and Oslo Kommune! Local Buzz aims to increase participation in sustainable and ethical food production, demystify the beekeeping practice and the life of the hive community, and inspire our community with urban beekeeping activities!

Idil and her team of youth from Oslo Living Lab have been practicing urban beekeeping at Tak for Maten, an award-winning rooftop farm at Greenhouse Oslo since 2018. Their bees feast on the abundant flowers present in Oslo’s urban landscape, such as Ekeberg, Botanical Gardens, and your gardens and balconies. Thanks to its unique and diverse composition, their honeydew city honey won the silver medal at 2020 NM i Honning!

Local Buzz’s approach to CSB is ‘co-design’. The Community Supported Beekeeping scheme is new and novel, therefore Local Buzz wants to develop this initiative together with ‘you‘! We would like to hear your inputs to create a scheme that will be resilient and fun!

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Register here!

What is Community Supported Beekeeping?

CSB rests on the same principles as Community Supported Agriculture (Andelslandbruk), whereby members sign up and pay in advance to become a shareholder of a beehive, while the maintenance and care is given by the beekeepers. At the end of the season, honey is shared accordingly among the members of the hive.

Sustainable practices: Our practice is responsible to the environment, both for current and future generations, maintaining and promoting the health of ecosystems, and also is responsible to the beekeeper by providing a decent livelihood through a prepayment scheme.

Shared risk / shared abundance: You reap the bounty but also share the risk, meaning that everyone benefits when it’s a good season. This mutually beneficial relationship between farmers and the community dates back at least to the 1980s in Japan, where the word for the concept, “teikei,” roughly translates into “food with the farmer’s face on it.” 

Involvement of shareholders: We invite and encourage members to be part of the experience by providing the necessary mentorship and supervision, thereby acting as a learning arena. Therefore, you can bring your curious mind, ask questions and gain hands-on experience during hive visits.

Dialogue: Allowing shareholders’ input in decision making: what to produce, how much, when, how.. How to engage, when and how..

Transparent finances: At the end of the season, we share with the members the finances, and how much your beekeeper has earned through the practice. This way, we ensure that what you are paying for your membership translates into a decent livelihood for your beekeeper.

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Possibilities

Honey and wax

As a hive-shareholder you will be enjoying locally, organically and ethically produced honey.  

We will produce several types of honey by harvesting at different times of the season. In 2020, our honeydew honey got a silver prize at NM i Honning (the national honey championship).

The wax will be rendered at the end of the year. Both will be distributed evenly amongst shareholders.

As in other community-supported schemes, we share the abundance as well as the risks!

Hands-on experiences

Community supported beekeeping gets its power from its genuine and rich community support. The hands-on membership package is for those who are interested in seeing inside the hives to attend our regular hive inspections!

Do not worry – we have all the protective gear for you: suits and gloves in many different sizes. We will also guide you and supervise you while you’re having a hands-on experience.

If you want to be immersed in the experience deeply, this is also possible. Just contact us and we will try to accommodate your wants and needs!

Workshops and activities

There are so many things to do around beekeeping. Let’s explore together!

Harvesting! Honey extraction is a full sensory experience that will engage your sense of smell, taste, sight and touch. If you have not experienced honey fresh from the hive you won’t want to miss this opportunity.

Making products like mead, beeswax wraps and beeswax cream is more affordable when done collectively.

Informal hang-outs at Tak for Maten, which is an urban farm oasis and where our hives are located.

Webinar to introduce you to the fundamentals of beekeeping, urban walk&talks to inspire you to look at flowering plants and trees differently!

Covid-19 precautions

Due to Covid-19, we are encouraging participants to bring their own masks. Our class size is reduced to 4, and we will be holding the experience sessions in an outdoor setting. We will make gloves and hand sanitiser available for use, as well as a full protective jacket that will be used during field learning. Members are encouraged to let us know if they have any other preferences or requirements for their comfort in this regard and we will do our best to accommodate where possible.

Membership Packages

Basic Membership

Hands-on Membership

Company Membership

School Visit Membership

Basic Membership: 1500 NOK

• Several different types of honey. Estimated amount: 2.5 kg.
• Webinar: ‘Introduction to beekeeping’. In this 1.5 hour seminar, you will be immersed in a wide range of information from the biology of bees to using materials and tools properly. As a result, you will get acquainted with the hive community and how to get started with your hive. After this webinar, you will feel more confident about being hands-on around a beehive.
  • Topics covered:
    • The community inside the hive
    • Beekeeping equipment, tools and protocols
    • Seasons and changes of life inside the hive
    • Learning platform: Resources and support tools for new beekeepers!
• Monthly hands-on experiences between April-October around beekeeping and learning as we practice together. This will be done in groups of 4.
  • Each experience is on average 1.5-2 hours, in which we will get dressed, open the hives and inspect according to the season’s needs and tend to the hives under the guidance and supervision of your beekeeper. As we open the hives, numerous learning moments will emerge.
  • There are two slots: afternoon hive inspections between 15:00 and 17:00, and evening inspections between 17:00 and 19:00.
  • For first-time beekeepers, it is very important that you attend the webinar. This way, you will be feeling comfortable opening a hive and performing inspections.
  • A beehive inspection protocol document (beekeeping diary) will be shared with you to familiarise yourself with the routine!
  • A planning spreadsheet will be shared where you can sign-up for available spots.
• Workshop: ‘Honey Harvest’: Extracting honey from frames into jars is a full sensory experience that will engage your sense of smell, taste, sight and touch.
  • This will be a series of weekday and weekend event (might change) and will last around 3-4 hours throughout the summer into the autumn.
  • We will harvest honey-full frames at the rooftop and bring them down to our extraction room inside the building. Zero carbon footprint!
  • You will get sticky! But as a reward, you will experience honey fresh from the hive. You won’t want to miss this opportunity!
• Workshop: ‘Wax Rendering’: We will render the leftover wax that we have collected throughout the harvests. We also share recipes for making salves and beeswax food wraps and encourage members to get together to make use of their wax collectively. We have equipment and space for you to come together for events like this.
• Access to the beekeeping diary: We keep a beekeeping diary to record the status of the hives and document our actions, for each queen at each visit. We share this with you so you can follow the hives remotely. This is another way to learn what is important to look for during a hive visit.
• Newsletters: The season is short in Norway and the growth in the hives happens exponentionally. From one visit to another, you may be surprised at the differences you will witness! Therefore, we send out ‘The Local Buzzer’ newsletters during the height of the season to inform the members what is happening at the hives, so they do not miss out on anything.
• Access to our Learning Platform: Learning about bees and honey production is enhanced when you dive into real experience and utilise various types of media from podcasts to videos to blogs and books and discussion forums. As Local Buzz, we have developed a Learning Platform where the most essential information will be available to you at all times plus a Resource section to share. We believe this platform will become a dynamic, busy space where members share news and resources with each other.
• Access to suits and gloves: Local Buzz owns suits and gloves of various sizes and styles, and you do not have to worry about what you wear when you show up.
• Access to our community chat group: We chat, coordinate, share news with eachother informally in our chat group.
• Access to our collective photo album: Taking photos at the hives is not the most convenient thing. For one, you are focused on what you are doing and don’t wanna get stung. Yet you also want to document these moment. No worries – we usually take turns, and our beekeeper tries to take many photos during the hive visits. Later, we all upload our photos in a collective album so everyone has access to all the photos.

Register here!

• 2-3 different types of honey.
• Webinar: ‘Introduction to beekeeping’
• Monthly hands-on experiences between April-October around beekeeping and learning as we practice together. This will be done in groups of 4.
• Workshop: ‘Honey Harvest’
• Workshop: ‘Beeswax Wrap Making’ or another one of your choice
• Urban walk & talk: Pollinators and seasonal nectar sources
• Social media mentions

School Visit Membership: Customised

This membership combines a classroom visit to our garden and an inspection of the hives in groups of 4 with the guidance and supervision of our beekeeper.

An excellent opportunity for an outdoor classroom in the middle of the city. We provide the suits!

Contact us at idil@nabolagshager.no / idilakdos@gmail.com to explore a membership option together.

Now what?

1. Sign up to our mailing list and choose a package. This is also how you will get updates from our side.
2. Make your payment (bank transfer through an invoice) and become a formal member!
3. First activity is a welcome meeting and a webinar in March.
4. We will start our practices in April. For this, we will start planning in March. You will be informed about how you can join the activities through emails and on our FB page & Signal chat group.
5. Thanks for being a part of this new initiative! Please contact idil@nabolagshager.no or idilakdos@gmail.com for your questions and ideas. We appreciate your inputs and look forward to having a fruitful season together! 🙂