Learn about organic beekeeping in Quebec, Canada

Details

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  Description

  We are an organic (certified), diversified, self sufficient and sustainable farm: bees, forest, gardens, hens, medicinal plants (ginseng and others), shitake mushrooms, maple bush, etc. hosting volunteers (or friends, students, interns, workawayers, apprentices) interested to learn, help, and share a simple but healthy and socially committed life. We are considered an exceptionally performant apiary (we usually winter between 90% and 100% of our hives and we produce more than twice the average provincial honey production). We also transform beeswax, propolis, etc., and teach organic beekeeping to small scale and urban beekeepers. We are located in a beautiful place, a remote clearing in the forest surrounded with prairies, a river and several ponds. As for the people we wish to host, the key expression is "interested to learn" and to help in a useful way. And what we are not looking for is tourists who "carry their house on their back" (are not interested to learn about local culture and share our way of life, but want to keep their routines and habits).
  
  You want to know more about us? Just ask. What we offer is an opportunity for a serious training in the some of the best practices in small scale organic beekeeping and farming (organic agroforestry and permaculture).

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  The guests who really liked to visit us and to share our life (some of them come again and again, and became friends) are people fascinated by bees and eager to learn a serious approach (scientific and respectful) of small scale beekeeping in an ecological way (in interaction with the environment, the forest, the gardens, the animals) and who are not scared to help out. We are a real farm so we have to work hard day after day during the farming season. But we also always find the time to have a swim in the lake and to share a good meal together with a glas of our mead. Some English speaking people also appreciated the time we spend to help them to better speak French (we have been University teacher, writers, communicators and translators in other lives). All of our guests have to be social people who enjoy meeting and exchanging with the numerous friends, neigbours, and others who constantly come, visit us and sometimes give a helping hand. They also should like to live and play with our four legs companion, the guardian of our land, Fred.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  We look for adult, autonomous people, who can invest creativity and energy in technical or physical tasks, and who have a real sense of what reciprocity and equity means. We don't usually host people who are below 25 years old, unless they can demonstrate maturity and they have some relevant experience. We host couples only if each member can help and behave in an autonomous way (if 1 person + 1 = 2, not 1,5 for helping, 2 for the use of resources and 3 for trying to modify the way we live). There is a diversity of tasks that can be done and we don't usually like to impose a choice. In exchange for help we are ready to teach everything we know, especially organic beekeeping and permaculture/agroforestry, to give acess to resources so one can learn, and to offer a good life in the wilderness (and a big jar of honey the day you leave). Our helpers can borrow a diversity of excellent books and digital documents, in English or French, about organic beekeeping and transformation of bees products, apitherapy, organic gardening and farming, permaculture, agroforestry, medicinal plants, mushrooms growing (shiitake), birds, the biology of ponds, wild mushrooms, ecology, etc. They also can read our book about small scale organic beekeeping that was published on Feb 12, 2019 (it has been launched on April 18 in France, Belgium and Switzerland) and reprinted in November 2019 to reach 7 000 copies, in French It has also been translated in turkish and more translations are planned. A new updated edition was released on May 15th, 2023 in Quebec, on time for the World Bee Day. The edition printed for Europe was released in France in October 2023.
  
  We don't usually host people for less than 3-4 weeks.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  French: Fluent
  Italian: Fluent
  German: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  A brand new tiny house, we built with 6 different wood cut on our land, located beside the lake, with beds, furniture, slow burning wood stove, dry toilet and kitchenette (to prepare for instance a tea at night), plus access to the house (where we prepare meals) during the day. There in no electricity in that tiny, light is provided by rechargeable lamps (to recharge in the house or by solar cells). Next summer we plan to install a solar system sufficient for light, phone, music, etc. In early spring and late fall we also can install a bed in the honey house, with electricity, heating and water. We have meals together (we eat excellent organic food and we are real foodies) so we cannot host people who have fancy and complicate eating tastes (vegan, paleo, gluten free and other). We can accomodate ovo lacto vegeterians helping to prepare some of the meals.
  
  Even if we now have an excellent fiber optic connection (in the middle of a forest, thanks to our municipality!), unless you have an emergency, we suggest you don't use our Wifi more than one hour a day, and not for loading/downloading videos or films. We actually don't wish to host tourists who spend more than one hour a day to phone their mom, friends, send pictures, messages, connect to social networks, etc. We hope to live and exchange with our guests, and not to provide exotic experiences for tourists who want to impress the family/friends oversea. We prefer to meet real travellers (what we have been ourselves, in Europe, Africa and Latin America for numerous years) who are ready to understand and live our life and who have interest in learning from our experience, "à Rome comme chez les Romains". We also welcome people who can show us interesting farming, carpentry, mechanic and other useful skills on an ecological farm. If you ever visit our little paradise, you will be explained it has been built with the help of many friends and visitors coming from around, and also from countries oversea.

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  What else ...

  We can give a lift from and to Montreal once or twice a week and we also can host you there for a night if you fly to the PET airport. There are little opportunities to do tourism around our farm. Simple activities such as swimming, reading, walking, etc. are what our guests usually do when they don't help. We offer simple quality food for breakfast, lunch and snacks, plus excellent gourmet food, organic and local, for supper. If you are vegeterians, you must know that animals are part of the interactions in our farming system, and we cannot cook special meals to accomodate strict veganism or gluten free diet (ovo lacto regime is OK if one does some cooking). Our visitors are supposed to give us extra help for the hours we spend preparing foodie meals they will eat, washing their clothe, formally teach beekeeping, bees product transformation, and other original techniques we master and/or developed.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  Our internet connexion is expensive. It can be used for email and for social networks for 1 hour a day, but not much more. Someone using internet for work has to stay in the house and to be frugal.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  Small camper is possible but not large one

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  Can possibly accept pets

  Dogs that can live with other dogs, hens and who can learn not to walk on seedlings

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  One

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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