The Beehive Collective House is looking for a new housemate / collective member for August or September, 2018.

We welcome interest from queer folk, elders, youth, people of all colours and cultures, radicals. WE ARE: ages 3 to 46, of european-settler ancestry, a trans-positive space.

Due to the physical two-floor nature of our home, our space is regrettably not accessible for all types of bodies. 

in the garden today

WHO ARE WE?

The Beehive is an established collective house located just off Commercial Drive.  We believe that mutual support in the domestic realm fosters stronger individuals and stronger communities.  Collective living is a powerful form of activism, allowing us to exercise our values of social and environmental justice right in the home.   Together, we aim to hold safe space for individual and collective growth.  As a new housemate you will join 5 other adults and one kid (3yrs). There is a guest room for friends and visitors.

WE VALUE:

• Shared meals (we have a big kitchen and eat dinners together)
• Environmental consciousness and practice
• Open communication and supporting each other
• Vegetarian/vegan/freegan/local food; cooking from scratch
• Kids
• Kindness to animals and all other forms of non-human life
• Laughter, stories of the day, music, creativity
• Growing food (we have a garden), and foraging.
• Community

COST:

varies depending on income, but it is very affordable.  Inquire if you need specifics.

STABILITY:

we ideally seek someone who plans to live here for longer, rather than shorter; we have been a low transition house for the last 6 years, and this adds to the warm sense of connection in the house.

 

IN JOINING US SOME OF THE THINGS YOU WILL BE INVOLVED IN ARE:

• Eating together is one of the great joys of collective living, and since the Beehive's inception it has been a central priority of the house.   We share sit-down dinners almost every night of the week, and we expect that people are home for dinner at least half the time.  We each cook dinner one night a week for everyone.  We eat ethically sourced food (local, home-grown, CSA, organic, dumpstered, unprocessed and/or minimally packaged).
• Regular, organized housework to maintain our community, we live with a lot of structure.
• A twice-per-month house meeting lasting 1.5 hours based on consensus, and a monthly 3 hour 'workbee'.
• Having friends and guests over for dinners and overnight visits.
• Occasional larger social events such as potlucks, meetings, workshops, food-processing parties.
• Processing food – fermenting, canning, dehydrating, etc.
• A happily bike-based home.
• Overall, we exercise simple, economical and environmentally friendly living.  We are social but not a party home, and the house is usually quiet and calm in the evenings, with a clean kitchen.

HOW TO PROCEED WITH INTEREST:

If think you might be interested to consider joining our home, please send us an email and answer the questions below: at thebeehivehouse@gmail.com

• Why do you want to live at the Beehive?
• What do you do?
• Do you have experiences living collectively? Or with other Collectives?
• What skills do you bring with you?
• What are you passionate about, or how do you spend your time?
• Any questions or concerns?
• Please include your phone number, as the next step is a conversation.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

~the bees: Sara, Ben, Beth, Caitlan, Michael and MM.

New Homie, March or April, 2016

pic of Beehive Values poster with magnets, 2014

Hey everyone!

The Beehive Collective House is currently looking for a new housemate / collective member for March or April, 2016.

We welcome interest from queer folk, elders, youth, people of all colours and cultures, radicals.

Due to the physical two-floor nature of our home, our space is regrettably not accessible for all types of bodies.

WHO ARE WE?

The Beehive is an established collective house located just off Commercial Drive.  We believe that mutual support in the domestic realm fosters stronger individuals and stronger communities.  Collective living is a powerful form of activism, allowing us to exercise our values of social and environmental justice right in the home.   Together, we aim to hold safe space for individual and collective growth.  As a new housemate you will join 5 other adults, one baby (1 year) and 2 cats. There is a guest room for friends and visitors.

WE VALUE:

• Shared meals (we have a big kitchen and eat dinners together)
• Environmental consciousness and practice
• Open communication and supporting each other
• Vegetarian/vegan/freegan/local food; cooking from scratch
• Kids
• Animals
• Community-building and skill sharing
• Laughter, games, music, stories, creativity
• Growing food (we have a garden), and foraging.

COST:

varies depending on income, but it is very very very affordable.  Inquire if you need specifics.

STABILITY:

we ideally seek someone who plans to live here for longer, rather than shorter; we have been a low transition house for the last 4 years, and this adds to the warm sense of connection in the house.

IN JOINING US SOME OF THE THINGS YOU WILL BE INVOLVED IN ARE:

• Eating together is one of the great joys of collective living, and since the Beehive's inception it has been a central priority of the house.   We share sit-down dinners almost every night of the week, and we expect that people are home for dinner at least half the time.  We each cook dinner one night a week for everyone.  We eat ethically sourced food (local, home-grown, CSA, organic, dumpstered, unprocessed and/or minimally packaged).
• Regular, organized housework to maintain our community, we live with a lot of structure.
• An almost weekly house meeting lasting 1.5 hours based on consensus.
• Having friends and guests over for dinners and overnight visits.
• Occasional larger social events such as potlucks, meetings, workshops, storytelling nights, food-processing parties.
• Weekly 30-minute meditation session if interested.
• Processing food – fermenting, canning, dehydrating, etc.
• A happily bike-based home.
• Overall, we exercise simple, economical and environmentally friendly living.  We are social but not a party home, and the house is usually quiet and calm in the evenings, with a clean kitchen.

HOW TO PROCEED WITH INTEREST:

If think you might be interested to consider joining our home, please send us an email and answer the questions below: at thebeehivehouse@gmail.com


Why do you want to live at the Beehive?
What do you do?
Do you have experiences living collectively? Or with other Collectives?
What skills do you bring with you?
What are you passionate about, or how do you spend your time?
Any questions or concerns?
Please include your phone number, as the next step is a conversation.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

~the bees: Sara, Ben, Caitlan, John, Michael and baby, plus Donut and Java.

First Edition... the Dandelion Seed!

Hot off the press from Nelson, this awesome publication has submissions from Beehive members Sara and Michael.  Solena, the Editor, lived at the Beehive for several years, and her family were founding members of our house.

Note: Solena (Ed) is the one in the picture who is not pregnant! 
Tasha, who is pregnant, is a Beehive founder.

Enjoy the read! It's worth it because there are many reflections of some of the values we hold up and cultivate in our house, and other houses with similiar intentions... things like: sharing, celebration, cooperation, creativity, growing food, mindfulness, kids, salvaging and overall thinking about the effects of our actions and choices as individuals and collectively.

Thanks to the production team, and to everyone who dreamed and did it.

DOWNLOAD the Dandelion Seed HERE

Party Invite!

Do you want to live in community?

The Beehive Collective House is looking for a new housemate / collective member for July 1, Aug possible.

Who are we?  

The Beehive is an established collective house located just off Commercial Drive. We believe that mutual support in the domestic realm fosters stronger individuals and stronger communities.  Collective living is a powerful form of activism, allowing us to exercise our values of social and environmental justice right in the home.  Together, we hold safe space for individual and collective growth.

 ♥

We welcome interest from queer folk, elders, youth, people of varied colours and cultures. 

We value: 

• Shared meals (we have a big kitchen and eat dinners together)
• Environmental consciousness and practice
• Open communication and supporting each other
• Vegetarian/vegan/freegan/local food & cooking from scratch
• Kids
• Animals
• Community-building and skill sharing
• Laughter, games, music, stories, creativity
• Growing food (we have a garden), and foraging.

Hivers share collective living inspiration south of the border

Exciting things underway in Bellingham, Washington as they are forming a Network of their Collective Houses (known as Co-op Houses in the US).

Jeff from Sushi Tribe requested that someone from the Vancouver Collective House Network present about what we've done in Vancouver to build our network. El T and rSara took up the challenge and rode bikes to Bellingham one fine February day. Once on the road we certainly did not need our jackets in the warm sunshine.

We left at 10:15am and arrived at our destination at 4:45pm, after a skytrain ride, a bus, and a 50+km bike ride along country roads and river trails. What a way to go!

Once in Bellingham, Jeff gave us a tour of the Sushi Tribe House. Then about 50 people joined us from at least 10 different houses, and we gave a brief presentation about the VCHN: on the history, what are current roles are within the Network, projects that have brought us together, and why we continue to be inspired to spread the skills and inspiration of Collective Living!

Potluck dinner followed, with much local home made food and a long line up to get some, but with plenty enough deliciousness to go around, and for all to eat their fill.

Excited to see what Bellingham comes up with, and have no doubt the inspiration will continue to spread! Yay for collective living.

ONWARD! South to the border

bus to WhiteRock with bikes leading the way

bikes skip the 2 hour border wait

sun & sea south on the coast

fording streams

closer to Mount Baker

path along the Nooksack River

very narrow trail, without clear signs that other bikes use it. eee

muddy single-track

El T stops for a snack

Doug our guide, knowledgeable about erosion, birds, bikes and bike routes. We picked him up along the way and he escorted us on the back routes into Bellingham. Thanks Doug!

We Made It! El T and Jeff outside Sushi Tribe. They run a seriously inspiring Alternative Library, with neon sign and all. This is in addition to a collective house with 15+ people living together.

One of the two rooms of the Alternative Library

Into the foggy night to catch the Train home after a resplendent and nourishing community potluck. We have a tired meeting planning workshops on the train, and bicycle home (checking the dumpsters along the way of course!) and fall into bed by 11:30pm.

Cats at the Beehive

Now, if we were the birdhouse there would be more issues with cats... but at the Beehive we love our cats. All three of them! Greg is beautiful. Leslee took this picture.

A Beehive New Year!

Happy New Year from The Beehive!

All snazzed up to celebrate 'Ontario New Years' at 9 pm

Ben, Lisi, Sara and Michael attended a kid-friendly party where 'festive attire' was required. Therefore, we all searched our closets for our fanciest clothing, then posed for this Vogue-esque photo opportunity. By Lisi's direction, "look like models', this photo (of a few others) was decided the best. I think we look pretty sharp, n'est-ce pas?

At the Beehive we are serious about what we do, but there's never a wrong time for silliness, especially on New Years!

November Workbee

These pictures are from working together on our monthly Sunday morning workbee. The only mammal not actively helping was sandwich (reportedly slept in after a late night).

ElT gathering leaves for our yearly composting needs. We've gathered many from the surrounding blocks.

 

Michael moving the raspberry canes so they will no longer shade our veggie patch. Sara helped too.

Sara takes some pictures.

 

Lisi acts disgusted cleaning the bathtub and tiles.

 

Ben gutted the fridge, cleaned, and got rid of many 'degueulasse' and unidentifiable items.

 

Leslee (with Donut, and Greg staring at Donut) washes rags and carpets, after finishing making lunch YUM.  

Supporting Roles:
 

Donut helped prepare chickweed from the garden for lunch.

 

Here Greg poses by his portrait. Thanks for looking so good, Greg!

 

Tiger and Spider watch work in the garden from their perch in the livingroom.

We work together once per month to tackle larger projects, and enjoy the togetherness of shared work. Plus, the house always looks and feels GREAT after we all put in such focused energy. Awesome Beehive!

dogs

There have been two dogs that have lived at the beehive, although they don't live here anymore (accept in our hearts!). Here's some vintage footage of Marcie and Ypsi running around the back yard.

Donut in the garden

Yesterday, Travis and I planted

beets,
potatoes,
oats, and spinach.

Donut tried to help...


Here he is squishing a baby kale.

Car Free for a Week?

What would your life be like if you chose to live without your car for one week?

Here are a few of my thoughts on this question, but really... this is up to you to imagine for your own situation.

I am not really suggesting that you try living carfree for a week, because there are HUGE systemic barriers to living car-free, and change is not only about individual choices. We have built ourselves into this situation collectively. Powerful interests determine development priorities, and over time decisions accumulate into life-work realities and fundamental life choices where cars are the lubricant.


So, what would your life be like carfree?

Would you have to get up earlier in the morning to catch a bus? Waiting on the street watching the cars streaming past. Zoom, zoom, raow, grrr, zoom. Fumes. Feel blasts of smelly moving air as trucks pass at speed. A seat. Tea and a book. Almost all of the way there.*

Would you get some fresh air deep into your lungs, walking under autumn coloured trees? Yellow maple leaves drift in unpredictable arcs, smallest birds hang and pick for insects by the spider's single thread. Shoes on feet on legs working as you move.

Would you first step outside to consider the weather at the moment? Perhaps look ahead at the forecast and think about what you will need to be warm, dry, suited, casual, layered, cool, warm, just perfect for the day and its many turns and situations. Bag it up, sling it on. Out into the world. As a cyclist I think about this lots. I am amazed by myself and my friends who are always prepared. We think ahead and consider the journey part of our journeys.


Carpool? Not sure if this counts as carfree, but at least you can look around and see the landscape through which you are travelling. I notice as a passenger that I watch the road and sometimes even flinch, noticing closecall judgements, risks, and my fundamental lack of control in the flowing stream of ordered chaos. Relax and look around at this place that you participate in.


Shopping? Maybe you get what you need before your car-free week begins, because depending how deeply into cardependence your life is, shopping can be massive! Surrounded by acres of asphalt parking lots and cloverleafs, this space is hostile even bumper to bumper.
For pedestrians there may be few activated crosswalk lights: WAIT advance green, right turn, straight through straight through straight through, yellow turners, advance turners, WALK.
As you slowly cross the parking lot dodging cars frantic to be abandoned, notice the buzz of the giant signs as they collapse time-space to the speed of car urgency. Imagine the 18 wheelers hidden out back, and maybe even the bins! Tee hee.


Imagine through your week in your head.
Where would you experience challenges?



NOTES:
*Sometimes buses are as fast as driving particularly where there are Priority Lanes.
**I really really love to ride my bike, and have made my personal life decisions to facilitate this: I live in the city within 10km from where I work. This is not an accident.

grapes

Solena is a good friend of the beehive.

She doesn't live at the beehive anymore, but she comes to visit us often.

She is five and loves to teach other people about plants. She also enjoys salvaged grapes from the bins at IGA.