We are Bruce and Diana Grimshire of Grimshire Apirary. Bruce was born and raised in the Nicola Valley and we have lived, worked, and raised our family here for the last 33 years. We had always had a notion to keep bees and when we became empty nesters we actually had time to take up this fascinating hobby.
In 2010 we contacted Meg and Alan Paulson (Nicola Valley Honey) about buying 2 nucleus colonies but Meg wouldn’t sell us bees until we had taken a beginner beekeeping course; luckily Ian Farber was holding a course in Kamloops beginning the next day. So for next 6-8 Tuesday evenings we travelled to Kamloops to learn about beekeeping, we were hooked before we even got the bees! We started with the 2 colonies in the orchard behind the house that we still live in, in the Sunshine Valley where Bruce has worked, on this farm, for the past 18 years.
We enjoy learning all there is to learn about keeping bees, and the history of beekeeping. It’s been fun introducing our families and others to these wonderful insects. We’ve enjoyed working in the beeyard with first our children and now our grandchildren.
There have been many opportunities to travel and meet other beekeepers at conventions and tradeshows. We have visited areas we would have never travelled to if there wasn’t a beekeeping conference to entice us there; Hawaii, New Mexico, Montreal, and a few other wonderful places.
Over the years we have expanded enough to be able to market our honey in our local area, to help offset the cost of keeping bees and to have a viable small business when we retire from this farm life. We hope to keep active in this fascinating craft. It really is a wonderful opportunity for lifelong learning and a great way to keep active and meet people with the same interests.
You can find Grimshire Apiary honey and beeswax items in the Artisan Gift Shop! Also check out our blog about a look behind the scenes of extracting beeswax.