Python pandas calculate rolling stock beta using rolling apply to groupby object in vectorized fashion

I have a large data frame, df, containing 4 columns:

             id           period  ret_1m   mkt_ret_1m
131146       CAN00WG0     199609 -0.1538    0.047104
133530       CAN00WG0     199610 -0.0455   -0.014143
135913       CAN00WG0     199611  0.0000    0.040926
138334       CAN00WG0     199612  0.2952    0.008723
140794       CAN00WG0     199701 -0.0257    0.039916
143274       CAN00WG0     199702 -0.0038   -0.025442
145754       CAN00WG0     199703 -0.2992   -0.049279
148246       CAN00WG0     199704 -0.0919   -0.005948
150774       CAN00WG0     199705  0.0595    0.122322
153318       CAN00WG0     199706 -0.0337    0.045765

             id           period  ret_1m   mkt_ret_1m
160980       CAN00WH0     199709  0.0757    0.079293
163569       CAN00WH0     199710 -0.0741   -0.044000
166159       CAN00WH0     199711  0.1000   -0.014644
168782       CAN00WH0     199712 -0.0909   -0.007072
171399       CAN00WH0     199801 -0.0100    0.001381
174022       CAN00WH0     199802  0.1919    0.081924
176637       CAN00WH0     199803  0.0085    0.050415
179255       CAN00WH0     199804 -0.0168    0.018393
181880       CAN00WH0     199805  0.0427   -0.051279
184516       CAN00WH0     199806 -0.0656   -0.011516

             id           period  ret_1m   mkt_ret_1m
143275       CAN00WO0     199702 -0.1176   -0.025442
145755       CAN00WO0     199703 -0.0074   -0.049279
148247       CAN00WO0     199704 -0.0075   -0.005948
150775       CAN00WO0     199705  0.0451    0.122322

etc.

I am attempting to calculate a common financial measure, known as beta, using a function, that takes two of the columns, ret_1m, the monthly stock_return, and ret_1m_mkt, the market 1 month return for the same period (period_id). I want to apply a function (calc_beta) to calculate the 12-month result of this function on a 12 month rolling basis.

To do this, I am creating a groupby object:

grp = df.groupby('id')

What I would like to do is use something like:

period = 12
for stock, sub_df in grp:
    arg = sub_df[['ret_1m', 'mkt_ret_1m']]
    beta = pd.rolling_apply(arg, period, calc_beta, min_periods = period)

Now, here is the first problem. According to the documentation, pd.rolling_apply arg can be either a series or a data frame. However, it appears that the data frame I supply is converted into a numpy array that can only contain one column of data, rather than the two I have tried to supply. So my code below for calc_beta will not work, because I need to pass both the stock and market returns:

def calc_beta(np_array)
    s = np_array[:,0] # stock returns are column zero from numpy array
    m = np_array[:,1] # market returns are column one from numpy array

    covariance = np.cov(s,m) # Calculate covariance between stock and market
    beta = covariance[0,1]/covariance[1,1]
return beta

So my questions are as follows, I think it makes sense to list them in this way:

(i)  How can I pass a data frame/multiple series/numpy array with more than one column to calc_beta using rolling_apply?
(ii) How can I return more than one value (e.g. the beta) from the calc_beta function? 
(iii) Having calculated rolling quantities, how can I recombined with the original dataframe df so that I have the rolling quantities corresponding to the correct date in the period column?
(iv) Is there a better (vectorized) way of achieving this?  I have seen some similar questions using e.g. df.apply(pd.rolling_apply,period,??) but I did not understand how these worked.

I gather that rolling_apply previously was unable to handle data frames, but the documentations suggests that it is now able to do so. My pandas.version is 0.16.1.

Thanks for any help! I have lost 1.5 days trying to figure this out and am totally stumped.

Ultimately, what I want is something like this:

             id           period  ret_1m   mkt_ret_1m  beta  other_quantities
131146       CAN00WG0     199609 -0.1538    0.047104  0.521  xxx
133530       CAN00WG0     199610 -0.0455   -0.014143  0.627  xxxx
135913       CAN00WG0     199611  0.0000    0.040926  0.341  xxx
138334       CAN00WG0     199612  0.2952    0.008723  0.567  xx
140794       CAN00WG0     199701 -0.0257    0.039916  0.4612 xxx
143274       CAN00WG0     199702 -0.0038   -0.025442  0.215  xxx
145754       CAN00WG0     199703 -0.2992   -0.049279  0.4678  xxx
148246       CAN00WG0     199704 -0.0919   -0.005948  -0.4225  xxx
150774       CAN00WG0     199705  0.0595    0.122322  0.780  xxx
153318       CAN00WG0     199706 -0.0337    0.045765  0.623  xxx

             id           period  ret_1m   mkt_ret_1m  beta  other_quantities
160980       CAN00WH0     199709  0.0757    0.079293  -0.913  xx
163569       CAN00WH0     199710 -0.0741   -0.044000  0.894  xxx
166159       CAN00WH0     199711  0.1000   -0.014644  0.563  xxx
168782       CAN00WH0     199712 -0.0909   -0.007072  0.734  xxx
171399       CAN00WH0     199801 -0.0100    0.001381  0.894  xxxx
174022       CAN00WH0     199802  0.1919    0.081924  0.789  xx
176637       CAN00WH0     199803  0.0085    0.050415  0.1563  xxxx
179255       CAN00WH0     199804 -0.0168    0.018393  -0.64  xxxx
181880       CAN00WH0     199805  0.0427   -0.051279  -0.742  xxx
184516       CAN00WH0     199806 -0.0656   -0.011516  0.925  xxx

             id           period  ret_1m   mkt_ret_1m  beta
143275       CAN00WO0     199702 -0.1176   -0.025442  -1.52  xx
145755       CAN00WO0     199703 -0.0074   -0.049279  -0.632  xxx
148247       CAN00WO0     199704 -0.0075   -0.005948  1.521  xx
150775       CAN00WO0     199705  0.0451    0.122322  0.0321  xxx

etc.