Backwards Beekeepers in the LA Weekly

Rob and Chelsea (who also lead HoneyLove.org) are featured in an LA Weekly cover story about the Backwards Beekeepers. Also appearing: LA Backwards Beekeepers Kirk, Ceebs, and Max; LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl; retired California State Supreme Court justice Carlos Moreno; Pizzeria Mozza; and more!

Soon [Rob] started going on rescues, too — as many as three a day. He climbed a tangerine tree in the middle of the night and brought down the biggest open-air hive Chelsea had ever seen. With a frenzied smile, Rob gripped the severed branch with massive honeycombs dangling off it — a 60-pound lollipop of bees. Chelsea snapped a picture.

Then the dawning realization: "Where the hell do we put them?" It is a recurring question that will consume their next few days, then months, then years.

The tangerine tree hive sat on their roof for a spell. The McFarlands live in a modest house in the Del Rey neighborhood, a narrow, two-mile strip that cleaves Culver City from Mar Vista. They don't exactly have a lot of space. And what kind of neighbor welcomes a swarm?

By some miracle, after weeks of shlepping hives across the city — after the crazy logistics of matching up people who had bees but didn't want them with people who want bees but didn't have them — Chelsea secured a spot: a small, scrubby hilltop in agrarian Moorpark, overlooking an organic farm owned by a friend of a friend. The McFarlands christened the hilltop the HoneyLove Sanctuary.

Today it hosts 16 hives in colorful wood boxes, each from somewhere around L.A., rescued from water meters and birdhouses and compost bins, places Rob can't recall anymore.

"Each one of these is a family," Chelsea says. "We're usually rushing to beat the exterminator out there."

Read the whole thing here.

TakePart TV visits the Backwards Beekeepers

The nice people at TakePart TV recently shot some video in the beautiful yard where LA Backwards Beekeeper Max keeps her bees. Kirk and I gave host Marisha Ray the Backwards take on beekeeping.

Here's part 1:



Here's part 2:

Susan talks bees for Mandarin TV

LA Backwards Beekeeper Susan writes:

These stills from an interview I did last month for a Mandarin Chinese TV station, Ch 18. They filmed me and the reporter talking about our model for beekeeping, general questions about the state of the bee world, tasting some of my honeys from different sources and opening the hive.

Very nice people and it was the reporter's first encounter with bees—she was a bit worried, but found it fine. I don't remember the reporter's name, but she would listen to me in English and then translate for the camera footage in Mandarin, while Armando filmed us.

—Susan

Stay tuned; the segment is scheduled to run this week, and we'll post the YouTube clip once it does.

Backwards Beekeeping in the LA Times

Here's a great article in the LA Times food section (appearing in print August 4th) about Backwards Beekeeping and what a great year we're having:

Kirk Anderson, who along with Seidenwurm and Bates founded the progressive apiculture group Backwards Beekeepers, recently dropped off nearly 100 jars of his honey at Lindy & Grundy, the organic butcher shop on Fairfax Avenue. Anderson tends bees all over Los Angeles, and this is the latest haul of Kirk's Local Honey from hives in Studio City.

"I can taste the difference between Bel-Air, Altadena and Los Feliz," says Lindy & Grundy co-owner Amelia Posada. "This is the first time we've had Studio City honey."

Overall, it's been a bumper season for urban honey in L.A., and summer is when worker bees are at their busiest. Corey Brill has three hives on a rooftop downtown and sells his Old Bank Honey to stores including Coffee Commissary on Fairfax. He says he harvested at least 50% more honey this year than last year.

"We'd like to take the credit" for the bonanza of honey, says Seidenwurm of Feral Honey & Bee, standing in a three-layer protective suit and pulling a frame bulging with honeycomb from one of the quintuple-level hives as hundreds of bees buzz around her. "But they do all the work. We just steal from them."

It's a sweet season for honey (LA Times)

Bee legalization in the LA Times

LA Backwards Beekeepers Rob and Chelsea McFarland are leading the charge to get beekeeping legalized in LA. They're pursuing a successful neighborhood-by-neighborhood campaign, building political support and momentum as they go.

Along the way, through their site HoneyLove.org they're helping to spread the word about bees' essential place in our environment and how anyone can learn to become a beekeeper. Now they're profiled in an LA Times piece:

McFarland and his wife, Chelsea, became interested in beekeeping but discovered that Los Angeles does not allow hives in residential zones. So, the McFarlands decided to launch an unusual grass-roots drive to change the city's law by first winning support from at least 10 of L.A.'s 95 neighborhood councils.

Now, almost a year and a half later, their devotion has won support from eight councils. And an enthusiastic city councilman has initiated a formal study, a first step that could bring L.A. on board with other bee-friendly cities, such as New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Santa Monica.

"We have to be clear that this environment that we live in is threatened, that bees are an essential part," said Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who boasts that he has two wild hives in his yard.

Bee fans try to get Los Angeles to allow hives in residential areas
(LA Times)

Simplicity vs. sensationalism in the media

Kirk at KPCC last June.

Kirk Anderson, co-founder of and chief guru to the Backwards Beekeepers, was a guest on KPCC's Patt Morrison program last Friday. Kirk's done a lot of media appearances in recent years (such as this interview with KPCC's Madeleine Brand last June), and I'm always impressed with his ability to clearly communicate our group's philosophy while remaining his natural and charming self. It can be difficult to stay on message and still have a personality, but Kirk's an expert at it.

Yesterday's appearance came about because Patt and her producers wanted to discuss the recent publicity surrounding the phorid fly, which a researcher at San Francisco State University thinks may be causing declines in bee populations. They wanted a local LA beekeeper to weigh in on the topic.

It's unfortunate that the segment was so short, because while the other two guests (the above-mentioned John Hafernick of SF State and David Hackenberg, a commercial beekeeper) were articulate with their viewpoints, there wasn't time for Kirk to point out that while terms like "Zombie Flies" and "Colony Collapse" make great headlines and stimulating talk radio, they're kind of beside the point.

Food production over the last few decades has moved to an industrial model that plants mono-crops by the square mile and relies on commercial pollination services that deliver bee boxes to the fields by the tens of thousands. These beekeepers, in turn, are so economically squeezed that they're forced to breed for quantity rather than quality, to stress their bees through endless travel, and to supplement their bees' mono-crop diet with cheap junk food that leaves the bees susceptible to parasites and disease.

The industrial model gives us cheap food in the short term, at a high cost in the long term. The bees' plight is one indicator of this.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Ruth made this comment on KPCC's Patt Morrison web page (and, to her credit, Patt read it on air):

This is a tempest in a teacup! Bees have been around for 70 million years, and they will overcome this if we stop feeding them [high fructose corn syrup], loading them with antibiotics and antifungals, and otherwise weakening their immune systems. Bees get rid of all kinds of critters from their hives, from skunks to mice. They'll get rid of these too if we stop messing with their wild genetics.

At least we're getting this point of view into the discussion now. Little by little, we're making progress.

Link: Zombie bees: what’s really to blame for colony collapse? (KPCC)

Fighting over a bee rescue in NYC

With wild bees an abundant resource here in Southern California, there's always more than enough to go around.

Not so in New York City, apparently:

In a gale wind from [tropical storm Irene], a hollowed-out branch of an enormous tree was ripped off, exposing a hive of 30,000 to 40,000 honeybees. The hive’s discovery was a jackpot for the beekeeping community and word spread quickly on Facebook and Twitter that a feral hive was up for grabs.

Two beekeepers jumped at the chance to claim the bees, unknowingly setting off a feud between two of the city’s main beekeeping groups...

As throngs of beekeepers and the curious congregated within the thin piece of yellow caution tape roping off the area around the tree, tensions rose. And even as the wood chips were flying, the two beekeeping groups squabbled over how the rescue should be conducted and who the rightful owner of the bees was...

Mr. Fischer said he tried to halt the operation on Sunday because the high winds trailing the storm added to an already potent combination of stinging insects, heights and chain saws. But when his words were not heeded, he left the park.

“There was a lot more testosterone floating around than common sense,” he said.

Around Bee Rescue, Honey and Rancor (NY Times)

Bees on approach!

Diane W. (aka Lady Bee Wrangler) sends this story about a great way to expand beekeeping:

That buzzing sound you hear at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport could be a jet taking off. Or maybe it's coming from the 1.5 million bees that call the airport home. In May, the Chicago Department of Aviation partnered with a community group to start a 2,400 square foot apiary on-site. Now 23 beehives are up and running and are scheduled to yield 575 pounds of honey this year.

The project offers a creative, sustainable, and productive way to use otherwise wasted open space at mega-airports like O'Hare. The bees' new home on the east side of the airport campus had long stood vacant, so it was a natural spot for the bee program to begin. And if that's not enough benefit, the beehives provide employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated adults (similar to other projects that teach prisoners beekeeping).

At O'Hare Airport, Unused Land Is Going to the Bees (GOOD online)

LA Weekly visits the Backwards Beekeepers

Thanks to David Cotner of the LA Weekly for a well-written piece on our group:

Kirk Anderson, the Backwards Beekeepers' sardonic and direct guru, leads the meeting. He offers sage slivers of advice for the care and keeping of the bees in a way that comes off as completely natural but in reality stems from decades of observational experience that began in the 1970s, when he ordered bees through the mail from the Montgomery Ward catalog.

Beekeeping may seem like something to be pursued by specialists, involving arcane knowledge or insect sorcery. But, Anderson says, "We want to show everyone that it's easy," wryly promising, "You don't have to be a brain surgeon or a politician to do it." For those who were brought to the meeting because of the stern warnings of the recent documentary Vanishing of the Bees, Anderson stresses, "There are plenty of bees -- nature keeps that bucket pretty full."

Backwards Beekeepers, L.A.'s Bee Rescue Service (LA Weekly)

Urban bees doing very well indeed, thank you.

Carla Johnson of AP wrote a very good piece about bees thriving in urban environments:

Membership in beekeeping clubs is skewing younger and growing. The White House garden has beehives. The city of Chicago's hives — nine in all, on rooftops and other government property — are just part of the boom.

"I've seen hives set up on balconies and in very, very small backyards," said Russell Bates, a TV commercial director and co-founder of Backwards Beekeepers, a 3-year-old group that draws up to 100 mostly newcomers to its monthly meetings in Los Angeles.

The group is "backwards" because its members rely on natural, non-chemical beekeeping practices. All their hives are populated by local bees they've captured — or "rescued" as the group's members like to say — from places they're not wanted.

"We don't use mail-order bees," Bates said. "Local bees have adapted to this environment. They're the survivors."

City governments, won over by beekeepers' passion, are easing restrictions. In recent years, New York, Denver, Milwaukee and Santa Monica have made beekeeping legal. The Backwards Beekeepers group is working to legalize beekeeping in Los Angeles.

Amid bee die-off, healthy hives thrive in cities (Carla Johnson, AP)

Bringing the bees back to the Boy Scouts

Lawndale Backwards Beekeeper Dennis passes along this link:

Christopher Stowell, a Boy Scout in Troop 250, Skiatook, OK, needs our help! He's submitting a proposal to the National Boy Scout Council to reinstate the Beekeeping merit badge (discontinued in 1995) encouraging more young people to become beekeepers.

Beekeeping Merit Badge Petition (experienceproject.com)

Robo's World has more on the story.

Backwards Beekeepers in an upcoming documentary

Dan Susman is making a documentary called Growing Cities about urban farming across America.

He and his partner Andrew Monbouquette shot this segment about a hive rescue with LA Backwards Beekeeper Warren, who does a great job of explaining our mission.

Urban Bee Rescue from Andrew Monbouquette on Vimeo.

Kirk on KPCC's Madeleine Brand Show

Here's Kirk's interview on KPCC's The Madeleine Brand Show from earlier today.

Thanks again to Madeleine and her great crew for spreading the word!

We're on TV in South Korea.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

After the CNN story about the Backwards Beekeepers ran we got a call from SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System), a Korean network.

The crew came along with me to a swarm in Culver City. The homeowners there liked the bees, but couldn't keep them. It made for a good news story to dispel fear about bees.

Here's a link to the story—it played in both the US and Korea.

—roberta

News flash: we're part of the 'honeybee underground.'

Check out our own Max Wong and Kirk Anderson in this article (running in both the LA Daily News and the Pasadena Star-News) about people's growing awareness that bees should be rescued instead of eradicated. Don't miss the photo gallery!

Max stars in a Kashi commercial

LA Backwards Beekeeper Max recently spent a day showing off her beekeeping skills in a Kashi commercial. From her blog:

Before the filming started, I met with the commercial beekeepers who had dropped off 10 frames of bees that had been split between two separate hives, so I could meet my buzzy co-stars in advance. Once they left, it was going to be up to me to wrangle the bugs. One of the beekeepers asked how I was treating for Varroa mites. When I told him that I don’t deal with mites, because I use small-cell feral bees that are naturally disease resistant, he looked at me gravely and said in his best ooga booga voice, “Oh, you’re using AFRICANIZED BEES.” Like I should be afraid. “Yeah, they’re so dangerous,” I said, without bothering to mention that my meanest hive are not as spazzy as the allegedly gentle bees he’d brought for the shoot.

The first shot of the day took place in the middle of a group of beehives that had been meticulously positioned by the art department in the center of a peach orchard in Ojai. The trees hadn’t flowered yet, but the wild mustard was in full bloom. It was gorgeous.

I’m A Beekeeper, And I Play One On T.V. (myromanapartment.com)

Backwards Beekeepers story coming to CNN

Today Amy and I shot with John Torigoe from CNN, who is producing a segment featuring the Backwards Beekeepers. We harvested a frame of comb honey and then brought it to our friends at Bar Covell, with John shooting the whole process.

The story will also include Kirk, Roberta, and maybe other beekeepers I'm failing to mention. It should hit the web next week, and when it does we'll post it here.

USC covers the Backwards Beekeepers

Here's a piece (with video) on our group from Kristen Steach of USC's Annenberg School for Communication:

Roberta Kato looks at her bees in fascination. As they buzz around her, she examines the honeycomb for new signs of life.

“There’s the little baby bees,” Kato blurts out with excitement.

With her bee suit as her shield, Kato pulls out each portion of the manmade hive she is examining. She waits until the bees seem fairly agitated to move on to the next hive of the day...

And Kato isn’t alone in her urban beekeeping endeavor. She’s a member of Backwards Beekeepers, a group dedicated to caring for bees in the city of L.A.

In just three years the group has grown from four members to 140. Kirk Anderson, the founder and leader of the group, gives advice to members through email and monthly meetings.

“I get maybe 5 or 10 emails a week, or a day, depending on the season,” Anderson said.

Urban beekeeping (ATVN.org)

Beekeeping legalization marches on

The Sustainable Food blog (part of change.org) ran a story promoting the legalization of beekeeping in Los Angeles, and it features some Q&A with our own Max Wong:

Why has legalizing beekeeping across Los Angeles faced obstacles while other cities like New York have had success?

L.A. is just more complicated than most cities because the laws are super confusing and made up of many municipalities that morphed over the years into the greater L.A. area. We want a blanket law that makes all areas of L.A. the same. There are many communities throughout the country where beekeeping was never made illegal, even as cities grew...

Beekeeping: Eco-Friendly, Healthy, and Completely Illegal in L.A. (Sustainable Food, change.org)

Backwards Beekeepers in The New York Times

Kristina Shevory has this piece in the New York Times today about the continuing rise of urban beekeeping and the struggle to gain legalization in many cities. Our own Daniel Salisbury and Max Wong are prominently featured. As Kirk would point out, we're changing the world:

In Los Angeles, the Backwards Beekeepers club has 400 members — up from six members two years ago...

Santa Monica models itself as an environmentally conscious city, but it has long banned beekeeping. So when city inspectors found three hives in Daniel Salisbury’s backyard two years ago, they insisted he move them. He took the hives north to his mother’s house in San Luis Obispo County, where beekeeping is legal, but he also began a drive to legalize hives in Santa Monica.

He has become so well known that people at his city-owned trailer park call to alert him when exterminators, retained by the Santa Monica housing agency, are headed toward bee swarms.

“I would chase down the swarms and literally run with my clippers to get the branch before Orkin showed up,” said Mr. Salisbury, 47, an antiques dealer, referring to a large pest-control company.

Over the last two years, Mr. Salisbury has attended Santa Monica City Council meetings, recruited a Los Angeles beekeeping club to help, and launched an e-mail legalization campaign joined by hundreds worldwide. On Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council is scheduled to reconsider the beekeeping ban, and supporters of legalization are optimistic.

Max Wong, a Los Angeles beekeeper who has been helping Mr. Salisbury with his drive, hopes to wield some of the same political techniques in a legalization push in her city. Beekeeping rules there are a patchwork, with the hobby legal on one side of a street and illegal on the other.

“We’re in trouble and the bees are in trouble,” said Ms. Wong, 42, a member of the Backwards Beekeepers club. “We need to do something.”

Ms. Wong, a film producer who started keeping bees a year ago, wants to legalize bees not just to help hobbyists like herself, but to help feed and employ others. She sees bees as the best way to increase vegetable pollination in local community gardens and thinks that some people, like a few members of her club, could even become professional beekeepers.

Like Mr. Barrett from Queens and other new beekeepers, Ms. Wong is developing a close relationship with her bees, and she wants to ensure that others can enjoy the hobby as much as she does.

“It’s like having 35,000 pets,” she said. “I’m hyperactive, so anything that shuts down my brain is a good thing. When I’m working at a hive, I’m quiet and meditative.”

The Beekeeper Next Door (The New York Times)