Join us for Yellow Carpet photos, fun drinks, local honey tasting, games, prizes and special musical performance in support of HoneyLove’s mission to protect honeybees and inspire and educate new urban beekeepers!
DATE: June 8th, 7-11pm
LOCATION: Writers Boot Camp @ Bergamot Station
2525 Michigan Avenue, Building I, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/343396772412699/
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/HoneyLove/events/98303182/
Sunday morning our Surfing Group was surfing at Torrance Beach and noticed a beehive on the backside of the Torrance Beach Lifeguard Tower. Bill Johnston, the Surfing Project Leader, notified the Palos Verdes Peninsula 4-H Club Bee Project and the project members made arrangements to meet at Torrance Beach at dusk to capture the swarm.
The Bee Project Members have saved swarms before but never one on the ground, which is very unusual. As the Bee Project members further investigated, they noticed that the swarm had already begun to make a hive structure. They found the queen and put her and most of the other bees into a shoe box which we eventually put into a cooler to transport to John's Canyon in Rolling Hills.
Some of us returned today to Torrance Beach to make sure our operation was successful! And it appears that it was indeed. Our Bee Project members are very happy that they have been able to help the Community in these instances, and it has also given them a chance to educate the public in the value of bees in the environment. We need to be aware of preserving the bee population.
We were happy to help the Los Angeles County Lifeguards and the bees as well.
Check out the handmade warning sign.
I responded to a swarm call in Westwood—I was right in the neighborhood. There was a little grapefruit-sized swarm hanging from a crosswalk sign in a super-busy intersection! I used my trusty 1-quart milk carton to get them into a little cardboard box, taped onto the top of my ladder.
Matrone and Erich.
The swarm call was made by Susan Olsen, who learned about the crosswalk-bees from Westwood Ambassadors Matrone Hutchings and Erich Knapper, who work for the Westwood Village Improvement Association.
They in turn, were notified by a manager at the Trader Joes in front of the crosswalk, who heard about the bees from a pedestrian named Frank.
Frank.
Frank makes documentary films and is very aware of environmental issues. His next film will be about the importance of insect-eating bats.
While I was hanging around waiting for the bees all to go in to the box, a young guy stopped in his tracks in front of the swarm box. "Oh my God that is a swarm box! Amazing!" he yelled.
I said to him "That is MY amazing swarm box! Are you a beekeeper?"
And he said "I am a Backwards Beekeeper!"
And that's how I met Chance, who's been learning beekeeping from Walker and Kirk.
Chance.
So I said, "Chance, where do you keep your bees?"
And he told me, "I don't have any yet!"
So I gave him these Crosswalk Sign Bees.
And then the corner went back to normal.
—Ruth
The local Waldorf School has graciously been hosting a number of my hives since the summer. The school runs a small biodynamic farm with an orchard, meadow, and vegetable beds. The bees pollinate their farm crops, and in turn, thrive and store up honey made from pollen gathered from the biodynamic crops and other local forage.
I had the pleasure of speaking to the first and second grade students about bees this week. We spoke about why bees are so important, who lives in the hive, and where honey and beeswax come from.
Then we all quietly and respectfully entered the bee yard and watched the magnificent flow of bees up into the air, and down into the hives as they were leaving and returning.
The kids had such great questions and were such a pleasure to talk to. Everyone got to take home a piece of comb, and two students got to take home a pet drone bee (they had been evicted from their respective hives).
—Uri
Christopher, Alek, Asa, Sarah, Rachel, and Lucia with their leader, Steven Rosales
Steven (a Backwards Beekeeper in Torrance) has started a new year with some young beekeepers in the Palos Verdes Peninsula 4-H Club. They've been doing hive inspections and learning more about feral bees. I hope to join them soon and meet this new group which includes Teen Leader Rachel, Junior Leader Lucia, Sara, Christopher, Alek, Asa and Sarah.
They did a great job last year, and their hard work paid off with Lily being named County Winner and Lucia a Silver Medalist in the 4-H County Awards! Rachel won a "Best in Show" trophy for her Bee Poster. And last April, the Bee Project members collectively won the Club Trophy for their 4-H Club at the San Gabriel Valley 4-H Fair.
Backwards Beekeepers has a small but committed group of individuals who go out and make presentations to schools and other venues. We provide this free service as part of our mission, which is to help the bees survive—their survival is literally ours as well.
Here are some of the groups we have hosted presentations for:
—Whole Foods Pollinator Awareness Month in-store presentations
—Boeing Corp. Pollinator Festival booth
—Unitarian Church of Rancho Palos Verdes
—Chabad Preschool Santa Monica
—Westwood Charter School
—Billy Mitchell Elementary School, Lawndale
—Canfield Elementary School
—Goethe International Charter School
—Topanga Canyon Earth Day
—Mission Viejo Earth Day
—Ballona Wetlands Earth Day
—Zoo Magnet School
—Park La Brea Earth Day
—Lunada Bay Earth Day
—Compton Sustainable Cities Event
—GROW Festival at the Los Angeles Arboretum
—Beach Cities Moving Planet event
We gear our presentations age-appropriately if working with youngsters. We bring along a collection of posters that help tell the story of the life cycle of the bee, and show pictures enlarged of the different members of the hive.
We also bring a glass-walled frame of live bees, which is endlessly fascinating, as well as honey which we distribute on ice cream sticks for the participants to taste.
A half-hour is about the minimum required, although often there are many questions that can take it well beyond an hour if allowed.
—Ruth
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)
The 4-H hive rescue team: Randy, Susan, Lucia, Lily.
I’ve been working with the Rancho Palos Verdes 4-H club for about a year now, and I’m always on the look out for Bee Rescue Hotline calls in that area.
One came up that was very near the 4-H meeting place, and it was a cutout. The hive had been there a while—Randy did the investigation work and saw that it was a good-sized hive that would be perfect for one of the empty 4-H hives. Randy really wanted the project for the young ladies to go well, so he went the day before and opened up the wall of the shed where the bees were so that that there'd be easy access. He noticed during that initial work that the bees seemed very defensive, but we gave them the benefit of the doubt.
We planned to meet early the next morning with Lily and her sister Lucia. They’ve been doing beekeeping for about 1 or 2 years now by observing inspections. Randy and Susan led them because I needed to leave for a class. Lily was a little nervous as we got everything set up, but Lucia was so very excited that she kept getting closer and closer to the bees. Lily decided to bow out and watch with her dad and the homeowner from the screen door.
I helped get things going but really hadn’t planned on staying. However, with the first comb removal the bees went into high alert and defense mode. I tried to help out, but could hardly see at one point because there were so many bees in my face. I didn’t really have the right pants on and was stung through them at least 100 times. Ouch!!
Lucia loved it, though, and stayed right in the middle of the action. She got a thrill out of the cutout and I got a few texts afterwards about how much she enjoyed it. Her father said they found hundreds of stingers in her suit and shoes. She didn’t get a single sting. We were all very impressed by her calm and collected enthusiasm. She’s a born bee rescuer.
Bees on the wall: get back in your box!
I checked out the situation the following night and found that most of the bees were on the wall instead of in their new box. Ughh!! Well, I suited up and scooped them up and put them in the box and moved the box so it was touching the wall. I got a bunch more stings but it did the trick because by the next night they were all tucked inside.
Randy picked them up and brought them to a big open area; their behavior wouldn’t be a good fit in a urban backyard. And they just weren’t going to work for the 4-H club. It was a great experience, though, and we’ll find another one soon I bet.
Congratulations to Lucia and Lily on their first cutout adventure and thanks to Randy and Susan for the mentoring.
—Roberta
A bunch of my friend’s kids have been interested in my beekeeping. A couple Saturdays ago we suited a bunch of them up to inspect a hive. Unfortunately, the hive had just absconded but they had a great time suiting up and watching bees go in and out due to the smell of the honeycomb.
The following week, I replaced the absconded bees with the fuse box bees and James, 7, did a hive inspection with me.
—Yvonne
Susan R. and I did the Lummis Home Event in Los Angeles on Feb. 4 and represented the Backwards Beekeepers.
Held at the former home of Charles Fletcher Lummis, this outdoor event featured workshops that included food crafting with master preservers, home remedies and botanicals, greywater systems, home brewing, urban livestock keeping, square foot gardening, fruit tree care and pruning, rainwater harvesting, small plant propogation, botany 101 for kids, and of course, backyard beekeeping.
Susan explains how a hive is set up.
There were also arts and crafts tables and more than 30 informational booths. The observation hive was particularly popular with kids and adults alike.
—Laura
Linda-Marie and Sarah approached me about learning how to keep bees. Both of them have had a life-long desire to be beekeepers.
They came over and got suited up and had a blast going through the hive. Once we were finished, Linda-Marie got permission from her landlord to install a beehive in the yard! We are now in the process of getting everything ready for their bees!
Steven (a Torrance Backwards Beekeeper) and I meet with the 4-H Bee Club once a month and we talk about bees, beekeeping and honey.
Last month we did our first inspection of the year. We've also started shooting videos, so that the 4-H members can practice teaching other people about bees by explaining what they've learned.
4-H isn't just about animal husbandry and farming; it also focuses on public speaking to build confidence and improve young people's ability to advocate within the community.
I'm very impressed with these young ladies. It's also interesting to hear their perspective on what we discuss. Wait till you hear what they have to say about bees!
—roberta
Kirk at KPCC last June.
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.
A few weeks ago I went to an insect fair in Culver City. I wanted to set up an observation hive for the event, because there were going to be hundreds of children and I knew that they would be attracted to the busy bees. Unfortunately this was the same weekend as another event so the club's observation hive was already taken.
I mentioned this to Richard in Long Beach and he said, "Let me see what I can do." In an hour he sent me a picture of what he whipped up and it was pretty incredible. Lots of ventilation and the viewing area allowed a view of the entire frame. I was amazed. I came over and we took a frame of bees and I was set.
Richard's observation hive was a big hit and the kids made a bee line for the hive when they saw the bees in action. I would have had a pretty boring display otherwise.
Pretty soon I took the observation hive to an event at the Whittier public library where LA Metro was hosting a talk. LA Metro sponsored a young new artist, Jane Gillespie Pryor, who created a bee-inspired work displayed in trains and buses earlier this year (read more about the event here).
In the end Richard generously offered the observation hive to me and I love it. I owe him enormously for it. This time of year there aren't many rescues so it'’s all about generating interest in bees and spreading knowledge.
—roberta
James and Ruth man the booth.
There is a major over-haul of bike routes to allow safer and wider passage of bike commuters, establishment of community garden spaces where people can raise vegetables and fruits, more school gardens going in, and promotion of backyard food growing with bees and chickens part of the exhibits.
James, Victor and Susan demonstrate bee skills.
We had a great turn-out, even with the dense, foggy weather, and the organizers gave us a premium central booth space as you can see. Our booth (provided by Ruth) had a observation hive with bees from my home, a fully fitted Lang hive so people could see the parts, a tri-fold brochure that James made showing people interacting with the bees and photos of typical places where citizens might encounter wild bees, BBK rescue hotline cards and BBK postcards, a smoker (it was lit), samples of a good local wild honey v.s. a Costco honey and info on the difference, and lots of large photographs decorating the booth showing the interior of a working hive.
James and Victor brush up on their bee talk.
As a result of this showing, we are being asked to do a workshop on beekeeping the Backwards Beekeepers way in February for the Transition South Bay LA group.
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)
