Corey harvests honey

Check out Backwards Beekeeper Corey (and daughter Chloe), doing some Very Urban Beekeeping.

Jules does her first inspection

Backwards Beekeeper Jules says:

I gotta say, there's no fear like new-bee fear, but I opened 'er up and took a look and Greg took some shots for posterity. I worked it into this brief slideshow.

I got one sting but am relieved to see that I must not be too allergic. I smoked the sting immediately and it didn't even bother swelling much until late last night. Took some benadryl and this a.m. it looked fine.

They're doing very well so I'll keep the lid shut except for sugar water bag changeouts for a while now. I know it's old hat for you all but I know I will never forget that sensation of holding the frame, crawling with little furry bodies as a brand new bee emerged from her cell. Total coolness.

Kirk adds:

Julian I'm so Proud of you I can't stand Up yippieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Hurray

Robot Bees!

Harvard University was recently awarded 10 million dollars to build robotic bee swarms. Wouldn't it be easier to take them out of their neighbor's garage?

The whole story here.

Yesterday's Bee Meeting

Bee people!


We had another great turnout at yesterday's Backwards Beekeepers meeting, held at downtown LA's Farmlab.


Kirk brought the amazing log full o' bees (previously seen here) and showed how to make pollen patties to feed your bees during this lean period of the year.


Maurice also gave a talk about the many species of bees other than honeybees and how to encourage them as local pollinators. He's got quite a handle on flowering plants as well.


Kirk finished the meeting by moving the bee log into position near Farmlab's already-established hive. He pulled off the screen and skeedaddled away—those bees inside were a testy bunch.

Kirk is unstoppable.

The rain does not slow Kirk down:

I got a call to pick up a swarm. It was raining. This swarm was the size of a softball—it had been there a week or so. I'll use it for a trap-out.

Kirk is also an occasional lumberjack:

Jock called today, and said his friend knew of someone who had bees in a tree that fell down. Here are the pictures of the limb with the bees; I had to cut some of the tree branch off so I could lift the log. I cut the ends off, put a screen over the opening, put it in my truck and took it home.

Bee Hive Ruins

This week we had the first storm of the season with buckets of rain and pretty high winds. I had to go up to Santa Clara for work the next day and while walking from the office to the hotel I found the remains of a bee hive on the ground with no bees in sight.

The pictures were taken at dusk with my phone so they aren't the greatest quality but you can still see the freshly drawn comb, brood and honey if you click them to enlarge.


The thing that struck me is that bees are everywhere and that it is preposterous to restrict people from keeping them in their backyards.


In the picture above you can see a snail eating either brood or honey from the comb.

The pieces were all sitting in or around a driveway so my guess is that they are all squashed flat by now.

Bee Meeting this Sunday, October 18!

The third Sunday of the month is the 18th, so it's time for a bee meeting! Come on out and hobnob with fellow and future beekeepers.

Kirk's going to talk about getting your bees ready for fall/winter. There will almost certainly be spirited conversation about ants as well.

I can bring a ton of shredded paper if anyone wants some for their smoker.

When: Sunday, October at 11am
Where: Under Spring outdoor space at Farmlab

Farmlab Directions

You want to follow the above directions most of the way, but park on Aurora and walk through the alley (under Spring) to the meeting.

Check out this view to see what it looks like from the street.

Snacks/questions/newbies always welcome.

New Beekeeper tells all

Backwards Beekeeper Jules writes:

We’ve had bees for years. Several years ago I noticed a steady stream of bees going in and out of a narrow crack in between our side and back fence walls.

It was an unused area of yard until my husband put in a small waterfall fountain. That was so lovely I put out some chaise lounges and suddenly it was my corner paradise, with a great view of bees coming and going and the relaxing sounds of the steady trickle of the water.

My two eldest sons have big ambitions. They decided one day that we really needed to get the bees out of the wall so we could harvest honey. They would be the Bee Brothers and they would make honey barbecue sauce and honey mustard potato chips and honey infused shampoo and use that natural local honey as a homeopathic allergy cure. “PUH-LEEEEEEASE MOM! Can we? Can we?”

Could we? It’s not a cheap hobby to start up what with boxes and gear but we already had a functioning hive in the wall. I promised them when their younger brother turned 4 I would think about it. I was sure they would forget. They didn’t. “PLEASE MOM, HE’S 4 NOW!” Okay, okay, okay. I found the Backwards Beekeepers site, got Kirk’s info and dropped him an email.

Kirk said he could do a trap out any time. But before I committed to taking that leap I had a lot of reading to do. I read like a freak, got the supplies on hand and called up Kirk for the trap out.

In my reading I found that in my neck of the woods it is unfortunately against city ordinance to have bees in a yard. Since they are located in a corner of the yard that meets 3 other yards with trees and thick vines at all corners I wasn’t horribly concerned with getting turned in by neighbors—heck, the bees have actually lived there longer than two of their families. My long-time next door neighbor is very supportive (he actually wants his own hive) and theirs is the only yard with any bee traffic flow. I popped an email to the BB group about what to do when it’s not allowed where you live and my fave piece of advice was “bee low profile”. The day Kirk came I felt oddly giddy. In my 42 years of life, this was my first true act of civil disobedience. The world needs bees and last I checked my city was in the world. I’ll claim ignorance when they take me away in shackles.

I watched and filmed and shot pics as Kirk filled the crack in the wall except a small escape, then affixed a one-way escape to the hole.

He then expertly balanced my deep and shallow supers to make a stand for the nuc box directly in front of the escape hatch.

It looked kind of wonky but it was exactly what they needed.

I went to my first bee meeting that weekend and though my youngest son couldn’t sit through it all I felt that knowledge and experience everyone shared was invaluable.

Over the next few weeks I watched the hive trap-out progress, enthralled by how they just naturally took to the tiny nuc box as their new home. After a while at night it grew thick with bearding bees—due in part to the 100 degree+ weather and also to their crowding.

A plumbing emergency happened a couple weeks back and as part of the final inspection a city worker had to come check all the work—including a new clean out in the back yard. I stealthily constructed a fence using trellis sections affixed to a dark bamboo curtain and set-dressed the scene to make it look like it had been there for years on the off chance the guy would see the box set-up and bust me before I began. It worked (and it also will shield people from seeing it for years to come and keep their flight pattern away from the yard, too.

Thanks for the story, Jules!

Kirk's weekend report

A busy couple of days for Kirk. Listen and follow along with the photos.



Homegrown Evolution Erik:

The ShopVac bees:

Homegrown Evolution Kelly:

Capturing a swarm:

John & his kids:

Marianne's hive boxes:

Marianne:

Frames of comb drawn by Marianne's bees:

Bees for Homegrown Evolution

Erik and Kelly of Homegrown Evolution got their bees yesterday.

Here are some stills from the video shoot.

Kirk pulls the ShopVac bees from his truck:

These bees have been living inside a Shop Vac for about a year; they and their orange home have been in foster care at Solano Community Garden for the last month or so.

On Friday Kirk brought the Shop Vac to Homegrown Evolution HQ, and yesterday we documented the cut-out process as these bees got moved into more manageable quarters.

Kirk showed us a new method he picked up for preparing frames to receive cut-out comb.

Erik and Kelly's brand-new bee suits are blindingly white!

Here's the comb the bees had built inside the ShopVac:

Tying the cut-out comb into frames:

Cutting the comb to fit the frames:

Shaking the remaining bees into the new hive:

Relaxing after the bee move with some homemade Homegrown Evolution beer!

The Homegrown Evolution chickens:

And finally, here's the finished video: