Kirk mentors Emma

Kirk writes:

Emma came to the last bee club meeting. She tagged along today—we went to take a swarm out of a trap at Leonardo's house.

This is Emma all geared up.

This is the top of the trap. It had comb attached, and there were 5 pizza-shaped combs in the trap.

Roberta finds a tough trap-out and makes a new beekeeper

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

Kirk put me in contact with Barrett, who had bees in the base of a Sycamore tree. The bees had been there at least a year. A bee company had come to fill up the opening with a spray foam, but that didn't work. Now it was time to try something new and better, so we met planned a 6am trap out. Luckily Barrett found out that his neighbor, David, had just set-up a new hive a couple of weeks ago and he was interested in helping despite the crazy hour.

We nailed in the screen with a small hole in the middle of a cone shape that would help funnel the bees out of the trap out screen. We tacked down the screen to the ground with garden staples and then buried it in dirt. It looked great but it didn't last very long, as some creature found it the next day and dug up the dirt and closed the hole. We fixed it the next weekend but then those sneaky bees found a way out the back of the tree!

We'll throw some dirt where they are coming out and hope for the best. The trap-out will take a while but in the meantime...

Kirk mentors Summer on a Sunday

After Sunday's Backwards Beekeepers meeting, Kirk headed out with Summer for some hive maintenance and mentoring. Follow along with the photos as Kirk tells the story:


Summer runs her hand over the frames to test for meanness.







The acid in citrus helps neutralize the alkali in bee stings.

New Yahoo group for Bee Rescue Hotline calls!

The Backwards Beekeepers Bee Rescue Hotline is getting busier every season, and we've realized that the volume of calls getting posted to our existing Yahoo group is overwhelming if you're just looking for conversations and advice about Backwards Beekeeping.

So we've established a new Yahoo group called LA Bee Rescue. That group's sole purpose is for posting and responding to Bee Rescue Hotline calls.

Meanwhile, our original Yahoo group will continue to be your forum for questions, tips, stories, advice, and anything else relating to Backwards Beekeeping.

As of Tuesday, May 24th, all Bee Rescue Hotline calls will be posted to the new group. If you want to receive these messages, go there now and join. Just as with our original Yahoo group, you can control whether you receive individual e-mails, a daily digest of e-mails, or no e-mails at all if you'd just like to read posts via the web.

Hope you like this new setup! All comments and suggestions are welcome.

New Facebook page!

We have a new Facebook page! As it grows it'll be a great place to see collections of photos from our meetings, events, and bee rescues of all kinds—as well as a place to post your own stories, photos, and videos about beekeeping.

Give us a 'Like' today!

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!

Viewer mail

Brittany writes:

I live in Bluefield, West Virginia, and I'm just starting my first hive. I want to go the backwards way but I'm wondering how to use the starter strip with the paint stick if I don't have my own clean wax. I ordered a beginner's kit that came with foundation but I don't want to use that.

Thanks for your willingness to help. You guys are awesome!

—Brittany

Kirk replies:

Hi Buddy, it is real simple: don't wax them. The bees will do fine—in nature they don't have waxed starter strips and they do just great.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress.

—kirkobeeo

Kirk's mentoring marathon

Always bring your magnifying glass!


Kirk is making new beekeepers like nobody's business. Check out his latest audio message and follow along:



Summer smokes the bees.

Bingo! Eggs and brood.

Trap-out at Stephanie and Jeff's. Angry bees!

Stephanie and Jeff.

An especially calm swarm

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

We got a call on the Bee Rescue Hotline about a swarm in a trellis at the West LA Meditation Center. Tim had spotted them and wanted to make sure that they were saved.

I took them off to Ceebs, my go-to-woman for rescued bee distribution and support. I couldn't keep up with all these bees without her.

—roberta

Just in time

Everyone loves a bee swarm.

We got a call to the Bee Rescue Hotline yesterday about a swarm on a forklift at a Glendale trucking company. When I called back, the manager told me that he'd already called an exterminator, but that I could try to get there before the killing began. "No guarantees," he said.



When I arrived, Jason the exterminator was filling out his paperwork but hadn't broken out the poison yet. The trucking company manager agreed to keep mum about the bees getting rescued instead of killed, since his landlord was paying for the job anyway.


Jason the exterminator.


I climbed atop the forklift and knocked the swarm into one of the wooden nuc boxes custom-made by LA Backwards Beekeeper David S. I got the queen in on the first try, and the rest of the bees started marching right in.



It was a good thing the swarm was easy to catch, because the manager was itchy as could be to get his forklift going again. "I need you to move it along," he kept calling to me. He didn't want Jason to drive away without killing all the straggler bees. (To Jason's credit, he was very interested in the swarm-catching process and lent a hand in holding the box when I knocked the bees into it.)


Kill kill kill!


I finally decided that I had caught most of the swarm, so I taped up the box and put it in my trunk. Then Jason moved in to kill him some bugs. I snapped a quick photo and took off.

—Russell