Huge tangerine tree hive

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

Last night Rob and I went to check out a tangerine tree hive in Culver City. The hive was a substantial size, described as two basketballs, and the estimate was pretty close—big for a tree hive. It was also pretty high up, about 10 feet.

I shot a few pictures and was trying to figure out when to remove it. Rob just said he would do it that day. He's got a bad case of bee fever! Well, how could I say no?

I called Yvonne who came to lend a hand and Rob started cutting branches away. That took at least an hour and we removed several 8-foot branches to create a path for the hive to some down. We smoked the hive, but the bees were still a little mad about it all.

Since it was night, we could get just about all the bees. By some miracle Rob was able to carry the huge branch down and then Yvonne held it while we trimmed branches to make it fit into the cardboard box. It was a team effort, but Rob did all the hard work.

Rob and Yvonne.

Cutting the hive apart to put it in a box is going to be pretty hard because there are branches stuck all throughout the comb. It's really beautiful. I wish it could have stayed up in the branches, but it was spectacular to see up close.

—roberta

Rob follows up on the story:

I looked at the bees this morning, and the ants had already found the box. I decided to go ahead and do the cut out this morning. It could not have gone better. The bees were totally honey drunk, as they had gulped virtually every drop of honey. The hive was almost entirely brood, with very little drone comb.

Rather than try another top bar, I tied the comb into some frames for my large super. Total piece of cake comparatively. The problem though is I only had 5 frames. I ordered a bunch but they are still somewhere between here and Brushy Mountain; LA Honey Supply Co. didn't have frames after I drove all the way out there (seriously…?).

This is so much fun Roberta. You said it…I got one heck of a case of bee fever. Maybe I'm under the control of queen pheromones ;)

I'm not sure where these bees are going right now, but I'm sure to find a nice home. In the meantime, they can call my place home.

Thanks again Roberta, you are seriously the best. Total pleasure working with you.

Cheers,

Rob

Help us legalize beekeeping in LA

Legalizing Beekeeping is on this Tuesday's meeting agenda for LA City Council District 11. The core of the 11th district is composed of the Westside communities of Brentwood, Brentwood Glen, Pacific Palisades, the Palisades Highland, Mar Vista, Del Rey, and Venice. The district also includes LAX and the surrounding communities of Westchester, Playa del Rey and Playa Vista. A very small piece of the San Fernando Valley is located in the northernmost section of the district.


It looks like the path to legalization in LA will be one district at a time, so this could be a big step for us. We've already succeeded in Santa Monica.


What you can do (this is especially effective if you live in District 11):


1. Go to the meeting (Wear your Backwards Beekeepers t-shirt if you have one):
 Tuesday, June 14 from 7-9pm
Mar Vista Rec Center (click for map). 11430 Woodbine St. - Los Angeles, CA 90026. 


2. Send an email or letter to Councilman Bill Rosendahl:
email: Councilman.Rosendahl@lacity.org 
7166 W. Manchester Blvd.
Westchester, CA 90045
(310) 568-8772
(310) 410-3946 Fax


3. Get your friends who live in this district to contact Councilman Rosendahl or to attend the meeting (see above).


Let's do this!

Baldwin Hills: Tree trap-out and a possible new beekeeper

LA Backwards Beekeeper Yvonne writes:

Roberta and I were about ready to go home when we got another Bee Rescue Hotline call about a job a few blocks from my home.

Brad has a tree in the parkway with a bee hive in it. His gardener told him to screen them in and he did a pretty good job of that on his own. When we showed up, Brad has already jerry-rigged screen around the tree. The idea, though, was to try to save the bees. While we were there, we found out that the city has been there several times over the years but the bees always come back. Just another reason why it's important to try to do the job right!

Brad's daughters, the beautiful Laila and Mia Sol, came out to watch the entire operation. They were great students and loved watching the activity. They are going to make great beekeepers!

We started by taking the screen down and put up new screen to allow the bees to come out but not get back in. The final step was rigging up a box for the bees to return to. Luckily, we had brood comb from our Lakewood job. We put that in the box and the bees immediately starting flying in. While we were working, a lot of neighbors came by and we were able to educate several people.

Brad became very interested in having his own hive and is considering keeping these bees. After we were done, since I live a few blocks away, he brought his girls over to see my bee hive (and chickens)! Hopefully, we've made a new beekeeper!

—Yvonne

Catching a swarm in Torrance

LA Backwards Beekeeper Yvonne writes:

Kim in Torrance called the Bee Rescue Hotline about a swarm in her neighbor's tree. It was important to Kim that the bees be saved.

We showed up and found a very small swarm. Kim's son Bennett and his neighbor posed for a picture next to the bees. This easy job was a welcome relief in our busy day! We captured the swarm easily and they were ready to move to their new home.

—Yvonne

Bee extraction in Lakewood

LA Backwards Beekeeper Yvonne writes:

Roberta and I headed down to Lakewood. We had been called by Bill and Martha who had read an article about the Backwards Beekeepers. They had bees in a roof eave and their neighbor was complaining about them.

When we inspected them, we discovered that they crammed themselves into the roof eave where the space was only a few inches wide. The comb was short but went waaaaay back! It was difficult to see in or to fit any tools in the space.

The homeowners couldn't afford to open the roof up, so the idea was to pull out all of the comb as best as we could, smoke the remaining bees out and then fill up the gap with Big Gap Filler.

Roberta and I took turns shoving various implements in the space to try to pull the comb out. A hive tool worked (barely) in the front but once the front comb was out, we went through a range of tools that could either not fit in or couldn't be maneuvered once in. Finally, someone suggested a coat hanger and we were able to pull out the rest of the comb with it.

Once the comb was out, we smoked out the bees and filled as much of the space as we could. Hopefully, the bees will move on! Martha and Bill were very excited about our work and referred to Roberta as an angel!

—Yvonne

Double trouble in Norwalk

Roland and Martina from Norwalk check out some comb.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Yvonne writes:

Roberta and I headed down to Norwalk this morning to help a family out with two different hives.

First up, we handled some bees that had taken up residence in a stucco fence. Recently, they had swarmed but there were still some bees in there. The best part of this job was that the family allowed us to take a sledgehammer to their wall! (They are planning on taking the fence down).

Roberta and I opened the wall and pulled out all of the honeycomb. There was no brood or queen, so we knew the hive was dwindling but we encouraged the family to remove the fence soon so another hive would not move in!

The family also had a tree hive. The city had twice patched the tree up with cement but the bees always found another way in. Roberta and I set up a trap-out. We'll check on them again in a few weeks!

—Yvonne

One-way bee door.

Trap-out in place.

It's the queen!

Summer, Emma, Sadie and David (the hive sponsor).

Kirk did a hive inspection with some mentees, and made a rare queen spotting.

Summer and Emma inspect the three hives.

The queen! Emma spotted her.
You can see here in the middle—big beautiful orange queen.

Roberta demonstrates a cut-out

Kieran and his bees.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta sends a story and a couple of very informative videos about a recent cut-out:

Kieran called the Bee Rescue Hotline about bees in a wall. He wanted to keep the bees and was interested in getting them out via a trap-out. We tried to trap them out, but there were too many cracks in the wall for these sneaky bees. This left a cut-out as the only option.

The bees looked like they had two hives going, so it was going to a fair amount of work. We could feel the warmth of the bees through the wall, so that told us where to cut into it. I used my new-from-Craigslist reciprocating saw and carbide blade.

The first hive had a lot of comb but it only had capped brood—no eggs and a lot of open queen cells. So the hive was in the process of re-queening or was just queenless.

The second hive had eggs, lots of brood but also a few closed queen cells. The bees had filled the space between the studs so must have become too crowded. Hopefully they won't swam right away now that they have more space! We split some of the comb with a queen cell to see if we can lure the straggler bees into another box.

I also tried out my new homemade portable bee vacuum. I was able to wrangle a bunch of bees this way and we dumped them into the hive and it went on the roof. We left brood and boxes to try to get the rest of the bees with a plan to combine all them into one hive.

—roberta

Spreading the fun around

Kirk writes:

I took a bunch of newbies to inspect hives in Los Feliz.

Good times!

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