Mentoring and making new beekeepers

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta writes:

I worked this weekend with David, a senior at Whittier High School. He contacted me and needed some hours for his beekeeping fieldwork as soon as possible. I put out a call to the group and within an hour Summer and Susan both said that he could take a look at their hives. Susan already had another high school student coming over too, and Summer was hosting a mentoring session herself. Thank you ladies.

We also happened to get calls on the LA Rescue Hotline about two feral hives: a tree hive in Long Beach and a fence hive in Hacienda Heights—so we were set with something to do.

The tree hive was spotted by a woman out walking—it was in the parkway with the bees' path right across the sidewalk. We could easily spot the bees coming from an opening on the side of the tree but it looked hard to set up for a trap out.

Luckily, there was a hole in the tree where a branch had died and was removed. Someone had put a plastic bag in the hole and we removed it to find a window right into the hive. It was great!

Winter honey 2012

The rains from late fall, combined with all the warm weather and sunshine, have given our bees plenty to do. We've taken honey from three of our four hives in the last couple of weeks.

Has everyone else been on the honey train lately as well? Send us some photos if you have them!

Summer's mentoring pays off

Kirk writes:

I did my weekly mentoring today. I just sit back and let Summer do the mentoring now. She has come just about every Sunday for six months. She knows what she is doing. I just watch now.

If you go every week, it helps you go through all the different phases of the bee hive. Summer did a full inspection today on her strong hive.

kirkobeeo

Kirk does mentoring most Sundays at 9:30am (not the last Sunday of each month, though, because that's our meeting day).

Want to come to a mentoring session? Join our Yahoo group; once there, click "Database" in the left margin, then click on "Beekeeper mentors." Kirk's contact info is there.

The Backwards Beekeepers hoodies have arrived!

Here's Tomas from Grow Your Own Media in Atwater Village, showing off the fresh-off-the-presses Backwards Beekeepers hoodie.

If you ordered one at the end of 2011, you can pick yours up at our next meeting on Sunday, January 29.

If you paid for shipping, your hoodie will ship soon.

Barbara & Roberta rescue bees in Long Beach

LA Backwards Beekeepers Barbara and Roberta have been doing fantastic work lately—not just rescuing bees, but documenting the process to help others learn from their experience.

Barbara writes:

Warren had contacted us about some north Long Beach bees in need of rescue. Josie had watched a swarm descend upon her lemon tree about 4 months prior and that was about the time she noticed bees flying around in her carport. She has a pretty strong allergy to honey—one day too many of putting honey in her tea gives her a pretty nasty rash—so it was important to remove the bees.

Carport wall before demolition...

Once Roberta and I arrived, it was clear that it would be easier to access the hive from next-door neighbor Monica’s backyard than from Josie’s storage-filled carport. Fortunately we had permission from them both to tear down whatever was necessary to get to the bees.

We took turns pulling down fence boards then took a crowbar to the back wall of the old carport. There they were: lots of bees, living on what seemed to me to be some pretty old comb. I doubt the hive arrived 4 months prior. I’m guessing what Josie saw was a swarm leaving, not arriving.

...and after.

Roberta had thought we would finish in an hour but unfortunately I can rarely keep up with her (who can?), so it took 2 hours. By the time we finished scraping off as much wax as we could, ants had already started moving in to clean up the remaining honey.

I did mention to Josie that since she loves her honey, she should start buying untreated raw honey from a local beekeeper; that the pollen in it might get her over her allergy.

—Barbara

Here are some more great video clips of the process:

Yvonne rescues bees after LA Windstorm 2011

The birdhouse bees on a happier, hotter day.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Yvonne writes:

Doug and Cheryl gave us a call for help. Some bees moved into a bird house in their Baldwin Hills back yard over the summer. The strong Santa Ana winds, combined with the weight of the bee hive, caused the support beam to break in half and the bird house landed on the ground.

We went and collected the bird house and moved the hive into new digs in Santa Monica. The bees appear to be very happy in their new home!

—Yvonne

Barbara's Long Beach bee rescue

Ed faces the beehive.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Barbara led a bee rescue at Rosie the Riveter Park in Long Beach. She writes:

It was one of those hives you wish you could just leave alone—comb woven so beautifully through the branches of the tree, its length impressive given its position out at the end of some very tiny branches. It looked impossibly heavy. Somehow it had survived the Santa Ana winds of the night before. I worried that evening that our rescue the next morning at dawn might come too late but when Craig and I arrived at 6:30 a.m. it was still firmly attached, covered in bees and was providing breakfast for a hummingbird. I wish we had gotten a picture of that.

Ed from Long Beach Department of Parks and Recreation had contacted Roberta to see if we could help out with this hive. The City has been very open to the idea of relocating rather than exterminating hives in the city’s parks so we really wanted this to go well. It could only be done on a weekday, so Roberta would not be available. I would need some help. I put out the call for some muscle and Rich, who has helped out before, said he was available and needed bees to bolster his weaker hive. We were set...or so we thought.

The night before the scheduled rescue, Rich injured his back and was not going to be able to lift or bend. There went the muscle. Rich brought his wife Sheleana and I brought Craig, who had helped me with pickups a time or two. Unfortunately we only had one extra veil borrowed from Roberta, so Craig was relegated to taking videos from a distance and being chased around the park by guard bees. He did both very well!

Ed had brought a one-person bucket truck which he was required to operate himself for liability reasons, so with no rescue experience he had to smoke, prune, vacuum, cut comb and bring it all down to Rich and me; we framed it and emptied the bee-filled vacuum into Rich’s boxes.

The top third of the hive had been drawn all through the little branches and had to be brought down as one piece. We estimated its weight at between 15 and 20 pounds. It was absolutely beautiful.

One interesting aspect was that several iridescent green fig beetles had been entrapped and looked like jewels below the surface. Rather than create a huge mess trying to remove the honeycomb from the mass we left it intact. Rich added a third box to enclose it so the bees could deal with it as they saw fit this winter.

It was a smooth team effort with no mishaps and amazingly for Craig, no stings. I’m sure Ed will ask for BBK help again.

—Barbara

UPDATE: Barbara sent some great video clips from the rescue.

Viewer mail: Greetings from Denmark

A reader writes:

Dear Backwards Beekeepers,

I am a beekeeper from Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, and very glad to have found your blog and get inspired in ways to make beekeeping simpler, and more about the bees than the equipment, and altogether reflect on why I manage the bees as I do.

Reading about your struggles with rigid and ignorant laws, I feel fortunate that beekeeping has very old traditions and has been more recognized here for a long time. For example: A beekeeper chasing a swarm is allowed by law to tresspas on another man's land in order to follow it. A long history, however, also means that beekeepers here has become a bit set in their ways. (At a screening of the film "Queen of the Sun" a man remarked: "In our school apiary we have been using foundation for one hundred and twenty years, so there must be a reason for it").

This Christmas the whole family is going to celebrate the holiday with may aunt and uncle in Phoenix, AZ. If you know of any beekeepers there I would love to make their acquaintance and trade a jar of honey.

Best Regards,

Asger M.

Any Phoenix readers want to meet a fellow beekeeper from Denmark? Leave your info in the comments.

Bee Meeting recap

We had a great turnout at today's meeting of the Backwards Beekeepers—cold & blustery weather is no match for bee fever!

Kirk answered lots of questions from newbees, then talked about top bar beekeeping; also, Steve from BuBees in Malibu showed off some of his beautiful top bar hives.

A top bar hive from BuBees.

There's no meeting in December, so we'll see you all again in the New Year!

(By the way, keep watching the blog for your opportunity to order the Backwards Beekeepers hoodie!)

Roberta takes the show on the road.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Robera writes:

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