Next meeting: Sunday, June 30

The next meeting of the Backwards Beekeepers is scheduled!

Sunday, June 30
11am
Citibank, Silver Lake branch
2450 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles 90039

This month our guru-in-chief Kirk Anderson will speak about Charles Martin Simon's principles of doing beekeeping backwards: how to inspect crowded hives, how to make sure your bees have room to grow and thrive naturally, and how, when beekeeping, to be simple and think like a bee instead of like a human.

As usual, everyone is welcome to the meetings, especially those who are new to beekeeping.

See you there!

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Backwards Beekeepers in the LA Weekly

Rob and Chelsea (who also lead HoneyLove.org) are featured in an LA Weekly cover story about the Backwards Beekeepers. Also appearing: LA Backwards Beekeepers Kirk, Ceebs, and Max; LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl; retired California State Supreme Court justice Carlos Moreno; Pizzeria Mozza; and more!

Soon [Rob] started going on rescues, too — as many as three a day. He climbed a tangerine tree in the middle of the night and brought down the biggest open-air hive Chelsea had ever seen. With a frenzied smile, Rob gripped the severed branch with massive honeycombs dangling off it — a 60-pound lollipop of bees. Chelsea snapped a picture.

Then the dawning realization: "Where the hell do we put them?" It is a recurring question that will consume their next few days, then months, then years.

The tangerine tree hive sat on their roof for a spell. The McFarlands live in a modest house in the Del Rey neighborhood, a narrow, two-mile strip that cleaves Culver City from Mar Vista. They don't exactly have a lot of space. And what kind of neighbor welcomes a swarm?

By some miracle, after weeks of shlepping hives across the city — after the crazy logistics of matching up people who had bees but didn't want them with people who want bees but didn't have them — Chelsea secured a spot: a small, scrubby hilltop in agrarian Moorpark, overlooking an organic farm owned by a friend of a friend. The McFarlands christened the hilltop the HoneyLove Sanctuary.

Today it hosts 16 hives in colorful wood boxes, each from somewhere around L.A., rescued from water meters and birdhouses and compost bins, places Rob can't recall anymore.

"Each one of these is a family," Chelsea says. "We're usually rushing to beat the exterminator out there."

Read the whole thing here.

HoneyLove's 2nd Annual Yellow Tie Event

HoneyLove.org says:

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/

Next meeting: Sunday, May 26

The next meeting of the Backwards Beekeepers is scheduled!

Sunday, May 26
11am
Citibank, Silver Lake branch
2450 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles 90039

This month we're featuring an appearance by Sean Schwab, a longtime treatment-free beekeeper in Orange County. He's accumulated lots of knowledge about capturing and keeping feral bees, and will discuss the many misconceptions people have about them.

We'll be covering a lot of important points about keeping feral bees in an urban environment, including:

• Getting educated with books, online resources, and hands-on mentoring
• The risks and responsibilities of hive inspection, hive placement, and maintenance of space to prevent swarming and grouchy bees
• Hive stand construction, ant control, and the rationale for these set-ups
• Safety equipment, using a smoker effectively, being aware of neighbors
• Capturing feral bees safely and humanely

As usual, everyone is welcome to the meetings, especially those who are new to beekeeping.

See you there!

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4-H Club makes a swarm rescue in Torrance

LA Backwards Beekeeper Roberta passes this story along from the Palos Verdes Peninsula 4-H club:

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.

Spreading bee knowledge on Earth Day

Check out these photos of Backwards Beekeepers at last week's Earth Day event at Santa Monica College!

Next meeting: Sunday, April 28

The next meeting of the Backwards Beekeepers is scheduled!

Sunday, April 28
11am
Citibank, Silver Lake branch
2450 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles 90039

This month we're featuring an appearance by Ray Teurman, a real unsung hero of bee volunteerism here in L.A. who has developed his own unusual and crafty techniques of bee management. Ray is excited to speak about his experiences with bees throughout the L.A. area, and his techniques for doing cutouts and trap-outs.

As usual, everyone is welcome to the meetings, especially those who are new to beekeeping.

See you there!

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Your Bee Rescue Hotline at work: Granada Hills

LA Backwards Beekeeper Max answered a call to the Bee Rescue Hotline:

This Granada Hills swarm capture was a piece of cake. The swarm, about the size of 1 1/2 footballs, was in a hedge next to the front lawn. When I arrived, a gardener (totally oblivious to the swarm just to his left and above his head) was actually mowing the lawn. He nearly had a heart attack when I pointed out the swarm! After he finished, I sprayed the swarm with sugar water, cut the dominant branch with a pair of pruners that I brought along, and gently shook them in a nuc box.

I was in and out in about 30 minutes. I even took along a neighbor who now has total bee fever :)

—Max

Your bee rescue hotline at work: Westwood

Check out the handmade warning sign.

LA Backwards Beekeeper Ruth writes about a true community effort:

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

James and Kirk get a surprise swarm

Los Angeles Backwards Beekeeper James writes:

Over the past few weeks I had started to notice the comings and goings of the hive was becoming greatly reduced. I spoke with Kirk a few times and he encouraged me to see what was going on for myself.

Upon doing this on sunday morning, I noticed that the bees had become restricted to a third of the super at the bottom of the hive. Lots of empty black brood filled the other 4 brood boxes. I rang and spoke to Kirk about this and seeing as he was close by, he very kindly offered to stop by.

We set about donning our gear and firing up the smoker, to take a further look. My smoker fuel was a bit on the lame side, so Kirk went to his truck to fetch some more fuel. It was then I walked down to the hive and heard what I thought were some angry bees buzzing around the box. I then looked up and saw a massive swarm about to descend on the hive. Kirk arrived back from the truck and we stood in amazement by what was happening!

Kirk said they were either leaving the hive or arriving...it took him but only a few minutes to recognise it was a whole new swarm of bees. We went down to the hive and Kirk slid open the two top brood boxes a little and the bees happily moved inside.

Needless to say Kirk and I spent a great couple of hours in and amongst the bees, watching them doing the amazing work of establishing a new home!

—james

Here's the video!