News

For more information please see the

Honeylove Meetup Group

.  

FEATURED SPEAKER:
Sam Comfort (Founder of 

anarchyapiaries.org

—New York) 

COST:
HoneyLove Members: FREE
Non-Members: $10 Suggested Donation

TOPIC:
Future Zombee Apocalypse:
Bee Prepared and Stick Together!

What will beekeeping be like 25, 50, or 100 years from now? The bee world is changing quickly. So are the bees and their environment. Their lessons in survival are their most valuable gift. Like the bees, we beekeepers must look to diversity, cooperation, and adaptability for our resilience. Anarchy Apiaries is around 500 hives of various types in all kinds of situations from New York to Florida. The more I bee the less I know. I'll talk about our do-it-yourself methods, several hive designs, queen-raising, healthier, hardier bees with no treatments, and a future of a self-reliant beekeeping community with more hives than televisions.

LOCATION:
Grow Native Nursery   100 Davis Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 

(map)

 

It's that time again.  Just remember to fall back and sleep in on Sunday.

 

Thank-you to Terri who presented the natural history of bees.  She discussed the types of bees including the queen, workers and drones.  The term beekeepers use to refer to the life cycle of honeybees is bee math.  She had great questions.  See if you can answer these questions with the table below.

1.  If you find eggs, and no queen, how long ago do you know there was a queen?
2.  If you find just hatched larvae and open brood but no eggs, how long ago was the queen there?
3.  If the queen starts laying today, how long before that brood will start foraging for nectar?

It's always fun to get together with other bee loving beekeepers, new and experienced.  We had a good number of people so that our new people could get into the hive.  We loved finding the heart shaped comb.  Unfortunately a bee lost her life in the inspection.  We always try to avoid that.  Hope to see you at the next class October 4 at 8am. 

 

 

 

We've had some great first time experiences for newbees during our classes. We welcome beekeepers or admirers of all levels.  We would love to have people with experience that would like to help mentor and be available to answer questions.  

If you are coming out remember to...

1. Wear socks that cover the ankles.
2. Shoes that cover the feet, ideally boots such as rain books work really well.
3. Consider bringing a baseball cap, some of the suits fit better with one on.
4. Long pants such as jeans or other heavy materials, some of the suits are jackets only.
5. Camera/phone to get those precious first time in a suit and hive pics.
6. Water to stay hydrated and eat something before you come.

 

Remember, it's always possible that you might be stung and stings hurt!  Don't worry if you are nervous, you can observe too.  Kids are welcome but you will need to supervise them and they might be stung.

 

We had so many events for Earth Day in Long Beach!  We introduced many children and adults to the idea of beekeeping and showed how wonderful it can be to learn about bees.  The observation hives were a big hit.  Thanks to all the events that invited us at the Growing Experience, Green Prize Festival, and YMCA.

 

 

 

Saturday looked like it might some work when Shannon emailed me to let me know that hives I had left a couple of years ago needed to be moved.  She had already moved them when the wound up empty after bees had left.  But when she went to move them again she found "a lot of bees".  In my mind it was a hive move that could take a while.  I got my dolly, gaffers tape, extra tops to close up hives as these were 5 deep hives.  Luckily Shannon said there were only bees in just one of these hives.

I got there and they showed me the hive and I couldn't see a single bee!  I watched and figure that they had left but after a couple of minutes a little bees hovered back into the hive.  It was later in the day so maybe most of them had returned but it was looking better than I hope.  

The other luck was that J was there, a family friend who had some bee experience and wanted to help out.  And Sophia, Shannon's 6 year old daughter wanted to help too.  So now it was a small hive with 2 helpers.  Could be easier.  At first I thought I thought I needed to take the bees home but in the end Shannon and her family decided to keep them and give them a place to live.  We found a new spot right by a window on the side of the house that they could observe them from.  What could be better?!?!

Sophia was a natural and got geared up and dove right in.  She was part of every step.  We pulled the frames out as a group so that the small swarm could stay together.  There were just a few bees but we spotted eggs so the swarm had a chance of making it.  But it would be at least a couple of weeks before there were any new bees.  Sophia quickly claimed the hive as hers, and rightly so.  She even carried a medium box full of frames and placed it onto the hive even though it was a little tricky because it was a little high.  She's going to be the beekeeper for her family!  What a beekeeping super star.