HoneyLove

April Newsletter

Chelsea McFarland — Fri, 16 May 2025 01:14:50 +0000

The post April Newsletter first appeared on HoneyLove.

March Newsletter

Chelsea McFarland — Sun, 16 Mar 2025 01:15:19 +0000

The post March Newsletter first appeared on HoneyLove.

February Newsletter

Chelsea McFarland — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 02:16:00 +0000

The post February Newsletter first appeared on HoneyLove.

January Newsletter

Chelsea McFarland — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 02:17:00 +0000

The post January Newsletter first appeared on HoneyLove.

HoneyLove and Dunn-Edwards Paints Team Up to Help Save Honeybees

Kendra Tarte — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 20:13:01 +0000

LOS ANGELES (October 18, 2016) – Dunn-Edwards Paints has partnered with HoneyLove, a nonprofit organization that encourages urban beekeeping and educates people about making their garden bee friendly by avoiding pesticides, providing water and shelter, and adding pollinator-friendly plants.

“We just announced our 2017 Color of the Year, and it is called Honey Glow,” explained Sara McLean, color expert at Dunn-Edwards. “So we’re donating 10 percent of proceeds of paint tinted in Honey Glow to HoneyLove.”

She describes Honey Glow as a warm, golden yellow with orange undertones. “This is a great color to make a bold statement in a room. It pairs well with earthy, neutral palettes or colors like chocolate, red, gray, green and orange.”

McLean selected Honey Glow after extensive research on color trends in everything from pop culture and fashion to world events and local street culture. “Honey Glow embodies the trend toward the warming of all colors – from neutrals to non-neutrals,” she explained. “And it’s an everyday reminder that we need to protect honeybees.”

Tweet this: To celebrate @DunnEdwards 2017 Color of the Year, Honey Glow, 10% of sales help save honeybees #savethebees @iheartbees #ColorOfTheYear

Last year, beekeepers lost 44 percent of their honeybee colonies, and seven species of honeybees were recently added to the U.S. endangered species list. “If bees are not around to pollinate our food crops, we won’t be able to feed the current population,” explained HoneyLove director Paul Hekimian. “If the bees go, we go – literally.”

Tweet this: Last year, beekeepers lost 44 percent of their honeybee colonies! @iheartbees and @DunnEdwards team up to help #savethebees

“Most beekeepers paint their hives, either to look great in their garden, or if there are a lot of hives, the different colors help bees find their way home,” Hekimian explained. “Since Dunn-Edwards is one of the most environmentally responsible paint companies, we were eager to team up with them.”

Tweet this: Did you know beekeepers paint their hives bright colors? @DunnEdwards and @iheartbees team up to #savethebees

Learn more about urban beekeeping and how you can protect honeybees in your own yard and your community right here at HoneyLove.org. For more ideas and inspiration with Honey Glow, visit Sara’s blog, specs+spaces, and watch this video about the inspiration behind the color:

Dunn-Edwards is one of the nation’s largest independent manufacturers and distributors of architectural, industrial and high performance paints and paint supplies. The company is dedicated to preserving and protecting the environment, and produces its coatings in the world’s first and only LEED® Gold-certified manufacturing plant. For more information, visit www.dunnedwards.com, www.instagram.com/dunnedwards, www.pinterest.com/dunnedwards, https://www.houzz.com/pro/dunnedwards
www.facebook.com/dunnedwards and www.twitter.com/dunnedwards.

The post HoneyLove and Dunn-Edwards Paints Team Up to Help Save Honeybees first appeared on HoneyLove.

Gumuchian’s “B” Collection Donation to HoneyLove

Chelsea McFarland — Sun, 04 Sep 2016 22:45:05 +0000

Saving the Bees: HoneyLove.org Hosts First Annual “Natural Beekeeping Conference” with Donations Received through GUMUCHIAN‘s “B” Collection!

Local nonprofit, Honeylove.org, hosted a Natural Beekeeping Conference sponsored in part by GUMUCHIAN on Saturday & Sunday, August 20-21 at the Pasadena Masonic Temple in Pasadena, California. The 2-day conference was an unforgettable weekend filled with educational lectures and workshops, hands-on demonstrations, the latest in natural beekeeping techniques and findings. Chelsea McFarland, Co-Founder of HoneyLove said “The conference lectures were led by the top minds in Natural Beekeeping and attended by over 100 beekeepers and HoneyLovers. Thank you to Gumuchian for all of their support in making the weekend a success!”

To make an appointment, contact Myriam@gumuchian.com or

Jodi@gumuchian.com

The post Gumuchian’s “B” Collection Donation to HoneyLove first appeared on HoneyLove.

Moisture condensation in hives in winter

Chelsea McFarland — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 18:13:07 +0000

by HoneyLover Susan Rudnicki

We have had a lot of rain the last month [in Los Angeles] and the weather has gone into the 40’s many nights—or even the upper 30s. If you have not looked in your hives since this change in the weather, please have a look to see if water is condensing on the underside of the top board. Because of the cold outside air and the warmth and moisture of the bees and their evaporating nectar inside the hive, there is a tendency for moisture to condense and drip down upon the bees. This is very unhealthy for them!

I checked all my hives two days ago and found water accumulation, and even some lids with black mold growing. Only one hive, which had retained a shim under the inner cover from placement in the summer, was dry. So, whether you are using a telescoping cover with a inner cover or a migratory cover, ventilation of the warm, moist air must be accommodated. After wiping the water off the lid undersides with a old towel, I placed small chunks of wood under the covers to prop them up. These I picked up off the ground from the abundant mulch, but you could use anything that would allow airflow.

Some beekeepers make a small shim, called a Imrie shim, to place under the inner cover or migratory cover. This would work well, too. But, the first step is to do the checking, so please be sure to get out there!

The post Moisture condensation in hives in winter first appeared on HoneyLove.

BEEKEEPING LEGALIZED IN TORRANCE!

Chelsea McFarland — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 17:42:55 +0000

email via HoneyLover Jim Montgomery

The city council approved the ordinance last night, 6-1!!!! All were in favor except for Councilmember Heidi Ashcraft. (The link for the ordinance is here). Beekeeping on single family residences is no longer illegal in Torrance. That is the good news, the bad news is the process is more complicated and costly than I would have liked. I would have liked to see beekeeping allowed by right as is the case in Redondo Beach, but in Torrance we will have to submit a Special Animal Permit along with an $80 application fee.

In addition, when you apply your surrounding neighbors will be notified of your application and will have up to 10 calendar days to object. If this occurs, your application will be suspended and you can appeal the objection to the Torrance Environmental Quality and Energy Conservation commission along with, I believe, a $70 appeal fee.

If there is no objection, or there is an objection and you win the appeal and the SAP is approved there is still one more potential hurdle. Anyone, anywhere in the city of Torrance can appeal the decision. They would be on the hook for this $70 appeal fee, not you since the SAP has been approved at this point. If there was no objection by your neighbors, the appeal goes to the TEQECC as above. If it had been objected to and you won your appeal at the TEQECC, the appeal would then go to the city council to be heard. The decision of the council will be final with no further ability to appeal either by you or anyone else.

A few of the council members spoke in favor of allowing beekeeping by right (Councilmembers Goodrich and Griffiths) but there was sufficient concern raised by others that in order to secure enough votes to pass the ordinance, the compromise to allow this objection/appeal process was put in place. I spoke with the staffer who largely wrote the ordinance to voice my concern about this process that it is likely that at least one of your neighbors is going to object out of fear, spite or just because it is easier to say no than yes. He acknowledged that but said if you follow the regulations of the ordinance and the objection is not based upon something substantial like a medically certified bee sting allergy, the thought is that the TEQECC or council would take that into account when hearing the appeal and likely approve the application.

The TEQECC voted 6-1 to pass the ordinance to council and the council voted 6-1 to approve the ordinance so I suspect that an application will be approved by them unless an objector has a significant objection and not just they don’t want a neighbor to have bees.

Take the time to read the ordinance and let me know if you have any questions. The Special Animal Permit is not in place yet so I do not yet think you can apply, I will update folks when I hear more about the process to apply.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to getting an ordinance passed to legalize beekeeping in Torrance!

Jim

The post BEEKEEPING LEGALIZED IN TORRANCE! first appeared on HoneyLove.

Save the Bees BOOK!

Chelsea McFarland — Sun, 15 Nov 2015 05:31:32 +0000

We are so excited!! Rob & Chelsea McFarland (founders of HoneyLove) WROTE A BEEKEEPING BOOK! It’s a great primer for anyone interested in treatment-free beekeeping, and a good read for established beekeepers.

Learn more here http://savethebeesbook.com/ and SPREAD THE BUZZ!

Check out some of the book reviews!

Michael Bush author of THE PRACTICAL BEEKEEPER:
“Rob and Chelsea have a beautiful positive energy that shines out in all their work, including this book. The writing is lyrical, detailed, informative and practical. Save the Bees starts from the perspective of the complete beginner and offers insight and instruction in a very readable, understandable and entertaining way with gorgeous pictures to illustrate it. But best of all, it’s about how to keep bees naturally – no treatments, no chemicals. This is a delightful and insightful book from delightful and insightful people.”

Noah Wilson-Rich, Ph.D Founder & Chief Scientific Officer, THE BEST BEES COMPANY and author of THE BEE:
“What a fantastic book! It’s important, accessible, accurate, enjoyable and filled with experience. Anybody serious about modern beekeeping should read this.”

PRESS RELEASE: SAVE THE BEES WITH NATURAL BACKYARD HIVES

The Easy and Treatment-Free Way to Attract and Keep Healthy Bees
By Rob and Chelsea McFarland, Founders of HoneyLove.org

From 1947 to present day, the number of honeybee colonies has declined by more than a whopping 50 percent. Bees and other pollinators are one of the most critical components to our food supply – if they disappear, so do we.

That jarring statistic, paired with an awe-inspiring and completely serendipitous encounter with a swarm of honeybees one afternoon, was enough for Rob and Chelsea McFarland to leave their stressful lives running a technology start-up and dive into the world of honeybees. Like Rob and Chelsea like to say, “You don’t choose to be a beekeeper, the bees choose you.”

Their chance encounter led to forays in urban beekeeping, and eventually, to running HoneyLove, a non-profit dedicated to educating and inspiring urban beekeeping to save the bees for future generations. Now, SAVE THE BEES WITH NATURAL BACKYARD HIVES is an extension of that philosophy. It’s Rob and Chelsea sharing all the wisdom from the ancient practice of beekeeping in a way that is fresh, modern, and easy for anyone to do.

Save the Bees with Natural Backyard Hives breaks down the complexity of beekeeping so you can learn step-by-step how to acquire a colony, care for it, and reap the reward – both for you and future generations. Like Rob and Chelsea write in the book’s introduction, “We figured that if we could inspire people living in cities around the world to welcome bees and beekeepers into their communities, we could help clean up our urban environments, promote sustainable living, advance urban agriculture and empower people with the idea that they can make a difference in their own backyards.”

Save the Bees with Natural Backyard Hives provides a how-to primer on an alternative approach to the established, chemical-based way of beekeeping. This all-natural approach is laid out in the first chapter, Principles of Treatment – Free Beekeeping and How it Will Save the Bees. Treatment-free beekeepers believe that chemicals make bees more vulnerable to the very problems like mites and microbes they were aimed at solving, which is why this philosophy is fundamental to the rest of the book.

From there, the book progresses with chapters: Beekeeping Basics, Acquiring Honeybees is Simple, and Getting to Know Your Superorganisms. In chapter five, Bee Success, Rob and Chelsea explain how to be aware of common problems (and how to fix them, too). They provide equipment checklists; explain how to inspect for disease, and of course, how to keep the Queen happy.

Other critical chapters include, Nectar Flow, Beebread and What to Feed Your Bees, with useful information on a healthy diet, the baggie feeder approach, and tips on planting pollinator forage. Now, after eight other chapters for success, Rob and Chelsea get to one of the many rewards of beekeeping: the Honey Harvest chapter. They include sections on escape boards for honey extraction, photo diagrams of the bottling process, and even notes on honey tasting and variation.

One of the biggest takeaways from Save the Bees is that the art of beekeeping and bee culture is an evolving education, which is why Rob and Chelsea end the book by saying, “My hope is that you will continue to read and learn about bees, take in all kinds of perspectives, resist confirmation bias and be open to ideas about solutions even if they challenge what you think you know.”

Available online through the retailers below and wherever books are sold:

Amazon: http://smile.amazon.com/Save-Bees-Natural-Backyard-Hives/dp/1624141412/

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/save-the-bees-with-natural-backyard-hives-rob-mcfarland/1121380144?ean=9781624141416

Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Rob_McFarland_Save_the_Bees_with_Natural_Backyard?id=UgS6BwAAQBAJ

iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/save-bees-natural-backyard/id981067355?mt=11

Indigo:
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/save-the-bees-with-natural/9781624141416-item.html

Walmart:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/45964825

BAM!:
http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Save-Bees-Natural-Backyard-Hives/Rob-McFarland/9781624141416

IndieBound:
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781624141416

Book Depository:
http://m.bookdepository.com/Save-Bees-with-Natural-Backyard-Hives-Rob-McFarland/9781624141416

The post Save the Bees BOOK! first appeared on HoneyLove.

It is a DONE DEAL!!

Chelsea McFarland — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 21:50:43 +0000

Mayor Eric Garcetti just signed the ordinance to LEGALIZE URBAN BEEKEEPING in Los Angeles!!

Big thank you to all the LA council members, planning department, city staff, community councils and dedicated HoneyLovers who helped us to get here—YAY BEES and YAY BEEKEEPERS <3!!!

The post It is a DONE DEAL!! first appeared on HoneyLove.