The Buzz In The Dale

Looking for Spring

2012-01-21T10:55:00.000-08:00

The daffodils, roses and lavender say Spring is coming to the Southland

The bees are flying about

and checking things out.

On this side

On that side

All around the lavender bloom

Off to the side and everywhere.

Waiting for a close up! Look at all the fuzz, this girl has not been out foraging much this season. A couple good weeks of the Spring flow and much of that hair may be gone.

It has been a winter with little bee activity since October. Warmer weather is predicted for next week, a good stretch of warm sun and the bees will start popping. More bees will mean more blog activity from the Bees In The Dale

Back with Bees

2011-11-09T15:33:00.000-08:00

Randy had made contact with a gas company with a bee problem in the employee recreation area. It was a massive hive in a tree. Randy sent out several calls for assistance and a fine crew showed up..

We arrived at 8:30 ready to work but in this day and age nothing is simple in the industrial world We signed forms and attended a short film about visiting the plant and all the rules. About an hour later we go to the tree to find this. It was a beautiful open air hive

Big hive and lots of bees.

Laura and her son Ethan. He is a rock climber and got to do some high work assisting Randy who started out by climbing up into the tree.

The Ground Crew, Laura, Dennis and Josip.

Randy, Team Leader

Once up in the tree, Randy scoped out the job, sprayed the bees with sugar water and started cutting out comb.

Ed, our intrepid photog pointing to the real action in the tree.

The ground crew in action, taking the comb and putting it into frames. Because the bees had built the hive into a dense mass there were relatively few frames of comb for the hives. About 8 frames for the standard super and 4-5 for the medium was all Josip could salvage.


Ethan on his ladder perch waiting for more comb to come down.

We removed the lid from the trunk and it became a platform for all the later work. It worked very well but I soon found out what the bees thought of it when I say it spattered with golden bee poop.

The company had the area well marked and cordoned off. Nice big signs too.

At this point, the lower portions of the hive have been removed and Randy and Josip are cutting down the hive limb and all. It was cut loose and lowered to make the comb removal easier

Josip and Randy with their prize

Ethan takes over the hive

Still lots of bees on the hive.

Bees bees bees and some sticks and pine litter. This part of the hive was all mashed together with little definition between panes of comb. We cut it out slowing trying to maintain intact pieces but it was a losing battle most of the time. Earlier the bees had been quite agitated but calmed down at this point. Later when Randy went back up to collect those still gathering around the old hive site, they got hinky again.

This is the bulk of the bees. We did not see the queen but she may have gone in when we did a number of shakes of the hive branch. The bees were acting like she was there.. Josep added the medium super to the hive also.


Randy, Laura, Ethan and Josep when we were done. This hive will remain on site over night. Josip and Randy will pick it up as soon as the guard shack opens tomorrow morning. This was another good job by Backwards Beekeepers taking care of a bee problem at an industrial site.. On another front, Randy and I will be looking for replacement bees in the Spring. In spite of our good intentions, the Mission Bees decided they could find a better home and left. We had also installed bees at an Ashram, those bees left too. All prayers to St Sebastion, patron saint of bees, could not convince them to stay. We will find some bees that know a good home come next Spring. You can count on it. Golden bee poop...

Over The Hill

2011-09-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

The Backwards Beekeepers Hotline had a couple calls from Palos Verdes that Randy checked out and discovered they were related. Bob, an ex-sailor Pearl Harbor survivor, had a hive of bees under his eaves and the neighbors were nervous. Ken who lives down the street decided he could safely house the bees if Randy assisted in obtaining a hive and every thing else. Done deal and once a date was selected we arrived.

This was a nice hive, fully exposed just under the eaves about 10 ft up.

It was a good looking hive, just getting active when we started.

Once the Mighty Bee Vac was hooked up Randy was up the ladder and collecting bees.

As always, Randy is the point man on the ladder. I am the ground guy.

Bees started to show up in the collection super immediately.

As the Bee Vac does its job the comb comes into view.

And there are a lot more bees in the super.

Ted from across the street came over to take the picture (thanks, Ted, he gave me 300 of them on a disc,) We like to involve every one so Ted got his shot at collecting bees.

Most of the bees on the outside are gone and Randy started to cut out the comb.

There was a lot of drone comb which I left if the piece fit the frame nicely.

This was one of several queen cells we found. The brood we found looked okay to us but the hive may have planned to replace the queen for some reason. We don't know, only the bugs know.

A nice frame of brood. Once the small outer comb was removed Randy used an empty frame to measure and cut out proper sized pieces of comb. That made putting it into the frames very easy.

Bob, the home owner had a very nice front row seat all morning long.

Another queen cell

More good looking brood

The standard hive body is full of comb

And Randy is still bring down more comb.

We were lucky to have a nuc with some medium frames for the remainder of the comb.

The comb is all clear but when Randy checked the vent holes one did not have screen, there were more bees inside. Later he fashioned a bee escape and put it in place. The returning bees should hang around on the outside overnight and Randy will return early tomorrow with his bee vac to collect them. He will also set up a trap out near by.

I thought we had most of the bees in the Bee Vac. Where are these coming from?

Bob was interested in everything, as long as it stayed outside and moved on later.

The Bee Vac collection hive is very full.

After vacuuming many many bees off that kept gathering on the nuc and full super I realized these were mainly robber bees looking for free honey. Standing back on the sidewalk you could see them coming straight down to the area. Once we moved the nuc and other pieces away from the area the bees left. We took the bees and supers down the street and Randy installed them in their new home. With all that brood they should stay there. I have no idea what was going to happen to the thousand or so robber bees that got sucked up through the Bee Vac in to the collection hive. Sometimes bees make bad decisions. When we finally got done Randy headed off to collect a swarm and Norwalk and I drove home for a nap. It was a long but good day. One man got rid of bees he did not want another got a new hive. It was a very good day in our bee world. Thanks to Randy for doing the hard and high parts and to Ted for all the photos.

San Gabriel Mission Video

2011-08-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

This is Randy up in the bee chamber on the first day. This space houses the bellows of the Church Organ. This is unedited video shot while Randy cut comb and I was about 20 feet below on solid ground. When he moves the camera around, about 60 sec in, you will see a the marks left by previous hives that has called this space home. Someone needs to seal this space up better when we are done this time.

Mission Accomplished (Revised)

2011-08-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

DAY ONE of removing the bees at San Gabriel Mission with only a two man crew. That sounded reasonable until Randy climbed up for his inspection.

The bees definitely had Room With A View

Randy did all of the work up high, cutting comb and lowering it to me to store or put into frames.

This is what Randy found inside. 11 combs about three feet long. Sweeet. But it turned out to be more than our two man crew could handle in the time we had.

With only the two of us to do the job,Randy kept it simple and cut the bottom off many of the combs. We collected the honey and filled some frames in a super.

I got to do the ground level work, filling frames with comb. This turned out to be a waste of resources. We left the super on site and the ants infested the comb. We worked three and a half hours until it became clear we needed more bodies and equipment to do the job. The garden area was opening for public tours so we called it a day and I went home to look for help. There was too much going on at the Mission on Sunday so we made plans for another try on Monday.

DAY TWO and we had a full crew. Randy and I were joined by James &; Yuka Lui, Ed Garcia and Josip. This time we had enough people to deal with the bees.

In the time since Randy cut the original comb down the bees had sealed all the comb ends.

James brought his small bee vac which was perfect in the limited space. His blue container and hoist got a good work out and were more efficient that the bucket on a rope that Randy and I had used.

Randy is doing the vacuuming with James on the hose.

Yuka watching James on the high board.

Yuka while she waits for honey and comb to come down to us and start filling frames..

While we waited for the first comb to come down, Ed was taking atmosphere shots to prove we were really at the Mission

Josip under the 200 year old grape vine in the garden.

Josip and the 200 year old grape vine.

Josip learns the history of San Gabriel wine from our host Chuck Lyons of the Mission staff,

Josip , Dennis and James

The bulk of the bees were captured when the comb was removed but there was a large mass hanging out above the original entry point. James went up and vacuumed them up too.

We had fifteen frames of comb with brood, pollen and some honey when we were done. No one saw the queen but the bees seemed want to stay with their new home. These on the outside would be vacuumed up before transport and added later.

Ed and Randy playing with the bees. Once again the bees were remarkably calm for having their home destroyed. This was sort of like Hurricane Katrina and we were FEMA, a good friendly FEMA.

While we were working the bees, Jose, maintenance man for the Mission, fashioned a table for the hive that will help keep ants out of the hive once the legs are set in oil.

Bees on the move as we take them to their new home site

The old pathways were rough on the cart but it beat having to carry a hive of bees around the grounds.,

Fr Serra will keep an eye on his winged charges across this part of the old water system at the Mission.

This small fenced area will be well away from Mission visitors. The hive faces the wall so the bees should fly up and over the roof of the gift shop. It is under a big avocado tree, along with the normal garden plants there will be plenty sources for nectar and pollen.

We still had that last bunch of bees from over the door to add to the hive

Randy added an empty super to help contain them and dumped the bees in. He will remove the hive next weekend.


The hive in its new location. Here's hoping they elect to stay and not go back to their old haunts. When he has time Jose will go up there and power wash all the old honey and comb pieces before sealing the old entry ways to room on the church wall.

This was another fine example of work done by the Backwards Beekeepers and LA Bee Rescue. Big thanks to Ed, James, Yuka and Josip for making it much easier. A special thanks to Randy who was there both days and did most of the high work. For now it looks like I will be the de facto Official Beekeeper for San Gabriel Mission. It is a long drive from my house to the Mission, if anyone closer to the Mission would like to take up the Mantle of Official Beek, please let me know. Your pay will be in honey, indulgences and novenas.

Bigger Than a roberta

2011-08-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

Kirkobeeo declared this comb at the LA Zoo was bigger than Roberta thereby creating a new measurement in the world of beekeeping and honey bees.

The young woman in the middle is Roberta. She is the Backwards Beekeeper's human dynamo. She does more cut-outs, swarm captures than anyone. Seeing her schedule makes me tired. Vertically challenged she shows no fear when it comes to bees, she towers over all of us.. She is an inspiration to us all. and a robera is much more important than a Smoot at MIT (Google Smoot MIT if you don't know.)

The LA Bee Rescue Hot Line got a call about some bees in a Medical Building in San Gabriel They were entering via this electric conduit on the roof of the building.

The bees were behind this drywall and had worked their way down ithrough some lighting fixtures to offices in the building. They had to be removed or exterminated.

BBK'er Randy and Joseph took up the job. The first cut showed the bees were between the next two beams. After some vanilla/sugar water spray, Randy starts to use his bee vac. This was a perfect job for a bee vac.

Building Manager Kyle tries his hand with Randy's Bee Vac

And here the bees are, filling the entire space between the studs and honey dripping everywhere.

This comb was loaded with honey and a gazilion bees but they were not hard to work with once they got the sugar/vanilla water.

The length of the comb is exposed and it is definitely more than one Roberta. The comb was at least five feet in length and maybe more. No one took time to measure it.

Randy using his bee vac as Joseph offers advice.

Joseph getting his turn with the vac

Joseph standing on his tip toes can barely reach the top of the comb.

Comb all removed. It filled this entire space from stud to stud with only bee space not used.

From the header to almost the bottom was comb and most was full of honey or brood. This hive must have been here for years.

We took four containers of honey comb. Joseph had two supers with frames full of brood comb plus some honey and pollen,

The hive was left on the roof for the day so the bees can get oriented to the new home. The hole by the electric conduit was sealed and blocked with expansion foam.

Another fine job pulled off by Backwards Beekeepers Rescue Hot Line.

What's Buggin' Me

2011-08-01T11:28:00.000-07:00

This is my 1960 Kenskill trailer that I take to dog shows, vintage trailer rallies and sometimes just fun trips. It lives in my back yard when it is not on the road.

I have a satellite antenna I use when traveling but when the trailer is parked at home I just hook up to this one on the house. When I switched to HD and the giant screen they installed a new antenna and left this one. It is very handy. I was in the trailer working on a window today and decided to turn on the TV. It showed no connection which was odd. I double checked all the connections and still no luck. Then I started swapping out pieces of the cable, eventually getting almost a direct line between the receiver and the dish. The was still no connection.

This is what I see when I check the signal strength. If it is good there will be numbers in all of the lines. When there is a weak connection there will be zeros in every other row. I kept getting random numbers in no definite pattern, it was very confusing. Just to be sure I again swapped cables and connections. Using satellite finder I knew the dish was aimed right but then that started giving odd results. What the??

I looked up at the antenna on the house and noticed the plastic piece on the end of the signal receiver was cracked and broken. That did not seem to be the problem but with no other options showing up I decided to change that with the one off my travel antenna. That finally solved the problem but not for any reason that had occurred to me.

Someone had moved into the antenna receiver. Yes, that is wasp on her nest. She never moved when I took this piece down. That is a good thing, I have memories of grabbing a nest of wasps by accident when I was very small. My hand still hurts when I think of that. Some things you never forget and never do again. I noticed all the wasp cells were empty. Had the TV signal radiated her enough to make her sterile? I hope I have not started s super race of wasps in The Dale.

Enough of the pests of the world and back to the good bugs in the next post.

Sacred Bee Project

2011-07-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

The San Gabriel Mission has a bee problem and placed a call to the Backwards Beekeepers Bee Rescue Hot Line. I went out yesterday to check it out.

This side of the Mission has the cemetery for many of the clergy who served here from the beginning.


Access is limited to a ladder and climbing 12 feet up to the chamber that used to service the belfry, fallen long ago after many earthquakes. That is Chuck from the Mission on the ladder, not me.

The bees are one side of the space now.

It looks like there was a bee hive on the other side of the space at one time

After checking out the job I hope to organize a capture of the bees in a couple of weeks. I need to find Beeks who do not mind ladders and who can fit into the space where the bees are. I fail on both counts. I am too tall to fit comfortably and going up ladders is not my forte. Stings are not a problem for me but ladders are.

After checking out the bee site, Chuck of San Gabriel Mission took me on a tour of the gardens and spaces to look for a good site for a bee hive. He would prefer they stay at the Mission, but not in the Mission. He considers the Mission a sanctuary, even for bees, We have located a couple areas where a bee hive is not likely to come into contact with the many tourists that come to the Mission on a daily basis.

EDIT: Since i live a long way from the Mission, they will be looking for a volunteer to be the Official (maybe sanctified) Beekeeper of Mission San Gabriel Archangel if the hive is established there. Someone living in the area will do and it can be new beek. Just think of the blessings you will get and you can keep the Holy Honey too.

Watch this space for an update on the Bees In The Belfry. Anyone interested in helping with this project can contact me through this site or using the Backwards Beekeepers Mentors list
Bear in mind that access will be 12 feet up a ladder and the actual working space is limited,
The target date for now is the first Saturday of August.

Madronna Marsh Bees

2011-07-15T22:30:00.000-07:00

Backwards Beekeepers Ed and Randy take on a rescue that was reported to have been there a week. Maybe, this is a lot of comb for a hive that is not huge in bee numbers. I suspect they were just noticed a week ago and had been there longer.

Kelly from Madronna Marsh Nature Preserve contacted the Backwards Beekeepers Bee Rescue Hot Line. This an old sump area that had been undeveloped for years. It gradually returned to its original life as an attractive place for wildlife to gather. The citizens of Torrance decided to keep it that way instead of letting developers fill the space with little boxes of ticky tacky or big boxes of more.

They had bees in a water control unit next to a garden path. Ed Garcia and Randy took the call and set up a rescue date. I got an invitation to take a few pictures and add a pair of hands when needed.

The first step was a little smoke. These were very calm and nice bees, the smoke may not have been needed but better safe than sorry when it comes to bees.

Most of this type of in-ground units do not have a lot of comb. This one had five nice comb sections. Four stuck to the lid and one stayed in the unit. All of the comb was removed. It contained some very nice honey (and tasty honey and pollen but now that I think about it I do not recall there being any brood. Here's hoping we did not hurt the queen, we never spotted her but the bees acted like she was in place in the nuc when we were done.

The lid was placed over an empty nuc with the combs hanging inside and the last piece of comb was added also. This gave something for the bees to concentrate on. Before cutting off each piece of comb, Randy and Ed thumped the lid to make the bees fall into the nuc and get out of the way of the knife Ed used..

Some of the comb was big enough to make two pieces to put into each frame. Ed and Randy tried to keep the comb pieces oriented the way they had been on the lid.

This was a small job so each piece of comb could be removed and put into a frame before moving on the next comb. For a cut out this was a pleasant little job with little mess and no property destruction.

Rubber bands worked to hold most of the comb in place on the frame but cotton string was used for a couple of the shorter pieces.( Use only cotton string, never nylon, it is too hard for the bees to deal with.) Once the comb has been secured to the frames by the bees they will cut the string and rubber bands and pull them out of the hive.

The bees seemed to adapt to their new home quickly. There was comb in five frames all lined up the way they had been in the original hive.

After the comb was in the frames Ed moved the nuc near the control unit where they had originally been. At first there were only a few bees around the opening.

Randy brushed the bees that remained in the control unit and encouraged them to check out the new digs.

The bees started to move up to the nuc. They closed the nuc lid and left the nuc on site for the rest of the day. Ed went by and picked it up later and offered the bees for adoption on the Bee Rescue Hot Line.

All done, that's a wrap.

Pool House Bees

2011-06-19T18:31:00.000-07:00


This is the target it is in the ceiling of the bathroom of a long abandoned pool house in Palos Verdes. The contractor, John, found Ed Garcia. John needed the bees removed so the pool house could be demolished. Ed asked to use the Mighty Bee Vac and I agreed if I could come along. He also recruited Ty who is hopeful beekeeper. We needed every one for this job. .

In the videos you can see Ty reaching up into the ceiling cavity to vacuum off the bees and then cut down the comb. At this point Ed and John were cutting the comb and putting it into frames.

This was the hive before we started. As big as this is, there was one 2-3 times as big in the site previously. You could see the marks where the comb had been removed. Unfortunately the exterminator did not seal the site or do anything to discourage bees and they came back.

This is the comb that is put into frames by Ed and John in the videos.


Ed and John with comb in place. I expected two supers of comb but once we removed most of the honey, 20-30#, we had one super and two frames. We tossed the extra frames and kept the full super. This took longer than expected, about 3 hours, but Ed and Ty ended up with a nice supply of honey. John has a site he can work in once he smokes bombs it and an sprays the comb area with some ammonia.

The bees are at Ed's for now. When I installed them and removed the Bee Vac top and bottom they were a tad agitated. You would be upset too if you were sucked down a vacuum tube. They should settle down in time but this was a very big amount of bees. One day Ed will be moving them to a new home in the San Fernando Valley.

A full days work and a good job by everyone.