Buzzworthy urban beekeeping initiatives soothe some of the sting of Colony Collapse Disorder
by Jen Jones Donatelli
Picture your Thanksgiving plate: for most of us, it would make the Pilgrims proud—heaped high with turkey (or tofu), cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, green beans and onions. Now envision the same plate with only turkey or tofu! Not quite as appetizing? You may want to start paying more attention to the realities of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a phenomenon that threatens to put these bee-pollinated foods—and more than 80 others—in grave shortage.
Whole Foods Market created a print visual in June when it published a powerful before-and-after photo showing just how limited our food choices would be 
without help from pollinators. For the experiment, employees in one of its stores removed 237 of 453 products from produce shelves—including apples, onions, carrots, cucumbers, kale and many more—all of which couldn’t exist without pollination.
These are grim images, but they may become reality if CCD continues at the current rate—the total number of domestic managed honeybee colonies has dropped in half since the 1940s. The problems often start with the pathogens foulbrood or Nosema ceranae, which leave a colony weak and vulnerable. Add the harmful varroa mite, increased pesticide use and poor bee nutrition (thanks to the use of high fructose corn syrup by commercial beekeepers), and you’ve got a perfect storm. And as documented in such films as Vanishing of the Bees and Queen of the Sun, the plight affects not just bees but also their keepers, who are faced with the imminent loss of livelihood.
Since bees account for one in every three bites of food, CCD could be deadly serious. Local beekeeper and Learning Garden master David King confirms, “We really can’t afford the loss of the honeybee.”
Thankfully, Whole Foods isn’t alone in its efforts; here in L.A., a number of nonprofits and enterprising activists are doing their part to reverse the honeybee disaster. “Bees are dying in the farmlands, and we believe the urban environment is the last refuge of the honeybees,” says Chelsea McFarland, co-founder of L.A.-based HoneyLove. “We’re trying to create little sanctuaries where they can live and thrive.”
Gimme Shelter
McFarland and her husband Rob were inspired to start HoneyLove back in 2011, when they learned how to rescue a swarm of bees that had descended on their garden. “They say that ‘You don’t choose the bees, the bees choose you,’” laughs McFarland. “It was an awesome and eye-opening experience. We often say that the garden was the gateway to beekeeping for us.”
Since then, HoneyLove has blossomed into a thriving nonprofit with sanctuaries in Topanga and Moorpark—populated with rescued bees that otherwise would have been exterminated—and a third to come near LAX. On the first Sunday of each month, the couple holds an open mentoring session at the Moorpark location, where they teach the basics of urban beekeeping.
“We try to lead by example so people see that you can keep bees treatment-free and help preserve the healthy genetic stock of bees in the city,” says
McFarland. “Turning big agriculture around is not going to happen right away, and what we do in the city on a smaller level is really important.”
Adam Novicki has a similar mission. As a waiter for Wolfgang Puck’s Spago for seven years, Novicki says he was continually inspired by the restaurant’s high-quality ingredients and the farms from which they came. “I took a strong interest in vegetables, citrus and gardening in general,” says Novicki. “My now-wife Therese and I had a fairly big lot of 10,000 sq. ft., so we planted 30 fruit trees and have explored [farming] from there.”
The result? T&A Farms, an eight-hives-strong apiary and urban orchard just across I-5 from Dodger Stadium that supplies honey to a number of local restaurants, including Eveleigh and Goldie’s. “Our goal is to emulate the model of success we’ve seen with Chino Farms and Churchill Orchards,” says Novicki. “We want to be a supplier of high-quality honey and eventually have land in Ventura, where we’ll grow specialty crops that are of interest to high-end restaurants.”
Novicki has a unique vantage point of both urban and rural agriculture, as he currently spends weekends in Los Angeles and school days in Fresno studying plant science at Fresno State University. As part of his Masters program, Novicki is conducting Project Apis-funded research in which he’ll experiment with bee-friendly oilseed cover crops. “In a monoculture where 600 acres of only almonds are planted, bees get only one nectar source,” explains Novicki. “It’s about nurturing bio-diversity and giving bees more diverse nutrition.”
Getting Legit
Along with the work HoneyLove is doing to educate Angelenos about urban beekeeping, they’re also working closely with experts like David King to legalize the practice in Los Angeles. (Currently, beekeeping is legal in L.A. County, but not in the city proper.) Their hope is that our city will follow in the footsteps of New York and Austin, where urban citizen beekeeping is legal. So far, 16 of 95 neighborhood councils have signed on in support, and McFarland’s goal is to have the ordinance passed by Valentine’s Day.
“We want to mimic what they did in Austin, which was a call to rescue the bees rather than exterminate,” says McFarland. “Santa Monica also just legalized it, so we’re taking a lot [of cues] from their ordinance.”
King, too, is optimistic about beekeeping becoming a common, legal practice in Los Angeles, saying they’ve taken “vital steps” toward making it happen. As urban beekeeping continues to grow, he envisions a world where every block of the city has its own hive and beekeeper handling local honey production. This will support the city in continuing to produce high-value crops and organic, fresh vegetables and fruit.
“The economic shift will be fairly pronounced in awareness of the individual as a producer versus a consumer,” says King, who teaches a Backyard Food Production course for UCLA Extension. “Salvation is happening in the cities—agriculture as an enterprise will be saved by urban agriculture, and the bees will be part of that salvation.”
Join the Hive
- Plant pollinator-friendly plants in your garden and minimize or eliminate use of chemical pesticides.
- Support local honey vendors at farmers markets, and urge your favorite restaurant to use local honey.
- Attend a mentoring session offered by Honey Love or Backwards Beekeepers, an L.A. group of organic beekeepers and rescuers, now branching into other cities.
- Support pollinator preservation efforts, such as that of the Xerces Society.
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