The Buzz Over Bees : Man Who Gets Rid of Unwanted Swarms At Odds With City Over Hives

Around City Hall, he’s known almost reverentially as the “Bee Man.”

He’s the guy they call when a swarm of bees invades someone’s home. For seven years, Paul Bloomquist has been removing unwanted bees at no charge and giving them new homes on a secluded city-owned lot in the Arroyo Seco.

But now, the 74-year-old South Pasadena native finds himself stung by the bureaucracy of the city he has served. Last month, Bloomquist received a letter informing him that he would have to lease the property from the city, build a fence around his 25 hives and take out a $1-million insurance policy.

South Pasadena City Manager Kenneth Farfsing, who sent the letter after visiting the 25-hive apiary with Bloomquist, said he is concerned the city could be sued should someone get stung. “If I were riding a horse in the area and got stung by one of the bees and went into shock, I would be angry,” Farfsing said.

“There’s just too much litigation in the world,” Farfsing said. “I’m relieved nothing’s happened in the last few years.”

Bloomquist, the owner of Art World Frames, a South Pasadena custom frame shop, said he could afford to take out the $1-million insurance policy, which would cost about $250 annually, but that he is resisting the city’s demand as a matter of principle. He said he thinks the city should at least pay for the fence.

“I am doing the public a favor by removing swarms,” Bloomquist wrote in a response letter to Farfsing. “You are assuming there is money in this type of work, which is an incorrect assumption.”

Bloomquist said he had a verbal agreement with South Pasadena’s former city manager, John Bernardi, that allowed him to keep the bees above the flood channel near the Arroyo Seco Golf Course.

“The city will call me to help remove a bee swarm from someone’s back yard and I do it,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t charge anything. It’s strange that they’re coming to me now, telling me that I have to pay someone to build a fence.”

Bloomquist said that in the seven years he has tended bees on the property he has not heard of any complaints.

“The only people who come around here are the homeless, who sleep along the Arroyo, and the horseback riders,” Bloomquist said. “The homeless throw rocks at the bees, but the horseback riders don’t seem to mind.”

His trouble began when he went to Farfsing to ask permission to move the bees to a fenced lot about 50 feet away to protect the hives from vandalism.

Farfsing said he began searching for documents authorizing the use of city land for beekeeping.

He said he found “nothing in writing” and decided he had to formalize the relationship.

“All we would like to see Paul do is work out a lease with the city, get the insurance policy and get a better fence put up there,” he said.

“We’re not trying to make it a big issue,” Farfsing said. “We realize he is providing a service to the community. We just have to be protected.”

He said the lease would cost Bloomquist only $1 a year.

Bloomquist said he may take his business to Los Angeles County, which owns a lot a few hundred yards away, closer to the Arroyo Seco Stables, even if the county should impose the same demands.

“If it gets to that point, I will go ahead and comply with the requests, but my sense is that the county has too many other things to worry about than a beekeeper in South Pasadena.”

Ron Ferguson, a forestry foreman for the City of Pasadena, said that he didn’t want to get tangled in Bloomquist’s beef with the city to the south but that Bloomquist’s swarm-removal service, “Paul’s Bees and Buzz,” is valued through the western San Gabriel Valley. Referrals come from Altadena, San Marino and Arcadia, as well as Pasadena and South Pasadena.

“He is beneficial to the city,” Ferguson said. “Other beekeepers wanted a fee for their services. It’s cheaper for me to spray the hives, which I don’t like to do. Anytime I can avoid using the toxic sprays, I do. Paul has been a real good resource.

“Nobody is doing beekeeping anymore,” he said. “I enjoy doing it, and people enjoy that you’re not destroying nature. A lot of people will spray the bees with pesticides. I don’t destroy any hives.”

Shaking his head in befuddlement, Bloomquist said he is shocked that the city has slighted his contribution.

“I think it’s good for people to know that someone is still willing to do something for nothing,” Bloomquist said.