When Bees Are Out of Bounds
Commercial bee colonies have popped up illegally in Lake Forest in what beekeepers say is becoming a common ploy by hive owners hard-pressed to find homes for their bees.
Lake Forest officials discovered two colonies, with hundreds of hives, in recent weeks after neighbors called to complain. One was in a public park and has been removed by the owner; the other, owned by the same man, is on commercial property whose managers say they have had repeated problems with the beekeeper.
As Orange County grows more developed--and as people grow more concerned about whether bees are aggressive--beekeepers have become desperate at times to find places for their hives, said David Marder, president of the Orange County Beekeepers Assn. Marder himself has 20 colonies in Orange County and dozens more in Northern California.
“With all the development we have in Orange County, it’s very hard to find a spot to keep bees anymore,” Marder said. “These poor [beekeepers] have nowhere else to go, so they become squatters.”
Marder said he has been called to remove similar illegal hives in Costa Mesa, La Habra and elsewhere. Though he does not approve of the practice, Marder said he sympathizes.
Beekeeping has a rich history in Orange County and California. Decades ago, farmers relied on wild and commercial European honeybees to pollinate citrus, almond, avocado and other crops. But agriculture declined, development encroached and public concern over Africanized, so-called killer, bees grew, strangling the industry.
Keeping hives doesn’t take much land; many people do it in their backyards. But complaints from neighbors and mounting public worries have caused commercial beekeepers and hobbyists to give up their apiaries, causing a rapid decline in beekeeping in Orange County. In 1988, there were 3,986 bee colonies in the county; by 1998, the number had dropped to 457, according to the county’s Public Facilities and Resources Department.
In Lake Forest, a colony of about 100 hives was found in the standard stacks of white boxes--each stack being one hive--on a privately owned hillside on the north side of town. The hives, which bear the name of Redlands beekeeper Brian Buoye, were placed on land at the 230-acre Pacific Commercentre, a business complex.
Brad Kelly, a spokesman for the Pacific Commercentre Owners Assn., said the complex has had previous problems with Buoye setting up hives there. “I’ve chased him off the property many times,” Kelly said.
Buoye said late Thursday that he will move his hives elsewhere, probably outside Orange County, and will do so right away.
Kathy Graham, Lake Forest’s community development director, said that if he does not remove the hives, the city will pay an apiarist to do so and bill Buoye.
On the other side of the city, Buoye’s name also showed up on hives at Regency/Normandale Park. Buoye removed these hives after city officials contacted him last month, Graham said.
“Someone did this without getting permission first,” Graham added. “And if they would have asked, we would have said no, because they’re too close to homes.”
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She said the remaining bees pose a potentially deadly threat to nearby residents.
“There are people who are extremely allergic to bees, and even one sting would be life-threatening,” Graham said. “I don’t want a situation like that anywhere in the city.”
Marder said the 20,000 to 40,000 European honeybees in each Lake Forest colony pose no danger to their human neighbors. “I was out to that site and saw the bees, and there’s not a problem,” he said.
People should remember the contribution bees make, Marder added--pollinating homeowners’ gardens, propagating flowers, fruits and vegetables.
Sensationalized reports about swarming Africanized bees have created unfounded fears of all bees and driven legitimate beekeepers underground in Orange County, he said. Africanized bees are more easily agitated, more defensive in reacting to perceived threats to their hives, and will fly up to half a mile in pursuit of a target and sting in far greater numbers.
If the European hives continue to decline, their Africanized counterparts will have an easier time dominating Orange County. “If you move out all the good bees, all you’re going to have is bad bees,” he said.
The illegal beekeeping is some apiarist’s “last hope,” Marder added.
“You have to remember, beekeepers don’t have two nickels to rub together. They don’t do it just to make money. They do it for love of the insect.”
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Housing Bees
Although Orange County grows more housing than crops, some apiarists and homeowners keep hives here.
Honeybees are immigrants. Europeans brought bees to North America centuries ago.
Source: UC Davis
