Watching Teenage Girls Fall in Love with Bees

Last Sunday, I took my 17 year old daughter and her friend out to the Honeylove bee Sanctuary to meet the bees up close and personal. It was, for me, the beginning of Shake the Hive Collective- which is the non-profit for teenage girls that I aim to start in 2014. It is geared to bridge the impulse of compassion into action- I see my kids and all their friends have that impulse naturally- they just don't know how to turn that impulse into action; they haven't been empowered to. STH Collective will have a headquarters where we will run a micro-farm, with bees and chickens. We will work with local non-profits and help them with hands on participation. We will have workshops and classes in food growing, beekeeping, sustainability and permaculture for the kids, their friends and family. And the kids will blog and have a facebook page devoted to their activities, so they can help instill the interest in permaculture and sustainability in their peers.

Zoe and Kaila at the Honeylove Bee Sanctuary

 So, now you can see why this was the start of Shake the Hive Collective- I have been doing a lot of work with my own blog, with the Shake the Hive facebook page, and meeting people in the non-profit world through volunteering, but to bring teenagers out to meet the bees for the first time...my own daughter at that- this was where the rubber finally met the road.

Watching Teenage Girls Fall in Love with Bees

My daughter has been violently afraid of bees her entire life. I give her big props for confronting her fears- and no one was more surprised than me when she said she would like to go. Driving out to Moorpark- which is farm country, about 30 miles from our house- she was nervous. Putting on her bee suit, she kept asking Ceebs from Honeylove if there was any way for a bee to sting her and making sure there were no gaps in her bees suit. Her perception of bees consisted of one main thing- they sting, and that hurts. 

Its kind of like wearing space suits...

After we donned our bee suits (Zoe said she felt like Walter White) we walked up the hill to the hives. She grabbed my arm.  The wonderfully warm Kirk and Rob McFarland (of the husband and wife team Rob and Chelsea McFarland, who started Honeylove) were busy working on cleaning out the hives. There were a handful of others, and as Zoe and Kaila walked up, they saw no one running or screaming from the bees, no one being stung, everyone calm and interested, and the fact that Kirk was holding up trays of honeycomb crawling with hundreds of bees barehanded immediately changed her perception about the intention of bees- they are NOT out to get us. 

Kirk is pointing out the different variations of bees in the hive

Watching my 17 year old child discover the bees was the first time in many years I saw her childlike innocence. She was having a new experience, and soaking it up like a sponge. Before too long, she was handling honeycombs crawling with bees (with gloves on), helping scrape the old beeswax off frames from dead trays of honeycomb, putting her face as close as she could into the hive boxes to see the bees busy with the broods and storage cells, and the die was cast. She was a lily. (If you don't know that quote, then you watch the clip below from the classic movie You Can't take It With You by Frank Capra).  She and her friend Kaila fell in love with the bees.

Its not hard to do, fall in love with the bees- you either get it or you don't. To be able to see their devotion to the task at hand, and to the hive and the queen is a humbling thing, and a reminder that this is a quality that is often missing in human affairs. It is the thing that is missing the presence of which would make a BIG difference. And THAT is exactly what Shake the Hive Collective will continue to ask the teenage participants- when we are growing food, when we work with bees, with chickens, with wolves (at Wolf Connection in Acton)- with any charitable endeavor- What is missing in life that you could bring, that is needed, that you can learn from the bees, the wolves, the act of growing things? It is empowering to interact with the graceful deliberation of the natural world, and to learn to live in accord with it. It is the thing that is missing that will make a difference to disenfranchised teens being raised by single moms. 

Zoe scraping the old beeswax off the frames

Then my daughter did what I hoped she would- she posted this on Facebook-  

"Today I volunteered my morning to helping the bees. Not only did I get over one of my biggest fears, but I got to observe them up close & personal. They are truly miraculous little beings, all they care about is their colony and their Queen (she lives up to 7 years while the average bee lives up to 4 weeks!). They do not care to harm us, which is something I learned first hand today. There was a man holding the honey combs with NO gloves on and he was fine! STOP killing bees, they're here to protect and serve, without them we wouldn't exist. If they go endangered we lose 80% of the organic crops we consume due to their inability to properly pollinate. Make peace with the bees! If I did it, you can too!"

She had a bunch of kids respond to this post who want to go to the next mentoring day at the Honeylove Bee Sanctuary, and that is exactly how Shake the Hive Collective aims to educate teens; by having the teens bring the information to their peer groups, get them interested, involved, educated. STH Collective will have workshops for the participants, and for their friends to attend, and for- and this is very important- their mothers. Then those kids will post on social media about their experiences, and so on. We need to reach this demographic, but they aren't going to listen to old people. They have the power to reach each other through social media; one kid can impact thousands. This is the pond where the ripple is endless.

My kid Zoe, holding a honeycomb crawling with her new friends

And what does it do for the self esteem of the kids who are having these experiences, like working with the bees, and posting about it? In that world, where teenage girls are devastated when their new sexy profile picture doesn't get more likes than someone they consider a rival, where it is highly competitive, often cruel, diminishes any real sense of value and chips away at a falsely derived self esteem- it allows for a new sense of self to emerge, a new identity. Other kids respond differently, they respect these activities and the teens who are actively doing them. These teens are getting respect instead of objectification. Teens respond to the way people perceive them as if they are that- so they carefully monitor what people think of them, and it ends up a terrible mess. I have seen teenage girls police their own image on social media, and study the profiles of other girls, critiquing and taking notes, approving or not. I've listened as they've done it, and there is no value in that world. It is all surface, and without an intervention, this is what they will take into the world. The world doesn't need more superficiality, especially when these kids have the capacity for so much more. These are the future stewards of the planet, and future parents of future stewards. To connect them to their own compassion, and to empower them to respond to the world from that place, is the dream of Shake the Hive. Its what I have been doing for most of 2013- empowering myself, recognizing my urge towards compassion and acting on it. Not allowing myself to talk myself out of it, staying on track, and trusting myself to do this work. I have to do it, if I am going to encourage others to- and not just the teens- but the Moms, who are usually in survival mode constantly, frantic with worry about their kids and in a constant state of feeling like they can't do it all, that in some way they are failing their children no matter how hard they try. I AM that mom, I understand this better than anyone. Shake the Hive wants to support those Moms along with their kids, like a beehive filled with female bees who all support the hive, who are devoted to the well being of the hive above all else, STH Collective will have a safe space for their compassionate instincts to unfold and grow strong. Join us at our facebook page- please like us, then hover over the liked button and click "show in notifications" so you will see our posts all the time!

Ashley Dane, Founder of Shake the hive and proud mom of Zoe!

Occupy yourself!

xoxo,

Ashley Dane

Shake the Hive

Micro-Farming,Chickens, and Urban Beekeeping, Oh My!

I keep delving deeper into permaculture communities in Los Angeles, and they are very welcoming to anyone and everyone who wants to be a part of that world. Its almost to be expected that these people are kind hearted and loving- who else but loving, compassionate people would give up the conveniences that come from our overly processed, pre-packaged, convenience crazed culture in order to compost, grow food in micro-farms in their back yards (or front!), keep bees, raise chickens, and endeavor to live by sustainable practices in terms of upcycling, recycling, and uncycling- which is not using things that would eventually need to be recycled (for example- using a re-usable bottle rather than purchasing single use water bottles). I am thoroughly smitten with people who care.

Ashley Dane, aka Shake the Hive, at GardenerD headquarters

Micro-Farming, Chickens, and Urban Beekeeping, oh my!

I got to see yet another example of that this weekend at the home of Christy, who is a Master Gardener and owner of  GardenerD (that's like garden-nerd, for weeks I was called it Gardener- Dee)- she has a really informative and cool website with tips and information, newsletters, blogs, and all kinds of cool gardening stuff- CLICK HERE TO GO TO GARDENERD. Christy had a gathering at her house, which she called the Holiday Trifecta party- the trifecta being urban farming, beekeeping, and chicken rearing. I was eager just to go be around people for whom this was a lifestyle- it just feels clean. It feels like the usual agendas you encounter in LA are completely insignificant- because, in truth, they are. There is depth and concern and authenticity in these people, and its palpable. And a good looking bunch of people, too! Holy moly. There is a lot to be said for clean living!

Chickens can easily be kept in small spaces!

One of Christy's chickens was in the process of laying her first egg, and was having some anxiety for most of the party. Then suddenly she was quiet, and a few minutes later, there was the egg. I gotta say, I've never been at a party where everyone was cheering about the laying of an egg before- it was a little surreal!  I've been asking a lot of questions about chickens lately- I fully intend for them to be a part of the Shake the Hive Urban Farm, when the time comes. When my friend Dawn won a raffle, she selected a Chickens For Dummies book, which she promptly gave to me. One of these days!

Urban beehiving at GardenerD

Christy's beehive was off to the back of the yard, bees busy as, well, bees- you could see the industriousness but they were not interested in anyone. That's something people should know about beehives- they do not bother people, they have a lot to get done in a day. They won't seek you out to sting you. Having a beehive does not mean you, your family, or your neighbors are going to be attacked by a swarm of bees.

The urban farm at the GardenerD headquarters. Thriving!!

And of course, Christy has an amazing garden of food! Behind her micro-farm is her compost bin. She has a lot of good tips for composting in her book Gardening for Geeks. There are ways to maximize the nutrients of compost- which is important. The plants which one grows to eat need to get their nutrients from somewhere, and dirt is only dirt unless it has nutrients- only then is it soil. Soil composition is really an interesting science, and is often neglected by neophyte gardeners. And new composters as well don't realize that simply throwing their old food in their gardens isn't providing it with what they need.

Composting is cool

The husband and wife team Rob and Chelsea McFarland, who founded Honeylove were also there. I really love what they have done to educate people about bees and to help people become beekeepers. (In fact, I took my 17 year old daughter and her friend out to meet the bees the next day, which was AMAZING)They recently acquired some chickens, and now belong to the growing numbers of people who have an urban farm, chickens, and beehives in their backyard. It goes to show you that its do-able, its being done, and it allows for a new sort of liberty that we as a consumer culture have lost along the way. Its not going off the grid, but its taking measures to live in ways that are in alignment with the wellbeing of our planet. The more we do it, the less we tax the planet, the less we participate in consumer madness, we are healthier (and therefore 70% less likely to end up with chronic diseases- which puts you in the relentless grip of the Big Pharma) and we are happier, (there is nothing quite like a fresh egg from your own backyard, scrambled with basil and tomatoes you grew) because you can't be miserable, shallow and materialistic AND grow your own food- you simply can't.

Rob and Chelsea McFarland, founders of Honeylove

If you want to know more about Honeylove, CLICK HERE. If you are in the LA area, they have beekeeping mentoring workshops the third Sunday of every month.

If you want to check out the GardenerD website, CLICK HERE

Occupy yourself!!!

xoxo,

Ashley Dane
Shake the Hive

Shake The Hive- the Non Profit Organization!!!

I'm baaa-aaack!

Its amazing how a short trip to Key West with my kids could throw me off my game so much. It was a much needed trip, in the wake of a big round of layoffs at my now former job- including lots of very public drama about the rehab where I worked in the Hollywood Reporter.

Basically, I am in the middle of one of those life transitions. For about 30 seconds, I thought I might panic- "Holy shit, I have been laid off, and I am the sole supporter and of two teenage daughters, our insurance was through work, what the hell am I going to do?!?!" That passed very quickly, because I know what I want to do. And I don't want to do anything else. I don't want to go work for someone, or run someone else's company, or even start my own, as such. I want to do my non profit, and that is what I mean to do, no matter what. This blog has been instrumental in coming to this realization.

Me and my teenage muses on the plane to Key West

So here is what its gonna look like-

The first year, I will take 6-8 teenage girls, who I will find by talking to local high school counselors. I will focus on girls for now, and girls from homes where the dads are absent. Why this demographic? Because I understand it. And I understand how disconnected these girls are, from themselves and therefore anyone else, and their desperation to forge connections, without having the tools to know how, create a lot of havoc in their lives. And the moms (and I know this all too well) are spread thin trying to raise these kids, and often, in spite of all their best efforts, the girls spin out of control and the mothers don't know what to do, lacking resources such as time, money, and support. These girls fall through the cracks- there are no real programs for them. They often aren't the lowest rung of the economy, although its a struggle for the mom, the kids look fine, dress fine, have an iphone- no one would know they are suffering from looking at them.

Each girl, I will spend some time with individually at first. I will sit with them and start seedlings with them, planting the seeds in the little cups and just talking. I have found that simple interactions like this, conversations shared over an activity, are very connective. I will also be showing them what they will be doing with the next generation of girls, as they will mentor the next group.

A familiar sight to most parents- this is our youth, and our future. (this is not one of my kids)

This will hopefully take place on a piece of small land, perhaps the backyard of a small house. This will depend on funding, but some land is necessary. The set up will include some land for planting on, which will be supplemented by garden towers as well, hopefully an area for beehives (if the laws change by then- if not, we will keep our beehives where it is allowed, maybe at the bee sanctuary that Honeylove has in Moorpark), an area for an outdoor fire pit, and then the house. The house will be where the office is, where classes will take place, and act as a sort of clubhouse and refuge for the girls. If there is a pool- even better. I want this place to be a refuge for the girls, a place they naturally gravitate to, that is safe and loving and always welcomes them with open arms.

So the gist of it is this- The girls will grow their own food, and in so doing, learn a lot about personal development through the metaphor of growing things, through the pride of accomplishment and the self esteem that comes from this kind of work. We will work with the bees, and they will learn about the community that a beehive is, the sisterhood that a colony is, and the simple devotion to a cause greater than oneself. All thw work done with gardening and bees will be to help stimulate awareness, compassion, and connection in the girls, and help build a value system that our youth so desperately needs in order to be good stewards of this planet. And last but not least, they will learn about the importance of these activities as a part of the solution to the world's problems. they will learn to make food with the vegetables and greens and fruit they grow, with a nutritionist on hand to help uncover the magic of food. they will learn that they have been branded to their whole lives, told what they should like, and that it is vital, and revolutionary, to question everything that they have been sold, and to investigate everything for its inherent value, not just food products, but we will start with that discussion and let the rest unfold. They will learn that the bees need our help, and that they can maintain their own beehives, grow their own food- ongoingly- and that it is not only feasible to do (even in urban environments) but mandatory for the future of their world. If the harvests are substantial, if the bees produce honey,  if we have enough land, we may get a booth at a local farmer's market. That part remains to be seen, but I picture it as sort of an organic Homeboy Industries for teenage girls.

Some of the classes that will be taught is the art of social media marketing. Kids are already all over this stuff, but for all the wrong reasons. They will be taught SEO, and blog writing, so they can maintain blogs about their experiences, twitter about it, instagram, pinterest, get their friends interested, and thus learn to create a buzz about something empowering, instead of who hooked up with who over the weekend. They will blog weekly on the website, which will, with SEO, create more visibility for the non profit itself. They will add their blogs to their own facebook page, the non profit facebook page, and create their own social consciousness facebook page. They will be tasked with coming up with their own logos, and learning to design logos, create memes with a social message suitable to their peer group. They will CONNECT, which is what they so desperately needed to do in the first place. They will build self esteem, which connects one to oneself. They will be empowered to have a voice in their community of peers.



We can't get kids off facebook- but they can use it for social awareness!

Every weekend, there will be a gathering, and either a class, or a documentary screening, or a trip to various places- Animal Acres, the Wolf Sanctuary, or there will be workshops on sustainability or beekeeping- there are plenty of great things to expose these kids to. They will care for their gardens, harvest their crops, make salads, learn about buying local with trips to the farmer's market- so they can help their busy moms in the kitchen, and perhaps even teach them about eating with a social consciousness rather than for the sake of convenience. The moms, it must be said, will benefit from this too, and they are meant to. They need a hand. I aim to give them one.  We will keep an eye on the grades of the girls, and if they need help, like a tutor, we will find it. If they are having any other troubles, we will be supportive in all ways.

One weekend a month there will be a sleepover, and they can each invite one friend. We will make dinner from the gardens, and sit around the outdoor fire, talking. No phones, no facebook. Just old fashioned talking.

There are a couple of other components to the program- the trip to Bali at the end of the program, for one. The girls will acquire passports during the program, and they will, after months of tending to their gardens and bees and social media platforms and their audience, plan a kickstarter campaign to raise money for their trip to Bali. They will learn about fundraising this way. If they are short, the non profit will make up the difference, but they will participate in their own adventure.

People in Bali smile from deep within- they radiate good will

Why Bali? Several reasons. I have never been to a place where the people are so incredibly happy, and they have nothing. One of their blog assignments will be to go to Beverly Hills and observe the people there, and write about the level of happiness or joy they see around them in the city of mass consumption. they will do this same exercise in Bali. I want them to grasp, in an experiential and meaningful way, what truly makes one happy is not the acquiring of things, or being skinny or sought after by boys or having the latest handbag. There is a lot to learn from the people on Bali. Also, Bali has a lot of exotic culture and amazing things to experience, and this will connect the girls to their global community, open their eyes to the world at large. Its also very inexpensive once you get there, and since this is a non-profit, that makes a difference, too.

Balinese pre-teen dancers in traditional Legong attire

When they come back from Bali, they will mentor the next generation of girls, and their Moms will become a support sister to the new Moms. In the second phase, the Center will hold support groups for the Moms as well.  The First Generation girls will help the second generation with their gardening, blogging- all of it. The First generation girls will have either a small garden or a garden tower at home, to continue with what they have learned on their own- and maybe even a small bee hive, if the laws change. this is why them Moms are going to need support- the girls are going to take what they have learned and create a lifestyle around it, and they will need support.

The second to last phase for the girls will be placement as an intern at a local non profit of their choosing. They will be guided to understand what they are passionate about, and learn that they can make a difference, they can change the world, that they are important in this process.  As such, at the end of the internship, should they want to create their own non-profit, they will be placed in the non profit incubator, where they will get the help and support they need to get started on their own path.

Finally- and this is very important in communicating with kids- there will be the inclusion of a certain dialogue about it all that instigates interest in kids, as it does for me. A certain irreverence is called for, like Thug Kitchen- Eat Like You Give A Fuck, or punk rock homesteading, or the very real idea  of approaching this lifestyle as being Revolutionary and Radical. Case in point- two weeks ago, I went out guerilla gardening, right after it got dark. I asked my 16 year old and her friend if they wanted to go, and they said, "Ummm, no." Then I said, "You have to sneak around and plant them, like graffiti, but with plants." They leapt at that. There is a way to speak of these important things that kids will listen to, and the ones who are going to help me figure that out are the kids themselves.

So...that is what I am gonna be up to. This is the first time I have revealed my intentions in public, but the readers of my blog have been SOOOO incredibly supportive, and this blog grew so much faster than I ever could have imagined, that I trusted you guys with this first. This is gonna be off the hook!!! I am really excited. I truly believe that "if you build it, they will come." I don't know how to do a non-profit. I have never done anything like this in my life. But that's not about to stop me. And by stating my intentions publically, I am bound to it in a way I wouldn't be if I didn't.

The long and the short of it- I want to inspire kids to care about themselves, their community, and the planet. I want them to use the platforms of social media for shifting social consciousness. I want to open their eyes to the bigger picture, to the world at large, and their place in it. I want to create pathways between their compassionate urges and their ability to act on them. I want to lay the foundation for a value system that will continue to grow and to give. this will ripple out in ways I can't foresee, but I know it will be good, and I know the world needs people like this.

Occupy yourself!!

Ashley Dane

Designer Bee Hives

And Why Shouldn’t You Have A Swank Gadget For Keeping Bees At Home?

Honeybees are on the decline. Urban beekeeping could help.

 

Five years ago, honeybee colonies started dying off. No one knows why. Some theories point to the impact of pesticide use or the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, which is transmitted by a Varooa mite. Whatever the cause, it’s bad news for bees and the crops they pollinate. Oddly enough, bees are doing better in cities than in the countryside--which may shed light on the cause of their disappearance--and some urban dwellers have begun keeping bees to help stem their decline. Seizing on the trend, Philips recently unveiled an at-home hive, allowing anyone--anyone, that is, who isn’t deathly allergic to bee stings--the ability to harvest fresh honey from their window.

The concept is part of the Dutch electronic company’s Microbial Home design, an eco-system concept unveiled at this year’s Dutch design week. (Click here for an earlier post on the kitchen component, which is powered in part by human poop.) Pressed against an opening in a window, the Urban Beehive splits the difference between inside and out, with a flowerpot and entry passage outside and a tinted-glass shell, filled with honeycomb frames, inside. Honey can be harvested by releasing smoke into the hive and opening the top cover.

Beekeeping is still illegal in many cities. New Yorkers are in luck; the city legalized the practice last year, and beekeeping classes are available here.


Borrowed from this website- ://www.fastcodesign.com/1665353/and-why-shouldnt-you-have-a-swank-gadget-for-keeping-bees-at-home

Urban Gardening

Right about the time I realized I needed to change the way I was looking at, and living, my life, I was lucky enough to have two unused garden towers in my proximity that I could learn to use. At my work, my boss had purchased two of them, but no one had championed the cause. It was perfect synchronicity. How many people living in cities don't have the option of growing their food, due to lack of soil or space? Plenty, I bet. Me included.

I also have the good fortune of having someone show me how to get these things started. There are so many ways to talk oneself out of doing something- "I don't know how", or "Maybe next week," or "I can't afford it," or "It won't work." The universe in all its goodness eliminated all such conversations from my head. If I can learn how to do these things, I can teach others. Its amazing to me that the most radical thing any of us can do is to get back to nature as much as possible- and there is nothing more natural than growing your own food.

So my friend who came to help also takes care of the garden towers at Step Up on Second, which is an organization which helps the homeless in Los Angeles. They have a small café where they serve hotdogs and hamburgers, and the homeless people on the program work the café and learn how to have a job. There are many aspects to this organization, and they are doing amazing work. One aspect is the garden towers on the roof- I think he said there were 25 of them, and they grow food that they can use to help feed the homeless people who come through while they teach them how to be self sustaining.  Here is a picture below- pretty amazing. By the way- you can make monthly payments for a garden tower, and they payments are reasonable.

Garden Towers at Step Up on Vine

My friend and I first started to create the seedlings. I got seed packets of peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, arugula. We put rock wool into plastic trays with individual growing bins- you do this so the roots don't grow into each other. Then you put 4 or 5 seeds in each one, and cover with a nutrient rich covering. Its important to mark what you planted- we did it with coffee stirrers with the name of the vegetable and the date on the back. Then you soak the seed beds, but be careful not to disturb the seeds.

The start of an urban garden



If you were not going to use a tower and were going to go guerilla gardening (which I implore you to do) then you would do the same thing but you could use potting soil which is already fortified with nutrients. In guerilla urban gardening, you would plant vegetables or other edibles in public spaces, or in front of your apartment building, on medians, on the courthouse lawn, parks, etc. Nothing at all wrong with doing this!  once your seedlings are good and strong, plant them where they will be able to get water- any public landscaping will have sprinkler systems.

So in about two weeks, we will have little seedlings. Every day I need to lightly water the seedlings and not leave too much water in the bottom tray- or they roots will grow down towards the water, and we'd rather encourage the plants to grow towards the sun.

Once they are seedlings, we transfer them to the garden towers. The towers only need to be filled with water and the nutrient solution and then you basically leave them alone and let them grow. You need to have access to an outlet as they need to plug in for the water to pump up through to each little basket. My first plants I put in my garden tower are growing- some died. White flies got to many of them. If you have white flies, a water and dish soap solution sprayed onto the leaves makes them go away.


Here is my vision- I want to teach people how to create urban gardens and beehives. Bees have a higher rate of survival in cities, and you can have your own source of honey. The gardens can give you certain vegetables and fruit- I am staying away from things like lettuce or herbs right now and focusing on things like tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers- its easy enough to get salad stuff from the farmer's market. I would like to help people understand the importance of buying from their local farmer's markets- its fresh, generally organic, and has not taken a lot of fossil fuels to send on trucks and airplanes from distant countries to your grocery store chain. I know we can't grow everything, and we can't buy everything at the farmer's market- but we can do a lot, and its a great start.

When I go to the farmer's market, I look at the people there and am so happy to be among like minded people. Its revolutionary. Buying local instead of at the supermarkets takes money out of the hands of those who seek to control the world's food sources.  There is much more at the farmer's market than produce- there is bread, meat, fish, eggs- you can get a lot of your shopping done there. the more you buy there, the more you are telling the GMO food corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta to fuck the fuck off.

OCCUPY YOURSELF!!!
 

Feral Swarms of Bees need Love, Too!

After my first close encounter with bees, I want more. For me, there are two things going on here- one is that I want to help the bee population. By helping the bee population, we help the earth's population. And secondly, I just get a buzz off the bees. (Pun intended, and I promise to keep it to a minimum.)

Being so near the bees afforded me an opportunity I have never had; namely, to get close and watch what it is they actually do. I haven't gotten close enough to see the pollen sacs on the back of their legs filled up- that's how they get it back to the hive. I haven't seen the worker bees at the hive greet the incoming honeybees who land at the entrance to the hive, and do this thing almost looks like they are patting them down. I didn't know that all the honeybees are basically female- all except for the drones. Drones are male, and are not loyal to a queen as the rest of a hive are. Drones can show up one day, and hang out for as long as they want, as long as they 'service' the queen. They can stay as long as they want and aren't expected to do anything except please the queen so she can reproduce. That is how they get to also mix up their genetic gene pool. So they come and go, and don't do anything except have sex. There are only a handful of them per hundreds of female bees. It is an entirely matriarchal society, and I had never gotten to see a queen, or a drone, until I went to the Honeylove mentoring day.

God Save the Queen! We mean it, man!

It is said that when the bees 'get you', you kind of start getting obsessed. It doesn't make sense in a lot of ways- you can't talk to them or cuddle them or have a relationship in any sort of tangible way- the relationship seems to be more of one with yourself and what the hive represents or amplifies for you. I think its awe inspiring, really, to see all the organization and community, the commitment to the whole, the loyalty to the queen, the perfection of the honeycombs and that it all results in something that was, for thousands of years, the sweetest substance available to man. I love that bees contribute so much to the well being of all life on earth. That is why the next thing I have to do is to learn how to go catch a feral swarm of bees. I will be joining some other bee rescuing people in the near future to learn how to do it. And then there has to be a sanctuary to relocate them, like Honeylove's two sanctuaries in Moorpark and Topanga Canyon. We hope that soon, the laws in LA will change to allow for beekeeping in urban areas. Until then- well, I might indulge in a little guerilla beekeeping. Maybe.


I am also inspired by the act of bee keeping in a revolutionary sense. It is in the best interest of the food corporations to see the bees die. If they die, then we become dependent on them as our primary food source. And if we depend on them, we pay our hard earned dollars for their GMO crap that compromises our immune systems. We become weaker and sicker and dumber. If you have ever read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, that society bred certain castes of people for certain tasks by altering their genetic codes.  People who were in mines were created to be shorter, with short legs and strong arms. So in this New World Order we are fast approaching, the foods from the GMO tainted crops could create a lower class of people and eliminate the middle- both financially, and constitutionally. There will be the rich- who will be the healthiest and smartest class,  as they will be the only ones to be able to afford the rare and precious natural foods that support brain health and physical well being, while the lower class eats food that makes them dumber and weaker. Dumb them down and they won't question their lives. Weaker so they don't have the energy to do anything but work to buy the tainted food and come home and plug into the internet. They will eat the food that makes them weak and sick, and slave to pay for insurance premiums that they must have due to their weakened immune systems. The lower class will simply be slaves that don't realize they are slaves, doing all the labor so the rich can enjoy being rich. Sort of like in Hunger Games, all the outlying colonies slaving to provide the rich with food and coal and the like, all held in place by the games. As long as you keep them entertained. Its like the blinders on a horse-  they will remain docile and go willingly as long as they don't know what is exactly going on.

Me and bees, June 2013

Food is the entry point into this New World Order. The corporations who control the world's food sources will control everything.  And water, too, which was brought to public attention by the recent quote from Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck that he believes there should be no public water, that all water sources should be privatized. He believes that people feel too entitled about water.  What if that happened? Nestle is a HUGE company, they make billions selling bottled water. Its not out of the realm of possibility that it could happen. Its not out of the realm of possibility that all the bees could die, that Monsanto and Syngenta and Bayer could dominate all world food sources, that Nestle could own the rights to all water. What then?

This is more devious, more insidious than even using religion to control the people. That used to work for, say, the British to control their empire, or the Roman Catholics- it works inside a given system where there is one prevailing religion, and it has worked for thousands of years. But now, on a global scale, there are too many. Religion can not control the globe. But those who control the food and water supply- that's a different story.

So back to the bees. Part of my love for them, besides the elegance of their community, is this. By loving them and helping them, and teaching others to do the same, we fight the system that is threatening to enslave us. Bees thrive in cities best due to there being less pesticides. So it stands to reason that if more people would give space in their back yards or their roof tops for a few hives- and I mean people all over LA, all over California, all over the US, all over the world- then we can keep the bee population healthy, and the natural food growing. The next step is we have to grow what food we can and eat it, or buy local, instead of shopping at the major grocery stores. We can stop buying any brands with GMOs. This is a capitalist society- we have more power than you realize. They need us to spend our money on their products to survive.

How is your American Dream holding up?

Many people won't. They are simply too inured in the McHappy Life to consider a lifestyle change of this nature. They think this is folly, and it only serves their apathy to be cavalier about it. Or they think it won't happen in their lifetime. Or they think its a bunch of hippies with conspiracy theories messing with the American Way. So many people have agendas to stay comfortable and simply can't be bothered- I hope you, whoever you are, reading this, are not one of those people, or if you are, you are considering making some changes. Please look at your life, do some more research on what GMOs are, talk to others about it. We need you.

This is why I say this revolution begins in the kitchen. We stop supporting the food corporations. We become responsible for what we eat and feed our kids and where it comes from by buying local as much as we can, and using the lists of brands to boycott when we shop. If you are bold, you can look into beekeeping. You don't get stung- you wear a suit, and they don't need much maintenance- they know how to live without you, they just need safe places to do it. As for water- there are companies that will come put a water filtration system in your house- we use Advanced Pure Water, and it amazing, alkaline water. These are things that anyone and everyone can do, every day, in their own homes. And the more of us that do it, the less power they have. We don't need to riot in the  streets- we can riot on our facebook pages, we can wage war in our kitchens, we can enlist our friends and family into the cause- we don't need to campaign- we just need to talk about it.

Here is one way that bees are different than most humans- when someone threatens the well being of their community, they will die to defend it- since they always die after they sting someone, and they only sting when threatened. Most humans will not rise to the occasion. Most will turn on the TV, or browse facebook, or do anything to avoid this reality because it asks them to DO something. Don't be a zombie! OCCUPY YOURSELF!!!!

The zombie apocalypse is already upon us

Urban Beekeeping- Visiting the Honeylove Bee Sanctuary

First day with the bees!

I spent the morning at the Honeylove Bee Sanctuary in Moorpark, which is basically California farmland that we Angelenos rarely ever see. I kind of love it out there. Its so wide open and rural and smells good- the older I get, the less I like the city.

It was especially intriguing to get to see the bees close up- you know how it is- we always see them fly by, usually we swat them away or, in some cases, run from them. Maybe we will get to watch one busy inside a flower for a minute- but to see them in their homes, up close is completely a different world.

All bees are female except the drones. Drones don't belong to any one hive, as the other honeybees do- they are loyal to their queen and their hive, but drones- the males, of which there are very few comparatively, can just up and leave the hive and be welcomed in at the next hive- they only need them to make more babies, they serve no other purpose than to mate with the queen.

It was neat to see the sacs where they store the pollen on their legs- I've never gotten close enough to see that, especially full of pollen.  I also didn't realize royal jelly is what they feed the queen- that is all she ever eats, and only the queen gets to eat it.

Their society is very ordered, each bee knows its job and its place, what to do and when to do it.

When the beekeeper Bill opened the hives, the smoke pacified the bees a little bit (they sense the smoke and the signal that they get is that a fire is near so to fill up on honey to take to the next hive that they will have to create- so they stick their heads into the combs and start eating honey, and that calms down a lot of them. The others spent a bit of time bashing into the beekeeper netting, or not paying any attention to us at all. But some were mad, and wanted to let us know it. I am glad they didn't sting me. They die after they sting you, their little intestines trailing out behind them like silk. I didn't want them to die from a misunderstanding- I wasn't there to hurt them.

I was kind of hoping that they would simply feel my bee love and that energy would be enough to create harmony, and docility on their part. I grew up on Disney as a child and did LSD as a teenager, so these flights of fancy happen from time to time. The reality is- bees are bees. They aren't there to love me or like me or even pay much attention to me- they've got shit to do! But I am fascinated with them, and that isn't going away any time soon.

Next- I need to learn how to catch feral swarms of bees! I can't wait.

Go check out the cool stuff Honeylove does- Honeylove website.

And here is a link to LA Weekly's Cover story this week about Urban Beekeeping in Los Angeles, featuring Rob and Chelsea who started Honeylove-LA Weekly Urban Beekeepers in LA article

 These folks spend a lot of time rescuing wild swarms and bringing them all the way out to Moorpark to introduce them to their new homes. These are really good and kind people doing something extraordinary!

The hives at Honeylove Bee Sanctuary