Legalize It! Couple Campaigns for Backyard Beekeeping in City Limits

Photo by Van Truan via Shutterstock

See a bee in your backyard? Rob and Chelsea McFarland are begging you not to call the exterminator.

The westside couple, according to Culver City Patch, is on a crusade to legalize beekeeping in Los Angeles city limits and bring the good news about bees to the masses (who might only hear horror stories like this).

The couple first got interested in beekeeping when they watched the documentary "The Vanishing of the Bees," which deals with the decline in global bee populations. It wasn't long before Rob started making calls to move bees onto a farm in Simi Valley and Chelsea started dressing up in a bee costume at the farmer's markets and painting her toes with black-and-yellow stripes.

The couple became interested in bees when they learned that they could get involved in protecting a species in their own backyard.

“It was like, why do we have to fly all the way to Indonesia to help the world?” Chelsea told Culver City Patch. “We can do it right here in our backyard.”

Santa Monica legalized it this year, and now the couple has its sights on Los Angeles. The couple has been working with the neighborhood council in Mar Vista to start up an urban beekeeping pilot program in the neighborhood patterned after Santa Monica's.

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By Emma G. Gallegos in News on August 31, 2011 5:29 PM

Comments [rss]

Sullivan131

My old neighbors had their own beehive kit in a "controlled and contained environment"

One day as I am getting home i see neighbors running wild... desperately swatting bees and running their fingers through their hair to get them out.

Yes they didn't know how to properly extract the honey and the bees swarmed. There was this cloud of bees and they were incredibly aggressive. I had to run from my car to my house and several charged at me.

My dog was stung almost to death and several of my neighbors were stung multiple times. Other pets were also seriously stung.

That was just one hive. Also we found out later that Killer Bees were invading existing hives and repopulating them with their own species. I thank bees for all their hard work but they can be extremely dangerous in large numbers like that and should not be allowed near homes...or at least somewhere where humans can interfere.

High in the trees is fine, but down at ground level...HELL NO. It takes only one idiot to piss them off.

The city should not allow this. Someone with an extreme allergic reaction can easily die from this.

tewsday

I'm terrified of bees, but I'm cool with the idea of backyard beekeeping. So long as the yard is nowhere near mine.

BoingBoing had an article on the Backwards Beekeepers a while back, and I've had their website bookmarked ever since. If I ever run into an unwanted hive (in Los Angeles), I'm calling them. They come and get the bees for free!

Judith M.

Worst idea ever. I speak as one married to a person with a deadly bee sting allergy. There is a good, solid reason for keeping bees beyond the outskirts of largely populated areas.