Backwards Beekepers

The other day I came home to find a huge swarm of bees in front of my house, right by the curb. It turned out they were making a hive in the concrete box that contains our water meter. With 3 kids under 8, I wasn't thrilled about having a beehive in our front yard, so I contacted Backwards Beekeepers - a collective of urban beekeepers who believe in cultivating organic, wild honeybees using age-old techniques and no chemicals. I found out about these folks from Boingboing, and I'm really fascinated with what they do. They will remove bee colonies from one place, and transport them to a hive where they won't disturb people and their honey can be collected.

Anyway, I emailed the address on their blog, and a few days later I got a call from a beekeeper named Joseph. He came the next morning at sunrise, collected the bees and moved the hive to an agricultural area where the bees could be productive and live hassle-free.

I'm super into this! If I didn't have little kids, I might try keeping some bees and making organic honey. But for now I'll just enjoy following the group and their cool blog. The video above shows how they collect and transport a hive.

Backwards Beekeepers