Bees Were Looking for a Home in Sierra Madre

Everybody says Sierra Madre is a great place to live, but who knew that even bees would be looking to set up living quarters here?

On Monday, were tipped off to a swarm of bees setting up house in a jacaranda tree in the 600 block of West Sierra Madre Boulevard.  Because it was close to a busy neighborhood sidewalk, officers contacted residents of a townhouse complex where the tree stands, to warn of the possible danger. 

A member of the Sierra Madre Villas Homeowner's Association, who happened to be at home, promised the officers that he would attend to the matter immediately. The HOA official didn't call one of Sierra Madre's real estate agents about the swarm, but rather found a beekeeper.

Matthew the Bee Guy was contacted because he promised to remove the swarm and see that they were safely removed to continue the pollination of flowers and fruits and the production of honey out of harm's way for the neighborhood and others.  The Bee Guy, whose real name is Mathew Volkoff, arrived from his home in La Habra Heights in the late afternoon, "a time when bees are hunkering down for the night," Volkoff said.

Volkoff climbed into the jacaranda tree, which was planted about four years ago and is still pretty small, reached above the swarm and cut the branch they were clinging to.  He carefully (who wouldn't be careful?) directed the swarm that contained, he said, about 6,000 European honey bees to a hive he had brought with him. 

Patiently waiting for the bees to get into the hive, Volkoff told the watching neighbors what was happening. "The swarm is protecting the queen bee," he explained.  The beekeeper looked down at the agitated mound of bees and declared, "There's the queen bee."  With his gloved hand, he reached into the mound to show her off.  Her majesty was larger than the surrounding bees, but only an expert could have picked her out. 

Volkoff said within the hierarchy of bee life, it was likely that wherever the hive is located, this swarm had grown too large and a new hive was being sought.  That, he surmised, would be the end of this queen's reign as a new hive calls for new leadership.  In the bees quest for a new hive, "they are looking for a home now, and if they don't find another one, they will stay in this tree." 

Volkoff is a beekeeper with 10 years experience who more or less stumbled into the business when an elderly beekeeper abandoned his hives.  He keeps anywhere from 12 to 25 hives, the number depending on weather variations, attacks by the African bee, and the Bee Colony Collapse that from time to time decimates the bee population for unknown reasons. 

For his part, Volkoff will take this Sierra Madre swarm under his wing and hope that they produce his all-time high amount from a single hive: 65 gallons of honey.  He keeps some hives at his home in La Habre Heights, but most are located in our local mountains on Angeles National Forest land.  "We need bees," he says.  "It's sad to exterminate them."