HoneyLover of the Month: DENNIS

Dennis Broderick only has one hive, but don’t let that fool you. He knows his way around bees pretty well.

It all started in 2009 when Dennis was growing an heirloom garden and then, as these things do, it all snowballed. He got a worm farm. And a composter. And when he looked around he decided he needed more pollinators. One day later he heard about the Backwards Beekeepers on KPCC and within a week Dennis had been to a meeting and was making arrangements with HoneyLove mentor Kirk Anderson to bring a swarm.

A few weeks later Dennis was doing his own feral colony rescues all over Los Angeles. (His ringtone cries “Help!” when a rescue call comes in.)

Dennis still has just one hive. “I had two but one of them was mean so I sent them off to a beekeeper in the high desert,” Dennis explained. “One hive is plenty. And if they abscond, I just get more.”

His hive is five boxes high and Dennis only goes in for a few frames of honey every now and then. “I want them to be bees and pollinate. That’s it.” When asked if his colony has a name he laughed. “They’re bugs! I don’t name bugs.”

Dennis also owns and shows Grand Champion Cairn Terriers. Better yet, he has his dogs Betty and Deuce in Earth Dog and Lure Coursing competitions because he believes that dogs not only need a job but that they should get dirty and have fun.

After a stint in the military, Dennis worked for ABC TV for 25 years in Network Operations, retiring as Department Head.  “It got fun when things went wrong and you had to fly by the seat of your pants.”

Sounds a lot like bee rescue, doesn’t it?

Follow Dennis and his bee adventures here:
http://buzzinthedale.blogspot.com/