Chaparral Mountain Honey Co.

Chaparral Mountain Honey Co. Chaparral Mountain Honey Company is a family-owned company located in the foothills of Altadena with over 45 years of beekeeping experience.
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We specialize in producing single varietals and local wildflower mixes (mixed by the bees) from southern California and now, Arizona, too.

World Bee Day is May 20th! Celebrate the day with the sweet taste of honey.
05/16/2024

World Bee Day is May 20th! Celebrate the day with the sweet taste of honey.

Can you BEE-lieve that Bug Fair 2024 is right around the corner on May 18 & 19? Some import-ANT information: tickets for...
04/30/2024

Can you BEE-lieve that Bug Fair 2024 is right around the corner on May 18 & 19?

Some import-ANT information: tickets for Bug Fair have officially gone on sale today! Please book your tickets for this event. Visit NHM.ORG/bugfair for all the details! See you there!

We are two months away from the 2024 Bug Fair at the LA Natural History Museum!
03/18/2024

We are two months away from the 2024 Bug Fair at the LA Natural History Museum!

Over one million species. Only one Bug Fair.

We are looking forward to seeing you at the 37th annual Bug Fair! May 20 - 21 at the LA County Museum of Natural History...
05/01/2023

We are looking forward to seeing you at the 37th annual Bug Fair! May 20 - 21 at the LA County Museum of Natural History.

Join NHM this May for a two-day festival celebrating our winged, multi-legged, and squirmy friends for the 37th annual Bug Fair!

Beehives in the snow! 🐝 (It was all melted by the afternoon.)
01/25/2023

Beehives in the snow! 🐝 (It was all melted by the afternoon.)

01/23/2023
It’s rainy and cold in Arizona’s Verde Valley. So far this winter the bees are doing alright. One hive died but the othe...
01/16/2023

It’s rainy and cold in Arizona’s Verde Valley. So far this winter the bees are doing alright. One hive died but the others are still heavy with honey. This week night time temps will dip down the 20’s. The bees will pull in their cluster and buzz their muscles, eating more stored honey to stay warm.

This is an amazing advance. Foulbrood is a horrific disease that every beekeeper fears. This is good news.
01/07/2023

This is an amazing advance. Foulbrood is a horrific disease that every beekeeper fears. This is good news.

Dalan Animal Health’s vaccine for American foulbrood, an aggressive bacterial disease, is the first for any insect in the United States.

Flash honey sale! Look for the email from Chaparralbee in your inbox. If you didn't get an email, send us your address a...
11/20/2022

Flash honey sale!
Look for the email from Chaparralbee in your inbox. If you didn't get an email, send us your address and we'll send you the order form. This sale is by pre-order only for pick up the end of November or middle of December.

Sometimes some honeybees are like me. They’d rather stay out in the rain and get wet than go into the shelter of the hi...
09/22/2022

Sometimes some honeybees are like me. They’d rather stay out in the rain and get wet than go into the shelter of the hive. (Cottonwood, AZ)

09/12/2022

As this year’s honey harvest nears an end, it’s fun to take time to share some of the visual aesthetics of that process. One of my favorites is filling five gallon buckets from the stainless steel settling tank. In this video honey flows out of the 1 1/2” gate at the base of that tank. Its viscosity makes it form smooth overlap patterns, and its surface reflects light from a flashlight I’m holding in dynamic bright spots and reflections. The aroma is wonderful as well. This is from a batch of Altadena Gold Wildflower. Enjoy….

07/20/2022

Washboarding is an activity that honeybee workers do, usually when there is minimal nectar flow, during warmer weather, and near the hive entrance. It’s called washboarding because the motion resembles the old fashioned method of washing clothes on a washboard. These bees are focused. The motion is intense, repeated for long periods, and involves licking the surface they’re standing on. No one really knows why they do this. It might be for cleanliness, or because there’s nothing better to do with no nectar to gather, or some other reason. Maybe they’re dancing?

07/17/2022

This time of the year, at the end of the honey flow, is often when hives will swarm to replace an aging queen. It also helps to have a break in brood rearing to reduce the parasitic varroa mite population in a hive. When many hives swarm at the same time, they often settle in the same place forming very large swarms, that contain many queens. Recently, this happened at one of our apiaries. Fortunately, these oversized swarms tend to settle close to the ground, making them easy and fun to collect. I give each box collected a frame of eggs, so they can raise their own new queen, and it helps them stay in the box I put them into, rather than drifting back to the swarm. Over 3 days I collected 26 boxes of bees from 3 of these huge swarms. Once they settle down, each box has about 4-8 frames of bees. I give them drawn comb and some honey and pollen frames to get them off to an easy start.

A field bee flies under the colorfully backlit canopy of an epiphyte flower’s petals to begin collecting nectar and poll...
05/29/2022

A field bee flies under the colorfully backlit canopy of an epiphyte flower’s petals to begin collecting nectar and pollen from this magnificent bloom. Location: Altadena.

It’s good to be back! Bug Fair!
05/21/2022

It’s good to be back! Bug Fair!

We’ll be at ’s ! Will you? Be sure to visit us at the Museum May 21 and 22 for all things bugs, back on-site, in person...
05/17/2022

We’ll be at ’s ! Will you? Be sure to visit us at the Museum May 21 and 22 for all things bugs, back on-site, in person, and better than ever—advance tickets required: http://nhm.org/bugfair

Over a million species. Only one Bug Fair.

Wildflowers are busting out all over the foothills! Bees are making lots of honey this year.
05/15/2022

Wildflowers are busting out all over the foothills! Bees are making lots of honey this year.

Just one more week until the Bug Fair! This year you need tickets - use this link. 🐝🐝🐝
05/14/2022

Just one more week until the Bug Fair! This year you need tickets - use this link. 🐝🐝🐝

Over a million species. Only one Bug Fair.

The bees are making wildflower honey this year! We are looking forward to more Sage and Altadena Gold.
05/01/2022

The bees are making wildflower honey this year! We are looking forward to more Sage and Altadena Gold.

Even honeybees love roses! Happy spring!
04/13/2022

Even honeybees love roses! Happy spring!

Good news, honey lovers! There will be a Bug Fair at the LA Natural History Museum this year. The dates are May 21 - 22 ...
04/06/2022

Good news, honey lovers! There will be a Bug Fair at the LA Natural History Museum this year. The dates are May 21 - 22 and we'll be there.

Honey Lovers! We are opening up orders for December, with pick-ups for December 11 - 14. If you'd like an order form in ...
11/28/2021

Honey Lovers! We are opening up orders for December, with pick-ups for December 11 - 14. If you'd like an order form in Word, DM me at [email protected].

Some still photos of honeybees and a Carpenter Bee foraging on cactus blooms at Huntington Gardens.
08/29/2021

Some still photos of honeybees and a Carpenter Bee foraging on cactus blooms at Huntington Gardens.

08/29/2021

A field bee gathering pollen from cactus flowers with a little slow motion thrown in to see the dynamics of hovering flight. It almost seems gravity defying. Worker bees have specialized hairs arranged on their front legs designed to act like combs to brush pollen grains off of their body and onto the flat outside tibial surface of their back legs, where the accumulation becomes what we call a pollen sac. (Location: Huntington Gardens)

Going back through some old photos and I found this action shot. Coming in for a landing!
04/13/2021

Going back through some old photos and I found this action shot. Coming in for a landing!

Who wants some fabulous honey? With no Insect Fair this May, we are wondering if we should schedule a May sale in Altade...
04/10/2021

Who wants some fabulous honey? With no Insect Fair this May, we are wondering if we should schedule a May sale in Altadena? Let us know in the comments if you're in!

Spring is here in northern Arizona. Foothill Carpenter bee (Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex) foraging on a Western Redbud ...
04/07/2021

Spring is here in northern Arizona. Foothill Carpenter bee (Xylocopa tabaniformis orpifex) foraging on a Western Redbud (Cercis occidentals).

The Arizona bees had a snow day in January!
02/01/2021

The Arizona bees had a snow day in January!

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Videos

As this year’s honey harvest nears an end, it’s fun to take time to share some of the visual aesthetics of that process. One of my favorites is filling five gallon buckets from the stainless steel settling tank. In this video honey flows out of the 1 1/2” gate at the base of that tank. Its viscosity makes it form smooth overlap patterns, and its surface reflects light from a flashlight I’m holding in dynamic bright spots and reflections. The aroma is wonderful as well. This is from a batch of Altadena Gold Wildflower. Enjoy….

Washboarding is an activity that honeybee workers do, usually when there is minimal nectar flow, during warmer weather, and near the hive entrance. It’s called washboarding because the motion resembles the old fashioned method of washing clothes on a washboard. These bees are focused. The motion is intense, repeated for long periods, and involves licking the surface they’re standing on. No one really knows why they do this. It might be for cleanliness, or because there’s nothing better to do with no nectar to gather, or some other reason. Maybe they’re dancing?

This time of the year, at the end of the honey flow, is often when hives will swarm to replace an aging queen. It also helps to have a break in brood rearing to reduce the parasitic varroa mite population in a hive. When many hives swarm at the same time, they often settle in the same place forming very large swarms, that contain many queens. Recently, this happened at one of our apiaries. Fortunately, these oversized swarms tend to settle close to the ground, making them easy and fun to collect. I give each box collected a frame of eggs, so they can raise their own new queen, and it helps them stay in the box I put them into, rather than drifting back to the swarm. Over 3 days I collected 26 boxes of bees from 3 of these huge swarms. Once they settle down, each box has about 4-8 frames of bees. I give them drawn comb and some honey and pollen frames to get them off to an easy start.

A field bee gathering pollen from cactus flowers with a little slow motion thrown in to see the dynamics of hovering flight. It almost seems gravity defying. Worker bees have specialized hairs arranged on their front legs designed to act like combs to brush pollen grains off of their body and onto the flat outside tibial surface of their back legs, where the accumulation becomes what we call a pollen sac. (Location: Huntington Gardens)

Bees and a squirrel at the pond
Bees and a squirrel at the pond

Field bee trying to coax pollen from Matilija Poppy flower
Field bee trying to coax pollen from Matilija Poppy flower

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