But soon, Scott \u2014 who works as a mechanic at My Dad’s Auto on Carson Street during the day \u2014 was dying to get back into beekeeping. In 2013, he started building up some hives and learned how to take care of bees in California\u2019s Mediterranean climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou’re constantly learning,\u201d Scott said. \u201cI still feel like I’ve just started beekeeping, even though I’ve been doing it for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Scott established more hives, it just made sense to start selling the honey he collected, launching S&P Honey in Long Beach about 10 years ago. The S&P stands for Scott and Penrose (his partner\u2019s last name).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, he sells gallons of honey through his Instagram<\/a> and Facebook<\/a> pages, harvested from the 15 hives he regularly tends to throughout Long Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He started with a single hive on the roof of his garage, but after someone complained, he had to move it. Scott found more locations around town by searching out people who were interested in having a hive on their property and evaluating their space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Long Beach requires<\/a> beehives to be at least 10 feet from property lines, and there needs to be a 6-foot barrier (such as a fence or hedges) around the property or the beehive has to be placed 8 feet above the ground. Scott also watches out for small children or dogs that might not enjoy having the bugs nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Living in Long Beach, the bees have a variety of plants at their disposal, meaning the honey is from a variety of flowers, without one dominant flavor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u200b\u200bIf you look at what’s blooming in Long Beach, it’s a mixture of everything,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the spring and summer months, the honey tends to be very light, then later in the year when different plants are in bloom, the honey is darker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though Scott said beekeeping is like farming and there is no guarantee on how much honey is produced due to changes in weather, Scott typically harvests honey two to three times a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The process begins when the bees have capped their honeycombs with wax, showing the comb is full. Scott uses a fume board to push the bees out of the boxes so he can take them home to extract the honey. He uses shallow boxes in his hives because they are easier to carry, but he said more commercial beekeepers typically use deeper boxes to get more honey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scott brings the boxes full of honeycomb home, where he begins the extraction process, which is shown in this Instagram post<\/a>. His partner, who is afraid of bees and doesn\u2019t want to go near the hives, helps with the extraction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They first cut the beeswax off of the combs with a hot knife. Then the honeycomb frames are placed in an extractor, a large steel tank that spins the frames around at a high speed, which flings the honey onto the walls of the machine, where it then drips down into a collection container.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the honey is extracted, Scott returns the empty honeycomb to the hive so they can reuse it. The honey Scott collects is strained with a stainless steel screen and bottled to order, with prices ranging from $9 for a 12-ounce jar to $80 for a full gallon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Scott harvested in July, he filled two stainless steel tanks, totalling 42 gallons of honey. Now he only has about a third of that left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Orders can be placed through direct messaging on either Instagram<\/a> or Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A local mechanic started with one hive on a roof. 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