Finding Founders

This week I talked to Ruth Askren and Phoebe Piper, owners of the beekeeping company Hive Tribe. Hive Tribe has established and maintained 25 active beekeeping sites throughout LA and Ventura county, working with a variety of estates and celebrity clients. But before we sat down to talk, Ruth and Phoebe gave me a taste of their sweet lifestyle by letting me don the beekeeping suit myself. On a warm spring day, I headed down to Malibu and visited the pair at their hillside operation. There, I helped separate bee boxes to check on the different colonies’ health and the progress of their hives. I watched through my mesh helmet as they monitored white wax, checked for pollen, and looked at the honey on the outside of the young hives. Amongst the seaside flowers and scent of salty ocean breeze, I found that there were few better ways to spend the day than beekeeping in Malibu. Yet, before Ruth & Phoebe maintained hives for a living, this was just a hobby for Ruth.  And before that…she didn’t work with bees at all.