Help Bruce and Nancy Rebuild Their Beekeeping Business

We are Bruce and Nancy Steele, owners of Chaparral Mountain Honey Co. We lost our beautiful Altadena home and beekeeping business in the Eaton Fire on 1/8/2025. We've been keeping bees for over 40 years, making delicious honey and spreading the good word about honeybees. We're the people who sell eight different varieties of honey at the Los Angeles County Bug Fair. In February, our bees pollinate almonds, and in March, we go into oranges, but most of our bees are gathering honey and pollinating native wildflowers in the foothills.

One year ago, we had 189 beehives in Los Angeles County; while we have one more apiary to visit, we think they are all gone, burned up. Our stored honey is likely all gone (we haven't yet been able to get into the steel containers because they were too hot). We had just bought a year's supply of jars. And all of our equipment and buckets burned - we have no way to harvest honey or store it.

Our pollination service and honey sales are a significant source of income that we have lost. We appreciate your help to get us back on our feet.