Bruce Steele has always said he would die defending his house – and his beehives. Long before the Eaton fire began its destructive march through the California foothills last month, the beekeeper was already on perpetual alert: watering the flower garden of his family’s house in Altadena, California, cleaning dry leaves out of the roof gutters and soaking the precious oak trees that surrounded the property.
When the Santa Ana winds picked up, Nancy, Bruce’s wife and business partner, was out of town, so their daughter, Clara, 35, rushed over to help. The two generations immediately started gathering family photos and mementoes. They scooped up a painting Bruce’s sister made as a wedding gift. Other treasures included an old robot toy from the 1965 TV show Lost in Space, as well as a threadbare T-shirt from Occidental College, the school where Bruce and Nancy first met – and where he would go on to work for more than 35 years.
“This was not our first time evacuating,” said Clara. During the 2009 Station fire, Bruce had stayed back with about 10 other neighbors to defend their block using the water in his pool. But this fire was different. At 2.37am Bruce and Clara were woken by the sheriff’s emergency alarm. It was pitch-black, and each trip out to the car was terrifying. Less than an hour after they drove away, the fire had engulfed their home, their hives and every drop of honey they had.
“This will be my 49th year as a beekeeper,” Bruce, 75, said. “I’ve had fire losses in the past, but nothing like this.”
Bruce and Nancy started Chaparral Mountain Honey Company in the early 1980s. “I fell in love with the bees, maybe even a little bit before I fell in love with Bruce,” said Nancy, 66.
Since 1996, their home had served as the heart of their operation, with 188 hives spread across their property, as well as the nearby artist ranch and surrounding mountains. Nature was what drew the couple to this particular quarter of Los Angeles. When they talk about their neighbors, they are also referring to the great horned owls, the mountain lions and the foxes that the Steeles, both diehard environmentalists, have spent their lives protecting.
Beekeepers all across the world are grappling with the ongoing decline in bee populations due to the climate crisis, habitat loss and the widespread use of pesticides. “[Beekeeping] was going to be a significant part of our income going into the future,” said Nancy.
The Steeles’ losses extend well beyond $210,000 (and counting) in destroyed honey reserves. They have also had to cancel their lucrative almond contract, at a time of year when just about all the commercial beekeepers in the US descend on northern California to help pollinate the almond flowers. (Without bees, we would not have almonds, and California produces 80% of the world’s almonds.) Sales at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s annual Bug Fair also made up a good portion of the couple’s income.
The loss – decades’ worth of equipment (some that is not even made any more), 30,000 pounds of honey, hives, the oak trees, their family home and the bees – is incalculable. A GoFundMe page is aimed at helping the beekeepers recover, but the $40,000 in donations they have received so far will cover only a fraction of the necessary costs.
Chaparral Honey Company started out with only a handful of hives. As it grew, so did its loyal following, and a modest but dependable income. At the Steeles’ booth at the Bug Fair, customers were always clamoring for gallons of their famous wildflower honey. “We meet so many people from all over, and they’re just obsessed with my parents, obsessed with the honey, because it’s basically just my dad doing all the beekeeping and extracting and bottling. And then my mom manages the entire business,” said Clara, who happens to be allergic to bees.
Before retiring in 2024, Bruce worked as the environmental health and safety manager at Occidental College, presiding over fire safety protocols. Nancy spent the entirety of her career protecting natural resources, saving land from being sold off to developers in historically Black and middle-class Altadena, alongside her work at the California Air Resources Board and as executive director of the Council for Watershed Health in Los Angeles. Clara is a programme officer at the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation, which focuses on social justice.
Now that the fires are contained, the Steeles must contend with the mudslides that occur when rain hits the nearby denuded mountain ranges. They have taken up temporary residence in the basement of longtime friends. They have no intention of selling their land in Altadena. “We want to rebuild,” said Nancy. “It’s our home.”
What first drew you to beekeeping?
Bruce: It is incredibly time-absorbing, but it’s a doorway into understanding the universe. We went from two colonies to eight or nine the first year, and then I think it was the second year I got stung in the forehead and had an allergic reaction. I was working in a hospital at the time so I got my shot of epinephrine, and then I decided: well, what the heck. I had a conversation with my body and said, “We’re gonna do this, so we’ve gotta figure this out.”
How much of your beekeeping business was lost in the fire?
Nancy: We are still counting all the jars, but I’d say 30,000 pounds of honey. I was going through the house and I was seeing all these piles of jars, broken glass, and thinking about how some of them were empty and ready to be filled, and others were filled with honey orders that didn’t go out.
Bruce: There was so much equipment. I had hundreds and hundreds of three-quarter-depth boxes that burned; I don’t even have a full count yet. Stainless steel tanks. I lost all my extracting equipment. I’ve had to cancel my almond contract this year. There is nothing left of the hives.
Do you have a sense of when you’ll be able to have bees and start making honey again?
Nancy: No. We had small business insurance, but it won’t cover our losses. It will be something, but I still have to fill out [all the spreadsheets]. We’re hearing that the price to rebuild is probably going to be at least double what insurance will cover, if not more.