Santa Barbara & Goleta
MayDay's Bees
Personal, hands-on help for the backyard beekeeper on the Santa Barbara South Coast. Hive care, mentorship, and bee rescue, the attention the big operations don't have time for.
Santa Barbara & Goleta
Personal, hands-on help for the backyard beekeeper on the Santa Barbara South Coast. Hive care, mentorship, and bee rescue, the attention the big operations don't have time for.
What I do
Whether you keep bees, want to start, or just found a swarm on your fence, I can help. Local, and hands-on.
Ongoing care for your hives: inspections, mite checks, feeding, and seasonal management, so your colonies stay healthy and productive.
Learn more →A real mite count first, not a guess, then a treatment that fits the season, then a count to confirm it actually worked.
Learn more →Lost a colony and want to understand why? Don't clean the boxes out yet. Most of the answer is still sitting in them.
Learn more →Found a swarm clustered on a branch, fence, or eave? I'll come collect it and give it a good home, no exterminator needed. For a colony established inside a wall or structure, I'll point you to a cut-out specialist.
Learn more →Hands-on learning for new and aspiring beekeepers. Learn to read a frame, spot the queen, and manage your hive with confidence.
Learn more →Getting started, or troubleshooting a hive that isn't thriving? I'll help you set it up right and point you in the right direction.
Learn more →Going away? I'll check your hives on the right cadence while you're gone, handle anything urgent, and send you an update so you can actually relax.
Want bees on your property without becoming a beekeeper? I place and manage a colony for you and handle the beekeeping, including checking the local rules for your address.
When to pull supers and how to do it without setting the colony back, plus a hand with the extraction, timed so your bees still go into fall with what they need.
Starting in 2027, I'll be rearing queens and starter colonies right here on the South Coast from mite-resistant survivor stock, acclimated to our local conditions.
Starting in 2027, raw unfiltered honey from my own South Coast hives, bottled by season so it tastes of whatever was actually in bloom.
About
Everyone's called me MayDay since I started my IT career, and it turns out it's the perfect name for a beekeeper: when your bees are in trouble, you call a MayDay. I keep my own hives here in Goleta, I'm training through the UC Davis California Master Beekeeper Program, and I spend a lot of time with my hands in the boxes.
What I care about is the hobby beekeeper, the person with a hive or two in the backyard who just wants a hand. The big operations run thousands of hives and don't have time for your two. I'm the opposite: personal, patient, and local.
I started by helping neighbors with their bees and it grew from there. Healthy colonies, honest advice, and saving bees whenever I can instead of calling an exterminator.
I also build ColonyTrack, a beekeeping app, so tracking, timing, and hive health are things I think about every day, not just in season.
See you at the hive,
Bogdan (MayDay)
Get in touch
Tell me a bit about your hives, your swarm, or what you're hoping to learn, and I'll get back to you.