Steve's Story
Twenty years ago, a conventional exterminator met a beekeeper who changed his mind about everything. Nothing was the same after that.
Hollywood Abstract Expressionist
Steve Downs calls himself a Hollywood-based abstract expressionist painter and honeybee preservationist. He has never seen a dividing line between the work and the art.
From Exterminator to Preservationist
"We used to spray the hive, then run away and hide behind buildings." Then he met an aging French beekeeper. "He was like Obi-Wan Kenobi to me.", Steve Downs, Beecasso
Find the Queen First
Find the queen, and the colony follows her out of the wall rather than dying inside one. It takes patience and stillness. The method is why Beecasso exists.
One Job, One New Standard
The idea that bees don't have to die to be removed, that every hive is worth saving, made us rethink how removal should work. It became the standard we hold ourselves to.
Every removal has a purpose beyond the job.
When the bees leave, the story doesn't end there. The queens we catch, the colonies we relocate, they go on to pollinate, produce, and thrive. The work isn't just removal. It's about what happens to the bees after we leave.
Every Colony Lives
Every relocated colony goes to a trusted sanctuary partner across the LA area, where it has a place to settle, spread, and thrive.
