One of the reasons Jeff Lutz is affectionately referred to as “The Bee Whisperer” is because he has worked with bees since he was a teenager in the late 1970’s. Back then Jeff lived in the San Diego community of Linda Vista. When he was 15 he attended High School with a gal who introduced Jeff to her father, Mr. Beck.
The Becks lived in the same neighborhood, just down the street from Jeff. Jeff would often hang out with the kids. Mr. Beck was a master beekeeper from Germany. It didn’t take long before Beck had Jeff in a bee suit. In exchange for helping the family work the hive boxes, Beck and his wife would always feed him a warm meal and flip him a little spending money.
Jeff continually helped out on the bee farm until he turned 19 and enlisted in the Marine Corps. After receiving an honorable discharge, Jeff came back home and took a few odd jobs in the construction industry. Then the day came that would forever alter the fate of the person we now call The Bee Whisperer.
It was a sunny day and Jeff was riding a bike down Kearney Villa Rd. when he ran Becks’ son. The boy immediately flagged down Jeff and announced “My dad has been looking everywhere for you!”. Jeff reunited with Mr. Beck, who promptly gave him a service rep position which allowed him to go out in the field and remove bees from the customers’ property.
Jeff was elated to be working with the bees once again. He worked closely with Mr. Beck until his passing on July 2nd, 1993. To this day Jeff is forever grateful for all that he was taught.
Recently Jeff reunited with an associate from the past that both he and Mr. Beck used to work with in the Bee Business. Her name is Beatrice and she used to live in Del Mar where she allowed Mr. Beck (and later Jeff) to run an apiary on her land. Take a look at the video above. In the clip Jeff and Beatrice take a trip down memory lane and remember the highlights of the bee farm that used to be on her land.
Recently Beatrice has moved out of Southern California and relocated up north. Before she moved, Jeff made a visit and shot the video for the clip above. In addition to remembering all the good times on the bee farm, Jeff agreed to take Beatrice’s most prized possession, a little 17 year old black cat named “Cauldron”. Beatrice needed to find her a home before moving and Jeff has now made Cauldron a part of his family. Here is a picture of Cauldron kitty in her Halloween pumpkin princess costume.
Cauldron kitty in her Halloween costume.
