Courtesy photos.
CAMARILLO — From February to September, CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) alumnus Lyndsay Peterson and her partner and former classmate Bryan Castro run their bee business, “Bryan’s Bees.” Business is brisk until October when the bees go into hibernation.
“We would have to lay everybody off in October,” Castro said. “We were like, what can we do between October and the beginning of February when bee season begins?”
And that’s how “Bee Merry” came to be. During the off season, Peterson, Castro, and a team of about ten workers travel around the region decorating homes for Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali (the Hindu festival of lights that falls between October and November) and other events and celebrations. At this point, Bee Merry is doing even better than Bryan’s Bees.
“We’ve done 200 houses this season,” Castro said. “Celebrity estates, commercial buildings, businesses. Most of our clients are in the luxury market. This week we are doing the home of a rock star and the Four Seasons in Westlake Village.”
Castro grew up in Thousand Oaks and Peterson in Ventura. Both enrolled in CSUCI in 2008. Peterson was a Business major and Castro was undeclared at first, then majored in Biology.
The couple happened into the bee business because CSUCI Professor Ruben Alarcon saw potential in Castro, who couldn’t seem to master Alarcon’s statistics class.
“I was doing so horribly, I was in his office every day,” Castro said. “He finally asked me ‘How would you like an internship doing beekeeping?’”
“I said, ‘Absolutely not, that sounds horrible, I hope that never happens,’” Castro said. “And he said ‘Perfect! Show up at 8 a.m. tomorrow and we went out to the Central Valley. It was 110 degrees in the shade and we’re in these bee suits. We opened up the first hive and they were Africanized bees and we got stung everywhere….and I loved it.”
Meanwhile, Peterson had switched her Business major to Performing Arts with plans to become a dancer. They met as freshmen when they were in a precalculus class together and Castro walked into the class and declared “Who needs friends? Who needs a study buddy?”
Peterson raised her hand and Castro said “Perfect! We’re friends.”
Castro landed internships with bee companies, going out and chasing bees, and ultimately developed his own business, “Bryan’s Bees.” Peterson graduated in 2012 with a degree in Performing Arts/Dance and went on to give dance lessons, coach boys and girls soccer and work as a nanny. She and Castro were together all through college and today have a precocious four-year-old son.
“I eventually got on board with Bryan’s company – begrudgingly because I wanted to dance – and started working with him in 2019,” Peterson said. “My job is to take calls, like a celebrity may call and say ‘We wanted crazy colors and not warm white,’ or I go out to schools and give presentations on bees. Today, NASA reached out because they have bees in one of their bigger structures and need them removed.”
Castro does all the design work and sales and the couple employ about 10 people during Bee Merry season. Bryan’s Bees is also thriving.
“We keep growing and expanding,” Castro said. “We get bigger every year. This is our best year yet for bees and I don’t know where we’re going, but I do know we’re going bigger.”
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY CHANNEL ISLANDS — California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) is Ventura County’s only public university and opened in 2002 as the 23rd campus in the CSU system serving the regions of Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles counties, as well as the entire state. CSUCI is located between Camarillo and the Oxnard Plain, midway between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and 25 miles north from Malibu.
The campus is nestled against the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains and is a 10-minute drive from the Pacific Ocean. With more than 5,600 students, 24,500 alumni, and 1,000 employees, CSUCI is poised to grow in size and distinction, while maintaining one of the most student-focused learning environments in public higher education with more than 90 academic degrees, teaching credentials, certificates, and professional and community programs
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