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March 2026 Newsletter

March 2026 Newsletter – Laura Winters

This March, Spring started early!!!

With warmer temperatures upon us, the honeybees are gearing up for reproduction. We are noticing our queen bees laying many more eggs, which means her worker bees are bringing in a significant amount of pollen. The pollen is deposited within the cells of the […]

Beekeeping Podcasts

Here’s a list of the beekeeping related podcasts I enjoy listening to. My current podcast player of choice on my Android phone – is called PodBean. You can find these podcasts on multiple outlets, though. iTunes, PodBean, CastPlayer, Spotify, etc…

Kevin Inglin of Beekeeper’s Corner – is probably the longest-running podcast I have listened […]

January 2026 Newsletter

January 2026 – Newsletter (Laura Winters – Birds and the Bees Apiary)

Over the past month and a half, my business partner Rex and I have been busy preparing for the upcoming season.

We’ve assembled new hive equipment, including medium supers and deep boxes, then applied a coat of primer and paint to protect and […]

Pollinator Plant Spotlight – Mexican Buckeye

The Mexican Buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa) is a Texas-native, deciduous ornamental shrub or small tree (8–12 ft, up to 30 ft) with distinctive 3-lobed,, reddish-brown seed capsules containing poisonous, black, shiny seeds. It features fragrant spring whiteish-pink flowers, yellow fall color, and high drought tolerance, thriving in limestone soils, full sun, or partial shade.

It blooms […]

Pesticides – Death and destruction to bees

This week, in my personal back yard – I have experienced a fairly fast die-off of 5 colonies. These bees were here simply for the purposes of building them up to be strong, so they could be placed onto agriculture contracts.

Usually, I’ll give a build-up and background before I tell the meat of what’s […]

Propagating Pollinator Plants

This year I *really* noticed the Western Soapberry trees in the North Texas (North of Dallas / Ft Worth MetroMess) area during their bloom, and the pollinators all over the trees while in bloom. I suspect this was a 2nd bloom for the year. My time really noticing them was from the end of May […]