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Texas Wildflowers In Bloom!

Many of the hives of honeybees that were removed from residences or collected as swarms and nursed to strength have been moved up to full 10-frame commercial-sized boxes. They are now re-orienting to a new field and feasting on some of the best forage that can be provided – land used as an organic farm, […]

Swarm Week – Part II

This last 2 weeks (March 30-April 9 2013) have been “swarm week”. I’ve received no less than 20 calls per day for swarm pickups in people yards, trees, houses, squirrel habitats, school yards, and more…

I even caught a swarm that was just innocently crossing the road while I was between calls!

Removal – Monday […]

Swarm season is here

As nighttime temperatures rise above 50 deg. F. for several days straight – the bees are able to start producing wax. This generally coincides with some of the nectar flow in plants starting – and a big buildup of brood in the hive.

I received a call yesterday a.m. about a swarm that had been […]

Disturbing Genetic Modification Technology – Honeybees

This month I attended a beekeeping conference in which disturbing advancements in technology have been announced.

An employee of Monsanto, who works for acquired company BeeLogics indicated their intent and research into modifying the genetic makeup of honeybees by means of RNAi protein control.

RNAi – when performed naturally by the body happens from the […]

False Swarm… and Bees Coming Home

We’re in the first week of February – and today was in the low 70’s (F). One of my nuc hives that I overwintered had an unusually high amount of activity around it today.

I noticed a LOT of bees circulating around a spot that where the nuc had originally placed at about 3-4 weeks […]

Pollen is coming in!

January 28th – A red-letter day for the 2013 year. Pollen is coming in from at least three local sources. I witnessed bees bringing in pale yellow/white as well as orange and a dark red pollen. The dark red is most likely henbit pollen. The other two – unknown – but VERY welcome to be […]

Warming up

I know that we’ll have a few more cold spats before spring is *really* here – but here’s today’s update from the bee-yard.

After our freezes over the holidays. The 2 youngest nucs (which were rescues) did not survive the cold. The other nucs that were started earlier in the fall – doing fantastic! It […]

Heat retention in the hives

Can you guess where the cluster of bees is in each of the boxes shown? The lids in the outer two nucs are pretty thin, so there’s heat loss through the wood from the bee cluster. I’ll spend some time this week re-making some lids with thicker wood, then will wait til a warm day […]

December Honeybee Rescue

Another late-in-the-year honeybee rescue/removal performed yesterday – just as the rains and cooler weather came through. The NTTA needed the bees removed from an irrigation valve box near the Addison Airport toll tunnel.

They had called an exterminator that uses “Bees” in part of their company their name to imply that they are beekeepers. They […]

Sassafras Harvest

In the past, Sassafras root had been used as the colorant and flavoring in Root Beer. This isn’t the root beer that is based on the sugary syrup carbonated beverage we have become accustomed to in America. This was the real, genuine “root beer”. But what was it? It was actually sassafras tea. Cleaned […]