The Central Texas Bee Blog

Michelle Savage-Mena over at the Austin Post interviewed me for an article about beekeeping. She somehow managed to edit down my ramblings into a concise intelligible format, and made a great video as well.

You can see the full article here.

I met with both Deafnation and the Austin Post today to talk about bees, beekeeping and honey. I took them to one of my “halfway house” bee yards where I transition bees that were removed into life in a more traditional beehive. Much to all of our surprise, when I opened the first hive the queen was right there on one of the top bars! I let her crawl around on my hand a bit so we all could take some photos. As you can see, she’s not much bigger than the worker bees. It’s not an easy task to find her in a well populated hive.

One of my favorite things about beekeeping is the people you meet.  I recently removed a swarm from aside the house of a Buddhist woman.  As I was setting up my equipment, she came out carrying incense and said a prayer for the bees.  As I began rounding them up, a storm rolled in bringing booming thunder and premature darkness.  In quite possibly a poetic moment, the incense was nearly extinguished by the first good rain we’ve had this season.  The bees were secured and as I was preparing to leave, she gave me a small lotus blossom pendant in hopes that it would bring me good luck.  With more rain in the forecast for the week, I would say that it has.

Even thought the bees had only been there less than a week, you can see how fast they are able to build.  Free (exposed) comb like this is rare, as bees usually look for an enclosure to protect them from preadators and the elements.

I’ll be bringing my observation hive to the screening of Queen of the Sun at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz location on Monday, May 9th. There will also be some people from Edible Austin there. I haven’t seen the film yet, but the trailer looks interesting. It’s good to see documentaries bringing awareness of the importance (and amazing-ness) of honeybees to the mainstream public. See you there!

Almost all of the hives from Rain Lilly Farm were moved out east tonight. A couple were left for pollination on the farm. Hives have to be moved at night otherwise all the bees that are out foraging will get left behind. All the hives made the move ok. Hopefully these hives will find better forage in the country than they did in the dry city.

With much of the state in severe drought conditions, and parts of it on fire, the record drought we are in also effects things in ways we can’t normally see. I lost five hives out along the Colorado River. Going out to do inspections and finding empty boxes is a sad thing. To top it off, it looks like the hive that lived in the enormous live oak tree behind where I keep my hives is gone as well. My hives in the city are barely hanging on. I am having to feed them during the time of year when they should be putting away honey. This isn’t related to CCD, it’s just drought. Plain and simple. No rain means plants can’t afford to invest in blooming & nectar production. No nectar production means no food for the bees.
There is one silver lining to the story however. My yards that are predominantly mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) are doing very well. I remember reading in an old beekeeping book that when rains early on and then stays hot & dry the mesquite will produce a heavy honey flow. As a result I’m moving my hives out to where they can get to the mesquite.

Japanese Privet (Ligustrum japonicum) is starting to bloom around town, bringing with it a characteristic intense sweet perfume like aroma. Although it’s a highly invasive non-native, it does produce a nice, light, almost cloyingly sweet honey that tastes much like it smells.