Archives

Garden to Table – Texas Agrilife Extension

I spent the first half of today with a great team of individuals that are committed to assisting Texas residents with agriculture – whether it be in the form of commercial agriculture, or backyard gardening – and all stages in between.

Today my talk was about backyard beekeeping – covering subjects such as protective gear, […]

Bee Tree Removal

Old dead tree with almost completely hollowed out inside. FILLED with bees. Appx 10 lbs of bees were gathered from this tree. Bees were flying EVERYWHERE at the beginning – however settled down nicely after a puff of smoke. Plenty of eggs, larvae, and brood was saved from this tree. These will be some great […]

Swarm Season / Too Much Rain

I do not think that in 45 years, I have ever seen as much rain as we have received here in North Texas over the last two months. Too much rain can be detrimental to our agriculture.

Besides the obvious problem of erosion of our topsoil, there are other problems with too much rain. When […]

Bee Yard Inspection and Class

During today’s bee-class, we went through several established hives as well as a few hives that have been recently brought in from removals from people’s homes.

Wall-to-wall brood! This beautiful queen has been hard at work – laying eggs wall-to-wall in her domain. This is going to be a great queen to be a […]

Something’s Squirrelly!

Unexpected Removal (1st of 2 today)…This spot has had bees in the past (years ago) – and about 3 weeks ago – the homeowner noticed bee activity again. They were referred to me for the removal – so with the height – I borrowed scaffolding from another beekeeper. Once I got up there – it […]

Aggie Bees – Dynamite Shed

The Dallas Texas Master Gardener program (Texas A&M University) is taking over a new (to them) property – but an old dynamite shed on the land has had honeybees in the walls of it – off and on – for the last 25-30 years. After being called out to evaluate the situation, and starting the […]

The Blind Butcher – Swarm

Doing our part to keep our pollinators safe – at The Blind Butcher.

Second Floor Dormer Removal

This colony swarmed last Friday while I was out of town. Another beekeeper snagged the swarm, however the parent colony was still in the home. Way up in the soffit of a 2nd story dormer.. The homeowner had spray-foamed their entrance in an effort to kill the bees… I opened up a hole for the […]

Beekeepers Day (short video)

A quick minute of today’s activities. (3 hives taken to the bee yard, checked hives from the splits I made on Saturday, and responded to an emergency swarm call in Allen, Tx)

Fall Harvest in the Spring

I pulled the excess honey from 4 hives today. Yes.. 4 hives. Some of my friends know the math on the box weight…. Take a wild guess as to the weight of the boxes/honey. All hives that were doubled up with brood (2 deeps high) were split. The hives with the highest population showed signs […]