For my 62nd birthday, my son Griffin and daughter-in-law Alex gave me bee school for two at Beeweavers outside of College Station. Below are some photos from the day.
When we got out of the car, immediately we noticed a lovely white noise–the hum of busy bees filled the warm, summer air. I love that sound.
This is Roosevelt (or as Roosevelt would say, it is what is left of Roosevelt). He has been at BeeWeavers since he was 22 years old. Roosevelt is our teacher, guide and bee guru for the day.
You need to wear long sleeves, loose jeans, and closed-toe shoes. They provide the bee nets/hats and jackets. We are posing in front of some bee boxes and trying to let you see the smoke can behind us. Roosevelt really wanted the smoke to show in the picture. You can’t see the smoke.
When you arrive one of the first things you see is this sweet bee bath. I have never noticed bees bathing and drinking water before.
A close up of the bees in the bee bath floating on corks.
Selfie time
These are the boxes they use to show the public. I think they have thousands out and about nearby fields.
Roosevelt is smoking the honey bee boxes before we take a look Inside.. The smoke calms them down.
The bees were not aggressive.
Bees on the outside of the box.
The bees carry on with their work as we inspect the first frame.
The bees secrete a brown wax from their abdomens to close the cells. The yellow in some sells is pollen and the tiny white spec is a larvae. It is all very fascinating. Some cells are empty.
The yellow bag on this bees leg is pollen he has brought back to the hive.the pollen sticks to the long hairs on their legs.
Here is a guy with 2 packs of pollen.
This frame is used to raise queens. They sell 500 queens a day.
A close up of the wax cells the queens are incubated in.
When the queen is ready to mate she is put in a boxe like these. She flies out to mate and returns to the box she came from. Beeweavers queens are not artificially inseminated. I was really glad to hear that.
If you are starting your own honeybee farm you can purchase bees instead or robbing a hive. They will arrive in a box like this. I personally prefer to support local bees.
They put in the bee boxes a piece of cotton like this. The bees do not like it and they try to get it out. Their efforts fluff up the cotton and beetles get trapped in it. It is a great way to get rid of pest without pesticides.
Here is a piece of the cotton and a few trapped beetles.
Here is Roosevelt when he first joined Beeweavers. He Was a great guide and teacher.
This calf was found alone on their farm, they took him in, bottle fed him and named him buzz. I am not sure if he thinks he is a bee or people. He loves to be scratched, who doesn’t?
It was a great day despite the temperature. We learned a lot about honey bees. It was good to see a commercial bee establishment that cares about chemicals, pesticides and natural selection. A birthday gift I will remember for a long time.