I found the blog of an Albuquerque based beekeeper, and she has video of a praying mantis at her hive. At my last beekeeping class, we also found a mantis near the teaching hive chowing down on some tasty bees.
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Two of my favorite things…
I love bees, and I love bluebonnets so this photo combines them both.
Filed under beekeeping, Uncategorized
Austin Bee Removal Video
I’m a little jealous that I didn’t get to do anything this interesting when I took the beekeeping class from Round Rock Honey…
Here is a link to the video of the bee removal from an Austin home. I can’t even imagine having a hive in my ceiling. What a mess.
Filed under beekeeping, Uncategorized
Bee in Flight
My wife captured this photo of a bee on our redbud in the back yard.
Filed under Uncategorized
Bee Photographer
A friend sent me a link to an amazing bee photographer. I’m fascinated on how these people get such great shots in the hive and the wild.
Filed under Uncategorized
Spring Time in Austin
So much is blooming right now here in Austin that I’m a bit sad I don’t have my bees yet. Granted, it is just a few more weeks, but with the dogwoods, redbuds, buckeyes, and all the wildflowers starting to come up, I feel like I’m missing out on some perfect weeks that a new bee colony would enjoy.
Here is a photo from my backyard of Texas Redbud in bloom.
Filed under Uncategorized
Installing Bees
There are tons of YouTube videos on installing package bees, but I found this to be one of the better ones in terms of video quality and lack of crazy regional accents. My wife still makes fun of the clip from North Carolina where the phrase “just baaaang on it” is used throughout. Now that I’m done offending my southern friends, this video will give you a good overview of the steps taken to install bees. It seems every beekeeper has a different method, and while I won’t be using the steps outlined in this video exactly, it is close enough.
Filed under Uncategorized
Tell’em Large Marge sent you!
So I’ve decided to name my queen “Large Marge”. I opted not to try and come up with a name that actually contained the word “queen” because it was just too limiting. So in less than a month now, Large Marge will be setting up shop in the bee-friendly South Austin site.
Filed under Uncategorized
Honeybees ate my baby
Here in Austin, TX, beekeepers are quite lucky that keeping bees is actually legal. In a lot of large urban cities, beekeeping is illegal and can come with hefty penalties if caught. That doesn’t stop a lot of people, but there is always the risk they could face fines or even destruction of their hives.
Luckily, major urban centers are coming around and even New York City is considering revoking laws “lumping the honeybee together with hyenas, tarantulas, cobras, dingoes and other animals considered too dangerous or venomous for city life.”
Filed under Uncategorized
Naming of the Queen
I still haven’t come up with a good name for the Queen of my upcoming hive. Any good suggestions?
Filed under Uncategorized
Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 