Signs of Spring

One of my favorite signs of spring is baby birds and bird nests. I loved spotting this one while roaming one of our bee yards recently - wonder what kind of bird nested in it in the past and what will be in there soon. Hope I get to see them. Thankful it's low enough for me to get some great shots.

KWED Garden Show

This is my beekeeping man getting interviewed earlier this month during the Saturday morning garden show on our local AM radio station, KWED. As usual, I missed it b/c I was assigned market duty that morning. Boo.

Happy Rainy 2013

After a long drought in rain and posts, I am back and so is the rain! We were just way to busy this past holiday season for me to attempt to keep up all the blogs so I had to pick the Bee Blog. Sorry! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that the new year kicked off great so far. Here's to another really awesome year for us and our bees. :)

Year of the Snakes

If you are a beekeeper or you just work out in the fields of Texas, you should probably invest in some serious snake boots. I feel much better now that my beekeeper has a good pair of Chippewa boots.

Working Together

Last week Mark helped out his former employer - City of Seguin - with a wild hive in Central Park. It was fun to tag along and watch him work to get the bees off the pecan tree. They were rather gentle but you never know with a wild hive so better to remove them now before they become aggressive, as wild bees here in Texas tend to get. And how fun to ride a cherry picker. :)

Pollen & Allergies

Pollens in and around Seguin. My days lately are centered around IT work at the mill or bee and honey work at home. So here's what I see about Seguin! :) The pollen you see here is what is in our local honey and it's what helps me to enjoy the outdoors again now that my sinuses are under more control. Have a great day!

Fallen Hive & an Appearance in the Paper

Poor hive - downed by some dry, dry ground. Looked like the ground simply gave out under the stand. It is incredibly dry lately and horribly hot. HOT. Like when you walk out and the sun hits your bare skin...feels litterally like an oven. HOT. The bees were okay though not happy, happy when Mark set them back upright. I meant to share this much sooner but with all that's been going on...I simply let time slip by me. Our little business continues to do well and we always appreciate some press. I would like to add that I did not say to microwave honey as this write-up makes it sound. I've had a few people confirm that they read it as if I was saying to do that if honey crystalizes. We never do that. Just put it out in the Texas heat and it'll decrystalize in a day. Or some hot, hot water with the lid on a pot will do the trick just fine. Microwaving will chemically change the honey and why would you want to mess up a great thing to start with, right?

Thinking of Outside

Today after I finished with a big quarterly call at work, I browsed through some pictures of the outdoors because I am missing being outside a little. Although the little time I did spend running errands was rather HOT. Another scorcher out there, folks. I had to put the hose out in the backyard yesterday as several areas of the lawn are have become quite dry. This is a shot I snapped last week while with the beekeepers out at Rattlesnake bee yard. It seems a like so long ago; isn't that funny how it happens that way? I enjoy the country very much and i think it is definitely cooler among the greenery, away from asphalt and concrete. Hope you get some greenery in today. :)

Bees & Flowers

My life is all bees, honey, and tips at work right now so you're going to have to bear with bee-oriented shots, which I assure you is far more interesting than IT-oriented tips I'm working on in my day job. :) We're extracting honey - most honey we've ever had for two reasons. 1) At one hundred or so hives, we have more bees than we've ever had before. I think that's double what we had last year even after selling a number of nucleus hives (starter hives) in the spring. 2) We had a great raining winter and spring and it's keeping the flowers going and now the Mesquite is as well. Here it is early June and I'm still amazed at the flowers that are in bloom, fueling our bees. Awesome! Mark was particularly happy that the last bit of rain rejuvenated the Indian Blankets, as the bees love that and this kept them going with honey production. The first shot was at Rattlesnake bee yard near Marion (Tx). I was watching Mark, David and Ira pull the honey supers off the hives in order to begin extraction. I loved what was left on these frames when they pulled one of the supers off - looked like a skyline to me. And I wanted to eat it! lol. I shot the picture below at Deadman Creek bee yard at the Lazy U Ranch (a certified organic ranch).
 

A Flea, a Fire Ant, Thistle and Bees

One weekend, I accompanied Mark to our local Home Depot on Austin Street near Interstate 10. As we drove up, I exclaimed in frightful delight - what a great photo opportunity! I laughed and nearly jumped out of the truck to get a shot with the ginormous flea and fire ant. But then I spotted the Ortho salesman who had just spotted us. Probably my overly exuberant skip. Sigh...I really just wanted a picture standing near or under the blow-up critters but I didn't want to chat about insecticides so we snapped a quick shot and kept moving towards the opposite door. Now, besides this being a photo op I couldn't let pass, I think it's sort of an odd way to lull people over. How interesting to think a flea and a fire ant are appealing in that way. hmm.Now, to a more pleasant visual of the Seguin area, I'd like to share a lovely shot of the thistle that has bloomed nicely this year. I photographed it as I visited bee yards during our honey harvest. Lovely, lovely year for wildflowers. Here it is the beginning of June and we have tons of flowers everywhenuure!

Mysterious, Lovely Vine Plant

Aren't these fruits spectacular? Mark spotted these on one of his bee yard visits this past weekend. He'd never seen anything like it and neither have I. When he showed it to me, I was stunned by the bold, vibrant color - it was almost unreal. Does anyone know what this vine plant might be?

What a Wet Spring

Well we sure can't complain about a drought this year. In the past eight days, we've gotten over five inches of rain. YAY!! And the bees are making a ton of honey - great news for local folks like me who suffer from allergies. Great job bees.

Queen Bees and the USPS

Yesterday we received a special package in the mail - more queen bees to requeen some hives with soon. Note to self: when shipping live animals, it would be good to mark the packaging so that the mail carrier can call the recipient to pick up the package rather than have the poor animals ride in the mail truck. But...the package WAS humming quite loudly so if I was the mailperson, I think I probably would have handled this envelope with extra care. :)

I shot a Queens buzzing video in case you want to hear what buzzing queens sound like when they are in an envelope.

Wisteria and Bees

Good morning, everyone! Just a quick hello from Seguin. Haven't had much time to post as we had a big event this past Saturday for our new beekeepers. Here's a shot of the latest thing to bloom in our yard - upright Wisteria. I love it and so do the bumble bees. Yesterday I saw three of them buzzing around the tall plant. Their flight behavior is so different from our honey bees so I enjoy watching them dart around in start/stop fashion (versus the more smooth flight of the honey bee). Here's a shot of our class from Saturday. We had a SUPER FAB time and now there are at least 24 new beekeepers in South Texas, keeping gentle bees. That's not counting the folks who got a jumpstart on things and picked up nucs weeks earlier. Let's hope we all have a great honey harvest this year!

Oaks at Dusk

This is a shot I snap at the Farm bee yard along Highway 123 and Kingsbury. I roamed the hillside as we were "stuck" for a bit on the side of one of the lovely slopes. Note to you - do not attempt to turn your vehicle around and allow your tires to rest on any green. :-) Looks like the wet winter and spring has really soaked our grounds! It pretty much became ice under our tires and we managed to slide about eight feet down the hill. This is what the ground turned to after spinning tires for a bit and slip sliding around. Towards the tank.
 
Time to call for backup! Our friend David came to the rescue and brought along a very long cable and voila - we're pulled back up the hill. Thanks, David! It was still a lovely evening and I got some play time in while the beekeepers worked on getting us out of there. Here they are strategizing on the best way to proceed.

Luckily I had my boots on so I could explore all I wanted to without worry about bugs, bees and snakes. Poor Bluebonnets. Sorry we trampled you. We didn't mean to but you grab our tires and wouldn't let us go! Y'all have a great weekend!

Spring Breaks

Happy Spring Break, everyone! Seems like the whole state is on break this week. The work parking lot is mostly empty. Makes me just want to skip work and take pictures of all the blooming loveliness about town. I snapped this beauty out at the nearby My Father's Farm nursery on Highway 123 close to our house, which is very near the center of town. I always wonder if people realize there are over thirty bee hives on that nursery property. They are doing quite well out there between the abundant wild mustard blooms and now all sorts of different wildflowers are coming out. Very lovely to see.

Another Rainy Weekend

Wow, I can't wait to see what the wildflowers will be like this year with the rain we are getting. We had puddles by Saturday morning but it cleared up and warmed up enough to have twenty students for bee class. Nice! Then we got a little more this afternoon. Awesome news for our drought.

Fall in Our Lil World

As I got in the car this morning, I was struck by the beautiful coloring of our peach tree. I love having the bee boxes in the yard.

2nd Annual Gretchen Bee Ranch Holiday Open House

Sorry I've been busy - it's the holiday season so you know what that means! All sorts of events to get our name, honeys and beeswax products out on the market. We're having a great time meeting folks and sharing information along with our products but our favorite event is tomorrow. That's because people get to come to the Bee Ranch and check out the honey house - we'll have food, good music and a lot of fun. Hope you can swing by to visit and shop. Or if you're done with your Christmas shopping, you can just pull up a chair and chat. We'd enjoy that. Off to bed I go. We have class in the morning (10-12p) before the Open House; I'm going to need some energy! Goodnight.

Beep-beep, Road Runner!

 
When I was growing up, Saturday mornings were the only days I eagerly got up without wakeup calls from my parents or siblings. Cartoons were on and we got to watch all morning until Kung Fu Theatre came on at noon. After that, the TV was turned off. :-) I loved the Bugs Bunny, Road Runner Show. I mainly just loved Bugs Bunny. I was often irritated by how futile the Coyote's efforts were to capture Road Runner. When I moved to Texas, I learned the Road Runner was called a Chaparral. Hmm. And it was not tall with long legs. And it did not run around, going "Beep, beep." :-) Bummer. But every time I see a Chaparral, I hear the beeps in my mind. And it makes me smile. When I go with Mark out to Deadman Creek bee yard, I get to see lots of Chaparrals so I get to smile often. Have a SUPER week, friends!