Me, A Bee Keeper?

This is me tending to the bees at the Cockrell Butterfly Center

If you would have told me two years ago that I'd be an amateur bee keeper, and loving it, I would have called you crazy. However, as the horticulturist for the Cockrell Butterfly Center I got a chance to tend to the observation hive in the center, and never the one to pass up a new experience I accepted the challenge. 

Even in full bee keeper attire (hat, veil, suit, and gloves) I was considerably nervous the first time I helped to open the hive. It needed to be opened to clean off the excess comb that the bees had started to build on to the observational plexi glass.  I knew that the bees could not sting me through the suit, but still a swarm of anything is something to be respected, especially a swarm of "stinging things" (or so I thought of them then). 

After the initial nervousness from the sound of thousands of buzzing wings wore off I began to watch them more closely, and observe their behavior, individually and as a group, and I gained a new found admiration for these "industrious little creature" (as I see them now).  

Since that first encounter I have opened the hive several times, corralled two swarming colonies, and even tied for third place in a Houston area honey competition; and every time I open the hive I discover a  fascinating new fact about them. 

Zac's Fascinating Facts About The Honey Bee (COMING SOON)  


Happy Gardening! and Bee Keeping!