0:00

You say you'll never join the Navy,

0:03

that living on a submarine would be too

0:05

hard. You'd never power

0:07

a whole shift with nuclear energy.

0:10

Never bring a patient back to life.

0:14

Or play the national of them for a

0:16

sold out crowd. Joining

0:20

the navy sounds crazy, saying

0:22

never actually is. Start

0:24

your journey at dot

0:25

com. America's Navy, forged

0:28

by the sea.

0:31

Before the colony swarms

0:33

and chooses to leave their hive

0:35

and seek a new location like that umbrella,

0:38

the colony will actually choose to

0:41

starve their queen and she will lose

0:43

up to a third of her body weight to make her

0:45

a better flyer. So if that

0:47

shows you just how in app she

0:49

is, So, you know, they

0:51

won't I mean, I've seen it too in the colony. They'll

0:53

even chase her around and force her to exercise.

0:56

Oh my gosh. There's still no lose weight. It's

0:59

It's it works on my attendees. I

1:02

think I catch up. Hi.

1:14

Hi. Good morning here,

1:16

good afternoon there. Thanks so much

1:18

for making

1:19

time. I know you are on

1:21

a bit of a break right now. Yes.

1:24

It's winter here, so I tend to cycle

1:26

my brakes with the bees. So

1:28

-- Interesting. -- they're not working right now

1:31

too much either. So it's a good time

1:33

take a break.

1:33

That is a perfect time. I

1:36

love first of all, I just I

1:38

love what you're doing.

1:41

I love the videos that you're putting

1:43

out. I love how

1:45

you're bringing people to a place

1:47

of actually understanding and

1:49

appreciating bees really.

1:53

And in such a, you know, in such

1:55

a way that is so effective with kind of, you know,

1:57

social media and everything else. My

2:00

first experience with bees, and frankly,

2:02

my only was when I was a kid,

2:05

and I had chance to go. My friend's dad

2:07

was a bee keeper, one of many things that

2:09

he did, but I had a chance

2:11

to go and spend a little time with them. And

2:14

I just remember, I don't know how old that was

2:16

maybe eight years old or something like that, but

2:18

I remember him

2:22

going and just watching him smoking

2:24

the hives and then us being able

2:26

to go and start harvesting the honey.

2:29

And it was such a cool experience

2:31

as a kid. And then just

2:33

to fast forward, I'm

2:36

I'm so happy to talk to you because there's so much I wanna

2:38

know more. I don't know much about bees, but I

2:40

know how essential they are for

2:43

life. For food

2:45

security, for agriculture, for

2:48

all of these things that in

2:50

our day to day

2:51

lives, you know, we take

2:53

for granted. It says,

2:54

yeah. Okay. I'm just gonna go to the grocery store. I'm gonna

2:56

pick up whatever I need that day and then go and make

2:58

dinner for my family or whatever. But

3:00

not really thinking about all of the

3:02

different entities

3:05

that go into making it possible

3:08

for us to have that convenience.

3:11

So that that to me is like the biggest

3:14

impact that I see. You are the

3:16

most followed beekeeper in

3:18

the world. And it is incredible

3:21

to see like these these

3:24

first of all, your your videos are somewhat

3:26

meditative in a way. They're so

3:28

relaxing. This is just like,

3:30

oh my gosh. This is so nice to

3:32

listen to and to watch. Which,

3:35

you know, like I've seen some of your videos have like

3:37

a hundred fifty million views,

3:39

which is just amazing.

3:41

Again, just to get people, just stop and

3:43

think, like, oh my gosh. Like,

3:45

these are really amazing creatures.

3:49

Yeah. And so kudos

3:51

to you for that. I just wanna I just wanna

3:53

put that put that out

3:54

front. But I'm so curious

3:57

to know how how did you

3:59

how did you get started in this? What

4:01

sparked your interest? Sure.

4:03

Well, thank you so much. And I'm so glad that

4:05

you had that experience with bees. I mean, it's

4:08

not very often that people get the opportunity

4:10

to step inside

4:13

of a hive and see all the incredible

4:15

work that bees do every day and

4:18

So that's one of the reasons I feel so

4:20

lucky to be in the position where I'm at

4:23

with hundreds of millions of people seeing

4:25

the work that bees and beekeepers do.

4:28

It's a privilege to share it with people.

4:30

You know, it's a privilege to do

4:32

that work alongside the bees

4:34

every day. And I don't know

4:36

if you experienced it or felt it at all

4:38

at the age of eight or during the experience

4:40

you had in when you were going into

4:42

the beehives, but it

4:44

is meditative. I mean, it is

4:47

at least for me incredibly calming

4:50

and it forces you to be

4:52

fully present. You know, when

4:54

you step into the world of bees,

4:56

every movement you make matters and

4:58

you have to think about

5:00

the way you move your hands and everything

5:02

you do inside high, not only for your

5:04

own safety, but for the safety of

5:06

the bees as well. So it's a privilege

5:08

to do that work. And, you

5:10

know, It all started

5:12

with a lifelong love of bugs.

5:14

Mhmm. When I was a kid, I

5:16

just loved bugs. That's what I was

5:18

into. So I spent a lot of

5:20

time in my backyard, you know, on

5:22

nights and weekends collecting bugs and

5:25

trying to keep them as pets. Or

5:27

trying to study it and observe them.

5:29

So my childhood titles

5:31

growing up were women like doctor

5:33

Jane Goodall and Diane Fauci, and

5:35

I wanted to be just like them, you

5:37

know, but I couldn't really go

5:39

to the jungles of Africa to, you

5:41

know, study primates. So I'd go in my backyard

5:43

and I would find bugs. They were

5:46

relatively easy to find and to collect

5:48

and to pick up. So it was

5:50

just a lifelong love of bugs

5:52

that led me to take a beekeeping

5:54

class and I

5:56

started one hive in my backyard in

5:58

central Austin and

6:02

just fell in love

6:04

with bees, quickly became fast

6:06

needed and enamored with

6:09

their world and just wanted to do

6:11

more and see more. So

6:13

I started my own beekeeping business

6:15

just sort of to sustain my

6:18

hobby and my passion. And,

6:20

you know, that business grew as

6:22

organically as it possibly

6:24

could. People would just ask me for beekeeping

6:27

related requests. So, you know, they would say, can

6:29

you keep bees on our property?

6:31

We want to have bees, but we don't necessarily

6:33

want to be beekeepers ourselves or

6:35

folks would say, can you teach a beekeeping

6:37

class or can you do a live bee removal?

6:40

So I just sort of started to say yes

6:42

to everything because I wanted to

6:44

learn more about bees and and see

6:46

all I

6:46

could, and also just get the

6:49

experience. So what

6:50

were you doing for you

6:53

or or what were you doing maybe parallel

6:55

to this shit's happening? Sure.

6:57

I had a full time fast

7:00

paced office job. I was the director of

7:02

communications for a few nonprofits

7:04

in the Austin area, and I

7:06

enjoyed the job. It just was never you

7:09

know, it was a great job. It was just never

7:11

my passion. And I think so often in

7:13

life, we sort of get this script. Right?

7:15

Do well in school. And get

7:17

a good paying office job with all the perks

7:19

and you'll be set for life. And for me,

7:21

that just always it

7:23

felt like it was a little off. You know, I

7:25

wanted to be outside and be active and --

7:27

Yeah. -- you know, working with animals. So

7:30

I can relate. By the way, that

7:33

don't keep me inside for too long, so our

7:35

time goes. You

7:37

know, I feel so lucky that I get to spend

7:39

most of my time outside

7:41

and and being act and working

7:43

alongside animals. You know, I

7:45

always tell people you're not going to talk to anybody

7:47

happier or luckier than I am because

7:50

I found what I love to do at

7:52

a relatively young age. You know, it's something

7:54

that I can earn a living doing, which

7:56

isn't that way for everybody. And

7:58

it's something that's good for the world that, you know

8:01

-- Definitely. -- when I leave

8:03

when I leave this world, hopefully the world

8:05

and the B population will be a

8:08

little better for the work that I've

8:09

done.

8:10

And if the B population is better than

8:12

everyone and everything else is

8:14

better and threatened? Absolutely. I

8:16

think, you know, people don't

8:18

understand just how important

8:21

these are. Yeah. It's

8:23

said that they're responsible for one out of

8:25

every three bytes of food that we

8:27

eat. And, you know, our agricultural

8:29

system relies on bees so

8:31

much, but it's not just us humans.

8:34

There's a lot creatures we share

8:36

this time and space with on this planet

8:38

that also rely on bees for

8:40

for food. So,

8:42

you know, it's important that we

8:44

do everything we can to to

8:46

protect this species because in my

8:48

opinion, their importance can't be

8:50

overestimated. Can you

8:53

talk a little bit more about that,

8:55

about what role Bs play

8:57

in agriculture in that

8:59

statistic? I did not know one out of every

9:01

three bites that we

9:03

take, and also are

9:05

all bees III can

9:07

only imagine there are thousands of species of

9:10

bees Is it

9:12

only those bees that create honey

9:14

that are integral to this

9:16

ecosystem that serves

9:18

all living things? Or Sure.

9:20

I I'm so curious about

9:22

that specific role that bees

9:24

play --

9:25

Yes. -- in all in what

9:27

we all consume. They play

9:29

a significant role in what we all concerned,

9:31

but consume, but also the biodiversity

9:33

of the planet. There are over

9:35

twenty thousand species of

9:37

bees. Wow. That's more species of

9:40

birds and mammals combined.

9:42

Right. And what

9:44

these creatures do when they go to

9:46

work every day for the good of their

9:48

colony and to collect food for their

9:50

family, they're offering

9:52

an amazing service to the planet,

9:54

by the way, a pollination. So

9:57

flowers, plants are mostly pollinated, you

9:59

know, one of two ways they can self pollinate

10:01

or they need to cross pollinate. Self

10:03

pollinating plants can reproduce within

10:05

themselves, cross pollinating

10:08

plants, need other plants to

10:10

reproduce. However, plants have

10:12

a problem when it comes to reproduction

10:14

and finding a mate, and that's that they

10:16

can't move. Right. So They

10:18

need some help. Sometimes that help

10:20

comes by the way of wind or even

10:22

water. Oftentimes, creatures

10:24

we call pollinators and

10:27

bees are by far the most

10:29

powerful inefficient pollinator

10:31

our planet has, but it's

10:33

not just honey bees. It's you know,

10:35

there's over twenty thousand species

10:37

of bees. They're all

10:39

very important. There are some plants

10:41

that solely rely on

10:43

certain bees and they have a mutual

10:45

relationship and they can't exist

10:48

without the other. Wow. But As

10:50

humans, we have come to

10:52

keep honeybees because they

10:54

live in these massive colonies.

10:56

So they can live in colonies of

10:58

ten, fifty, hundred, two

11:01

hundred thousand bees. Whereas

11:03

most of the other bees that

11:05

we that we have, the over twenty

11:07

thousand species, those are what we were to

11:09

as solitary bees.

11:11

So there are bees that live either by

11:13

themselves or in a very small

11:15

community and they wouldn't necessarily do

11:17

the big production level work

11:19

that we as humans are requiring

11:22

of the species, and they can't really be

11:24

managed and kept. And the way is

11:26

that we as humans keep

11:28

honeybees in these, you know,

11:30

little boxes that you may have seen

11:32

on road sides or in fields or

11:34

in Hawaii a bunch of wonderful

11:36

mecca for beekeeping. And

11:39

our agricultural system is

11:41

built around having

11:43

bees in these key

11:45

places where we need them to

11:47

produce some of the crops that

11:49

rely on bees for a a great

11:51

example is almonds who -- Mhmm. -- almonds

11:53

are completely dependent on bees for

11:55

production. We wouldn't have almonds

11:57

if it wasn't for bees. So

12:00

you know, every year there are tons

12:02

of bee colonies shipped to these almond

12:05

orchards in California and

12:06

and, you know, the work of bees is

12:09

being done so they can produce

12:11

almonds for human

12:12

consumption. Wow. What

12:15

what elements of our current

12:18

agriculture system let's

12:20

say here in the United States or even around

12:22

the world is posing

12:24

the greatest threat to

12:26

the livelihood of

12:27

bees. I mean, really just the

12:30

way that we are handling bees

12:32

as livestock isn't the way that

12:34

bees were meant to live, quite simply they weren't

12:36

meant to live on semi trucks

12:38

shipped across the country, you

12:40

know, going on this tour of crops,

12:43

starting with almonds, you know, in

12:45

the west, and then maybe going up through the

12:47

Dakotas for alfalfa and Clover than

12:49

over to the East Coast --

12:51

Mhmm. -- for apples or what

12:53

have you. That's not the way that bees

12:55

were meant to live. And what happens

12:57

when we truck bees around and

12:59

put bees in these stressful environments they

13:02

are more susceptible to pests and

13:04

diseases that maybe they

13:06

wouldn't have been otherwise introduced to if

13:08

they weren't traveling and we weren't

13:10

having, you know, thousands

13:12

of b colonies in a small area,

13:15

bees by nature. That's not the

13:17

way that they prefer to live. So

13:19

It's causing an undue stress on

13:22

the managed honey bee population,

13:24

and it's important to note that when

13:26

we talk about what's going on with the

13:28

bees saving the bees. You know, it is different

13:30

for the different bees. The

13:32

bees that are honey bees that we are

13:34

keeping as humans managing

13:36

their populations for our own needs in

13:38

agriculture. You know, we replace

13:40

those colonies when those colonies

13:42

when there's colony loss. But

13:45

we're losing those colonies at devastating

13:47

rates and having to replace them

13:49

at alarming rates that our

13:52

beekeepers are having trouble keeping

13:54

up with And then when it comes to the

13:56

wild population of wild

13:58

bees, the unmanaged solitary bees,

14:01

those bees are at perhaps even more in

14:03

danger because they're not being

14:05

monitored and managed and

14:07

replenished and kept in the way

14:09

that you know, the the Western

14:11

HoneyBIAs. So it's

14:13

kind of twofold and there's a lot of

14:15

things that we can talk about when it

14:17

comes to helping bees and what

14:19

folks can do if they want to help bees. But,

14:21

you know, it's it's important that we

14:23

recognize that it's not just these managed

14:26

populations of honeybees that we need to

14:28

keep healthy. It's all healthy. It's

14:30

also the wild bees as well that

14:32

maybe don't get as much attention.

14:34

Yeah. Well, I'm curious about, you know,

14:36

whether it's the almond farms in California

14:39

or, you know, other farms in the Midwest,

14:41

different parts of the country. Why wouldn't

14:43

they why wouldn't they

14:45

keep bees there given

14:47

they they know they have their

14:49

own crop cycles and and and

14:50

whatnot? Why why take the

14:53

route treating Visa's livestock as you say

14:55

and shipping them around? Well,

14:57

what happens is, you know, those almond

14:59

orchards produce a wonderful

15:02

crop of polynektor placed

15:04

for the bees to forage from for a

15:06

very short window.

15:07

Mhmm. And then they just become

15:10

an agricultural dearth.

15:12

You know, there's it's a wasteland for

15:14

bees afterwards. The bees need

15:16

continual blooms and more

15:18

food than just one place,

15:21

one orchard crops can provide,

15:23

yes, the mono crops. So

15:25

they need food year round in

15:28

you know, there's just

15:30

not enough food to sustain the

15:32

bees natural food, and that's

15:34

one thing that people can do is

15:37

they can everybody can help to make a

15:39

difference in, you know, plant

15:41

flowering bushes and trees for

15:43

bees and things that bees will use for

15:45

food and for habitat. But

15:47

you know, it's the way that

15:49

we're using these for

15:51

our to pollinate these monocultures

15:54

and you

15:54

know, mass agricultural systems. Yeah. It's

15:56

just not sustainable. Yeah.

15:58

It's just not. That just points to

16:00

really that bigger that bigger problem

16:02

of how we treat

16:04

agriculture in this country with

16:06

such a short sighted almost

16:10

instant graphic vacation outcome,

16:12

really just looking to what's the next crop or the

16:14

next season rather than actually

16:16

understanding what the long term ramifications

16:18

are to, you know, soil quality and

16:20

just kind of the whole water

16:22

quality, air quality,

16:24

the whole ecosystem. I

16:26

I had a chance to as

16:29

I was running for president. I spent a lot of

16:31

time with farmers actually in

16:33

different parts of the country, and it

16:35

was fascinating to both

16:37

see the contrast between

16:39

like these massive commercial farms

16:42

that really they they just

16:45

blatantly don't care. They don't care about

16:47

any of the environmental impacts of

16:49

their of their

16:51

business

16:51

and, you know, talking to local communities,

16:53

their their pets can't drink out of a

16:55

local stream because they'll get sick and

16:57

die. The water contamination is

17:00

horrible. You can smell these farms

17:02

from miles away. You don't even see that

17:04

there's a town there yet, and you

17:06

can already smell in the air. And it's just

17:08

and then, you know, of course, there's you

17:10

can't do much else around there in the sense

17:12

of farming other than what what

17:14

is built in that that little commercial system.

17:18

then contrasting that with others who

17:20

recognize these problems and who are

17:22

doing regenerative farming and

17:24

farmers who are recognizing

17:25

like, okay, yes, I need to diversify my crops for the

17:27

good of, you know, having

17:30

longevity and actually being able to continue

17:32

as farmers and not just suck

17:34

the earth

17:35

dry and then what

17:37

move on when you've sucked everything

17:39

out of of of mother

17:41

earth and it's it's

17:44

something that is heartbreaking to

17:46

see in our politics. When

17:48

the big farm bill goes

17:50

through, this massive, massive

17:52

piece of legislation. I think a lot of folks

17:54

who aren't directly involved with it don't understand

17:56

the massive implications of it.

17:58

But covering everything from subsidies

18:02

to different industries and

18:05

crops. Oftentimes, the ones who have the

18:07

most powerful influential lobbyists

18:09

and the most money, but

18:11

also talking about nutrition

18:13

in schools and how is that defined?

18:18

I think it was the first year that was in Congress back in twenty

18:20

thirteen. I was just shocked that there was a I

18:22

think it was an amendment that was passed to

18:25

that bill. That said

18:27

frozen pizza in school cafeterias

18:29

qualifies as meeting the fruit and vegetable

18:32

nutritional needs for

18:34

kids. And that this was,

18:36

like, this took an act of congress

18:39

to to make sure that this was included in the

18:41

bill. And it was just mind blowing to me, like,

18:43

everybody I talked to and they kinda just truck, their shoulders are like,

18:45

yeah. Well, you know, they're owned by this company

18:47

or the biggest companies and they got these lobbyists

18:49

and there's tomato sauce and the frozen

18:51

pizza. So what's your problem? But,

18:55

like, I it just it points

18:57

to it points to

18:59

kinda the bigger the

19:01

bigger issue I think that that we yes.

19:03

Like, I I, you know, I I look forward

19:05

to kind of hearing the tips and

19:07

and things individual acts

19:09

that we can take. And and maybe in

19:11

our communities that we can take. And

19:14

also, there are some bigger policy things that

19:16

we need to address that have to do

19:19

with you know, big money interests

19:21

winning out over, frankly,

19:23

our ability to live and

19:25

thrive and survive

19:27

as people? Absolutely. I

19:30

mean, I I think it's ultimately gonna take

19:32

a complete cultural

19:34

mind shift, you know. But I would

19:36

say that the way that you feel about you

19:38

felt about those large commercial farms when

19:40

you saw them, the bees would probably echo

19:42

your sentiments, you know, and they don't

19:44

wanna be there either. So But,

19:47

you know, when people ask, what are

19:49

some things we can do for b's? One thing I

19:51

always say is, of course, to support your local

19:53

b keepers, but also to support the

19:56

policymakers who are making these decisions.

19:59

And so I'm so thankful to have the

20:01

opportunity to speak with folks like

20:03

you who are in positions of power who have

20:05

been policymakers who, you know,

20:07

will have the opportunity in the future to

20:09

really make a difference on

20:11

the policy level for bees because it's

20:14

important that we protect them at that

20:16

level as well as much as we

20:18

can against these larger

20:20

entities. But, you know, there

20:22

are simple steps that everybody can

20:24

do for bees, of course, planting

20:26

food for bees is essential.

20:28

It's important that bees have

20:30

enough food, natural food sources to

20:32

forage from, and then also the

20:34

wild bees, it's important that they have plenty

20:36

of places to live and of course

20:38

collect food from, but a lot of things provide habitat for

20:41

bees. And habitat loss is

20:43

a huge problem facing be

20:47

populations across the world, you know, the way

20:49

that humans are are making

20:51

decisions for our planet is is not

20:53

always the best for some of these smaller

20:55

creatures that we often don't think about.

20:58

Yeah. But, you know, everybody can make

21:00

simple behavioral changes you

21:02

can do things like maybe not mow

21:04

your lawn as much, let the weeds

21:06

grow. Weeds are a very

21:08

important first source of pollinate

21:10

or for bees. You know, they're one of the first

21:12

things to pop up in the spring and

21:14

there's sometimes the only thing surviving in

21:16

a place where nothing else is really in bloom and

21:18

there's a dandelion sticking up and that can

21:20

be a great and important food source

21:23

for bees and other

21:23

pollinators. So, you know, one

21:26

area I think I I hope

21:28

you realize that there's probably a lot of

21:30

dudes at home right now next time their wife asked them to

21:32

mow the

21:32

lawn, they'll be like, no.

21:33

No. I'm saving

21:34

the bees. Not gonna do it. Great. You

21:37

know, I think it's great. I I would love

21:39

to see you know, the

21:41

medians and the tollways and

21:43

highways and I mean, every place be

21:45

a place that's more natural

21:48

more native And it's not

21:50

just bees doing this fascinating work for our planet,

21:53

and it's essential to the

21:55

survival of humans, you know, as

21:57

long as as long as we are around,

21:59

we're gonna be living alongside bees.

22:01

So I'm, you know, just so

22:03

thankful to have the opportunity to show

22:05

people maybe a better side of bees or

22:08

to teach them something they didn't

22:10

know about bees, so that the next time, you

22:12

know, they do wanna go mow their

22:14

lawn on a Saturday. I

22:16

mean, try to get it. I mean, that's fine. Don't don't

22:19

Nomo if you if you can let it go. You

22:22

know? So

22:25

What what are the kinds of habitats?

22:28

You you mentioned that habitat loss is one

22:30

of the biggest problems. Where

22:32

where and how do bees thrive?

22:34

Is, you know, you mentioned there's

22:37

different seasons also that that bees

22:39

have, but as people are thinking like in

22:41

their own communities, And I think

22:43

this is important to mention, you know, I talked

22:45

about the big policy challenges in

22:47

Washington, but, you know, you've had great

22:49

success there in Austin with

22:51

your local council members and the mayor

22:53

recognizing Austin as

22:55

the B City last

22:56

year, if I'm if

22:57

I guess If I'm correct.

23:00

And, you know, and whether

23:02

whether you were directly involved

23:04

with making that happen, I know you went

23:06

and testified But but the

23:08

content that you're putting out

23:10

online, I know has has

23:13

a huge amount of influence. And again,

23:16

people just thinking about something they probably haven't

23:18

thought about before. And so

23:20

even as Washington policy, these

23:22

problems are real. They are big. They have

23:24

to be addressed and solved. But

23:26

we can't underestimate the importance of

23:29

the power of our

23:32

local city councils and our --

23:34

Absolutely. -- and our state government. I

23:36

served on the Honolulu City Council

23:39

here before I went to Congress,

23:41

and we have one of

23:43

the largest councils in the country. One one member

23:45

represents about a hundred thousand people on

23:47

this island of Oahu. Wow.

23:50

And so The thing I loved

23:52

most about that opportunity

23:54

to serve in that way was there were

23:56

nine members on the city council. And

23:58

that meant you could get things

24:00

done. You could deliver results. You

24:02

get you convince four other

24:04

people to support your measure or your

24:06

bill or your change or your initiative,

24:08

and you could actually start to see real results

24:10

happening. So as people are

24:12

thinking listening to this, and feeling

24:15

inspired, don't underestimate the power and

24:17

influence that you have over your local

24:19

city council member -- Yeah. --

24:21

to start to get those kinds because they're control

24:23

zoning. You know, it's like, okay, we've got

24:25

limited amount of land, how will it be

24:27

zoned with agriculture, development,

24:29

there's all sorts of things at

24:31

the local level that will have a direct

24:34

impact on what you're talking about on

24:36

protecting

24:37

habitats. For these bees

24:40

and their ability to thrive.

24:41

So people

24:42

are thinking about this, where what

24:44

what are we talking about? The ideal

24:47

Sure. Well, you know, I always tell people

24:49

just like the bees, no one is too small to

24:51

make a big difference. Yes, sir. I know your actions

24:53

matter, and it can matter

24:55

for bees, you know. And the most important thing

24:57

is just preserving native

25:00

wild pasturelands and

25:03

places for bees and other animals to

25:05

forage, you know, as humans

25:08

encroach more upon, you know,

25:10

the natural areas of our

25:12

planet and develop them for own needs, it's important

25:14

to think about how we can do that more

25:16

sustainably alongside these creatures.

25:19

So really, sometimes the

25:21

best in best things you can do for bees are sometimes

25:23

the easiest of not going out and mowing your lawn

25:25

or, you know, just leaving

25:28

something be. I mean, don't don't

25:30

worry about the weeds, you

25:32

know, and just if you have if you

25:34

have a open area, let

25:36

it let it go to the weeds

25:38

and let it grow for the bees, you

25:40

know. That's something that everybody can

25:42

do. But whether you have, you know, a

25:44

balcony or a yard or a garden,

25:46

whenever you're making decisions about what

25:48

to plant, if you can make

25:50

decisions that are for the bees and choose

25:52

flowering bushes and trees. That'll

25:54

that'll be something that's so important

25:56

and helpful to bees. But

25:59

also to beekeepers, you know, like

26:01

myself who we have to supplement

26:03

and supplement the food of bees

26:05

since they can't find enough food and that's,

26:07

you know, costly to us and isn't

26:09

always the best for the bees health

26:11

as well. So, you know,

26:14

really just protecting these wild spaces, of

26:16

course encouraging people to not use

26:18

pesticides in, you know,

26:21

supporting beekeepers who are doing

26:23

this work every day and working

26:25

alongside bees every day and working to

26:27

protect this species that,

26:28

you know, we love so much.

26:30

What what do you feed bees?

26:33

When they can't find their own

26:34

food. What do you feed them? Sure. So

26:36

the nutrition of bees is pretty simple.

26:38

They have a protein source, and that's pollen, and

26:40

they have a carbohydrate source, and

26:43

honey or nectar. So as a beekeeper,

26:45

I will try to supplement both of

26:47

those feeds at different times if I have

26:50

to. For Poland, it's just polin

26:54

substitute. It's just a soy

26:56

protein mix, you know,

26:58

that's made. And then the

27:00

substitute nectar, what we'll do is we'll just

27:02

feed them like a sugar water.

27:04

So it's about eight pounds of sugar to

27:06

one gallon of water and that's, you know,

27:08

is that's what we're doing to

27:10

substitute natural nectar sources

27:12

for bees. But it

27:14

ultimately leads to unhealthy bee

27:16

populations. You know, it's It's

27:18

like giving your kids junk

27:20

food every day, you know. Right.

27:22

So it's certainly not the best for

27:24

bees and it's you know, really easy

27:26

that everybody can do to help

27:28

bees

27:28

is, of course, you know, just just

27:30

plant things for bees. Yeah.

27:33

For people who go to

27:35

the health food store and they

27:38

buy or take B. Poland as

27:41

a supplement, or for those who

27:43

go and, you know, get a big

27:45

jar of of raw honey. Does

27:47

that hurt the

27:49

beast? Or or are they taking things away

27:51

from the bees that the bees need?

27:53

We are I mean, we're taking their

27:55

food away from them, but

27:58

bekeepers have been doing it since the beginning of

28:00

beekeeping time. We can certainly

28:03

responsibly manage beekeeping

28:05

colonies with still

28:07

harvesting products of the hive, you know.

28:10

Personally, it's just my personal

28:12

decision as a beekeeper to not sell honey.

28:14

It's not where I find my joy. In

28:16

beekeeping, but, you

28:18

know, it's it's just

28:20

one of those things we have to do with

28:22

more of an awareness and it's important

28:24

for everybody know that when they are

28:26

consuming these these products, they

28:28

are, you know, consuming the food of

28:30

beans basically. And Each

28:32

bee in her entire lifetime will only

28:34

make one twelfth of a teaspoon

28:36

of honey. It's such a small

28:38

amount. I never say that again.

28:40

So 11B. Each

28:43

b in her entire lifetime will

28:45

only make one twelfth of a

28:47

teaspoon of honey, and I say her

28:49

lifetime because male bees

28:52

don't make any honey. They don't do

28:54

much work for the hive. They have one

28:56

job and that's to mate with

28:58

a queen. But they don't build the hive. They don't

29:00

forge for food. They don't defend the

29:02

hive. They don't have a stinger. So

29:04

all the honey that you've ever eaten or

29:06

most the bees you've ever

29:08

seen in the world, you can positively identify as a

29:10

female bee because you're simply not

29:13

going to see a male bee barging from

29:15

a flower. He's he's

29:17

getting his honey back home in the hive, you

29:19

know. So it's

29:21

it's a rare opportunity for folks to

29:23

see a male be unless you've been in a beehive

29:25

or, you know, very up close next

29:27

to one. That is incredible. So

29:30

how many female bees are in

29:33

a hive? So the typical population of a

29:35

honeybee colony would be about

29:37

ninety to a hundred percent

29:39

female. Okay. So that

29:41

actually changes throughout the year. So right

29:43

now, we're in the winter. These

29:45

are not mating. The males are not

29:47

essential to the colony. They're just

29:50

eating through honey and they're pretty much a draw

29:52

on the resources. Okay. So

29:54

in the fall, the female

29:56

bees will actually kick all of the

29:58

male bees out of the hive, and they won't let them

30:00

back in, like, they're starved. They're too

30:03

much. I mean, you

30:05

know, it's it sounds so cruel,

30:07

but it's what is

30:09

essential for the health and wellness and

30:11

continuing of the honeybee species. You

30:13

know, it's just what they have to do to make it

30:15

until spring and it's

30:17

important that when we think of a

30:19

honey bee colony, we know that it's a

30:21

super organism, so it's not

30:23

so much these individual bees.

30:25

It's a it's a greater

30:26

collective. It's the group of bees,

30:29

and that's what's trying to survive

30:31

until the next

30:32

spring. Right? So what's

30:35

the relationship between the ninety?

30:37

You said ninety to to

30:38

a hundred percent of female

30:41

bees. What's their relationship with the queen bee?

30:43

Or or the the the colony's

30:46

relationship with the queen

30:46

bee, I should say? Thank

30:48

you. Yes. So the queen is

30:51

essentially the reproductive

30:53

organ of the colony.

30:56

She has one job and that's to lay eggs and

30:58

on at her peak she'll lay

31:00

about two thousand eggs per day and that's

31:02

her only job so she doesn't do

31:04

anything else since the hive. And

31:06

she has a group of attendant bees who take

31:09

care of all of her needs. They feed her.

31:11

They clean

31:11

her. They make sure she has

31:14

whatever she needs. And, you know, the worker bees

31:17

are the

31:17

ones that are of course taking care of the

31:19

queen, but they're the ones really running

31:22

the colony. You know, we so often think

31:24

of the honey bee colony of being this monarchy

31:26

where the queen bee is in charge and --

31:28

Mhmm. -- that's not the case at all, you

31:31

know.

31:33

Oh, I think we're gonna play

31:36

I think we're gonna play a little video here real

31:38

quick. Okay.

31:40

Remove them. So I

31:42

started scooping these off the umbrella and putting them

31:44

into a hive. When bees are in swarms like

31:46

this, it means they're looking for a new place to

31:49

live. They tend to be very docile since they

31:51

don't have any resources to defend. They

31:53

don't have a

31:54

hive, food, or baby bees to protect.

31:56

they should have a good

31:57

It's amazing how you got to have a piece of your

32:00

hair. I spent time switching up with the

32:02

queen. I repeated this process over and

32:04

over again. By the time I removed most

32:06

of the bees, I still had not seen the

32:08

queen, and I realized this was an unusual

32:10

case of a queenless form

32:12

This colony would not survive without a queen, but luckily

32:14

I had an extra one on me I could give

32:16

them. As soon as I gave the queen to the

32:18

colony, they rushed to meet her. If

32:20

they didn't accept her, they would try to kill her. If they

32:22

did accept her, they would release her from

32:24

the box by chewing through the piece of candy that

32:27

stops at one end. As

32:29

soon as the bees in the hive met the new queen, they

32:31

began sending signals to the other bees telling them to

32:33

move off the umbrella and into the

32:36

box. So I just waited in the swarm of

32:38

bees as the colony moved into their new

32:40

home. After about fifteen minutes, most

32:42

of the bees were with their colony so

32:44

I checked on the queen and that the bees were starting to accept

32:46

her. I waited a while longer for the bees

32:48

to get in their new hive, then I loaded

32:50

them into my truck and drove home.

32:53

I put the bees in my ABA so they could continue the important

32:55

work they do in a place that's safer for them

32:57

and for

32:57

people, and it was another great day of saving

33:00

the bees. That's

33:02

so fascinating. So so what

33:04

what is it that they look for

33:06

to decide whether to accept the rejected

33:09

queen? So,

33:10

you know, those bees needed a

33:12

queen and they were

33:13

very happy to have her and likely would have taken,

33:15

you know, almost a new

33:17

queen, they recognized that they needed a new queen to

33:20

survive and were so

33:22

thankful it wasn't necessarily you

33:24

know, certain things about that queen. It was just they knew

33:26

that that's what the colony needed to

33:29

survive. So it

33:31

was, you know, so lucky that

33:33

I had her on hand in the spring. I'm always

33:36

carrying queens around and it's just,

33:38

you know, responsible beekeeping

33:40

to have queens on hand

33:42

for circumstances such as

33:45

that. And I'll say that Hawaii is

33:47

actually one of, you know, the

33:49

places that is wonderful place

33:51

that we get most of our queen bees from

33:53

or a lot of queen bees, and

33:55

that's because of the climate

33:58

right now, you know, as a beekeeper. I

34:00

I'm not doing a lot of bee work

34:02

in the winter and why it's not

34:04

that way. You know, we can essentially breed

34:06

bees almost year round. And then

34:08

also, you don't have Africanized

34:10

bees in Hawaii, so Africanized bees

34:12

are a type of bee that are

34:15

they're tend to be

34:17

more defensive than other types

34:19

of honeybees, and that is

34:21

a genetic trait that of course

34:23

most beekeepers would prefer to have bread out of their bees.

34:26

So that is why it's

34:28

preferred for you

34:30

know, some beekeepers to get their

34:31

bees. They're queens from Hawaii.

34:34

Interesting. And

34:37

in that in that little video that we just saw,

34:39

the hive was without a queen.

34:41

What what's usually the cause of that?

34:43

Is it just the the

34:45

queen as lived her life

34:47

and and moved

34:48

on. You know,

34:49

in a case like that, and it's

34:51

hard to say, but a case like

34:53

that, those bees swarmed. They were looking for a new place to live. That's why

34:55

they landed on that umbrella. In

34:58

that swarming

35:00

activity, it's it's a

35:02

dangerous, treacherous journey for

35:04

the bees. You know, they're leaving the safety

35:06

of their hive and they're looking

35:08

for another place to live. And The

35:10

queen is not well suited for flying because that's

35:13

not essential to her job

35:15

of laying eggs. She will

35:17

only go on one or maybe two mating

35:20

flights in her entire life, and then

35:22

she'll come back to the hive and have

35:24

enough sperm to last the rest of her life, and

35:26

she'll just stay in the

35:28

hive laying eggs the entire time, so

35:30

she doesn't fly too much in

35:32

before the colony swarms

35:34

and chooses to leave their hive and seek a

35:36

new location like that umbrella, the

35:38

colony will actually choose to

35:41

starve their queen and she will lose

35:43

up to a third of her body

35:45

weight to make her a better flyer. So if that

35:47

shows you just how in app

35:49

she is. So it's

35:52

likely that in that case, she just

35:54

didn't survive the journey, you know. The

35:56

the colony was looking for a new place

35:58

without her, but they wouldn't have made

35:59

it. And those bees would have perished if if they didn't have a new

36:02

queen. That's so incredible

36:04

that they that that's

36:06

a conscious strategic

36:08

decision -- Yeah. -- prior to movement

36:10

because as you said, she's got all of

36:12

her attendees around her providing her

36:15

with what she needs. And so

36:17

if they deprive her of that, she doesn't really have any other options. It's like a

36:19

forced diet. It is.

36:21

No. They won't. I've seen it too in

36:23

the colony. They'll even

36:26

chase her around and force her to exercise. I'm like, gosh. I still

36:28

don't lose weight. It's

36:30

it's Where's my attendees?

36:33

I think I can do so.

36:36

But, you know, it's what has to

36:38

happen. It's it's amazing that you have

36:41

to figure this out. You know, that they

36:43

have a better chance of survival for that journey

36:45

if their queen is

36:48

lighter and

36:50

and can lose a little weight. So it's they're

36:52

just amazing. You know, in that

36:54

video you just saw, I mean,

36:56

that was in the in

36:58

like courtyard up in a compartment

37:00

complex and I don't think I

37:02

think there were a lot of folks

37:04

watching who thought that it was equally

37:06

as amazing or I was just insane

37:09

for doing that. But there was a family and a minivan parked out

37:11

front that, you know, ballet folks had

37:13

their blinds

37:15

up and know, it was a great

37:18

opportunity to show people --

37:20

Yeah. -- that not all bees want to

37:22

sting everybody all the

37:24

time.

37:24

Right? Why why does it being be staying someone?

37:26

Because they feel threatened.

37:28

You know, if they feel like they need to

37:32

defend their colony or their

37:34

hive. They can become defensive. But

37:36

again, by nature, bees are not

37:40

aggressive. And that's

37:42

a big misunderstanding that

37:44

people have been misled

37:47

to believe that you

37:48

know, all bees wanna sting you all the time, and that's just aren't

37:50

the case. And when you're

37:52

going and doing your work in and around

37:56

the hive, talk about the smoke because I've seen it

37:58

used and I've, you know, seen

38:00

videos, but what

38:01

what purpose does it serve and do

38:03

you use it all

38:05

the time? Sure. So I I use it most all of the time.

38:08

The the smoker will

38:11

mask alarm pheromones so

38:13

bees communicate through scents through fair moons.

38:16

And if I can cover up those scent

38:18

signals, it'll make it a little

38:20

bit harder for the bees to know that

38:22

if there's a threat in the hive or if they you danger

38:24

coming into the hive. But what I use

38:26

it for more often in my work is

38:28

actually to move the bees around because

38:32

you know, if you're

38:33

standing around a campfire and the smoke go goes in your direction, what

38:35

do you do? You move out of the way. And

38:37

the b's react the same

38:40

way. So you know, if I

38:42

need the bees to go to a different

38:44

area or often umbrella, for

38:46

instance, or into the new hive, you know, I can use

38:48

my smoker to to move the

38:50

beads around, but I'll also I'll

38:52

use the pheromones, you know. I'll use

38:54

the scent of the queen. That's what they want

38:56

to follow. So That's why the

38:58

key to any successful B

39:00

removal is finding that

39:02

queen B because once you

39:04

have

39:04

her, you can kind of control the colony and the

39:06

Bs want to be with her so they will naturally

39:08

follow the queen bee into whatever

39:11

new hybrid situation I I

39:13

hope to move them into.

39:15

That's so amazing. And so what

39:17

what will start to happen once it's it's kind of

39:20

the cold season, right, that you're in right now.

39:22

There's not much activity. So when things start

39:24

to

39:25

warm up, what, like, paint the picture of what the

39:28

beads are doing in the hive.

39:30

Sure. I mean, you know, they're waiting for

39:32

spring like I am. I'm sure just getting

39:34

anxious. That's

39:36

you know, when they collect most of their food. They don't

39:38

they don't do it year round of course because, like,

39:40

right now, there isn't much in

39:44

bloom. We're in the winter, you know, we're in a dearth, and there's not

39:46

much food for the bees. So they're surviving

39:48

off the food that they

39:51

stored in their hive earlier in the year, the honey and

39:53

pollen -- Okay. -- that they collected earlier

39:55

in the year. And

39:58

just like the bees, you know, I can't predict the

40:00

weather. I don't know when spring will

40:02

come and when the flowers will start

40:04

blooming or if we have a big freeze event

40:06

and everything that was about to

40:08

bloom just snaps back, you know, that

40:10

can be detrimental

40:12

for the bees. So, you

40:14

know, when spring comes, they will

40:16

go out of their hive and

40:19

start collecting food for their colony with the

40:21

idea of growing their colony as large

40:23

as they can. So when the big

40:25

nectar flow hits at the peak of spring or

40:27

summer or wherever it where the

40:29

bees are. They'll have a full

40:32

force ready to go and and go out and

40:34

pollinate and collect food for

40:36

their

40:36

colony. And for me, you know, I get to do what

40:38

I love more. I get to do more b work

40:40

and spend more time with the b's just because

40:43

they're naturally more active and moving around and

40:46

looking for new places to

40:48

live. And so when the

40:50

female bees kicked the male bees out

40:52

for the season because they

40:54

don't have use for them for that

40:56

period of time. What

40:58

happens when the weather starts to shift? Do those

41:00

safeties come back Or or is a

41:02

new set of

41:03

bees? How how does that relationship

41:05

get reconnected? So,

41:08

you

41:08

know, The B Life

41:10

tends to be very short,

41:12

so the lifespan depends on

41:14

the type of B, but a female worker

41:16

B only lives about six weeks

41:19

in the spring and summer when she's working

41:21

at her peak. She'll live a little

41:23

bit longer in the winter. She'll live

41:25

about six months. The male drone bees will only

41:27

live maps about six months until they're

41:30

kicked out and, you know, of course, in

41:32

the spring, new

41:34

male B eggs and new female worker

41:36

B eggs, but the Queen B

41:38

can live the longest a

41:40

considerable amount of time longer than

41:43

the worker and drone bees, she can live up to five

41:46

years. So, you know, she

41:48

is really so important to

41:50

the continuation

41:51

of the colony, which is why the bees tend to follow her

41:54

in those removal situations.

41:56

So six weeks six

41:59

weeks is so fast in

42:01

that time of peak activity. What what is what is what

42:03

is what is one day look like

42:05

during that during that

42:07

period, especially for them?

42:10

Well, for a depends old is. So

42:13

bees will get an age depending

42:15

on how old they are

42:17

in their abilities. So when

42:19

a bee is first born, she will likely get the job of

42:22

being a housekeeper bee. So she won't

42:24

leave the hive until she's much later in

42:26

her life, and she'll stay in the hive,

42:28

and she'll clean the

42:30

hive. She'll clean the very cell that she

42:32

emerged from, and then she'll go around

42:34

cleaning and preparing more cells.

42:36

After that, she might become a queen attendant

42:38

bee where she attends to the

42:40

queen and takes care of all of her

42:42

needs. She'll become a construction

42:44

worker bee where she builds

42:46

the bee hive. So female worker

42:48

bees have little wax glands on the

42:50

undersides of their abdomen, and

42:52

they produce these sheets of

42:54

beeswax and build it into this

42:56

beautiful structure that we know as the

42:58

beehive. They'll be heating

43:00

and cooling bees, so bees always try to

43:02

keep their hide at around ninety five

43:05

degrees Fahrenheit. And that's so, of course,

43:07

you know, the products of the hive, the honey

43:09

and pollen don't spoil or ferment, but also so that

43:11

the baby bees can grow

43:13

and develop, that's the right temperature.

43:15

So it's essential that, you

43:18

know, they keep the temperature right in the hive

43:20

and the right humidity. So there are

43:22

bees that difficultly do that. There are undertaker bees

43:24

that haul the dead bees out of the

43:26

hive. There are guard

43:28

bees that guard the entrance of the hive.

43:30

It can intruders.

43:32

And then the very last

43:34

job a bee will get in

43:36

her little short bee life is to be a

43:38

forager bee. And that's where she'll go out

43:41

I mean, you know, it's I always

43:43

feel to help people I have the easiest job because

43:45

just the world of Visa is so fast

43:47

meeting. I mean, all I have to

43:49

do is people what bees are doing naturally

43:51

every day that they might not get to see.

43:53

And it's -- Right. -- in my opinion, just

43:55

captivating. It's so interesting -- It really

43:57

is. -- has figured out how

43:59

to do this and also in this

44:02

big social collective of

44:04

tens of thousands of little

44:06

creatures. Mhmm.

44:07

Of of which they're just one element

44:09

of. Right? Yes. How how

44:11

do they what what do

44:13

they do to actually keep

44:15

that temperature and humidity at

44:18

what they

44:18

need. Sure. So in the

44:21

winter, what they'll do is

44:23

they'll cluster inside the hive. So they

44:25

are just trying to stay as warm as

44:27

possible right now, and they'll make like

44:29

a ball of bees, and they'll all

44:31

cluster around the brood, the baby bees, and

44:33

also the queen. And the bees will

44:35

actually take turns on who's on the

44:38

outside of the cluster. So everybody stays

44:40

warm, and they're just trying to

44:42

heat their hive that way right

44:44

now by the warmth of

44:46

their little b bodies. And in the summer,

44:48

they will they'll fan

44:50

the entrance of their hive and they'll kind of

44:52

create like a AC system. They'll

44:54

place little tiny water

44:56

droplets around the hive and fan with their

44:58

wings and and make

45:00

it cooler. They'll also leave the

45:02

hives. So, you know, during the

45:04

day up to about a third of the colony

45:06

is outside foraging, but at night

45:08

when all of the bees come back

45:10

oftentimes in the summer when it's really

45:12

hot out, especially where I'm at in Texas. I

45:14

see it all the

45:16

time. We we call it bearding and

45:18

it's just a bunch of bees on

45:20

the outside of the hive at night and they're

45:22

just not inside side because it

45:24

would, of course, create more warmth.

45:26

So they have many ways

45:28

of managing, you know, how to how

45:30

to keep their hive warm and cool and

45:32

whether it's five degrees Fahrenheit or a hundred and five degrees

45:33

Fahrenheit. You know, they're always working hard to

45:36

keep it at around ninety

45:38

five degrees. This

45:42

is just incredible. I feel

45:44

like there needs to be like an

45:48

actual movie

45:50

made about all of these different,

45:52

like like, just that just would be, like,

45:54

the day and the life of or the life span of

45:56

a bee and all of those different jobs

45:59

and the roles that they have. It's it

46:01

is so incredible. It's it's it's impossible

46:03

to hear that and not have,

46:05

like, really incredible appreciation

46:08

for just what

46:10

they

46:11

do. I I couldn't agree more. And

46:13

then, you know, for me to

46:15

have the opportunity to actually see

46:17

it every

46:18

day, I mean, again, I just feel like one of the luckiest people.

46:20

So do

46:21

you come out to

46:22

Hawaii to to come in and

46:25

find some queen bees? I

46:27

wish I've only been there once, but it

46:30

is we have, you

46:32

know, we have

46:34

Hawaii to thank for for

46:37

being a wonderful mecca of beekeeping. And there's actually a

46:39

pretty interesting history, you know,

46:41

hope bees, honeybees are not native to

46:43

the US, of course.

46:46

And they're not native to -- were

46:48

brought here by the settlers, but it wasn't

46:50

until about the eighteen fifties that

46:52

bees were finally successfully introduced

46:56

to Hawaii. It was quite a struggle to

46:58

get honeybees successfully introduced

47:00

to Hawaii for a long

47:04

time. Folks in eighteen fifty one decided there

47:06

was a royal Hawaiian

47:08

agricultural society. It was their first meeting and

47:10

they decided one of the

47:12

most important things

47:14

they could do was to form a committee to figure out how

47:17

to import honeybees. So they

47:19

started to do this

47:22

and the first year they tried. They shipped over Bs from I

47:24

think it was Boston and, you know, the

47:26

Bs were not successful that didn't arrive

47:28

while they tried again the next year.

47:32

They put bees on ice trying to make sure the

47:34

hives went overheat in transit.

47:36

Again, it was

47:37

unsuccessful, but you know, after years Because

47:40

they're talking

47:40

about on ships at that point. And -- Yes.

47:42

--

47:42

I mean, just

47:43

the duration of travel, what to speak of the

47:45

conditions would be tough.

47:48

Absolutely. And just, you know, I

47:50

mean, keeping bees in a new place

47:52

and on ships. You know, I imagine it was -- Yeah. --

47:54

every beekeeper first time to put

47:56

bees on the ship back then.

47:58

So so what they did is they

48:00

finally put out a public call how they offered

48:02

ten dollars to anybody

48:04

who could successfully introduced honeybees to

48:06

Hawaii. And in eighteen fifty seven, a

48:08

gentleman from

48:10

California was

48:11

successful and brought over two hives to

48:13

Hawaii, and they did quite

48:15

well. And so that is

48:17

the reason that we have many

48:19

times in Hawaii. That's amazing.

48:22

What qualities so you mentioned Hawaii has

48:24

a a it's a great source

48:26

for for queen

48:27

bee's. What what are some of the qualities that

48:30

you look for when you're selecting a a queen

48:32

bee. Oh my

48:33

goodness. Well, you know, I I am

48:35

not so much one to buy I'm

48:37

not buying as

48:40

many wins as I once did and I'm really only buying

48:42

them, you know, in the spring when

48:44

I'm doing a lot of b work and I find a

48:46

lot of swarms that may

48:48

not have a queen. Mhmm. But I would

48:51

say for me, you know, I'm

48:53

always just looking a

48:56

queen because I'm in these wild colonies and

48:59

I'm sometimes in there for

49:01

hours and my success is

49:03

dependent on finding that queen bee. And

49:06

so I'm oftentimes happy to

49:08

see any

49:10

living, healthy, queen in my in my work.

49:12

But, you know, it's,

49:14

you know, a healthy stream a healthy

49:16

queen is essential to the

49:20

Hyb's well-being and the colony's well-being.

49:22

So a colony can't survive without a

49:24

healthy queen. And, you

49:26

know, every time I'm in a

49:28

removal situation, I the

49:30

queen, it's still the greatest feeling

49:32

in the world each

49:33

time. That's so cool. You you

49:35

were talking earlier

49:38

about how the loss of bees and

49:40

bees bees colonies for

49:42

for whatever reason, whether it's because of

49:44

the mass

49:48

livestock treatment or for

49:50

other reasons, how

49:52

how do you as beekeepers

49:55

replace those colonies.

49:58

You mentioned that sometimes the loss

50:00

is greater than the ability to

50:02

provide those replacements. I I'm

50:05

curious about how that works

50:07

from from start to

50:10

delivery, I

50:12

guess. Sure. Yeah. You know, one way we can do that buy

50:14

a new queen and split

50:16

an existing colony into

50:19

two colonies. Mhmm. You

50:21

know, can take one healthy colony and give it a new

50:24

queen and and start a new colony that

50:26

way. But that's also

50:28

something that be breeders are

50:30

doing. And so a lot of times, people

50:32

are just buying entire new

50:34

colonies, new queens ready

50:36

to go. And, you know, it's very costly to beekeepers, and

50:38

that cost is, of course, passed down

50:40

through all the ways that agricultural

50:44

system works and passed on to

50:46

the consumers. So, you know, this

50:49

the problem of of losing

50:51

b colonies and honey B

50:53

Colony is having to be replaced

50:55

by Bkeepers is is more than just

50:57

a problem for for

50:58

Bkeepers, you know. It's it it

51:01

can be a problem for everybody. Yeah.

51:03

You what what was your

51:05

thought process when you decided to start

51:07

posting things online about

51:09

what you're doing? Are

51:11

you a social media? Did that come from

51:14

your kind of communications background?

51:16

Or or how did

51:18

that thought enter

51:20

your

51:20

mind? You know, I started posting on Instagram

51:22

years ago when I got into beekeeping

51:24

just because I would go into

51:27

hives, doing inspections. And I would see things

51:29

I didn't know and I would take a photo of it

51:31

so I could look it up online or on

51:33

a beekeeping forum or in

51:35

a beekeeping book. When I got back to a screen, you know, and

51:37

out of the beehive. And I realized, wow, I

51:40

have all these amazing things that I've seen

51:42

and captured on film that I

51:44

got to see as a beekeeper

51:46

that most people maybe

51:48

wouldn't get to see. So I just started to

51:50

post photos of all the incredible

51:52

things I got to see online.

51:54

And then as I started to do more of the b removal

51:56

work, you know, that just

51:58

naturally I just find that so

52:00

fascinating because I get to see

52:02

how b's build in a

52:04

natural environment without humans making

52:06

decisions for them. You know, I'm going

52:08

into, you know, a a

52:10

speaker or a compose spin you

52:12

know, the walls of someone's home and

52:14

removing bees that maybe have never been

52:16

managed by humans before.

52:18

So for

52:20

me, what lights me up and what I love most about

52:23

beekeeping and to want

52:25

to start sharing that

52:28

with people you know, I think was pretty natural especially

52:30

when I started to do some of these

52:32

remover removals during

52:34

during the height of quarantine, and I would

52:37

have families say, this is the most interesting thing

52:39

our kids have seen in a month.

52:41

And I would have you

52:43

know, the blinds drawn up in people's

52:45

faces pressed to the windows watching me what I

52:47

was doing. And I realized, wow, this is something

52:50

that, you know, I can I can

52:52

show people something they maybe didn't know was possible and

52:54

maybe something they've never seen before.

52:56

And so I just

52:58

started to post

53:00

online and started to get

53:02

really a tremendous and

53:04

overwhelming response. And,

53:06

you know, it's been it's been

53:08

mostly good for someone like me at taken a

53:10

little bit of time to I think get used to all

53:13

the attention. But, you know,

53:15

again, I just feel so

53:18

lucky that I'm in this position to get to

53:20

show people the work that bees and beekeepers

53:22

do, and I feel a huge sense of

53:24

responsibility to to the bees

53:26

in to

53:27

beekeepers. I just wanna show real quick on

53:30

the screen some of the

53:32

impact that your videos

53:34

have here hundred

53:36

thirty three million, ninety

53:38

nine point six million.

53:40

It's it's so amazing

53:43

to see how many well, I mean, you know,

53:45

a lot of people having the same reaction

53:47

I did. A lot of people having the

53:49

same reaction of those who like

53:51

you people who are watching you actually in

53:54

person do what you

53:56

do. So so you said you get a

53:58

mostly positive

54:00

reaction Are you telling me there are

54:02

people who, like, are b

54:04

haters out there? You know, it's

54:06

the Internet. I think

54:07

-- Yeah. Sure. -- when you're putting

54:10

in that many people people are seeing it,

54:12

you know -- Yeah. -- you're always gonna have

54:14

comments. But, no, I really

54:16

feel so lucky to be able

54:18

to to share the work of bees and beekeepers with people and

54:20

in a new way that, you know, they've

54:22

probably never

54:24

seen before. But also to let

54:26

people know if they do have a B

54:28

situation and they have B's building in

54:30

a place where maybe they don't

54:32

necessarily want. Them to be building. There are people like me wake

54:34

up every day extremely excited

54:36

to to do this work

54:38

and who want to help you

54:41

reclaim your space and also to give the bees a

54:44

better place to live. Is it

54:46

common to do what you do in

54:48

just using your bare

54:50

hands, no to no

54:51

mass, no nothing, and and as you you're

54:53

helping move these bees? I would say

54:55

it's more common, you know,

54:57

for folks to to wear

54:59

full gear, but I'm

55:02

in Texas and it's

55:04

quite as hot and

55:06

it's just my perf personal preference

55:08

to, you know, wear

55:10

as little gear as

55:12

possible. If the b's will

55:14

allow it, you know, the b keeping

55:17

you you lose so much

55:20

mobility, you lose a lot of dexterity with the

55:22

gloves, you lose visibility in that in

55:24

the vail, and In the video we're

55:26

watching now, I'm removing a giant hive

55:28

from a backyard shed and that's

55:32

in Texas in the summer. I think that was that's happened. It was

55:34

maybe in September, but still

55:36

it's incredibly hot, nineties

55:38

inside those

55:40

sheds. It's even hotter and I was probably in there

55:42

for four or five hours. Wow.

55:44

So it's just much more

55:46

comfortable and my personal

55:48

preference to Whereas little

55:50

gears, the will let me,

55:52

you know, I quite frankly think it would

55:54

be crazy to not try to figure out a

55:56

way to to get out of

55:58

that suit in in those temps.

56:00

So

56:00

I I agree. I can't I can't

56:02

imagine. And just, you know, as you're maneuvering

56:04

in these small spaces to to

56:07

be able to do that and do it

56:09

freely. And it also alongside

56:12

these

56:13

tiny Exactly. --

56:14

I mean, they're so delicate and everything

56:16

in the beehive is incredibly delicate

56:19

that comb is made out of beeswax

56:21

and I'm trying to

56:23

preserve carefully as possible.

56:26

So, you know, I just try to work

56:28

slowly and, you know, of course, I

56:30

get stung. It's

56:32

part of being a bee keeper, but you just

56:34

you learn how to manage those things

56:36

and, you know, if if the bees

56:39

if the colony as a whole ever felt like

56:41

they felt threatened by me and became

56:43

defensive, I would, of course,

56:45

certainly, put on a suit

56:47

or

56:47

a bail. I think that's one of the things that I I noticed too,

56:50

and and when I was first watching your

56:52

videos and just mesmerized.

56:54

But by

56:56

how you're moving with them and around them

56:58

was just the respect

57:00

that's there. And and

57:04

that it must be required in order to be able

57:06

to do that without

57:08

causing causing a situation or

57:10

pissing them off, frankly.

57:13

Yes. No. Absolutely. Thank you for recognizing

57:16

that. I mean, in some of those videos, I'm trying

57:18

to move my feet as little as

57:20

possible. I mean, really every movement I'm

57:22

making, and trying to do it

57:24

with the bees in mind and I know that if

57:26

I take a step and I'm not looking, you know, if

57:28

I could crush a bee and

57:30

I just do the best I

57:32

can every day, but really try to

57:34

be very mindful that it's a

57:36

privilege to be in

57:38

that colony and to work alongside those

57:39

bees. And you know, for my safety and for theirs. I'm just trying keep

57:42

everybody happy. So --

57:44

Yeah. -- do you

57:44

get to

57:45

work much with kids and and how

57:47

my exosome to this? Prior

57:50

to the pandemic and

57:53

kind of when a lot of

57:55

attention started to come my way,

57:57

I really enjoyed going to

58:00

schools. I did that a lot and talking to kids

58:02

and giving programs. And I'll tell

58:04

you what, they always ask the

58:06

best questions about -- Sure. -- there's some of my favorite audiences to have.

58:08

I haven't done that too much

58:11

recently, you know, things

58:13

have little weird and and different for me,

58:16

but I I really hope to do

58:18

that on a larger scale now. I just think

58:20

if we can teach the

58:22

next generation to treat bees

58:24

better and, you know, maybe

58:26

not coming from that place of fear

58:28

that the media instilled in

58:30

prior generations with you know,

58:32

Africanized bees or sensationalizing

58:34

of of the of

58:37

greater northern hornets that the

58:39

media dubbed murder hornets. You know, if I

58:41

can show the next generation a better

58:43

side of B's, I think it will only

58:45

help B's and in the

58:47

future of people living alongside them.

58:49

So don't

58:49

exterminate bees. Did you

58:52

not

58:53

exterminate bees? Call someone like

58:56

me. There's There you go. I think

58:58

that's that's the thing is is

59:00

figuring out who

59:02

to call

59:03

do you do do house calls in other

59:06

states? I do not, you

59:08

know, I'm there's there's

59:10

permits and regulations for each states

59:12

for reporting an porting bees.

59:14

So but, you know, there are

59:16

beekeepers like me all

59:18

over the world who would love

59:20

to help out folks who

59:22

have honeybee situations

59:24

and and bees living in places where they

59:26

don't want them to.

59:28

And, you know, it's it's important that people

59:30

make the right

59:32

decisions for their own safety, but also the safety of the bees as

59:34

well. You know, and as soon as

59:36

you notice bees, it's a good time to

59:38

call a beekeeper.

59:40

Don't wait. Two or three or four years and as much as

59:42

I love doing massive Hive

59:44

removals and those are the ones that just feel like

59:46

Christmas morning for

59:48

me, but you know, it's really best if if you realize that

59:50

once the bees have moved in and if

59:52

they're healthy, they're they're

59:54

probably gonna stay around for a while and

59:57

you should you should figure out something There's something out

1:00:00

sooner than later. Yes.

1:00:02

Yes. Amazing.

1:00:04

What so for I

1:00:06

mean, I feel like we could talk for hours and

1:00:08

hours and hours on this. But

1:00:11

for people who want to actually

1:00:13

start to to learn more and get educated

1:00:15

and and maybe kinda get

1:00:17

plugged in in their local communities. Is there

1:00:19

is there well, how

1:00:22

can people find you first of all? And then there,

1:00:24

like, central resources or a

1:00:26

site that you recommend where people can

1:00:29

start at least? Sure.

1:00:32

So if if folks wanna see more about what I do, you can visit

1:00:34

texas b works dot com or look me up on

1:00:36

social sites. But what I really

1:00:38

recommend is

1:00:40

is you know, beekeeping is very hyper local. So bees

1:00:42

forage for two miles. So

1:00:44

it's happening with bees in

1:00:47

even my county. Is completely different than B's in the next county.

1:00:49

So I'd really recommend finding

1:00:52

someone local in your area that could

1:00:54

be a mentor

1:00:56

to you. Or finding a local

1:00:58

association. Folks who know what's going on with

1:01:00

bees in your area can be a great

1:01:02

resource for getting started.

1:01:04

And right

1:01:06

now, in the winter. It's a wonderful

1:01:08

time if you've ever thought about keeping bees to do your research,

1:01:10

buy equipment, think about if

1:01:12

you want to get ready because the

1:01:15

spring is the time to do so. So the spring is the

1:01:18

time when you would buy

1:01:20

more b colonies, you know,

1:01:22

and and new beekeepers can start new bee colonies.

1:01:24

So you've got plenty of time right

1:01:26

now to start researching and reading

1:01:28

books and, you

1:01:30

know, I love reading the

1:01:32

American b journal. It's one of my favorite

1:01:34

publications. It arrives in my mailbox every

1:01:36

month, and I am so excited and

1:01:38

has wonderful information about, you

1:01:40

know, the what's up to date

1:01:42

in the beekeeping world, not only for hobbyist and commercial beekeepers, but also the

1:01:44

scientific world and what's going

1:01:46

on with our bee populations.

1:01:49

So, you know, I would look to folks like

1:01:51

the entomologists and the B biologists

1:01:54

who are really working really

1:01:56

hard to figure out what's going on with

1:01:58

our bees. Incredible.

1:02:00

Thank you so much

1:02:02

for what you do, Erica,

1:02:04

and thank you for the interest

1:02:06

and inspiration that you're in that you're helping so

1:02:09

many other people capture in

1:02:11

this whole other

1:02:14

world that many of us

1:02:16

never ever get an

1:02:18

insight into just peeking behind the

1:02:20

curtains through you and through your

1:02:22

videos is really, really,

1:02:24

really fascinating And again,

1:02:26

just most importantly,

1:02:28

how critical it is to

1:02:30

life, how critical it

1:02:33

is to our food and this

1:02:35

entire ecosystem that we are just

1:02:37

one part

1:02:38

of. Thank you. Thank you for

1:02:40

sharing this time with me.

1:02:43

Thank you for all the ways you've served our country

1:02:45

and thank you for letting me talk about bees

1:02:47

today. It's been a privilege and a

1:02:50

pleasure and if you're ever in Texas,

1:02:52

you have an open invitation to

1:02:54

suit up and come see me in the

1:02:55

bees. I will take you up on that. I've

1:02:57

been

1:02:57

great.

1:02:58

Absolutely. My sister actually lives there.

1:03:00

We we Really hurt her husband. We stayed with us or we shared a place

1:03:03

in DC while I was there. And as soon as

1:03:05

I left there, like, we're out

1:03:08

of here. And so

1:03:10

her in laws actually live there in

1:03:12

Austin, so they've they've got a place

1:03:14

there. So I will come and

1:03:16

knock

1:03:16

in. On your door.

1:03:17

Please do

1:03:17

so. Yeah. I'd look forward to it.

1:03:19

Thank you so much, Tulsi. Thanks

1:03:21

for your work.