Buzzy New Bees

05 May 2014

Jacob has more bees.

Before we left Los Angeles and moved to Houston, we lost both of our beehives. This has become a bit of a trend: decide to move, lose the bees.

When we moved within Los Angeles, we unceremoniously dropped the bee box in the yard of our new place and before we'd bothered to get new bees they had moved in.

We crossed our fingers for a similar story here in Houston when we noticed some scouts checking out the bee box, but nothing ever came of it and finally Jacob reached out on Craigslist with an offer for free bee removal. He had a couple of leads that seemed promising and one in particular: a man west of us said that a swarm had taken up in a cable box in his backyard. All the other leads involved hacking into walls, so he packed up his hat and his gloves, sealed up the bee box, buckled it into his truck, and off he went.

The transfer went really well, and we even scored a couple pounds of honey. He built the bees a little sanctuary in the back corner of the yard out of some old shelves and doors. It forces the bees to fly upwards when they leave the hive. This ensures that we don't have a flightpath in the middle of the yard. It's also childproof which is perhaps the more important detail.

And my how he loves them. Whenever I can't here him shuffling about the house there's more than a good chance he's out there watching them.
If you like bees and aren't squeamish about the idea of watching close ups of larva and exoskeletons, then I highly recommend the documentary More Than Honey (available on Netflix) which takes a critical look at modern beekeepking practices; it has some stunning videography and lots of cute old swiss people.

7 comments :

  1. YAY! I'm at my parents house this week, and my dad is all about his hive. There are two big things of honey wine sitting on the kitchen counter fermenting (is that what they do??). Anyway, so happy you guys have your bees again! That hive looks so impressive! Great job, Jacob!

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  2. Beekeeping is so cool. I need to make friends with someone who does it so they can give me free honey. #justsaying

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  3. Between this and the cuckoo house, I am just all sorts of impressed.

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  4. It is one of my life goals to keep bees. I know.

    Zeke rolls his eyes at this one, and he argues that attracting hundreds of bees to a camp with lots of running children (some of whom don't really obey the "boundaries" rule and end up INSIDE my garage-what!?!) isn't exactly the best of ideas. I beg to differ. And someday, I tell you. Someday.

    PS- You should totally write lots of detailed tutorial posts about bee keeping so I could learn and then sneak bee houses into my backyard in the dead of night.

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  5. Bees are so cool. I used to date a guy who kept bees, and I thought they were fascinating.

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  6. Those last 2 pics are possibly the cutest I have ever seen. I'm so jealous of yours & Jacobs know-how! Store honey doesn't even touch the raw stuff.

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  7. Holy cow….I grow parsley and you keep bees. You're way cooler!
    Are these the no-sting variety?

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