Austin Beelove

Had a really fun afternoon presenting about bees to Jollyville elementary for career day. The kiddos loved seeing the bees and sampling all the different flavors of honey from my hives. Thank you for inviting me to present Jollyville Elementary School!

Removed this swarm from the top of a tree for my local elementary school. They sure were happy to boogie on into their new home.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Just a friendly reminder that we are entering swarm season for the year. If you see a large cluster of bees in your tree, car, fence, mailbox, etc. don’t fret and DON’T spray them – they pollinate 80% of our food!

Just call or text our swarm hotline 512-525-9473 or message Beelove and we will come rescue them and give them a home. If you live in South Austin we offer this service FREE of charge!! We are committed to protecting the honeybees and our environment while keeping the general public safe ☺

We also provide humane and no-kill structural removal services and provide shelter and rehabilitation for the bees, but due to the nature of the work, the labor involved, and the insurance we carry, structural removals are quoted on a case-by-case basis.

PLEASE let everyone around you know not to spray the bees, and feel free to share this on facebook, nextdoor, etc. to get the message out and help us save the bees!
If you want to watch videos of our bee rescues, you can follow us at Austin Beelove

Sweet little bees living under a shed got a rehome and some much needed food.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Now who can tell me what's wrong with this picture?

Check out the beautiful open air combs bees have built on this bucket ❤🐝

This was a swarm trap I set this spring as a test. At some point the bucket fell to the side, but the bees still moved in and when they ran out of space they kept building comb right out the entrance and down the outside.

They are still living in the bucket, but it's a cold morning so they are clustered up on the inner combs.

With bee season mostly winding down I can finally catch up on posting some of the more interesting removals from the year.

Here is a removal from a brick wall where the wall runs between two townhouses and other removers asked to quote the job thought the bees were in the drywall side because none shot thermal. 🤔

Always shoot the thermal!

Removed these ladies from behind a soffit and was able to very carefully lift out the combs that extended down behind the stone facade without having to open the stone work saving the homeowner $$ & labor.

Using a sewer camera is so useful in these instances to visualize how far down the comb goes and to ensure you have removed all comb from areas you can't see into otherwise.

This colony had many almost all-black bees. I love it when the bees have genetics that are highly variable from commercial bees.

Removing an open air colony north of Austin for the Villages Of Hidden Lake, Pflugerville neighborhood.

Sadly high winds had broken off most of the combs, with some collapsing on the ground and some getting caught in lower tree branches, but the queen was alive as was most of the colony.

They sure were glad to get a nice new home!

Removing soffit bees today. Sorry for the smear pics, had honey on the camera lens. Bees extended into 2 cavities and about 2 feet back. Had a teeny tiny opening area to work in but got it done 😊

Removing this new baby sized hive from a shed floor and......it's laying worker!

So how does this happen? Once the main swarm has left the colony, any subsequent swarms (called after swarms) will swarm with virgin queens. The virgin queen won't go out to mate until the swarm has picked their permanent home. After going to mate, If the virgin doesn't make it back from her mating flight, the colony will have been broodless for a few weeks. Without the open brood present, the workers begin to lay as their ovaries are no longer suppressed by pheromones present in brood. Voila, a brand-new colony that is laying worker.

In a laying worker colony, the eggs the workers lay are haploid and develop into drones. It is the colonies last ditch effort to spread their genetics. You can tell a colony is laying worker because there will be 10-20-30 eggs in a cell vs. a queen which lays a single egg/cell.

The mesquite flow is definitely on in Kyle Texas. This removal was 80% honey/open nectar