The question most often asked of any beekeeper is, “Do you get stung?” The answer is simple. “Yes, all the time.” Bees will protect their colony from any perceived threat. Even the gentlest beekeeper will come across an angry bee at some point.
The good news is bee stings are not as painful as a wasp or fire ant sting. Unless you are allergic, the risk is minimal and the pain usually goes away in a few minutes.
There is never a shortage of bees willing to sting to protect their home. Out of respect for this fascinating insect, we adopted the name Angry Bee.
The reason we risk the flurry of stings while wrangling bees couldn’t be any sweeter – Texas honey.
Beekeeping is in my blood. My first family members to settle in the United States were Czech immigrant farmers who kept bees. I’m a fifth generation beekeeper in the Vyvjala family and my son is the sixth. He has been working with bees since he was four years old.
I’m passionate about bees and beekeeping. I was hooked from the very first day I worked with honey bees. Since then I have been on a quest to learn everything I can about these fascinating insects. My goals include building Angry Bee into a successful business while educating students and the public about issues that concern our local pollinators. In March of 2017 I decided to further my education by enrolling in the Texas Master Beekeeper Program. It is a five-year beekeeper training and certification program provided by the Texas Apiary Inspection Service in association with the Texas Beekeepers Association, Texas A&M Honey Bee Lab and AgriLife Extension.
TMBP seeks to produce highly knowledgeable beekeepers who can help lead the industry and act as honey bee ambassadors to the general public.
I originally created the angry bee website to share our beekeeping adventure with friends and family. The excitement from learning about honey bees changed a simple photo journal into an experience we wanted to share with everyone.
It’s fascinating watching a pollen-covered bee tumble around inside a flower. Have you ever wanted to know more about bees or how honey is made? Kids can learn about bees and adults can read through our beekeeping resources.
Our natural, raw honey is very popular with friends and family for its great taste and health benefits. The flavor changes with the seasons. We are working on our food license, which is required to sell honey online.
My grandfather kept bees on the family farm to help boost the garden’s harvest and to collect honey and wax.
After the research had been done, the real fun started. We planned to have four hives, so we began putting together 128 frames for our bee hives.
With my daughter and son’s help, and 512 nails later, we finished building 16 bee boxes.
This is when I first began to handle thousands of bees.
On a nice clear morning we set up our first three bee boxes. Frames were removed from bee nucs and placed in our hive boxes.
We removed thousands of feral bees from an old house to be relocated to a new hive in our backyard.
A single medium frame of honey comb yielded five pounds of honey. Here’s our first bottled jar.
Our country bees from the old house were doing so well that we decided to split the hive to make another. Here’s the new queen developing in her cell with a nurse bee just above her.
Are the bees healthy and finding enough food? We routinely check our hives to see how they are doing.
We found wild feral bees in a fallen hollowed log between a dewberry patch and and a field of bluebonnets.
Toby passed the apprentice exam of the five-year beekeeper training and certification program.
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