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Jan. 17, 2023 - Tulsi Gabbard Show
01:03:22
Why Bees Matter More Than You Think w/ Beekeeper Erika Thompson | The Tulsi Gabbard Show
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Time Text
Before the colony swarms and chooses to leave their hive and seek a new location like that umbrella, the colony will actually choose to starve their queen and she will lose up to a third of her body weight to make her a better flyer.
So if that shows you just how inept she is.
I've seen it too in the colony.
They'll even chase her around and force her to exercise.
Oh my god.
You just have to lose weight.
It's incredible to see.
Where's my attendees?
I think I can do some of that.
Hi.
Hi!
Hi!
Good morning here.
Good afternoon there.
Thanks so much for making time.
I know you are on a bit of a break right now.
Yes.
It's winter here, so I tend to cycle my breaks with the bees.
Interesting.
They're not working right now too much either, so it's a good time to take a break.
That is a perfect time.
I love, first of all, I love what you're doing.
I love the videos that you're putting out.
I love how you're bringing people to a place of actually understanding and appreciating bees, really.
And in such a way that is so effective with social media and everything else, my first experience with bees, and frankly my only, was when I was a kid.
And I had a chance to go.
My friend's dad was a beekeeper, one of many things that he did.
But I had a chance to go and spend a little time with them.
And I just remember, I don't know how old I was, maybe eight years old or something like that, but I remember him going and just watching him smoking the hives and then us being able to go and start harvesting the honey.
And it was such a cool experience as a kid.
And then just to fast forward...
I'm so happy to talk to you because there's so much I want to know more.
I don't know much about bees, but I know how essential they are for life, for food security, for agriculture, for all of these things that in our day-to-day lives we take for granted.
It says, yeah, okay, I'm just going to go to the grocery store, I'm going to pick up whatever I need that day and then go and make dinner for my family or whatever, but not really thinking about all of the different Entities that go into making it possible for us to have that convenience.
So that to me is like the biggest impact that I see.
You are the most followed beekeeper in the world.
And it is incredible to see like these...
First of all, your videos are somewhat meditative in a way.
They're so relaxing and I was just like, oh my gosh, this is so nice to listen to and to watch.
I've seen some of your videos have like 150 million views, which is just amazing.
Again, just to get people to just stop and think like, oh my gosh, these are really amazing creatures.
Yes.
Kudos to you for that.
I just want to put that out front.
But I'm so curious to know, how did you get started in this?
What sparked your interest?
Sure.
Well, thank you so much.
And I'm so glad that you had that experience with bees.
Not very often that people get the opportunity to step inside of a hive and see all the incredible work that bees do every day.
And so that's one of the reasons I feel so lucky to be in the position where I'm at with hundreds of millions of people seeing the work that bees and beekeepers do.
It's a privilege to share it with people.
It's a privilege to do that work alongside the bees every day.
And I don't know if you experienced it or felt it at all at the age of eight or during the experience you had when you were going into the beehives, but it is meditative.
I mean, it is, at least for me, incredibly calming and it forces you to be fully present.
You know, when you step into the world of bees, every movement you make matters and you have to It's a privilege to do that work.
It all started with a lifelong love of bugs.
When I was a kid, I just loved bugs.
That's what I was into.
I spent a lot of time in my backyard on nights and weekends collecting bugs and trying to keep them as pets or trying to study and observe them.
That's so cool.
My childhood idols growing up were women like Dr. Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey, and I wanted to be just like them, you know, but I couldn't really go to the jungles of Africa to, you know, study primates.
So I'd go in my backyard and I would find bugs.
They were relatively easy to find and to collect and to pick up.
So it was just a lifelong love of bugs that led me to take a beekeeping class.
And I started one hive in my backyard in central Austin and just fell in love with bees, quickly became fascinated and enamored with their world and just wanted to do more and see more.
So I started my own beekeeping business just sort of to sustain my hobby and my passion.
And that business grew as organically as it possibly could.
People would just ask me for Beekeeping-related requests.
So, you know, they would say, can you keep bees on our property?
We want to have bees, but we don't necessarily want to be beekeepers ourselves.
Or folks would say, can you teach a beekeeping class?
Or can you do a live bee removal?
So, I just sort of started to say yes to everything because I wanted to learn more about bees and see all I could and also just get the experience.
So, What were you doing before you, or what were you doing maybe parallel to this shift happening?
Sure.
I had a full-time, fast-paced office job.
I was the director of communications for a few nonprofits in the Austin area, and I enjoyed the job.
It just was never, you know...
It was a great job.
It was just never my passion.
And I think so often in life, we sort of get this script, right?
Do well in school and, you know, get a good paying office job with all the perks and you'll be set for life.
And for me, that just always, it felt like it was a little off.
You know, I wanted to be outside and be active and, you know, working with animals.
I can relate, by the way.
So don't keep me inside for too long.
I'll start to go crazy.
I know.
You know, I feel so lucky that I get to spend most of my time outside and being active and working alongside animals.
You know, I always tell people, you're not going to talk to anybody happier or luckier than I am because I found what I love to do at a relatively young age, you know, it's something that I can earn a living doing, which isn't that way for everybody.
And it's something that's good for the world.
Definitely.
When I leave this world, hopefully the world and the bee population will be a little better for the work that I've done.
And if the bee population is better, then everyone and everything else is better and thriving.
Absolutely.
I think people don't understand just how important bees are.
It's said that they're responsible for one out of every three bites of food that we eat.
And, you know, our agricultural system relies on bees so much, but it's not just us humans.
There's a lot of other creatures we share this time and space with on this planet that also rely on bees for food.
So, you know, it's important that we do everything we can to protect this species because, in my opinion, their importance can't be overestimated.
Can you talk a little bit more about that?
About what role bees play in agriculture in that?
That statistic I did not know.
One out of every three bites that we take.
And also, are all bees...
I can only imagine there are thousands of species of bees...
Is it only those bees that create honey that are integral to this ecosystem that serves all living things?
I'm so curious about that specific role that bees play in what we all consume.
They play a significant role in what we all consume, but also the biodiversity of the planet.
There are over 20,000 species of bees.
That's more species of birds and mammals combined.
And what these creatures do when they go to work every day for the good of their colony and to collect food for their family, They're offering an amazing service to the planet by the way of pollination.
So flowers, plants are mostly pollinated one of two ways.
They can self-pollinate or they need to cross-pollinate.
Self-pollinating plants can reproduce within themselves.
Cross-pollinating plants need other plants to reproduce.
However, plants have a problem when it comes to reproduction and finding a mate, and that's that they can't move.
So, they need some help.
Sometimes that help comes by the way of wind or even water.
Oftentimes, creatures we call pollinators and bees are by far the most powerful and efficient pollinator our planet has.
But it's not just honeybees.
It's, you know, this over 20,000 species of bees.
They're all very important.
There are some plants that solely rely on certain bees and they have a mutual relationship and they can't exist without the other.
But as humans, we have come to keep honeybees because they live in these massive colonies.
So they can live in colonies of 10, 50, 100, 200,000 bees, whereas most of the other bees that we have, the over 20,000 species, those are what we refer to as solitary bees.
So they're bees that live either by themselves or in a very small community, and they wouldn't necessarily do that.
The big production level work that we as humans are requiring of the species.
And they can't really be managed and kept in the ways that we as humans keep honeybees in these, you know, little boxes that you may have seen on roadsides or in fields or in Hawaii a bunch.
It's a wonderful mecca for beekeeping.
And our agricultural system is built around Having bees in these key places where we need them to produce some of the crops that rely on bees for production.
A great example is almonds.
Almonds are completely dependent on bees for production.
We wouldn't have almonds if it wasn't for bees.
So every year there are...
Tons of bee colonies shipped to these almond orchards in California and, you know, the work of bees is being done so that they can produce almonds for human consumption.
Wow.
What element of our current agriculture system, let's say here in the United States or even around the world, is posing the greatest threat to the livelihood of bees?
I mean, really, just the way that we are handling bees as livestock isn't the way that bees were meant to live.
Quite simply, they weren't meant to live on semi-trucks shipped across the country.
You know, going on this tour of crops, starting with almonds, you know, in the West, and then maybe going up through the Dakotas for alfalfa and clover, then over to the East Coast for apples or what have you.
That's not the way that bees were meant to live.
And what happens when we truck bees around and put these in these stressful environments, they are more susceptible to pests and diseases that maybe they wouldn't have been otherwise introduced to if they weren't traveling and we weren't having, you know, thousands of bee colonies in a small area. you know, thousands of bee colonies in a small area.
Bees by nature, that's not the way that they prefer to live.
So it's causing an undue stress on the managed honeybee population.
And it's important to note that when we talk about what's going on with the bees and saving the bees, you know, it is different for the different bees.
The bees that are honeybees that we are keeping as humans, managing their populations for our own needs in agriculture.
We replace those colonies when there's colony loss, but we're losing those colonies at devastating rates and having to replace them at alarming rates that our beekeepers are having trouble keeping up with.
And then when it comes to the wild population of wild bees, the unmanaged solitary bees, Those bees are perhaps even more in danger because they're not being monitored and managed and replenished and kept in the way that the Western honeybee is.
So it's kind of twofold, and there's a lot of things that we can talk about when it comes to helping bees and what folks can do if they want to help bees.
But it's important that we recognize that it's not just these managed honeybee It's all healthy.
It's also the wild bees as well that maybe don't get as much attention.
Yeah.
Well, I'm curious about, you know, whether it's the almond farms in California or, you know, other farms in the Midwest, different parts of the country, why wouldn't they keep bees there given they know they have their own crop cycles and whatnot?
Why take the route of treating bees as livestock, as you say, and shipping them around?
Sure.
Well, what happens is, you know, those almond orchards produce a wonderful crop of pollen and nectar placed for the bees to forage from for a very short window.
And then they just become an agricultural dearth.
You know, it's a wasteland for bees afterwards.
The bees need continual blooms and more food than plants.
Just one place, one orchard of almonds can provide.
Yes, the monocrops.
So they need food year-round, and there's just not enough food to sustain the bees, natural food, and that's one thing that people can do is they can...
Everybody can help to make a difference and plant flowering bushes and trees for bees and things that bees will use for food and for habitat.
But the way that we're using bees to pollinate these monocultures and our mass agricultural systems, it's just not sustainable.
It's just not sustainable.
That just points to really that bigger problem of how we treat agriculture in this country with such a short-sighted, almost instant gratification outcome, really just looking to what's the next crop or the next season, rather than actually understanding what the long-term ramifications are to soil quality and just kind of the whole...
Water quality, air quality, the whole ecosystem.
I had a chance to, as I was running for president, I spent a lot of time with farmers, actually, in different parts of the country.
And it was fascinating to both see the contrast between these massive commercial farms and They just blatantly don't care.
They don't care about any of the environmental impacts of their business.
Talking to local communities, their pets can't drink out of a local stream because they'll get sick and die.
The water contamination is horrible.
You can smell these farms from miles away.
You don't even see that there's a town there yet, and you can already smell in the air.
And then, of course, you can't do much else around there in the sense of farming other than what is built in that little commercial system.
And then contrasting that with others who've recognized these problems and who are doing regenerative farming and farmers who are recognizing, like, okay, yes, I need to diversify my crops for the good of, you know, having longevity and actually being able to continue as farmers and not just suck the earth dry and then, what, move on when you've sucked everything out of Mother Earth.
Yeah.
It's something that is heartbreaking to see in our politics when the big farm bill goes through this massive, massive piece of legislation.
I think a lot of folks who aren't directly involved with it don't understand the massive implications of it.
But covering everything from, you know, subsidies to different industries and crops, oftentimes the ones who have the most powerful influential lobbyists and the most money, but also talking about, you know, nutrition in schools and how is that defined.
I think it was the first year that I was in Congress back in 2013. I was just shocked that there was an amendment that was passed that bill that said frozen pizza in school cafeterias qualifies as meeting the fruit and vegetable nutritional needs for kids.
And that this was, like, this took an act of Congress to make sure that this was included in the bill.
And it was just mind-blowing to me.
Like, everybody I talked to, and they kind of just shrugged their shoulders.
They're like, yeah, well, you know, they're owned by this company or the biggest companies, and they got these lobbyists, and there's tomato sauce and the frozen pizza, so what's your problem?
But it points to the bigger issue.
I look forward to hearing the tips and individual actions that we can take and maybe in our communities that we can take.
And also, there are some bigger policy things that we need to address that have to do with You know, big money interests winning out over, frankly, our ability to live and thrive and survive as people in this country.
Absolutely.
I mean, I think it's ultimately going to take a complete cultural mind shift, you know, but I would say that the way that you feel about or felt about those large commercial farms when you saw them, the bees would probably echo your sentiments.
And they don't want to be there either.
But when people ask, what are some things we can do for bees?
One thing I always say is, of course, to support your local beekeepers, but also to support the policymakers who are making these decisions and So, you know, I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to speak with folks like you who are in positions of power, who have been policy makers, who, you know, will have the opportunity in the future to really make a difference on the policy level for bees because it's important that we protect them at that level as well as much as we can against these larger entities.
But, you know, there are simple steps that everybody can do for bees.
Of course, planting food for bees is essential.
It's important that bees have enough food, natural food sources to forage from, and then also the wild bees, it's important that they have plenty of places to live and, of course, collect food from, but a lot of things provide habitat for bees, and habitat loss is a huge problem facing bees.
B populations across the world, you know, the way that humans are making decisions for our planet is not always the best for some of these smaller creatures that we often don't think about.
But, you know, everybody can make simple behavioral changes.
You can do things like maybe not mow your lawn as much, let the weeds grow.
Weeds are a very important first source of pollen and nectar for bees.
You know, they're one of the first things to pop up in the spring.
And they're sometimes the only thing surviving in a place where nothing else is really in bloom and there's a dandelion sticking up.
And that can be a great and important food source for bees and other pollinators.
So, you know, one thing...
Erica, I hope you realize that there's probably a lot of dudes at home right now.
Next time their wife asks them to mow the lawn, they'll be like, no, no, I'm saving the bees.
Not going to do it.
I think it's great.
You know, I think it's great.
I would love to see, you know...
The medians and the tollways and highways.
I mean, every place be a place that's more natural, more native.
And it's not just bees.
There's so many other, of course, insects.
It's said that there's so many insects per acre of land.
And these tiny creatures often go unnoticed, but they're this incredible, invisible almost network of workers doing this fascinating work for our planet.
And it's essential to the survival of humans.
You know, as long as we're around, we're going to be living alongside bees.
So I'm, you know, just so thankful to have the opportunity to show people maybe a better side of bees or to teach them something they didn't know about bees so that the next time, you know, they do want to go mow their lawn on a Saturday.
You know, try to get it.
I mean, that's fine.
Don't, don't, no mow if you, if you can let it go, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
What are the kinds of habitats?
You mentioned that habitat loss is one of the biggest problems.
Where and how do bees thrive?
You mentioned there's different seasons also that bees have, but as people are thinking in their own communities, and I think this is important to mention, I talked about the big policy challenges in Washington, but you've had great success there in Austin with your local council members and the mayor recognizing Austin as the bee city last year, if I'm correct.
If I'm correct.
And whether you were directly involved with making that happen, I know you went and testified, but the content that you're putting out online I know has a huge amount of influence in, again, people just thinking about something they probably haven't thought about before.
And so even as Washington policy, these problems are real.
They are big.
They have to be addressed and solved.
But we can't underestimate the importance of the power of our local city councils and our mayors and our state government.
I served on the Honolulu City Council here before I went to Congress.
And we have one of the largest city councils in the country.
One member represents about 100,000 people on this island of Oahu.
And so the thing I loved most about that opportunity to serve in that way was there were nine members on the city council.
And that meant you could get things done.
You could deliver results.
You convince four other people.
To support your measure or your bill or your change or your initiative and you could actually start to see real results happening.
So as people are listening to this and feeling inspired, don't underestimate the power and influence that you have over your local city council member to start to get those kinds because they control zoning.
It's like, okay, we've got a limited amount of land.
How will it be zoned?
Agriculture, development, there's all sorts of things at the local level that will have a direct impact on On what you're talking about, on protecting habitats for these bees and their ability to thrive.
So as people are thinking about this, what are we talking about?
The ideal habitat?
Sure.
Well, you know, I always tell people, just like the bees, no one is too small to make a big difference.
And, you know, your actions matter, and it can matter for bees, you know.
know, and the most important thing is just preserving native wild pasture lands and places for bees and other animals to forage, you know, as humans encroach more upon, you know, the natural areas of our planet and develop them for our own needs.
It's important to think about how we can do that more sustainably alongside these creatures.
So really, sometimes the best things you can do for bees are sometimes the easiest of not going out and mowing your lawn or Just leaving something be.
I mean, don't worry about the weeds.
If you have an open area, let it go to the weeds and let it grow for the bees.
That's something that everybody can do.
But whether you have a balcony or a yard or a garden, whenever you're making decisions about what to plant, if you can make decisions that are for the bees and choose flowering bushes and trees, that'll be helpful.
Something that's so important and helpful to bees, but also to beekeepers, you know, like myself, who we have to supplement and supplement the food of bees since they can't find enough food.
And that's, you know, costly to us and isn't always the best for the bees' health as well.
Yeah.
Really just protecting these wild spaces, of course, encouraging people to not use pesticides, and supporting beekeepers who are doing this work every day and working alongside bees every day and working to protect the species that we love so much.
What do you feed bees when they can't find their own food?
What do you feed them?
Sure.
So the nutrition of bees is pretty simple.
They have a protein source, and that's pollen.
They have a carbohydrate source, and that's honey or nectar.
So as a beekeeper, I will try to supplement both of those feeds at different times if I have to.
For pollen, it's just a pollen substitute.
It's just a soy protein mix that's made.
And then to substitute nectar, what we'll do is we'll just feed them a sugar water.
So it's about eight pounds of sugar to one gallon of water.
And that's what we're doing to substitute natural nectar sources for bees.
But It ultimately leads to unhealthy bee populations.
It's like giving your kids junk food every day.
So, it's certainly not the best for bees.
And it's really something easy that everybody can do to help bees is, of course, just plant things for bees.
Yeah.
For people who go to the health food store and they buy or take bee pollen as a supplement, or for those who go and get a big jar of raw honey, does that hurt the bees?
Are they taking things away from the bees that the bees need?
We are.
I mean, we're taking their food away from them.
But beekeepers have been doing it since the beginning of beekeeping time.
We can certainly responsibly manage beekeeping colonies with still harvesting products of the hive.
You know, personally, it's just my personal decision as a beekeeper to not sell honey.
It's not where I find my joy.
In beekeeping.
But, you know, it's just one of those things we have to do with more of an awareness.
And it's important for everybody to know that when they are consuming these products, they are, you know, consuming the food of bees, basically.
And each bee in her entire lifetime will only make one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
It's such a small amount.
I know.
Say that again.
So one bee.
Each bee in her entire lifetime will only make one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
And I say her lifetime because male bees don't make any honey.
They don't do much work for the hive.
They have one job, and that's to mate with a queen.
But they don't build the hive, they don't forage for food, they don't defend the hive, they don't have a stinger.
So, all the honey that you've ever eaten or most the bees you've ever seen in the world, you can positively identify as a female bee because you're simply not going to see a male bee foraging from a flower.
He's getting his honey back home in the hive, you know?
So, it's a rare opportunity for folks to see a male bee unless you've been in a beehive or, you know, very up close next to one.
That is incredible.
So, how many female bees are in a hive?
So the typical population of a honeybee colony would be about 90 to 100% female.
So that actually changes throughout the year.
So right now, we're in the winter.
Bees are not mating.
The males are not essential to the colony.
They're just eating through honey, and they're pretty much a draw on the resources.
So in the fall, the female bees will actually kick all of the male bees out of the hive, and they won't let them back in.
They'll either starve or freeze to death.
I mean, you know, it sounds so cruel, but it's what is essential for the health and wellness and continuing of the honeybee species.
You know, it's just what they have to do to make it until spring.
And it's important that when we think of a honeybee colony, we know that it's a superorganism.
So it's not so much these individual bees.
It's a greater collective.
It's the group of bees, and that's what's trying to survive until the next spring.
Right.
So what's the relationship between the 90, you said 90 to 100% of female bees?
What's their relationship with the queen bee?
Or the colony's relationship with the queen bee, I should say.
Thank you, yes.
So, the queen is essentially the reproductive organ of the colony.
She has one job, and that's to lay eggs.
At her peak, she'll lay about 2,000 eggs per day, and that's her only job, so she doesn't do anything else inside the hive.
A group of attendant bees who take care of all of her needs.
They feed her, they clean her, they make sure she has whatever she needs.
And the worker bees are the ones that are, of course, taking care of the queen, but they're the ones really running the colony.
We so often think of the honeybee colony of being this monarchy where the queen bee is in charge, and that's not the case at all.
Yeah.
I think we're going to play a little video here real quick.
Okay.
Remove them.
So I started scooping bees off the umbrella and putting them into a hive.
When bees are in swarms like this, it means they're looking for a new place to live.
They tend to be very docile since they don't have any resources to defend.
They don't have a hive, food, or baby bees to protect, but they should have a queen.
It's amazing how you handle them with your hands like that.
I repeated this process over and over again.
By the time I removed most of the bees, I still had not seen the queen, and I realized this was an unusual case of a queenless swarm.
This colony would not survive without a queen, but luckily I had an extra one on me I could give them.
As soon as I gave the queen to the colony, they rushed to meet her.
If they didn't accept her, they would try to kill her.
If they did accept her, they would release her from the box by chewing through the piece of candy that stops up one end.
As soon as the bees in the hive met the new queen, they began sending signals to the other bees telling them to move off the umbrella and into the box.
Wow.
Wow.
That's so fascinating.
So what is it that they look for to decide whether to accept or reject a queen?
So, you know, those bees needed a queen and they were very happy to have her and likely would have taken, you know, almost any queen.
They recognized that they needed a new queen to survive and were so thankful.
It wasn't necessarily, you know, certain things about that queen.
It was just they knew that that's what the colony needed to survive.
Yeah.
So, it was, you know, so lucky that I had her on hand in the spring.
I'm always carrying queens around and it's just, you know, responsible beekeeping to have queens on hand for circumstances such as that.
And I'll say that Hawaii is actually...
One of, you know, the places that is a wonderful place that we get most of our queen bees from, or a lot of queen bees, and that's because of the climate.
Right now, you know, as a beekeeper, I am not doing a lot of bee work in the winter.
In Hawaii, it's not that way.
You know, we can essentially breed bees almost year-round.
And then also, you don't have Africanized bees in Hawaii, so Africanized bees are a type of bee that are, they're Right.
But of course, most beekeepers would prefer to have bred out of their bees.
So that is why it's preferred for some beekeepers to get their queens from Hawaii.
Interesting.
And in that little video that we just saw, the hive was without a queen, what's usually the cause of that?
Is it just the queen has lived her life and moved on?
You know, in a case like that, and it's hard to say, but a case like that, those bees swarmed.
They were looking for a new place to live.
That's why they landed on that umbrella.
In that swarming activity, it's a dangerous, treacherous journey for the bees.
You know, they're leaving the safety of their hive, and they're looking for another place to live.
And The queen is not well suited for flying because that's not essential to her job of laying eggs.
She actually will only go on one or maybe two mating flights in her entire life and then she'll come back to the hive and have enough sperm to last the rest of her life and she'll just stay in the hive laying eggs the entire time so she doesn't fly too much and before the colony swarms and chooses to leave I
That shows you just how inept she is.
So it's likely that in that case, she just didn't survive the journey.
You know, the colony was looking for a new place without her, but they wouldn't have made it.
And, you know, those bees would have perished if they didn't have a new queen.
That's so incredible that that's a conscious, strategic decision prior to movement.
Because as you said, she's got all of her attendees around her providing her with what she needs.
And so if they deprive her of that, she doesn't really have any other options.
It's like a forced diet.
It is.
I've seen it too in the colony.
They'll even chase her around and force her to exercise.
Oh my gosh.
Just to lose weight.
It's incredible to see.
Where's my attendees?
I think I confused on that.
But, you know, it's what has to happen.
It's amazing that they have figured this out, you know, that they have a better chance of survival for that journey if their queen is lighter and can lose a little weight.
So, they're just amazing.
You know, in that video you just saw, I mean, That was in a courtyard up in an apartment complex.
I think there were a lot of folks watching who thought that it was equally as amazing or I was just insane for doing that.
But there was a family in a minivan parked out front.
A lot of folks had their blinds up.
It was a great opportunity to show people that not all bees want to sting everybody all the time.
Right.
Why does a bee sting someone?
Because they feel threatened.
You know, if they feel like they need to defend their colony or their hive, they can become defensive.
But again, by nature, bees are not aggressive.
And that's a big misunderstanding that, you know, people have been misled to believe that, you know, all bees want to sting you all the time and that's just not the case.
Right.
And when you're going and doing your work in and around the hive, talk about the smoke, because I've seen it used and I've seen videos, but what purpose does it serve and do you use it all the time?
Sure.
So I use it most all of the time.
The smoker will mask alarm pheromones.
So bees communicate through scents, through pheromones.
And if I can cover up those scent signals, it'll make it a little bit harder for the bees to know that if there's a threat in the hive or if they think, you know, there's danger coming into the hive.
But what I use it for more often in my work is actually to move the bees around because, you know, if you're Standing around a campfire and the smoke goes in your direction, what do you do?
You move out of the way.
And the bees react the same way.
So if I need the bees to go to a different area or off an umbrella, for instance, or into the new hive, I can use my smoker to...
I'll use the pheromones, you know?
I'll use the scent of the queen, that's what they want to follow.
So that's why the key to any successful bee removal is finding that queen bee, because once you have her, you can kind of control the colony and the bees want to be with her, so they will naturally follow the queen bee into whatever new hive or situation I hope to move them into.
That's so amazing.
And so what will start to happen once?
It's kind of the cold season, right, that you're in right now.
There's not much activity.
So when things start to warm up, paint the picture of what the bees are doing in the hive.
Sure.
I mean, you know, they're waiting for spring like I am, I'm sure, just getting anxious.
That's, you know, when they collect most of their food.
They don't do it year-round, of course, because, like, right now there isn't much in bloom.
We're in the winter, you know, we're in a dearth and there's not much food for the bees.
So they're surviving off the food that they stored in their hive earlier in the year, the honey and pollen that they collected earlier in the year.
And just like the bees, you know, I can't predict the weather.
I don't know when spring will come and when the flowers will start blooming.
Or if we have a big freeze event and everything that was about to bloom just snaps back, you know, that can be detrimental for the bees.
So, you know, when spring comes, they will go out of their hive and start collecting food for their colony with the idea of growing their colony as large as they can.
So, when the big nectar flow hits at the peak of spring or summer or wherever it hits where the bees are, they'll have a full force ready to go and go out and pollinate and collect food for their colony.
And for me, you know, I get to do what I love more.
I get to do more bee work and spend more time with the bees just because they're naturally more active and moving around and looking for new places to live.
And so when the female bees kick the male bees out for the season because they don't have use for them for that period of time, what happens when the weather starts to shift?
Do those same bees come back or is it a new set of bees?
How does that relationship get reconnected?
So, you know, the bee life tends to be very short.
So, the lifespan depends on the type of bee, but a female worker bee only lives about six weeks in the spring and the summer when she's working at her peak.
She'll live a little bit longer in the winter.
She'll live about six months.
The male drone bees will only live max about six months until they're kicked out.
And, you know, of course, in the spring, the queen will lay new male bee eggs and new female worker bee eggs and But the queen bee can live the longest, a considerable amount of time longer than the worker bees and drone bees.
She can live up to five years.
So she is really so important to the continuation of the colony, which is why the bees tend to follow her in those removal situations.
So six weeks is so fast in that time of peak activity.
What does one day look like during that period, especially for them?
Well, for a worker bee, it depends how old she is.
So bees will get an age, depending on how old they are and their abilities.
So when a bee is firstborn, she will likely get the job of being a housekeeper bee.
So she won't leave the hive until she's much later in her life, and she'll stay in the hive and she'll...
She'll clean the hive.
She'll clean the very cell that she emerged from, and then she'll go around cleaning and preparing more cells.
After that, she might become a queen attendant bee, where she attends to the queen and takes care of all of her needs.
She'll become a construction worker bee, where she builds the beehive.
So, female worker bees have little wax glands on the They produce these sheets of beeswax and build it into this beautiful structure that we know as the beehive.
They'll be heating and cooling bees.
So bees always try to keep their hive at around 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
And that's so, of course, the products of the hive, the honey and pollen, don't spoil or ferment, but also so that the baby bees can grow and develop.
That's the right temperature.
So it's essential that they keep the temperature right in the hive and the right humidity.
So there are bees that specifically do that.
There are undertaker bees that haul the dead bees out of the hive.
There are guard bees that guard the entrance of the hive against intruders.
And then the very last job a bee will get in her little short bee life is to be a forager bee.
And that's where she'll go out and she'll collect food or propolis for the colony.
She'll collect what the colony needs.
So the bees you see out in the world on flowers, those are actually little female worker bees at the end of their little bee life.
I'm mind blown right now. - Oh.
I mean, you know, I always tell people I have the easiest job because just the world of bees is so fascinating.
I mean, all I have to do is show people what bees are doing naturally every day that they might not get to see, and it's, in my opinion, just captivating.
It's so interesting how they have figured out how to do this, and also in this big social collective of tens of thousands of little creatures.
Mm-hmm.
Of which they're just one element of, right?
Yeah.
Yes.
What do they do to actually keep that temperature and humidity at what they need?
Sure.
So in the winter, what they'll do is they'll cluster inside the hive.
So they are just trying to stay as warm as possible right now.
And they'll make like a ball of bees and they'll all cluster around the brood, the baby bees, and also the queen.
And the bees will actually take turns on who's on the outside of the cluster so everybody stays warm.
And they're just trying to heat their hive that way right now by the warmth of their little bee bodies.
And in the summer, they'll fan the entrance of their hive and they'll kind of create like an AC system.
They'll place little tiny water droplets around the hive and fan with their wings and make it cooler.
They'll also leave the hive.
So during the day, up to about a third of the colony is outside foraging.
But at night, when all of the bees come back off the ground, they're going to be able to Oftentimes in the summer when it's really hot out, especially where I'm at in Texas, I see it all the time.
We call it bearding, and it's just a bunch of bees on the outside of the hive at night, and they're just not inside because it would, of course, create more warmth.
So they have many ways of managing how to keep their hive warm and cool, and whether it's 5 degrees Fahrenheit or 105 degrees Fahrenheit, they're always working hard to keep it at around 95 degrees.
This is just Incredible.
I feel like there needs to be like an actual movie made about all of these different, like just that, just like the day in the life of or the lifespan of a bee and all of those different jobs and the roles that they have.
It is so incredible.
It's impossible to hear that and not have like a really incredible appreciation for just what they do.
I couldn't agree more.
And then, you know, for me, to have the opportunity to actually see it every day, I mean, again, I just feel like one of the luckiest people.
So, do you come out to Hawaii to come and find some queen bees?
I wish.
I've only been there once, but we have Hawaii to thank for being a wonderful mecca of beekeeping.
And there's actually a pretty interesting history.
Honeybees are not native to the U.S., of course, and they're not native to Hawaii.
Interesting.
Interesting.
And bees were brought here by the settlers, but it wasn't until about the 1850s that bees were finally successfully introduced to Hawaii.
It was quite a struggle to get honeybees successfully introduced to Hawaii for a long time.
Folks in 1851 decided there was a Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society.
It was their first meeting and they decided one of the most important things they could do was to form a committee to figure out how to import honey bees.
So they started to do this and the first year they tried, they shipped over bees from, I think it was Boston and the bees were not successful, didn't arrive well.
They tried again the next year, they put bees on ice, trying to make sure their hives went overheat in transit.
Again, it was unsuccessful, but, you know, after years and years of trying...
Because we're talking about on ships at that point.
Yes!
I mean, just the duration of travel, what to speak of the conditions, would be tough.
Absolutely.
And just, you know, I mean, keeping bees in a new place and on ships.
You know, I imagine it was every beekeeper's first time to put bees on a ship back then.
So, what they did is they finally put out a public call.
They offered $10 to anybody who could successfully introduce honeybees to Hawaii.
And in 1857, a gentleman from California Was successful and brought over two hives to Hawaii and they did quite well.
And so that is the reason that we have honeybees in Hawaii.
That's amazing.
What qualities, so you mentioned Hawaii has a great source for queen bees.
What are some of the qualities that you look for when you're selecting a queen bee?
Oh my goodness, well, you know, I am not so much one to buy, I'm not buying as many queens as I once did, and I'm really only buying them, you know, in the spring when I'm doing a lot of bee work and I find a lot of swarms that may not have a queen.
But I would say for me, you know, I'm always just looking for a queen because I'm in these wild colonies and I'm sometimes in there for hours and my success is dependent on finding that queen bee and so I'm oftentimes happy to see any living healthy A healthy queen is essential to the hive's well-being and
the colony's well-being.
So, a colony can't survive without a healthy queen.
And, you know, every time I'm in a removal situation and I find the queen, it's still the greatest feeling in the world each time.
That's so cool.
You were talking earlier about how the loss of bees and bee colonies for whatever reason, whether it's because of the mass livestock treatment or for other reasons.
How do you as beekeepers replace those colonies?
You mentioned that sometimes the loss is greater than the ability to provide those replacements.
I'm curious about how that works from start to delivery, I guess.
Sure, yeah.
You know, one way we can do that is to buy a new queen and split an existing colony into two colonies.
You know, we can take one healthy colony and give it a new queen and start a new colony that way.
Bee breeders are doing.
And so, a lot of times people are just buying entire new colonies, new queens ready to go.
And, you know, it's very costly to beekeepers and that cost is, of course, passed down through all the ways that, you know, our agricultural system works and passed on to the consumers.
So, you know, the problem of losing bee colonies and honey bee colonies having to be replaced by beekeepers It's more than just a problem for beekeepers.
It can be a problem for everybody.
What was your thought process when you decided to start posting things online about what you're doing?
Are you a social media?
Did that come from your communications background?
Or how did that thought enter your mind?
I started posting on Instagram years ago when I got into beekeeping just because I would go into the hives doing inspections and I would see things I didn't know and I would take a photo of it so I could look it up online or on a beekeeping forum or in a beekeeping book when I got back to a screen and out of the beehive and I realized Realized, wow, I have all these amazing things that I've seen and captured on film that I got to see as a beekeeper that most people maybe wouldn't get to see.
So I just started to post photos of all the incredible things I got to see online.
And then as I started to do more of the bee removal work, you know, that just naturally I just find that so fascinating because I get to see how bees build in a natural environment without humans making decisions for them.
You know, I'm going into...
You know, a speaker or a compost bin or, you know, the walls of someone's home and removing bees that maybe have never been managed by humans before.
So that's, for me, what lights me up and what I love most about beekeeping.
To want to start sharing that with people, you know, I think was pretty natural, especially when I started to do some of these removals during the height of quarantine, and I would have families say, this is the most interesting thing our kids have seen in a month.
And I would have, you know, the blinds drawn up and people's faces pressed to the windows watching me what I was doing.
And I realized, wow, this is something that, you know, I can show people something they maybe didn't know was possible and maybe something they've never seen before.
Yeah.
So I just started to post online and started to get really a tremendous and overwhelming response.
And, you know, it's been mostly good.
For someone like me, it's taken a little bit of time to, I think, get used to all the attention.
But, you know, again, I just feel so lucky that I'm in this position to get to show people the work that bees and beekeepers do.
And I feel a huge sense of responsibility to the bees and to beekeepers.
I just want to show real quick on the screen some of the impact that your videos have here.
133 million, 99.6 million.
It's so amazing to see how many, well, I mean, you know, a lot of people having the same reaction I did.
A lot of people having the same reaction of those who, like you said, people who are watching you actually in person do what you do.
So you said you get a mostly positive reaction.
Are you telling me there are people who, like, are bee-haters out there?
You know, it's the internet.
I think at any time when you're putting in that many people are seeing it, you know, you're always going to have comments.
But no, I really feel so lucky to be able to share the work of bees and beekeepers with people and in a new way that, you know, they've probably never seen before.
But also to let people know if they do have a bee situation and they have bees building in a place where maybe they don't necessarily want them to be building.
There are people like me who wake up every day extremely excited to do this work and who want to help you reclaim your space and also to give the bees a better place to live.
Is it common to do what you do in just using your bare hands, no suit, no mask, no nothing, and as you're helping move these bees?
I would say it's more common for folks to wear full gear, but I'm in Texas and it's quite hot here.
It's just my personal preference to wear As little gear as possible.
If the bees will allow it, you know, the beekeeping suit, you lose so much mobility.
You lose a lot of dexterity with the gloves.
You lose visibility in the veil.
In the video we're watching now, I'm removing a giant hive from a backyard shed, and that's in Texas in the summer.
I think that was maybe in September, but still it's incredibly hot.
90s inside those sheds.
It's Even hotter, and I was probably in there for four or five hours.
So it's just much more comfortable in my personal preference to wear as little gear as the bees will let me.
You know, I quite frankly think it would be crazy to not try to figure out a way to get out of that suit in those temps.
So...
I agree.
I can't imagine.
And just, you know, as you're maneuvering in these small spaces to be able to do that and to do it freely.
It also alongside these tiny creatures.
I mean, they're so delicate and everything in the beehive is incredibly delicate.
That comb is made out of beeswax and I'm trying to preserve everything as carefully as possible.
So, you know, I just try to work slowly and, you know, of course I get stung.
It's part of...
Being a beekeeper, but you learn how to manage those stings, and if the bees, if the colony as a whole ever felt like they felt threatened by me and became defensive, I would, of course, certainly put on a suit or a veil.
I think that's one of the things that I noticed too when I was first watching your videos and just mesmerized, but by how you're moving with them and around them was just the respect that's there and that it must be required in order to be able to do that without causing a situation or pissing them off, frankly.
Yes.
Yes.
No, absolutely.
Thank you for recognizing that.
I mean, in some of those videos, I'm trying to move my feet as little as possible.
I mean, really every movement I'm making, I'm trying to do it with the bees in mind.
And I know that if I take a step and I'm not looking, you know, I could crush a bee and I just do the best I can every day, but really try to be very mindful that it's a privilege to be in that colony and to work alongside those bees and You know, for my safety and for theirs, I'm just trying to keep everybody happy.
Yeah.
Do you get to work much with kids and helping expose them to this?
Prior to the pandemic and kind of when, you know, a lot of attention started to come my way, I really enjoyed going to schools.
I did that a lot and talking to kids and giving programs.
And I'll tell you what, they always ask the best questions about these.
I'm sure.
I haven't done that too much recently.
Things have gotten a little weird and different for me, but I really hope to do that on a larger scale now.
I just think if we can teach the next generation to treat bees better and maybe not coming from that place of fear that the media instilled in prior generations with You know, Africanized bees or sensationalizing of the greater northern hornets that the media dub murder hornets.
You know, if I can show the next generation a better side of bees, I think it will only help bees and the future of people living alongside them.
So don't exterminate bees.
Do not exterminate bees.
Call someone like me.
There you go.
I think that's the thing is figuring out who to call.
Do you do house calls in other states?
Yes.
I do not.
You know, there's permits and regulations for each state for importing and exporting bees.
But, you know, there are beekeepers like me all over the world who would love to help out folks who have honeybee situations and bees living in places where they don't want them to.
And, you know, it's important that people make the right decisions for their own safety, but also the safety of the bees as well.
You know, and as soon as you notice bees, it's a good time to call a beekeeper.
Don't wait two or three or four years.
As much as I love doing massive hive removals, and those are the ones that just feel like Christmas morning for me, but it's really best if you realize that once the bees have moved in, and if they're healthy, they're probably going to stay around for a while, and you should figure out something to do with them.
Figure something out sooner than later.
Yes.
Amazing.
I feel like we could talk for hours and hours and hours on this, but for people who want to actually start to learn more and get educated and maybe kind of get plugged in in their local communities, how can people find you, first of all, and then are there central resources or a site that you recommend where people can start, at least?
Sure.
So if folks want to see more about what I do, you can visit TexasBeworks.com or look me up on social sites.
But what I really recommend is, you know, beekeeping is very hyper-local.
So bees forage for two miles.
So what's happening with bees in even my county is completely different than bees in the next county.
So I'd really recommend finding someone local in your area that could be a mentor to you.
Or finding a local beekeeping association.
Folks who know what's going on with bees in your area can be a great resource for getting started.
And right now, in the winter, it's a wonderful time if you've ever thought about keeping bees to do your research, buy equipment, think about if you want to get ready, because the spring is the time to do so.
So the spring is the time when you would buy more bee colonies, you know, and new beekeepers can start new bee colonies.
So you've got plenty of time right now to start researching and reading books.
And, you know, I love reading the American Bee Journal.
It's one of my favorite publications.
It arrives in my mailbox every month.
And I am so excited and has wonderful information about, you know, what's up to date in the beekeeping world, not only for hobbyists and commercial beekeepers, but also the scientific world and what's going on with our bee populations.
So, you know, I would look to folks like the entomologist and the bee biologists who are really working really hard to figure out what's going on with our bees.
Incredible.
Thank you so much for what you do, Erica, and thank you for the interest and inspiration that you're helping so many other people capture in this whole other world that many of us never, ever get an insight into.
Just peeking behind the curtains through you and through your videos is really, really, really fascinating.
And again, just most importantly, how critical it is to life, how critical it is to our food and this entire ecosystem that we are just one part of.
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing this time with me.
Thank you for all the ways you've served our country.
And thank you for letting me talk about bees today.
It's been a privilege and a pleasure.
And if you're ever in Texas, you have an open invitation to suit up and come see me and the bees.
I will take you up on that.
Great.
Absolutely.
My sister actually lives there.
Really?
Her and her husband, they stayed with us, or we shared a place in D.C. while I was there.
And as soon as I left, they were like, we're out of here.
And so her in-laws actually live there in Austin, so they've got a place there.
So I will come a-knock-in on your door.
Please do so.
Yeah, I look forward to it.
Thank you so much, Tulsi.
This is wonderful.
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