Building the Farm - Our Partnership with Bees
The land which we’re lucky enough to steward as Quelite Farm is a total of 10 acres - alternatively a massive piece of property or a very small dot on the map depending on the day and the task. Land out here has gotten really pricey and with the raising valuations, the taxes have been ballooning. We are often asked whether we have an agricultural exemption - a tax exemption on land that is used for agricultural production. We are not currently, but will be soon.
Of our 10 acres, one is designated as the ‘homestead,’ as we live in a home on the property. The remaining 9 acres are eligible for ag exemption, assuming certain requirements are met. As it turns out, the only agricultural practice or production that meets requirements in Bastrop County that can happen on less than 10 acres is honeybees. Because the ag exemption requires 5 years (of the past 7) in production, we needed to get started asap. All that to say that we have become the proud stewards of 4 hives of beautiful honeybees (perhaps a little earlier than I would have anticipated, but sometimes life has a way of forcing you into decisions early - in this case, it has been a real blessing).
Having honeybees always seemed inevitable on our farm and homestead. Caring for the land as we do, and hoping for optimal production on the farm, it only made sense. To have honey at some point seemed a great add-on to the CSA or a farmers market stand. There are ethical questions, naturally, but it always seemed a mutually beneficial partnership.
After some research, we landed on Two Hives Honey, an organization in nearby Manor, Texas, to help us realize our bee dream. They had long been on our radar, as they’re really quite active in the Austin and Central Texas area, offering products, classes, bees, and hive management. Initial conversations with them, along with a quick site visit, provided all the certainty I needed to move forward with them.
In the Spring of 2023, Two Hives came out with 4 nucs (nuclear colonies - basically a smallish, but fully functioning bee superorganism, complete with a queen, hundreds of female worker bees, and about ten percent male drones, literally useless aside from their ability to mate with other queens). These 4 nucs would occupy 4 Langstroth hives, which are the most common hive type in use today - they’re the ones with modular boxes stacked on top of one another in little columns. Unlike the chickens, who literally lived in a large water tank in the living room for a month, it was strange to have new residents on the property with whom we rarely interacted. I would often - in those first few days - stroll by at a distance, observing them entering and exiting the hive through a small slit on the bottom of the tower, and they were certainly present in the water trough I had prepared for them.
As the season went on and the cucumbers, basil and squashes put on flowers, the bees and I shared space frequently - and sans sting, I should say. They seemed happy to do their job, and I was pleased with the resulting fruit on the vine. I felt thrilled to see the wildflowers in our neighbor’s property explode, perhaps more so when I noticed the abundance of mesquite flowers on our many bushes and trees. (As it turns out, I’m not sure the mesquite produced much pollen for the bees, but I drew hope in the moment regardless.)
The folks from Two Hives had initially advised me that honey wouldn’t flow in excess likely until after the first year, as the nucs build brooding comb for the birth and care of new bees and establish their favorite food and water sources. Thanks to the relatively strong wildflower season, however, we ended up with really productive hives just months on.
In mid-August, Two Hives came out in their ambulance-turned-honey-harvester, and harvested a full 9 quarts of the most luscious, deep amber, hyperlocal Spring honey - the first harvest of many I hope. Aside from what we’ll use for our family, the honey will be a welcomed addition to our little offering of farm products, and also a great add-on for the CSA program.
All this time, we’ve had Two Hives managing the hives, a service for which we gladly pay them. The arrangement allows me to focus on building the garden and infrastructure to manage the plants on the farm. I have just come to the point of having head space to shift to beekeeping, and I’m happy to say that I’ve enrolled in their Beek Apprenticeship program for this current rotation. We’ll work together for 6 Saturdays over the course of the next 8 or so months, giving me the hands-on experience I’ll need to feel sufficiently confident to take over management of the hives (at which point all the production and sale will be fully on my extensive list of to-dos). Having participated in the first Saturday of the course, I can say that I’m super pleased with the program, and I cannot wait to get my confidence up.
While I may never feel the kinship with the personalities and idiosyncrasies of the chickens, who are very sassy and lively, I have a deep appreciation - deepened by the knowledge I’ve gained from the Two Hives course - for the unbelievably brilliant, biologically complex, and ultimately quite short lives of the bees who pollenate our crops.
Having been fairly strictly vegan for over 20 years until recently, I have ambivalent feelings on the production and harvest of honey for human consumption. I am excited to continue my learning so that I may build with these beautiful creatures a more symbiotic relationship - one free of dominion, and one in which the bees can live in a way that somewhat resembles a natural existence.
I recall (and recommend) a recent New Yorker article published in August 2023 by Sam Knight entitled Is Beekeeping Wrong?, which details the complicated understanding of beekeeping in ethical and ecological terms. Thanks to our old neighbor and pal Kyra for sharing!
