Hello, everyone!
This is Landon here at the Royal Jelly Bee Co. I wanted to take a minute and share what’s been going on with the bees, myself, and the company throughout the spring and what our plans are for the coming seasons and next spring! The world has changed quite a lot since some of my last posts. Hope everyone is well and safe out there!
The Bees:
Early spring was definitely a slow progression into having enough nectar for the bees to really thrive. I was able to offset that some, by supplementally feeding our colonies who needed it and spending much of early spring building up colony populations, doing splits, rearing new queens, and expanding the overall colony counts across our yards.
About Mid-May the availability of nectar completely changed, with whole colonies on the verge of being empty to being almost completely full of nectar over the course of a week or two. Here in Central Texas that will usually go until mid July, then it will get very hot and dry. My goal currently is to make sure they have enough space and room to grow and store all the nectar possible, otherwise they’ll swarm, then manage the space and resources to make sure they have enough to make it through the dry part of summer.
Usually the nectar flow around here will pick up again end of summer and early fall, almost like a ‘second spring’. After that, the mission will be much the same, leaving them enough space and resources to thrive through the end of fall and winter!
Myself:
I’ve been doing my best to stay socially distanced, isolated, and following distancing guidelines when in contact with people. Beekeeping can be somewhat socially distancing inherently, but I’m very lucky that I’m able to keep doing what I love and in a place to be able to maintain it. I’m happy that there is still a lot of work to do, on myself, as a beekeeper, and with the company, and most importantly in the bee yards!
While it’s such a difficult time in the world for everyone right now, I try to stay super humbled with what I do, and do my best to keep those and those around me safe & healthy. I do confess my communication has fallen off a bit throughout the wake of COVID-19, Black Lives Matter movement, and the general public unrest that has ensued across all wakes of life. Personally, it has been a struggle witnessing the reality we’re in. I’m hoping to come out of this more aware, conscientious, and communicative to and for those around me. #BlackLivesMatter
The Company:
Royal Jelly Bee Co. has developed a lot, learning a ton along the way, and there is a lot more to come! We have 3 new sites being set up this summer in the Austin-Area, over 40 colonies! Along with major growth among our existing yards, and a considerable number of nucleus colonies produced for local beekeepers throughout early spring. As a company, we’re working to refine our operations and services, of which we plan to continue to increase our ability to expand sustainably with localized honey bees.
Throughout the summer our main goal is to ensure that our colonies have all the space and resources they need to continue to thrive, and for us to continue to refine our splitting process and methods of integrated pest management to keep our colonies healthy and safe.
This Spring has been bountiful for many of our colonies, while we haven’t harvested or processed any honey yet, I’m currently planning our first 2020 harvest which will also help the bees (and my back) with space management through the summer!
We’ll also be updating the websites and product offerings more as we begin to process larger quantities of produce, thus far we’ve been working on R&D, processing techniques, and packaging/shipping methods. The website itself will also be seeing more updates throughout the near future, such as design updates, more content, and improved social media outreach.
If you have any questions or recommendations on things you’d like to see or learn more about, please contact us!
Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more updates!
