Trinity University student Abbi Bowen ’20 is president of the Trinity Bee Alliance, which recently harvested 80 jars of local honey from the rooftop of the Center for the Sciences and Innovation. She considers home to be both Greenville, S.C., and Wilmington, Del., and plans to major in English and possibly Russian while minoring in creative writing. We asked her a few questions to learn more about bees on the Trinity campus, why she loves bees, and whether she’s been stung.
How did you get involved in the Trinity Bee Alliance?
Last fall, when I was a first year, I came in knowing that I wanted to be part of the bee club because I've been a beekeeper for a few years already and wanted to continue. At the time Hannah Mathy ’17 was president of the club, but at the end of the fall semester she stepped down, and I became president of the club.
What is it about bees that captures your imagination?
I am inspired by bees.They are self-sustaining, intelligent, hard-working creatures that should be noticed and cherished. I think it's wonderful how they are almost like plants—they make their own food (honey) themselves! The “hive mind” is also an interesting concept—the idea that a hive is connected with its queen by being familiar with a specific pheromone the queen gives off. Many things that bees do are in response to a pheromone stimulus. I also love bees because they are so essential to the stability of the environment, and we don't give them enough credit.
Please discuss the process of harvesting honey.
We extracted honey from three frames. (See photo) This is the process:
1. Pull the frames out of the honey super (looks like a box).
2. Carve off the initial coating of beeswax from the frame to expose the honey underneath.
3. Place the frames in the extractor.
4. Crank the extractor to make the frames spin.
5. The spinning motion flings the honey off the frames, and the honey slowly drips to the bottom of the extractor.
6. Open the nozzle at the bottom of the extractor and filter the honey through a cheesecloth.
7. Pour the filtered honey back into the extractor.
8. Open the nozzle at the bottom of the extractor to bottle the honey.
We were able to borrow a hand-crank honey extractor from David Holdman, a local beekeeper and honey producer from Seguin who owns Holdman Honey. He lives and bottles his honey in Seguin but has hives in Bexar and Atascosa County which yield local honey..
Is this the second year of honey harvest? Any plans to add more bees for a higher honey yield?
This is the second year of harvesting honey. You usually harvest honey once a year (maybe twice if you have many more hives) at the end of the summer/early fall. On such a small scale as ours, we can't really plan for a larger yield of honey next year. We just monitor the bees and see if they make any extra honey that they won't need for the winter. Usually in spring and summer when there is a large nectar flow the hives will grow with more bees. However, bees die and are born like a cycle so the amount of bees won't really drastically change.
How does this honey compare to "store bought" honey?
The honey we harvested tastes sweeter but not in an artificial way. The main difference to notice is whether the honey is local.The honey in main grocery stores like HEB, Walmart, or Target is not local honey. Even if it says local, look at the bottle and see where it is from. The "local" honey in HEB and Central Market is from Austin. We are in San Antonio so that is definitely not local honey. There are also honey companies that say they are local because they bottle their honey locally, but that doesn't mean the honey actually came from that region. David Holdman is one of few genuine local honey producers. Local honey has the most health benefits. For example, if you are trying to help your allergies, honey from another region won't help you because you will just be exposing yourself to nectar/pollen that is not in your region.
How many bees does the Alliance have and where do they live?
A typical hive has between 20,000 and 80,000 bees. I would guess we have about 50,000 bees in each hive (we have two hives), so we most likely have approximately 100,000 bees altogether. The bees live in the hives that are on the roof of the Center for Sciences and Innovation (CSI,) right beside the green house.
Last, here’s the obvious question...have you been stung? What did it feel like and what precautions did you take afterward?
As a beekeeper, it is implied that you will be stung. I have been stung many times, but this is mainly due to my experience with South Carolina bees compared to Texas bees. In South Carolina, I learned how to keep bees with minimal coverage. I would just wear a veil over my face but would wear a tank top and shorts without covering my arms or legs, so when I came to Texas I practiced the same way. However, the bees we have at Trinity are more aggressive, so I got stung whenever I didn't wear complete coverage, which was most of the time until recently. I am not allergic to bees. Even if people aren't allergic to bees, everyone's body reacts differently and those reactions can also vary depending on where you get stung. I have been stung on my hands, arms, legs, and forehead. All places reacted similarly for me. The initial sting doesn't really hurt, not even as bad as a needle prick. A few hours later it starts to swell and become red and the skin warms. Then the next few days it is still swollen but is very itchy and might even hurt a little bit. Then after time the swelling goes away and I am back to normal. However, some people react more and some react less. I have a friend who was stung and it was like a regular bug bite—nothing really happened. It just all depends on the individual's body. If someone is allergic, they should always have an Epipen with them in case they are stung. But I make sure that everyone who keeps bees is completely covered, so there are not really any chances that they would be stung.
There are some tricks that beekeepers like to do after being stung that sometimes help. First, you must always take the stinger out, because when a bee stings you, she leaves the stinger in your skin (which is why the bee shortly dies after stinging). You can get the stinger out with your hand or by scraping it with a credit card. Many beekeepers have chewing tobacco nearby. If you put chewed tobacco on the sting right after being stung, it can draw out some of the venom. There may be other things you can do but they haven’t been confirmed. Most beekeepers have built up an immunity or tolerance to bee stings.
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