Bonus Episode: Bees, Love and 90 Day Fiance ft. Anna Campisi

Announcer: Welcome to the Backyard Bounty Podcast from heritageacresmarket.com. Where we talk about all things backyard poultry, beekeeping, gardening, sustainable living, and more. And now here's your host, Nicole.

Nicole: Hello everybody. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Backyard Bounty. I'm your host Nicole, and today we're joined by Anna, who's the owner of Beauty & the Bees, and also cast of 90 Day Fiance, season seven. And today we're going to talk about beekeeping, so Anna thank you so much for joining me today.

Anna: Hi Nicole. Thanks for having me.

Nicole: Yeah. So for those of you that maybe haven't heard about you yet, can you give us a little bit more information about who you are?

Anna: I'm a mother of three boys. I've got a 15-year-old, 14-year-old, and 7-year-old, and I take care of them all the time. I'm the owner of Beauty & the Bees Honey, and I do this on my own.

Nicole: Awesome.

Anna: I make different products with the honey, and then bees wax. I make soaps and bath and body products, also.

Nicole: So you keep yourself pretty busy between the boys and your business I would assume.

Anna: And then I also take care of two intellectually disabled adults in my home.

Nicole: Oh, how amazing. That's really amazing that you do that. That can be stressful, for sure.

Anna: I've been working with individuals for the past like 11 years and I love it. It's my other passion in life besides beekeeping.

Nicole: Oh, that's great. Having some experience in that with being a first responder, you know it's really great to see when people are there to help those that are disabled because there's certainly a shortage of people that are so generous and open-hearted like yourself.

Anna: Oh, thank you.

Nicole: Yeah. So how did you become a beekeeper?

Anna: So, the boy's grandfather is actually like a pretty big beekeeper in Mexico, and that's how I was introduced to beekeeping. He has over ... Well back then he had over 500 beehives, so I'm sure it's grown quite a bit. Their grandfather and one of their uncles run the business down there. So I was introduced through them. They would take me out sometimes to check out the bees, but the main thing that they would let me help out with was actually extracting and selling the honey. So twice a year we'd all get together and use the extractor and we'd have barrels and barrels of honey. Like it was pretty crazy.

Nicole: Yeah, that's definitely the hard work when it comes to beekeeping.

Anna: Oh yeah, for sure.

Nicole: So after you had that experience kind of on a commercial operation, how did you then decide to move into your own operation?

Anna: So then in Nebraska I had spent a couple of years without bees, but I decided, I was like, I just loved the experience in working with them and decided to do it on my own out here. You know I had to save up some money because getting into beekeeping's pretty expensive, as you know.

Nicole: Oh yeah.

Anna: So about five years ago I just kind of decided I was going to just buy the equipment, and then I ordered bees and I started from there. I ordered four bee nucs and then the hives and all the equipment.

Nicole: And how many hives do you run now?

Anna: I have 15 right now. The goal for this year was to have 30. But I lost half of my bees last winter, so I had re-start, I guess back from scratch basically.

Nicole: Sure. Do you generally expand your apiary by splits or do you usually buy bees?

Anna: I split the bees that I have and then I did buy a couple packages. I think I bought, how many? This year I use packages, which I haven't done before. And I bought I think four, because the nuc orders that I had put in were canceled due to the beekeeper that we ordered from through the Bee Club, he had lost like 2000 colonies.

Nicole: Oh wow.

Anna: So he wasn't able to sell any nucs this past spring. But I also split the hives that were remaining.

Nicole: So do you have a specific breed of bees that you prefer to use or do you just kind of pick up whatever you're able to find along the way?

Anna: When I order the packages, I've ordered through the Bee Club the past, I think two years I've ordered through the Bee Club. And it's kind of whatever they ended up having and usually their mixed. Like last year or the year before they told me they were Carniolans, but they were really yellow and I'm like, well they had to have been Italians. So it's kind of whatever I can get with their order because they give a pretty good discount on nucs when I order through them.

Anna: And then this past year, I think they were Carniolans. And usually when I'm ordering my gleans, I'll order Carniolans. I think last year I might've ordered a Saskatraz I think. And I don't think, she didn't make it.

Nicole: Oh no.

Anna: Yeah. It seems like I was having issues with Queens. That's why it's pretty frustrating sometimes when you spend that much money on one one queen and then they don't make it.

Nicole: Yeah I've kind of experienced that too. I've only bought two bees in my whole life and it was a two queens. And actually really I only bought one queen and they ended up sending me another one cause the first queen that I had had some issues. And that was kind of just a bad experience. And after that I just decided to split my bees and let them raise their own queens and I'm kind of done ordering queens for awhile.

Anna: Yeah, I think that's the easiest thing to do. Just let them raise their own. I've always had issues when I ordered queens. And I try to order queens in the spring, just when I'm splitting, to make things move a little faster. But half the time they don't make it or something ends up going wrong.

Nicole: Yeah. The joys of beekeeping.

Anna: Yes.

Nicole: So you kind of mentioned it in the beginning, but do you predominantly use your hives for honey or for the bees wax or which one is kind of your main goal with your beekeeping?

Anna: So I raised them for honey. And then of course, like I think the past two years I've been getting enough wax to kind of, to use and the produce some of the products I make. But I make more products with the honey.

Nicole: Sure.

Anna: So that's, I guess that's what I try to use them for. And out here they do pretty well. There's a lot of nectar sources, so all summer I'm collecting or collecting from them.

Nicole: How much honey do you usually get off of a hive on average?

Anna: On average, I'm sorry I got to think about it.

Nicole: You're fine.

Anna: It depends on the year.

Nicole: Oh yeah.

Anna: There's been years where I've only gotten like maybe like 25 pounds off of one hive. And then there's been years where I think I've gotten like hundreds of pounds off of a hive.

Nicole: Oh wow.

Anna: So yeah, it's pretty crazy. Like just every year seems different. Like this year they've produced a ton of honey. And like I'd go out check them and I pull as I go. I don't just leave it, I don't add boxes. I mean, I understand everybody has their own way of beekeeping, but I feel like it's easier just to pull it off as they fill it. And then you get the different varieties of honey also, which is neat rather than just harvesting once.

Nicole: Do you have any real notable varietals in your area?

Anna: I think this summer we had linden honey, which was, I'm pretty sure it was linden honey. I haven't sent any honey in to get tested yet.

Nicole: Sure.

Anna: I don't know. I haven't done that yet, but I think it was linden honey is what they produce. It was, it was really sweet and really light and it was really tasty. I had a lot of customers that are, I think I sold out pretty quick of that stuff.

Nicole: Awesome.

Anna: Yeah.

Nicole: So you kind of mentioned that, you know in the winter you lost about half of your colonies. What are some other challenges that you've faced with beekeeping in your area?

Anna: The other thing, I don't have a whole lot of challenges. It's mainly the queens that I've always had issues with. And then for wax moths. I haven't had too many issues with them, but I like had to deal with those. Oh my gosh I hate wax moths.

Nicole: They're the worst.

Anna: They're just gross.

Nicole: Yeah.

Anna: Like I've had a couple of weak hives that you know, I think I didn't check on them right, you know, consistently. And they ended up being overtaken by them. And that was like my first year.

Anna: And then I didn't even really know about them my first year. I'd never dealt with them and I had a few hives not make it, be the queens. And like I had mentors and everything and everyone was telling me a different thing I should do. Anyways I ended up losing two colonies and they told me, oh, just leave the equipment.

Nicole: Oh no.

Anna: Like leave it over here. It'll be okay for like, you know, until you get some more bees. Oh my gosh. I opened it up to like move them back my house and it was just, it was just full of wax moths and all the larva and stuff.

Nicole: Oh my gosh.

Anna: It was just pretty disgusting. Yeah, and then I've had equipment ... You know I have a big freezer and I stick frames in. And one time, we went out of town ... So I put all these frames in. We went out of town and I think one of the boys might've left the freezer like cracked open. I got home and the freezer was like full of dead wax moths.

Nicole: Oh no.

Anna: Like I'm talking hundreds.

Nicole: Wow. Oh no.

Anna: So I like scooped them out and throw them into the trash that I have put down there next to the washing machine. And I think like an hour later I went to go switch to the laundry and there were hundreds of wax moths flying around downstairs.

Anna: I didn't realize that, you know they would come back to life.

Nicole: Right.

Anna: So like I think for like a month I had, well I tried to get them, you know I tried to kill as many as I could. But I had wax moths all over my house for like a few weeks or a month. It was really bad. I just hate wax moths.

Nicole: Yeah I imagine after that that they would be kind of the nemesis.

Anna: Yeah. And I've dealt with, you know, small hive beetles. I had a friend that gave me a hive and where they located it, they put it like in a shady area. This hive I tried and tried with ... They didn't have a queen, so I like tried to re-queen and finally it ended up being taken over by small hive beetles and like the larva and stuff's really gross too.

Nicole: Yeah.

Anna: So those two are like ... I haven't dealt a lot with them, but it's just when it happens it's just like, oh my gosh, that's just the worst. But I think my main thing is the queens. And then you know the Varroa mites. Like the first two years I did it, they would end up, what's the, I forgot the name of it. Anyways, the brood ends up being ... I'd have to look it up. There's something that affects the brood, when you have like a high Varroa mite population.

Nicole: Maybe.

Anna: It kind of looks like [inaudible 00:11:06] or something. The larva looks, the larva kind of sinks down. But it's not like falling through or any of that. I've had to deal with that twice. But basically you just treat them and it takes care of it. At least with when I've dealt with them.

Nicole: Mm-hmm (affirmative). What are your mite treatments? What have you found that works best for your apiary in your area?

Anna: I've always used Mite Away. I really liked that. And I know, I think there're kind of going away with that and going into something else. But then this year we did the ... Well sorry, I did the oxalic drip method. And that seems to have worked really well this year, so I will probably continue to use that.

Nicole: Sure. I know that it's interesting because here in Colorado where I'm at, we have certainly our challenges with bees too, but I've probably found only five wax moth cocoons in a hive ever.

Anna: Oh wow.

Nicole: And it was actually equipment that was in storage. And then I have found one small hive beetle ever.

Anna: Oh that's it. Well that's really good.

Nicole: And it's weird though, because you know, Nebraska is not that far from Colorado. So you would think that, you know, we would kind of have more of the same challenges, but you know, it's of course different everywhere you go. But here one of the big issues of course is Varroa, but also mice and wasps are pretty big issues.

Anna: Oh really.

Nicole: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Anna: Are you talking about mice in the winter or do they go into the hives all year around?

Nicole: Mostly in the winter.

Anna: Okay.

Nicole: We don't have really hard winters here. And if you don't put your mouse guards on soon enough then, you know without it being terribly cold, yep, they jump in there.

Anna: Oh yeah, those are, yeah, that's a big mess too when they get in there.

Nicole: You know, you kind of have an eclectic background with your years in the commercial business and then several years in keeping bees on your own. So do you have any tips for new beekeepers?

Anna: I would just say like, I think beekeeping is just learning what works for you. You know and they do say start with two hives. And I believe that you should always, you should have two hives. You know then if something goes wrong with one of them, you have like backup or backup frames or frames of eggs if you need it.

Anna: But beekeeping it's just, I think learning what's going to work for you because you asked one beekeeper ... I guess if you asked like five beekeepers a question, you're probably going to get like seven, ten answers. And that's what I learned my first year. Like I had a mentor when I started on my own. And I was like, I joined the bee club, I had a mentor and I think it is good to join a bee club. But like I yeah, I had a mentor and then I also had like the president of the bee club that I would talk to about stuff, but they all had different answers. And it's like, okay, I think I'll just try to figure this out on my own. Read stuff. You know you got to do a lot of reading and just see what works best for you. Because one thing that might work for one person, might not work for you or it probably won't work for you.

Nicole: Yeah I think that's absolutely great advice.

Anna: Yeah. I mean, what would you give a new beekeeper advice with? I think that's the best advice. You just got to feel it out and feel what works for you.

Nicole: Yeah. I really agree. You know, you read online and you read books and you go to clubs and you get so much information and some of it is really different. You know one thing says this and another thing says that, and it can get really confusing. But I mean my thought process anyways, is that if so many different people are keeping bees in their own unique way, then the bees must be pretty adaptable.

Nicole: So pick something, go with it, see if it works for you. And if it doesn't work for you, change it up. And just because somebody does something one way doesn't mean you need to do it the same way.

Anna: Mm-hmm (affirmative). And it doesn't mean you're wrong.

Nicole: Right. Yeah. I see that a lot where somebody does something and then people get upset with him because they're doing it wrong. But it's not wrong, it's just different.

Anna: Yeah, and that's like some of these, the beekeeping groups on Facebook that I've been in, some people are just really ... They're not very nice about it too, like you don't want to follow their way or you're doing something, they think it's totally wrong. Some people are just not very nice, some beekeepers.

Nicole: Yep.

Anna: So there's the [inaudible 00:15:18] beekeeping group on Facebook and I really like them. They're pretty supportive.

Nicole: Yeah, I'm on that one as well and that's definitely my go to for questions.

Anna: I think I dropped out of like a couple of them just because the men were really not very nice.

Nicole: Yeah. Yes. I feel that some of them are pretty set in their ways and not really open minded to considering other options.

Anna: Oh yeah. Well, and if you talk about how a commercial beekeeping, I think I've gotten into conversations about commercial beekeeping and how, I don't really agree with commercial beekeeping. I like a smaller, noncommercial is better for the bees. I think you're able to like maintain them better, but I don't know. I'm not a commercial beekeeper, either so I don't ...

Nicole: Sure. No I would tend to agree with you. I feel it's kind of like cattle, you know. At the commercial level they tend to do what is more financially feasible and maybe not necessarily what is the best thing for the bees.

Anna: Well yeah. I mean, I don't know if you've watched the videos of them doing harvest and just kind of, they just kind of throw bees together. It doesn't matter if they're like from the same colony or apis, so yeah it's ... I don't know.

Nicole: I think there's that video on Netflix, like More Than Honey or something along those lines, that shows the commercial operation.

Anna: Oh, okay. I don't know if I've seen that. Somebody was posting something on one of the Facebook pages. They were showing videos and it was just, it's interesting. I don't know. That's probably why they're, they're all suited up too.

Nicole: Yeah.

Anna: When they're checking out the bees.

Nicole: Yeah, definitely. So talking about Facebook groups, I know that you recently found love via a Facebook. So the first thing that I could think of is which Facebook group did you find love on?

Anna: See I was trying to figure that out. I think it might've been from one of the groups that I actually like removed myself from.

Nicole: Oh.

Anna: Yeah. Because now I don't think we're like on any of the same beekeeping group pages. But I think it was just, it was a beekeeping ... I think it was just beekeeping is the group was.

Nicole: Oh sure. So one of the groups that kind of has a mixed bag of people, men, women international. Not so much like specifically, obviously the women Facebook one's pretty specifically women.

Anna: Yeah.

Nicole: And so your new fiance is from Turkey and I know that one of the things that brought you together was beekeeping. So I was wondering if maybe you could share with us some of the difference between beekeeping in U.S. and Turkey.

Anna: I did go a couple of times to Turkey to visit. And you know every time I went, we had to look at bees.

Nicole: Of course.

Anna: So Mursel runs like about a hundred hives, is what he runs. And I guess one difference is like the hive styles and then like they usually run on one brood box.

Nicole: Oh really.

Anna: Yeah, they don't use the two brood boxes. I think they do when they, they'll put another brood box on during honey season. But that's mainly just, yeah, for the bees to add more honey into the hive. And then they collect like all of the honey. They don't ... You know how we, well the way I manage is I have the two brood boxes and then I put my honey supers on.

Nicole: Right.

Anna: Which I know some people do take from the brood boxes, but I don't do that. I leave that for the bees for the winner.

Nicole: Yep. That's what I do as well.

Anna: Yeah. So I just take from the honey supers. They take, I think any frame that it doesn't have fruit on it, they harvest. And then I think they do a lot of supplemental feedings. Because when you go there to the keeping stores, they have like shops where people make like bee fondant-

Nicole: Oh really.

Anna: ... and pollen patties and sell like bee vitamins. So I think they do a lot of supplemental feeding.

Nicole: Do they use the Langstroth style hives there?

Anna: It's that style but they're not the same dimensions, which is kind of crazy. Because there's a hive that one of Mursel friends, it's really cool. Like I brought it, I had them send it over because I want to try to sell it. But I told them it has to get, the dimensions need to be the Langstroth dimensions. Because they're not, so people can interchange their front, you know, use their frames that they have. So it's off, like they're a little bit smaller. And then they don't have like the bottom boards that we use, it's all like one box or maybe some of them do. But the ones that like Mursel and the ones I've seen, I think they're just like one box and then they have like the entrance. But they're a little bit different, the entrances aren't as wide as ours. They make them smaller. A lot of the beekeepers they use just the frame with the wire and the wax foundation. I don't think they use a lot of the plastic foundation-

Nicole: Yeah.

Anna: ... over there. Trying to think of what else.

Nicole: You mentioned the beekeeping stores have, you know like fondant and stuff available. And I mean I know that we have beekeeping stores here just the same, but is beekeeping kind of, is it kind of a big thing in Turkey or is it like here where some people do it?

Anna: I think beekeeping this pretty huge over there. I think most people, well I guess if you're in agricultural locations, will have bees. So I think there's a lot more people there that have bees then there are here.

Nicole: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Anna: Yeah there's, I think a lot more beekeeping stores there then there are here. But it's kind of crazy cause they're packaged like you can go in and just pick up a few packages of bees fondant and they're packaged nicely and everything. Like you just popped them open or put them in the hive. But they're packaged, where you know here, you've got to usually order online to get that stuff if you want to do that or make it yourself.

Nicole: Right. So other than harvesting most of the honey from the hive, is there any other management practices that are different than the U.S.?

Anna: I'm trying to think if there were a whole lot, not a whole lot. Just the hive styles are a little bit different. And then I went out to a queen rearing farm where they reared queens at one point, which that was kind of neat looking. They had little boxes all over. I don't know. I think some beekeepers do that here. I don't know. I haven't gone to commercial, like where they commercially produced queens here anyways. I'm not sure if it's different.

Nicole: I know that there's like mating nucs and queen castles. I wonder if it's something similar to that?

Anna: Yeah I think they're probably similar. Yeah, I'm not sure if there's a whole lot of ... They probably manage about the same. Mursel has to move his hives a lot just depending on like the season to make sure you know that they have a nectar source. So he's moving his a lot more than like I would move mine. I haven't moved mine. I have bees on two properties and I leave them there like all year round.

Nicole: Do you know what some of the main nectar sources in Turkey are?

Anna: And like in Antalya they grow a lot of citrus and orange trees. So that's a huge in the spring. And then I'm trying to think what they have. Oh, pine pine honey. Which pine honey isn't from a flower nectar. It's produced from insects.

Nicole: Really?

Anna: Which is kind of interesting. Yeah. So, I forgot the name of the insects, but they live in these pine trees and then they create a nectar and the bees collect it.

Nicole: Oh.

Anna: It didn't come from eating the sap or they eat something on the tree that creates this nectar. And then the bees collect this nectar.

Nicole: I had never heard of that before.

Anna: I didn't know until like a year ago that bees actually collected other sources of nectar besides floral.

Nicole: Yeah. That's really interesting. I'll have to look more into that. Bees are so creative.

Anna: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah. But it's like they produce a lot of fine honey over there. And it's supposed to be really good like Manuka honey. I'm sure people just haven't caught onto it yet.

Nicole: Sure. So is there any other differences that you've noted that you thought were interesting or maybe what was the most surprising difference that you had noticed?

Anna: See I didn't really notice a whole lot. Mursel and I have different hive management. Or we manage hives differently. Like he's obsessed with bees. I love my bees, but he's like obsessed. He's in them like every day, like in his hives.

Nicole: Oh really?

Anna: Yeah. Like I don't think you should do that, but he's, if he could be in there a couple times a day, he would be in them checking him out.

Nicole: Oh.

Anna: I think it's pretty similar to how we manage here, it's just they don't have to deal with the winters like we do. It's a lot warmer there.

Nicole: Are they able to run their hives year round up there in Turkey?

Anna: I don't know about year round. I think from like probably about now or maybe like, yeah, probably, I think they just harvested the pine honey recently within the past like two or three weeks. So I think it'll be like, well after the pine harvest they're pretty much done until I think March.

Nicole: Okay.

Anna: February, March. So there's I think three or four months where they don't, they're kind of ... You know in winter mode, there's not much for them to, I don't think there's anything for them to collect. They probably, you know ... And I think they do a lot of the fondant in the winter. And then maybe like starting in February, they start doing syrup but I'm not sure. I think that's, it's not like here where we have like what, October until April-ish. I don't know what your season is like?

Nicole: It's about the same.

Anna: Oh okay.

Nicole: I'd say October to I'd say maybe May. Sometimes April.

Anna: Oh okay. Yeah. I guess it just depends on the year. I think it's my first year beekeeping, it was really early when they started collecting. But then I think last year it was really slow.

Nicole: Yeah. Yeah. I don't put too much in trying to figure out what each year is going to bring. I just wait and watch the bees.

Anna: Yeah, that's it. And in Turkey, like we take the boxes. I'm sure some beekeepers over there do it like we do it here, like you take the boxes and move them to wherever you're going to extract. They do a lot of the extracting on location.

Nicole: Oh really.

Anna: They actually set up like tents and like harvest right there. That's something that they, I think a of the beekeepers there do.

Nicole: And do they use an extractor and then just put the frames right back into the hive?

Anna: Yeah, they use like an extractor. Equipment's a lot cheaper there too. I kind of wish that I could get some of the equipment that they have there. But yeah, they'll extract it on spot. They'll set up a tent and extract as they go. But I think they have more issues with bees, you know, in the way when you do it like that.

Nicole: Yeah.

Anna: So they're all suited up extracting.

Nicole: No, that would certainly make things easier to be able to do it in the field. But I just my first thought is that it'd be easy to incite some robbing.

Anna: Oh yeah, for sure. There's another beekeeper here locally. I haven't checked it out. I've got to go. I was at the farmer's market selling honey when he came in. And he actually grabbed Mursel and brought him over his house to show him. But he has like a trailer that he extracts from. So he has, it's like an enclosed trailer and he has it all set up like a honey house, which I think would be cool.

Nicole: Yeah, that's a really good idea.

Anna: It is. Yeah. So then you just, yeah bring boxes in. Extract, put them back right away.

Nicole: Yeah. I don't know why more people don't do that.

Anna: I don't know. I think I'm going to look into that cause that would make things a lot easier.

Nicole: Mm-hmm (affirmative). So sort of switching gears a little bit, I always think it's fun to get to know my guests a little bit better. So what would you say are maybe five things that most people don't know about you?

Anna: I'm not really sure. Like, well I do garden a lot. I like gardening. I'm not the best at it. But you know, I'm trying.

Nicole: Sure.

Anna: I did go to India and check out, I checked out bees in India.

Nicole: Oh really.

Anna: And yeah, so they have different types of bees over there that they use. There are some that use like the European honeybee. But there's, I forgot the name of the type of bee they are. They're smaller and more aggressive that they use.

Nicole: Really.

Anna: They use a really small hive set up.

Nicole: Wow.

Anna: And then they, I think they do a lot of the crush and drain method to harvest the honey.

Nicole: Well that's something else that I didn't know about.

Anna: Yeah, they have a totally different, or they have, you know, more I guess more wild bees. Because I guess they rubbed like, if the hive is empty they'll rub some kind of herbs into it that attracts bees and they'll go into the hive. But they're a lot smaller and they fly a little bit different than the honeybee.

Nicole: Really.

Anna: Yeah. That was kind of interesting.

Anna: (silence)

Anna: So I lived in Mexico for about five years. I opened an English school down there.

Nicole: Oh really.

Anna: I was there and I used to teach English.

Nicole: And is that school-

Anna: I've lived all over. It's still open.

Nicole: Is it.

Anna: The boys father still runs it.

Nicole: Oh, okay. It sounds like you've really kind of traveled a lot and been to all kinds of places and in most of them related to bees.

Anna: Yeah my father was in the Air Force, and then we lived in the Philippines too when I was younger.

Nicole: Oh wow.

Anna: So I've kind of been all over. I don't know that much about bees in the Philippines.

Nicole: Sure.

Anna: Bees in Mexico, like one of their things they have to worry about is the Africanized bees a lot down there.

Nicole: Sure, sure. Did you have much experience with Africanized bees there?

Anna: No I never did. But before I had moved down there I'd never ... One I didn't know anything about bees, and I just remember I was outside like hanging laundry or something and I heard, I saw a swarm of bees like coming towards me. And I was, oh gosh, I was so scared.

Nicole: Oh.

Anna: I like ran. I ran because I didn't know that they were, I didn't know they weren't going to be aggressive.

Nicole: Yeah. And now here you are in a bee suit getting in beehives.

Anna: Yeah, but it was pretty funny. But yeah, I don't know.

Nicole: So after traveling-

Anna: So do you guys run, like you run an acreage?

Nicole: So it's just me.

Anna: Oh okay.

Nicole: And my husband doesn't really do a whole lot with the bees. He helps me sometimes, but it's really just kind of my hobby and whatnot.

Anna: Your thing.

Nicole: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Anna: Okay.

Nicole: So I actually have hives at several different locations, about five in my area. And then I also have a some hives up at the Broadmoor. And I really do kind of a combination of honey and wax and then some apprenticeship and teaching other people, maybe people that aren't beekeepers, teaching them about bees. And then teaching beekeepers how to become bees ... Teaching people interested in becoming beekeepers the kind of the steps into being successful on their own.

Anna: Oh fun.

Nicole: Yeah. And then I run my website too and try to share some information about bees on there. It's heritageacresmarket.com. And then of course the podcast. I really enjoy teaching and so I tried to educate those and inspire people that are interested in becoming bees and help them get on the right foot.

Anna: Oh good. That's nice.

Nicole: Yeah.

Anna: Yeah. I think teaching bees, or teaching people about bees, it's really, I think it's a lot of fun because most people don't have any clue.

Nicole: Yeah. There's a lot to learn.

Anna: [crosstalk 00:30:44], yeah. Well even just being around bees, like they just have no clue how to act. So whenever, I have an observation hive I'll bring out to like the farmer's market or in the spring when I'm able to. I do the Renaissance fair that we have out here and I always make sure I have my bees with me. So I can do some education on, you know, selling honey or people think it's really neat.

Nicole: Yeah the observation hive is always one that tends to get people's attention. And it's so fun to watch people and see how fascinated they are by them.

Anna: Mm-hmm (affirmative). It is.

Nicole: So for people that would like to maybe follow you and get more information and possibly check out some of the honey products that you have for sale, where can people find you online?

Anna: So I have a website, omahabees.com. I'm also on Instagram and Facebook and that's through Omaha or sorry, Beauty and The Bees Honey is where you can find me on Facebook and on Instagram.

Nicole: Okay, great. And I'll put links to those in the show notes too so that people can find you easy.

Anna: Okay. Thank you.

Nicole: Of course.

Anna: So now I'm going to start listening to your podcast.

Nicole: Oh, thanks. Well Anna, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today. I really enjoyed learning more about you and your beekeeping and this was a really lovely conversation. Thank you so much.

Anna: Well thanks for having me.

Nicole: And for those of you at home, thank you so much for listening to Backyard Bounty and we'll see you again next week.

Announcer: Thank you for listening. to Backyard Bounty, a podcast by heritageacresmarket.com. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. If you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, please email us at [email protected]. Also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at Heritage Acres Market. All the links mentioned in this podcast will be included in the description. See you again next week.