TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
has had one experience that sent her to the emergency room, her normally docile bees can usually be trusted. As a result of their gentle temperament, Matt rarely wears a suit, even when checking hives and gathering honey. Bees learn to recognize their keepers. “Science tells us that bees can actually distinguish faces and even learn to recognize voices,” Brin explained. “The more we interact with them, the gentler they become and are now to the point where they really just ignore us,” she said. “Whenever we start pulling out frames of honey, they can get a little aggressive, but even though they aren’t thrilled, they’re still gentle. They’re totally chill if we’re just checking on them or doing general maintenance in our hives.” “We are very conscientious beekeepers,” Brin explained. When harvesting honey from their bees, the Nichols always leave plenty of honey in the hive. “We do not [chemically] treat our hives, and we only take the amount of honey that we can safely harvest in order to give them enough food stores to raise their young and get through the summer drought and then the winter,” she said. Along with gathering honey, part of beekeeping is splitting the hives. The Nichols had 19 hives, but they recently started “splitting season,” which will likely result in doubling that number. Because of the bees’ nature, worker bees build swarm cells for new queens each spring. The existing queen will quit laying eggs and lose weight to prepare for flying. She leaves the hive when she is ready, and approximately half of the colony goes with her. During
this season, the beekeepers help with splitting. They determine which hives are best for producing new bees and which hives are best for producing honey. “Bees are kind of like people in that some of them are healthier, and they’re better housekeepers than others. So, some hives we open are so clean, and the bees are really gentle, and maybe they’re not the best honey makers, but they’re so easy to work with and have a high tolerance for pests. We would generally designate those hives as the ones we want to use to raise bees,” explained Brin. “And then, every once in a while, you will open a hive, and it will be full of honey from top to bottom. You’re going to say; these are clearly my honey hives. So, there [are] some bees that are just better at making honey than others.” The Nichols truly are some busy bees like the ones in their hives. Brin works in the oil and gas industry full-time, and Matt teaches at Hughes Springs ISD. They spend mornings before work, evenings and weekends tending to their growing farm, including a plethora of vegetables and animals. They also give hive tours, teach classes on beekeeping, bottle honey, make candles, conduct bee removals, and spend Saturday mornings at local farmers’ markets. Though their days are filled with other careers, other animals and growing a variety of produce, their passion for beekeeping can be summed up in a quote by Elizabeth Lawrence found on their website, balmandhoneyfarm .com. “The hum of bees is the voice of the garden.” And at Balm and Honey Farm, what a beautiful voice indeed.
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COMMUNITY & CULTURE
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