- Oh, this is perfect.

This is gonna be great.

Boys love their toys, and beekeepers are no exception.

Straight from Columbia.

On today's episode of "Charlie Bee" they're not happy.

I try out new tools of the trade Oh, don't grab the hot part, Charlie.

From vaporizers, to urban hives, and even a box that traps swarms Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I hear you're having some bee issues.

Leading me to a close encounter with something big.

Whoa, I can feel muscles.

(smack) Ow!

My name is Charlie Agar, and I'm a beekeeper in the Texas Hill country.

They got me.

I help people with nuisance bee problems and rescue bees from sticky situations.

I think I got some bees on me.

With bee populations in decline, it's more important now than ever to save these bees.

(upbeat music continues) Beekeeping has taken me all over the state of Texas, and working with bees has given me the opportunity to meet some incredible people along the way.

I'm always learning, experiencing new things, and working hard.

Things can get a little crazy.

Ow, ow!

But I love it.

(engine revs) (upbeat music continues) This is just wild.

I love it, I love it.

We're solving somebody's problem We're putting these bees to work where they're meant to work, somewhere safe and away from people.

This is what it's all about.

Retreat.

Woo!

(upbeat music continues) We're south of Austin, near the town of Butte, Texas.

We got a bee situation now.

We've got a young family, little kids, we don't need flying stinging insects.

So hopefully we can rescue 'em and help this family out.

(upbeat music continues) Hey Rebecca, how you doing?

- Hey Charlie.

- Woo-hoo.

All right, what do you got going on here?

- We've discovered a colony of bees that have taken over a Purple Martin gourd in our backyard.

- We can pick 'em up and put 'em over here.

Oh, not too heavy, and they're pretty mellow.

Let's see what we got.

(Charlie laughs) The kids have got their noses pressed up against the glass.

I love it.

Take this propolis off.

It's like gum, look at that.

- Yeah.

- We're only looking for one bee, here.

And that's mama.

This is a marking tube for a queen.

We'll set this right here, when we catch her, put her in here.

Yay!

So what we're seeing here, this is all babies.

Those are larvae, queen lays and egg, it becomes a larvae.

It's like a little worm.

It's like a mouth.

It just eats.

And now we're in honey.

There's a ton of bees in there.

- There's still nestin material, that's from our wrens.

- Can I pick that out?

- Yeah, of course.

I think that's how we discovered it, actually.

I always clean out the nesting material after winter and there were bees.

(bees buzz) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Yeah, there she is.

Can you see her, right there?

Big girl, right there.

See her, guys?

- Oh yes, yes, yes.

- See how she's long and kind of pointy?

- Yes.

- That's how you tell a queen.

That's mama.

That's the queen.

- The queen bee.

(upbeat music continues) Now give 'em a good shake.

Harder, like give it.

Yeah, like a whack.

- Ooh.

- You wanna vacuum it up some bees?

- Sure.

- So these bees are doing what's called festooning and hanging on here.

Look at how much pollen's on these bees.

It's nice.

They call me the bee whisperer.

(Charlie laughs) (upbeat music begins) Winter is coming y'all.

This is the time of year we gotta get all these hives healthy, ready for winter.

We gotta make sure they got enough food, and they're mite free, or low mite counts.

So I'm out here at the Lake family yard.

We got eight hives out here.

I'm gonna use my oxalic acid vaporizer.

Oxalic acid works great when there's very little brood in the hive.

Really knocks the mites off.

I hate using it.

Nobody likes to put chemicals on their bees, but it works.

And the alternative is bees die.

I can't live with that.

It's just grunt work, I gotta wear a mask and gloves, and I'm like a scientist, but gotta do it.

My trusty generator.

We have a little bit of winter feed, so the bees cannot drink syrup this time of year, when it gets below 50 degrees, they can't take in the syrup, they can't use it.

So I gotta give 'em something they can really chaw on and use.

There's also sugar bricks.

Some people make 'em at home.

My friend, Stan Gore, this is Stan, he's now marketing them through Texas Bee Supply.

Some of the proceeds support Hives for Heroes too, which I think is great.

We're gonna wear a bee suit 'cause it's a cool day today.

It's actually a little drizzly.

Everybody's home, foragers are home, the guard bees are home.

So this is the goods.

This is oxalic acid, 10 pounds.

This is powder.

It's like straight from Columbia (Charlie laughs) Start the generator.

You need AC power.

So what we're gonna do i basically heat up the vaporizer.

So this heats up, once i hits 220, we're ready to vape.

So I gotta get my PPE on.

This is my respirator.

Get my veil on.

Not good to breathe or touch.

Now what I do is I scoop it.

There are other ways to do oxalic.

I find this is the most effective.

So I just set these here on each hive.

So we're ready.

We're above temperature.

So I set that there.

Now I take it and I'm just gonna flip it over, boop, and I'll even tap it.

So that's gonna vaporize the hive.

So we watched the temperature go down, it cools as it's vaporizing, and once it gets back up to like 210, it's ready to go to the next hive.

Some people have cloths i here so it really sucks it in.

But I find this is plenty.

This is a long process.

Treating all my 200 hives with OA.

This can take days.

Next one.

You can see it coming out the back and the sides.

You can see where the hive has holes.

Sometimes I bring the speaker out here and jam some tunes.

Load up some more drugs.

People think, beekeeping, you just put bees in the hive and you just walk away and just have 'em, and they're gonna pollinate your garden, and isn't that great?

And it's not the case.

Bees require attention, whether it's feed, or treatment, or at least monitoring for mites whether you're treating or not, you have to know what's going on in your bees.

I think this hive's in trouble.

We'll find out in a minute.

I think this hive's actually not Oh no, they're okay.

They're fine.

There's bees, nevermind.

It's just not the kind of day they wanna fly.

(upbeat music continues) One last one.

And that's it.

Best part is taking this thing off your face.

Oh, it's like taking your bra off at the end of the day.

Hoo!

This is the winter feed.

It's like little pollen, little nectar, and then I've got my sugar bricks, but we'll see who needs what.

I think that's it.

By and large, we're gonna be dealing with very unhappy bees today.

This is cold weather beekeeping.

It's a little bit rainy and they're just not happy.

Oh, there's the queen, and this hive is just not happy.

Oh, there's the queen, right on top.

She's a bee weaver queen, one of my pinks.

This hive might be a major Barney.

No, they're doing fine, bu there she is, that's so weird.

Go back in the dark, honey.

This was a treatment.

I don't think we need anymore.

Put the spacer up on top here so that I can put the winter feed up here.

It doesn't smell good.

So I give 'em a little bit of winter patty here.

That was weird seeing the queen right up on top.

The other thing is I might give 'em just a little bit of sugar water I typically go from the back.

You just grab with two fingers.

If you can lift it, I can barely lift that.

This hive is stronger than they appeared.

We did just put sugar water in there, but there's plenty of resources.

This hive, however, is way too weak.

You almost wanna not be abl to pick it up with two fingers.

So not too bad, not too good.

(upbeat music continues) Yeah, this is almost like a nuke now, my goodness.

This is really like a three frame nuke.

One, two, three, really tiny.

Will they survive winter?

I don't know.

Just a little bit to keep them encouraged.

It's gonna be warm enough the next few days that they'll be able to drink it.

And then I'm gonna grab another spacer and give them some sugar brick.

This is just called a shim.

I just make 'em in the backyard.

A hive this small will mak it over winter, but not ideal.

You can make this at home.

Oh, it smells good.

It smells like some lemongrass.

Hopefully they can defend it.

I have the entrance reduced real small.

Been a brutal, brutal year.

I'm gonna do the two finger, see how heavy.

Yeah, they're a little light.

They have too much room.

Bees like to be crowded, so I'll make 'em crowded.

This hive is a fall split.

They don't have a lot of resources.

Here's a little stand crack, ladies.

Hopefully some of these hives are thriving.

Yuck, terrible.

They're not looking great.

And I'll come back soon just to make sure.

Worst case, I'll pinch one queen and I'll combine these.

That's pretty standard practice.

No point hoping that a little tiny hive like that is gonna make it through the winter.

They need numbers to vibrate, move their muscles, and keep warm.

They need numbers and they need food.

Be keeping is a little demoralizing sometimes.

They are gonna reduce size for winter, but I don't want 'em to reduce size so much that there's no bees.

Ow guys, come on, you gotta over winter.

Don't sting.

Well at least they're feisty, that's good.

Just a little bit of encouragement.

I don't want to give 'em a ton, because if it gets cold, then they've got a bunch of cold liquid in there.

This is more the kind of stuff I want to give them.

Oh, I smell bananas, so they're stinging.

That's good.

I like when they sting, means they're active.

Ow, they're not happy, but it's all right.

Would you be if I took your house apart on a cold day?

There's a good, there, that's what I like to see.

It's a viable hive, not a dying hive.

We've seen some really crappy hives today, and I really shouldn't disturb them too much when it's cold.

But this will probably be the last time I'm in them for a while.

So I'm gonna give 'em some liquid courage and they'll get a little winter feed.

Eat up, ladies.

Voila.

Now I have to do it to 182 more.

(Charlie snarls and sighs) (honey drizzles) It's Christmas time at Charlie Bee Company.

We got some new toys this year.

This, my friends, is the Bee Box straight from Italy.

This is awesome.

(upbeat music continues) (Charlie speaks broken Italian) I really wish I could speak Italian.

It's pretty cool.

We need a bigger table.

We need a little more room to spread out.

I have the beginning laid out, boom.

(upbeat music continues) That's one side, now we assemble the other side.

All right, so now we need some plywood.

You know beekeepers love to putter and tinker.

If I got this in the mail, I'd be pumped.

It's like a little Ikea project.

So the idea here is this is for urban beekeepers.

So this is for beekeepers that don't have a ton of space, who want to keep small colonies, produce a little bit of honey.

The key piece is this chimney.

I can't wait to put the chimney together.

I think that's the genius part.

So the bees come out like way up high, that way they won't sting our dogs.

Ooh, that's starting to look like something.

All right, next we're gonna build this shelf.

That goes together nicely.

Oh, Magoo, you've done it again.

All right, so from here we'r gonna be building up, I think.

So I'm gonna take it and put it on the floor, so I'm not reaching up.

So now we have our own little table.

I'm gonna take this.

I'm really much better at taking things apart than putting them together.

You got bees in your eaves, that's when I roll up my sleeves So this gets on top.

Cool.

We've got the entrance disc.

Everybody in, ventilation.

Queen excluder.

(tools whir) (upbeat music continues) Wow, this is like a fishbowl.

So the bees are gonna go right here.

That is pretty cool.

Gonna be able to observe the bees.

All right, so this is the mesh bottom.

Gotta make sure we don't scratch our sides.

(upbeat music continues) I wonder if the bees like plexi on the sides?

I'm interested to see that.

All right, so this is the varroa catcher, or whatever you call it.

This isn't simple to put together, but it is wonderfully designed.

This took like three years to design.

They went through 10 different prototypes, all kinds of iterations.

I'm excited to see how the bees respond to it, too.

This is where all the honey is gonna live.

You don't have to have ma skills, but it certainly helps.

All right, we're gonna make the chimney.

This is where it's at.

This is that feature that I'm so keen on.

I think this is a great idea.

Bene!

These are the bee escapes, so they can get in and out the sides.

They just go on like that.

So when it's that time of year for honey, you put some foundation in these, and then you just set these right up here, and then these just get covered right up.

And you take these out to let the bees go to work with the honey.

I feel like a magician, voila.

We did it!

That was so awesome to see this all come together.

And I mean this is a coo idea for a backyard beekeeper, small scale beekeeper.

It's not how I work bees particularly, but I'm gonna give it a shot, and I'm gonna play with it and see how it works.

And I just love how beekeepers in general are just so inventive.

So the entrance, if they guard up this high, it's so much better than if they're guarding right at waist level, which is how we usually have it.

So that's kind of unique.

You can see the bees filling your honey.

You could open up the side and do a little display.

Really neat idea.

I'm excited to get it painted, get some bees in it, and see how they do.

(honey trickles) (upbeat music begins) There's the man, how you doing, Chad?

- Hey, good morning Charlie.

- Good morning, good to meet you.

- Good to meet you.

- So we got a little bee problem here.

- We do, yeah.

So this morning we're gonna be removing a really nice hive that we found out of area 15 here in Landa Park.

Certainly from the amount of traffic we get in Landa Park, we wanna make sure that the bees are taken out safely, but also we wanna make sur that our children, or parents, or anybody being in this area that potentially are gonna have any stings or issues with that.

So we wanna make sure that the area is cleaned up and safe for them.

- I've got the Zen master with me today, Al Fiedle.

He's gonna whisper to thes bees and they will come with us.

That's how we roll around here, so.

- I can't wait to see it, I'm excited.

- Oh, they greeted me.

- Did they say hello?

- It's sort of like a little baptism.

Welcome to our hive, we hope that hurt.

They're a strong hive.

They're doing pretty well up there.

The question is, how much i outside and how much is inside?

- This is gonna be fun.

- This is gonna be fun.

Look at 'em hanging out there.

- They're just exposed.

They're probably inside the tree too.

- I think so.

- That'll be the hard part.

- That'll be the hard part.

There are a lot of people walking around.

They are curious.

So we might have folks running a little bit of interference.

Bee Mobile is having a hard time right now.

It's just not running very well, not shifting very well.

It's filthy.

I've got my dad's awesome mobile sort of turned it into the Bee Mobile, so I'm kind of in trouble.

We're gonna smoke 'em pretty heavy.

If we were out in a pasture somewhere, I wouldn't worry about it so much, but we are among peoples, and so we're gonna hit 'em hard with smoke.

The bees will retract.

Also give us an idea of what we're seeing and then they'll kind of reform.

We're about 25 feet up in the air and we have this arborous ladder we borrowed from the city, which is great.

Ultimately we wanna be underneath these bees, not leaning against the tree and hanging, but working up.

So that's gonna be nice.

Ow!

- What happened, Charlie?

- Got stung by a bee.

- No!

- So we can see a lot more of the comb now.

See what the hive looks like.

They're definitely inside.

All right, they're sufficiently unhappy.

Is there a stinger?

- No, don't see one.

- Got me good.

- Well it's a lot worse i they're stinging on the inside of those.

- Yeah, right?

- That really hurts.

- They got me good.

(upbeat music continues) Okay, let's get some bees.

That's a lot of bees.

All right, so I'm just gonna reduce numbers to start.

Because I see honey at the top here.

Oh this is big hive, this is 20, 30.

- Even more, probably.

- Or more.

You could smoke toward me as much as anything.

Yeah, I'm smelling bananas already.

The thing is, I'm seeing honey all out here.

This whole thing could be on the outside, which would really make my day.

Honey usually indicates the edge of the hive, so.

- Yep.

- I'm gonna start picking it apart.

I'm taking a lobe off here.

(upbeat music continues) Boy, that would be kind of cool if we didn't have to go inside this thing.

Coming down.

Nice shot.

- Wow, it's just all honey.

That's crazy.

Yes!

- Perfect.

- Perfect.

Guys, I think we got an open air hive.

I don't wanna jinx it, but I'm not seeing much of a cavity yet.

I think they just built this in a hollow.

Well, I'm guessing, so I don't wanna.

Okay, I'm gonna drop it.

(upbeat music continues) Good thing I played soccer in high school, not basketball or baseball.

Boy, I'm no good.

I made one so far.

That's pretty lame.

- Maybe we should move the bucket.

- Well if you move the bucket, I'll probably throw 'em right where the bucket was.

(both laugh) Coming down.

Yes!

Look at all that honey.

Yeah, it goes way back.

Yeah, we definitely have to turn this into an abscond.

So there's a bunch of bees over here.

It can sometimes be an indicator that the queen is hanging out here.

- If she is, that means that the hive is not deep.

- I don't think it's deep anyway but I think there's material back in there.

We didn't see much brood, so I think the brood might be in there, but I think abscond is a good next step.

All right, so we did the cutout portion of our show.

I think the bees are down in this side.

I could feel way down in there, I could feel comb.

In fact, I think that's where the babies are.

That's why we saw so much honey hanging out.

They just ran outta space.

So I think we convert to a forced abscond here and it's just gonna take us some time.

Do you wanna do this, Al?

- Yeah, I'll do it.

- You sure?

- You take five.

- I'll take five.

You feeling okay up there?

- Yeah.

- Be careful not to get it stuck, Al, and don't torque yourself off the ladder.

(tools whir) (upbeat music continues) There you go.

- Into it.

- Great.

We can switch, Al, I'll com up with some smoke and a scope.

You see any smoke coming outta here?

Oh I do.

- Oh yeah, very light.

- Little bit, that's all right.

I'm gonna back up all those bees So I'm being very un-Stan Gore and not being patient with trying to find the queen, because there's just, we're 25 feet up, and one of our onlookers already got stung, so we don't need that.

(upbeat music continues) This kind of indicates an abscond, the way they're hanging out here I mean if we were Zen masters like Stan Gore, we'd be looking for the queen.

I'm looking for her, but boy, I just gotta get these numbers down.

That's all I'm worried about right now.

There's so many people walking around.

I'm gonna finish this hole I started if I can.

(tools whir) (upbeat music continues) I don't think this hole made it through.

No, I think we got enough of an abscond, though.

They just keep coming out though, there's a lot of bees.

It's like a clown car.

I think we switched the back out too, because it's getting heavy.

Besides already getting heavy with bees, this vacuum just ain' sucking like it's supposed to.

Yeah, it's all clogged.

This is clogged and dirty.

We got honey in it.

Got to clean it out.

- Oh, sweet.

- Yeah, that was all gunked up.

It was still drawing bees but they were getting clogged.

This is like a boxing ring in he Ding, ding, ding, ding!

And in this corner, weighing in at far too much!

Let's see how it's working.

(vacuum whirs) Ah, that thing sucks.

Just a lot of bees here, guys.

(upbeat music continues) - There's any smoke coming out up there?

- Nope.

Is the smoker pushing smoke?

(tools whir) (upbeat music continues) With the vac cleaned out, we should be home free.

(smack) Ow!

That just punched me right in the face.

Did you get that?

(audio slows) Ow!

That hurt.

(upbeat music continues) I think our bit is stuck.

(upbeat music continues) Yeah.

Nah, I'll come back.

I've got a corded one.

I just have to have a generator.

This has happened to me before, it just gets stuck in there.

Especially if it's just going into solid wood.

It just.

(Charlie mimics tool sticking) and it sticks.

It's the honeybee!

What's up?

- Is anybody's arms getting tired and need a break?

- Sure.

- Well I showed up and I'm gonna see if I can relieve some people of reaching up, because I bet you that's tiring.

(Charlie laughs) - It is.

I think I'm gonna tap out, guys.

I'm kind of done.

- You sure you don't want those bees sucked up?

- Oh yeah.

- You do want 'em sucked up.

- We will, yeah.

- You want me to do it now?

- Sure.

- No dying.

- We're gonna vacuum up as many bees as we can and just call it.

- Please don't sting me in the f - I think we've solved the bulk of their problem, and I think they'll come bac like tomorrow and close it up.

(transition pops) (upbeat music continues) All right y'all, we're in downtown New Braunfels.

We're setting up an urban hive on top of this rooftop.

I'm so pumped.

We're working with the Heimer family today at their shop, Comal Flower Shop.

Flowers, bees, can't get any better than that.

Good morning y'all.

- Hi.

- How you doing?

- Hi, good, how are you doing?

- Good, I'm Charlie.

- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

- I am Mary.

- Mary, nice to meet you.

Thanks for having me.

- Of course.

- I'm psyched.

- We are too.

- Sounds like we're gonna get y'all into some honeybees.

- Yes.

- Tell me why y'all are interested in bees.

- Well, bees and flowers are very symbiotic.

You kind of need bees to have flowers.

- Sure.

- So it's really important for us.

We really care about the environment.

- Yeah.

- We're all about sustainability, so.

- Cool.

- Super important to us and our shop.

- Tell me about the shop.

How long have y'all been in business?

- The shop has been in business for over 60 years.

We bought it in 2008 and I had really no idea about floristry, and I shadowed and learned, and the previous owner taught me a lot.

Emma came in 2020 to help us out, and she's brought in some new, not only modern vibes, but she's taught me a lot about sustainability and the environment.

- So you're like a filthy hippie, like me.

- I am, I really.

- I love it, I love it.

That's great.

(upbeat music continues) After a little chinwag, it's time to check out the home for their new bees.

Oh, this is perfect.

This is gonna be great.

Okay, cool.

Got a nice spot right in downtown New Braunfels.

We've got the plaza right there.

We've got the bakery right across the street.

- Oldest bakery in Texas.

- Oldest bakery in Texas.

Lots of good forage.

So let's look at the compass.

That's north, that's south.

So the sun's going down over there.

So I'm thinking I set the bees here, and morning light is this way.

So I want them to go out toward the morning light.

So we'll face their entrance kind of out this way and they should do just fine.

- Awesome.

- All right, cool.

- Yeah.

- Well I'll load everything up here and get you suited up.

- All right.

- And we'll get dirty in the bees.

- Very cool.

- Have some fun.

- I'm excited, all right, cool.

- Awesome.

(upbeat music continues) Here's the honeybees.

All right, so let's meet these poor, unhappy bees.

- All right.

- They're unhappy 'cause it's so cold out today.

So this is just a tiny little swarm.

So that's a frame of honey I've given 'em.

See where they've eaten it?

- Yeah.

- See those openings?

- Yeah.

- They've eaten that.

- So cool.

- Right?

- There's so many.

- So this is all honey here.

So I'll put this in here.

- All right.

- You're fearless, I love it.

And I see a big fat queen already.

- Awesome.

- Look for her, you see her?

- Is that her?

- That's her.

- That's her.

She's a queen bee.

- She's beautiful, she's a light colored queen.

- She is beautiful.

- I bet this is a queen that came from somebody's nice apiary, 'cause this is a swarm.

So this is good news.

But they've got this nice frame of drawn comb.

They'll like that.

It's a really tiny hive.

We're hoping we can just help them to survive winter.

And you can grab the last frame.

- Okay.

This is so cool.

- You can put that right in there.

- Okay.

- Let's just put that right in the middle.

- So how many bees do you think are in here?

- Probably 1,000.

- Wow.

- Something like that, not that many, really.

A big hive is 50,000.

- Oh wow.

- So the bee box is kind of a unique setup.

So this is the honey system they use.

When the bees fill this up, well, we can take this out.

- All right.

- And then the bees can come up and they make honey, and these frames got a little water on it, and we'll put a little foundation in the frames to encourage them to do that, and then they build it up, and then that will be literally comb honey.

I think it goes like that.

Yep.

That just sets.

You're in the bee business.

- All right, I love it.

- Nobody got stung or killed, that was good.

- No, they were very calm.

- And here's the cool part, too.

This is a little display hive.

- Oh wow.

- So we can see what's going on in there.

- So you can see them go to work - How do you feel about having bees on your roof?

- I love it, I think it's so coo - Awesome.

Fingers crossed, come back in spring.

- Okay.

- And that queen takes off building and you get a nice big, strong hive.

- Wow.

- I think it'll be cool.

- Awesome.

- All right, you ready for this?

- I'm ready, I'm so excited.

- Cool, we'll close them in and say a little bee prayer that they get strong and healthy - Yep.

- Big day today, I got Rob Palla coming from Laura Bees.

He is the oxalic man.

He's got this awesome battery operated oxalic vaporizer.

So we've got a couple yards that are ready for treatment.

So we're gonna test the unit.

How's it going, Rob?

- Good, man, how are you?

- Good, thanks for coming out.

I appreciate it.

First time in Texas?

- Yep, first time.

First time.

- Awesome, I hear I'm gonna get my oxalic on today.

- I hear you're having some issues with some noisy generators around the bees.

So we have a new battery powered product that we'll share with you.

- How'd you get into this?

- So we started as a small beekeeping operation just a few years ago, and then we ended up, out of necessity, coming up with this product to treat bees that evolved into this battery unit just outta necessity.

So that's what we do now.

- Treating all 200 hives is an arduous process.

It can take me a week to get around to every hive.

With each hive needing several rounds of treatment.

We're talking about months of work during winter.

So anything that can speed u this process would be awesome.

- So I think it's a perfect fit for what you're trying to do.

- All right, cool, well I got some bees here.

Let's get suited up and let's get in and find some trouble.

You ready?

- I'm excited.

- All right, let's do it.

- All right.

(upbeat music continues) - Look at that.

That looks very futuristic.

- Yeah, there you go, so that's the new Instant Map 18 volt.

Pull the plunger out.

- Yep, okay.

- That's your plunger.

This is how you add your dosage higher and lower.

You've got your one, two, three, four.

- Okay.

- And you spin that, it's a fine thread screw.

So you'll see that yo created a cavity by doing that in the bottom.

You'll see when you operate the plunger.

- Wow.

- It just pushes that.

- So I'm gonna go into oxalic, put it in here, and then I go puff.

Do I have to hold that down?

- Nope.

- So tell me about oxalic in general.

What is it and how does it work?

- Essentially all you're doing as a beekeeper is increasing the levels of oxalic acid naturally in the beehive.

Raising that threshold to kill the mites, but not the bees.

- It's hard to kill a bug on a bug, right?

- It's very difficult.

Oxalic acid is one of the least abrasive treatments on the market right now.

- And I've been doing that.

I think, too, as ne beekeepers, it's overwhelming.

There's all these different strategies.

There's all kinds of philosophies.

People are very passionat about treatment, non-treatment.

What is the right thing to do?

- So I actually have recently acquired a lot of those beekeepers who want to be treatment free, because the studies that came out showing that when you treat with oxalic acid, the level of OA found in honey is raised by such a small percent, that it's almost negligible.

People are starting to convert over to it because it's one of those things that's already in the beehive.

Again, you're just raising the level.

- So this is a life changer for me.

I'm serious.

I have yards where I've got a 30, 40, 50 yard walk.

I love my generator, but it's heavy, and it's just a lot of work.

So this means I can just put this in my toolkit and off we go.

- Yeah, I really think thi will be a good solution for you.

- Yeah.

- It's been on and heating and we've had a whole conversation.

- You had said it takes a little while.

That's not a little while for me That's fine, that's perfect.

That's a couple minutes.

We got our four hives here.

They all need treatment.

I'll follow your lead.

(upbeat music begins) - All right, that's all you do.

You've already preset your plunger just by twisting the end of it.

- Yep.

- Stick it into your OA.

You'll see that it fills the end of the plunger.

And then we'll just do a simulated treatment here so I can show you how it works.

- That's great.

- I always suggest people do this just so they know what they're doing.

- Okay.

- You take it, you stick it in.

- Oh, that's awesome.

- You just take, pull you plunger out, go for the next one There's no need to wait for anything to cool.

No need to flip any switches.

- Cool.

- As fast as you can go, it can go.

Just load it up.

All the way in, all the way in.

- Wow, that is so cool.

That makes it easy.

- All right, so we're just gonna do what we did on the table into the bees.

- Into the bees.

- Stick the plunger in and press - It's a much thicker cloud than I get out of mine.

- It's a lot of vapor comes out of this.

- The bees don't love it, but that's just.

- The nature of the bees.

- Yeah, nobody likes taking their medicine.

- They like mites a lot less.

- Yeah, that's right.

Does this get hot?

A little bit, right?

- Yeah.

With your thin gloves, yeah, just be mindful it.

The piece that you're holding right now won't, but the bottom can.

(upbeat music continues) - No generator, no cords.

This is gonna save me so much time, going yard to yard to yard.

These bees are feisty, I know for sure.

So they're not gonna be happy about this at all.

All right, whew.

- And there you have it.

- There we go.

One yard down, we can move to the next.

Oh, don't grab the hot part, Charlie.

(Charlie laughs) (bees buzz) (upbeat music continues) So this is a classic yard of mine, I got 10 hives.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, one at a time.

And this is all I need.

Boom, boom, smoking.

- This is gonna be so great for your operation.

- Oh man, it'll make me treat more regularly when it's less of a pain in the butt.

Man, I'm just going to rock and roll here.

Is that cool?

- That's what it's designed for.

- That's great.

- Right down the line.

(upbeat music continues) - Oh man, this is so much easier It's just portable.

So many places where I have to carry this around, and instead of loading up a generator, and cords, and all this stuff, this thing fits in a little briefcase, batteries and all, and I just go yard to yard.

This is like revolutionizing my little operation here.

I love that we're pissing off some bees.

This is great.

- Pissing off some mites, too.

- Yeah, pissing off some mites in the process, too.

Last one.

- Last one.

- Boom, done.

That was seven minutes?

How many minutes per hive, right?

I mean seconds per hive.

- And you're onto the next yard.

- You are helping a lot of beekeepers.

- I went from somebody who could help with my 20 to 40 colonies that I run a year to 200,000.

- That's awesome.

- It's incredible.

- Now you have 200,200.

- There you go.

- Thanks to my hives.

- Awesome, it's always great to hear.

- Good stuff, man.

All right, let's get some lunch.

- All right.

(honey drizzles) - We are here at Animal World Snake Farm and Zoo, just south of New Braunfels.

I love this place.

We're gonna get a behind the scenes tour of it, but we're really here to set up swarm traps.

There's no bees here right now, but this season the bees are reproducing and they're coming in full force So we're setting up a lure box so that we can catch those bees on the move.

No bees yet, so the wife is joining me.

The queen bee's gonna be here.

She's kind of been out because of her allergy.

We're not touching bees today.

We're setting up the swarm trap, we're gonna learn a little bit about the snake farm.

We are gonna get jiggy with the wild animals.

Kay heard we were coming, she's like, "I wanna go!"

- Are you a snake man?

- We love critters.

- Well we got cute, cuddly stuff here, too.

- I like that better, but.

- I hear we've been having some bee issues.

- We have, not so much right now but definitely when it starts to warm up and we sell ice cream, those bees just come in.

But we wanna make sure they're well taken care of.

- The hope is to capture bees on the move, right?

So bees that are looking for a new home, they're gonna move into that box and then when they do, y'all can tell me, I come out, whisk them away and then set it back up, catch another.

- Fantastic.

- Yeah, it'll be great.

We'll grab that trap and we'll meet you in there.

- Fantastic.

- Awesome.

Put this baby together.

This is the interceptor swarm trap.

When bees swarm, they're looking for a new home, and this is their new home.

Bees will swarm.

It's sort of like telling teenagers not to make out, you know what I mean?

Like their drive to reproduce is just as strong as a hormonal teenager.

These are vents, these are so the bees can have air when they move in.

Bees are very sensitive to temperature.

They like to be able to control the temperature, and that means ventilation.

So they won't move into a space that's not well ventilated.

Then here is the hanger.

This hanger goes right in like that and then goes up like that.

This is the entrance.

So this pops in here like that, and that just hangs down open.

So the bees find it, and then once they move in, to transport 'em, you jus close it up and take 'em away.

So we'll put these frames in here.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Woo!

Oh, thank you, boo.

- Sure.

Age before beauty.

(upbeat music continues) Oh, baby, what?

- Look at this place, I love it.

- While formerly known as just snake farm, we actually have all kinds of animals out here.

Everything from monkeys, lama, zebras, hyenas, mountain lions, large white lions.

Pretty much we have something for every animal lover out there.

- I could spend all day admiring these critters, but before I get carried away, I gotta help these people with their bee problem.

That looks like a good spot over there, that tree.

- All the snakes are inside, right?

- Let us know if you see one.

So how exactly does that work?

- I could really hang anything that's a box and put a lure in it.

But this is kind of specially designed.

It's the right kind of space that they're looking for, actually.

These are regular frames for a beehive.

That's that's a plasti foundation, it's got wax on it.

I threw one frame in here that has a little bit of drawn wax and honey.

They'll really like that.

And then down in the botto of this, this is a swarm lure.

So this just goes inside here and that'll attract them.

They'll like this smell of this.

Bees are very scent driven.

When they're looking for a home, they're in what's called bivouac, a big cluster of bees, you might have seen one at some point, come here and smell this box, and we're gonna put the lure in here, and they're gonna go back and tell their 10,000 friends, "Hey you guys, we got the spot."

So they're gonna move in here and then once they move in, all I have to do really is just close this up at dusk or dawn, and then I just take it away.

- Sweet.

- Take it out to the bee yard.

You're okay with a spike in this - Sure.

- If I had a hammer.

Oop.

- Watch out.

- Yeah.

All right, and then this is just gonna go right on here and then the strap, pass this around the back.

I think that'll be fine.

And then this is stuff that I use all the time.

It's called Swarm Commander.

You can smell this.

It smells a little bit like lemongrass.

So what we're gonna do is just put a little pump, a few pumps on this Q-tip, and then we're gonna say, "Hey, this is where you should go, ladies."

Drop it right in there and then we're good to go.

- So how do I know?

- The bees are coming in?

- Yeah.

- You'll see bees coming in and out.

- Okay.

- I mean, if we waited here long enough, it wouldn't be unusual to see a bee find this immediately.

When bees move in, I almost consider it like a blessing or something.

It's kind of, it's an event, rig They're not like cockroaches.

They don't just move in everywhere.

- Yeah.

- You're in the middle of a reproductive event of a super organism.

So this queen leaves and then they go find another place, then back in the hive they make a new queen, and she mates locally and then they repopulate.

So that's their reproductive goal.

- Got it.

- Is to make more hives.

- These are bees that don't have a hive.

- These are bees looking for a home.

- Got it.

- What we just put up is an awesome home.

This is like primo, there's resources, there's wax.

Smells like a queen.

So it just tells 'em like oh, there've been queens here.

This is like a queen-friendly place.

Maybe there've been bees here before, and you'll see 'em coming in and out, in and out.

Just call me, I live right up the road.

- Awesome.

- We'll pop in, close that up, whisk it away.

- So cool, I'll let you close it - Catch some bees.

- Fantastic.

- Yeah, don't mess with them.

Don't mess with them for sure.

What are these called?

- Watusi.

- Watusi, that's good.

And buffalo, American Buffalo.

- Yeah, all kinds of stuff.

Y'all want to meet some up close and personal?

- Love to.

- Let's do it.

- All right, cool, awesome.

Critter time!

Let's get some critters!

All right.

- Check it out.

- Let me introduce you guys to Tilly.

- Tilly - Tilly's excited now because I have a banana here.

- Oh, Tilly's gonna give you a poop.

- Oh, there she goes.

- She's excited.

- You guys deal with pollinators, so do we.

This is one of Madagascar's biggest pollinators.

- Oh really?

- We're seeing why.

They just eat so much fruit and vegetation.

- Oh my gosh.

- And then just go spread it all over the forests of Madagascar.

- Oh my goodness, can we touch?

- Yeah, absolutely, she's super sweet.

She's a brown lemur.

- Brown lemur.

- Just one of many dozens of different species of lemurs only found on the island of Madagascar.

You guys want to give it a shot?

- Yeah, do I just?

- Yeah, just like kind of let her come on to you.

- Okay.

- There we go.

She's like, "Hey, just let me keep the banana and anyone can hold me."

Yeah, there you go.

Her nickname is Tilly Pig, because she actually oinks.

I mean, just like a pig.

She'll.

(zookeeper mimics oinking) - Oh, how funny.

- Yeah it is.

- Oh, we're making fun of you.

- One of the cutest things.

She's like, "Eh, taller tree."

She wants to go to the taller tree now.

- Does she want her peel?

She's not gonna eat her peel - Doesn't look like it, no.

(Tilly oinks) - Oh there she is!

- Oh, do you hear that oinking that she's doing?

- She's oinking.

- She is.

- Lemurs are good stuff.

- Lemur species actually communicate with more vocalizations than any other primates.

So you have primates that we look at as more intelligent, like your big apes and stuff.

- Chimpanzee.

- Yeah, absolutely.

But lemurs actually have over a dozen different calls that they make.

So it's amazing to hear.

- Oh, you wanna poop on me?

Ever since I was a kid, I've dreamed of this moment.

- Oh, there you go.

- She likes it.

- Oh yeah, there you go.

- She's watering you down.

(Charlie laughs) - Wow, that's called trickle down economics, right there.

- Yeah, she's like, all right, I'll take my perch back.

- She got me really good.

- She pee-pee'd all over you.

- All right, well, me and Tilly are gonna slip through here.

- Okay.

- Go the back way, we'll put her up and then.

- Hi Tilly.

- We get to one of my favorite animals.

- Thanks for peeing on me!

Thanks for peeing on me!

It's not very smelly, it's just kind of warm and wet.

Kinda like me after a bee removal.

(Charlie laughs) - So gross.

- While this place is now known for its furry friends, they originally started out as a snake farm, and I'm about to get my hands on the biggest snake here.

There he is.

Oh my goodness.

- All right, y'all ready?

- Yeah.

- Okay, ladies first.

- If you could, just kind of hold your hands out.

- Okay.

- And line up kind of next to Charlie there so we can disperse some of the weight here.

- Oh, he's heavy.

He, she?

- He.

- He's checking me out.

I smell like lemur pee.

- This is Hercules.

- Hercules.

- And Hercules is about 14 feet long and weighs over 100 pounds.

- Okay, are you going?

Would you like Hercules all to yourself?

- I'm like Hercules.

Whoa, I can feel muscles.

I can feel serious muscles.

- You can see how he i sticking his tongue out there.

That's how he smells, that's right.

So he is gonna stick his tongue out and the odors go on his tongue and then go back into his head where he has the same thing we have to smell, a Jacobson's organ, and that identifies the smells in the air.

So right now he's smelling some lemur on you.

He's like, "Hmm, lemur."

- You're a really big lemur.

- Well he just like flexed.

I felt like the muscle go like, oomph.

- Yeah, just one breath, they have a really long, one big functioning lung.

When they fill that up, I mean it really creates some pressure.

So, and you know, a lot of people assume, well, he must not have any teeth.

He actually has nearly a hundred teeth in his mouth.

He has pretty large, curved back, kinda like fish hooks that allows him to hold onto his prey.

He's not venomous, but he's a constrictor, so he would squeeze his prey before he eats it.

And like he's constricting.

- Are you taking him off?

- No, my hat's crooked.

- Oh.

- How heavy is he?

- He's a little over 100 pounds.

- A little over 100 pounds, okay - But it's a really awkward weight, right?

- It is, yeah, yeah.

- It feels like even heavier than that.

- Is he getting PO'ed?

- No.

I don't know, is he hissing?

- Nope.

- Oh shoot, we better.

No, I'm kidding.

(Charlie laughs) No, he hasn't bit anyone all day today.

- Oh good.

- He's a good sport.

- Ah, all right.

- Hi baby!

- That was cool.

That was way cool.

I feel like Mike Rowe.

(upbeat music continues) - Well, thanks again for coming out.

- That was awesome, man, thank you.

I appreciate it.

- Since you were a good sport, held a python, got peed on by a lemur.

- Got a lemur to pee on me.

- Figured we could send you with a little.

- Oh, dude!

- Dry parting gift.

- That is awesome, I love it.

I will wear that with pride.

You guys wanna see an albino Burmese python?

It's like a Burmese python that just.

- Maybe we should not show that.

- That just ate a pig.

- Woo.

- There you go.

- Let's take that shine down a little bit.

- Take my shine down a little bit.

Hoo, that's great, I love it.

Thank you, man.

- Hey, thank you - Appreciate it, thanks for having us.

- Thank you so much.

- Hopefully we'll be in touch soon with some bees for you.

- Yeah, let us know about that swarm trap.

I'll be out in a heartbeat if you've got bees on it.

- Fantastic.

Awesome, nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

Thanks, Jarrett.

- All right!

(upbeat music continues) (music begins) For more information about Charlie Bee Company, including new and exciting removals, visit us online as charliebee.com.