East Texas beekeepers discuss role in preserving bee populations
TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Around the world there are over 20,000 bee species, with 3,600 of them being in the United States, according to Bee City USA.
Because of these bee populations, people have taken up beekeeping as a hobby to either harvest their own honey or watch over their own set of pollinators.
In East Texas, organizations like the East Texas Beekeepers Association work with people who are interested in taking up beekeeping.
“I was really interested in doing it and learning how to bee keep,” 2024 Honey Queen, Savana Greb said. “And they gave me everything I needed, they gave me a hive and all the tools I would need and a mentor who would walk me through the process of beekeeping.”
Greb is less than a year into her beekeeping journey, learning about the little insect and their pivotal role for the environment.
“They’re such tiny creatures and but there’s so much too them and so much we can learn from them,” Greb said.
Inspired by the ETBA, she started attending their meetings, getting more familiar with her role. After a few months, they began encouraging her to learn more about the pollinator where she earned the title 2024 Honey Queen. With her role, she goes to various schools educating students about bees and the important role that beekeepers have to protect them. In her role, she looks through her hive for potential harm like mites and makes sure the queen is present in the hive.
“I think the most important thing that beekeepers do is to protect their hive,” Greb said. “Sometimes it is the responsibility of the beekeeper to help them along to make sure that the hive continues to have good genetics to be able to produce good honey.”
This year, Keep Tyler Beautiful partnered with local beekeepers to move a Honeybee Observation Hive to the Goodman-LeGrand Museum and Garden. Originally, it called the Tyler Rose Garden home.
For East Texas, pollinators play an important role in keeping the flowers in the Rose Garden blooming... and the produce on the shelves stocked.
“We have to have pollination in several plants that are pollinator dependent,” Former Keep Tyler Beautiful organizer Erin Garner said. “They will not reproduce without pollinators being a part of that process.”
To keep the honeybee population steady, beekeepers have to learn a lot about this insect’s role in the environment. Plants of Texas in Flint offers classes to teach bee enthusiasts of different levels how to become beekeepers.
“I do a hands-on inspection class here at Plants of Texas,” Manager Alison Bryant said. “Our customers get the opportunity to get suited up and to apply all of the information that they do in the classroom settings.”
Before purchasing a beehive for the front yard or bee suit to handle the pollinators:
“It will only benefit you and the bees if you invest in some education of some sort before you just dive right in,” Alison Bryant said. “Whether it be a class or reading books.”
In honor of honey bees, Keep Tyler Beautiful will be hosting their fourth annual “Bee Day in the Park.” This year the event will be at the Goodman-LeGrand Museum and Garden. It will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, with vendors, food trucks and educational booths to learn more about the importance of bees.