- Ooh, fancy, fancy.

On this episode of "Charlie Bee" I'm going au natural with my beekeeping.

Namaste baby.

(saw cutting) I'm building my first top bar hive with the fun folks at Bee Mindful.

Boom.

- Voila!

Everything is fascinating about bees.

- And later I'll be going back to school.

What are millimeters?

Can I just pull this?

With a mad scientist of honey.

- This is expected to kill more than 10 million people.

Antibiotics cannot kill it, but honey can kill it.

(engine dying) - Oops.

I'm a professional.

We're taking bee rescue to new heights.

- Do you think it'll disturb them?

Make them agitated a little bit.

- Yep.

(chainsaw roars) - Oh!

- [Charlie] We got the queen!

Saving the world.

- Save the bees.

- [Charlie] One organic hive at a time.

Boom, wonder twin powers activate.

- Boom.

Woo!

(zipper zips) - 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.

(bees buzzing) 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) Oh!

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!

- Ah!

- But I love it.

(upbeat rock music) Oh yeah.

Timber!

This is just wild.

I love it.

I We're solving somebody's problem We're putting these bees t work where they're meant to work somewhere safe and away from people.

This is what it's all about.

Retreat.

Woo!

(upbeat rock music fades) I love when I can just get to the bees.

We got feisty bees and a stack of tires.

Homeowner says, do whatever you want.

Just gonna have at it, really slow down, I'm gonna try to be chill and zen-like and get in there and really find that queen if I can do it.

I'll put some gloves on for giggles.

One tire, two tires.

Hopefully we don't find an other interesting critters here.

Wow.

I think it's just thi one whole tire is full of bees.

Holy smokes.

It's really full of bees.

And they're not friendly.

All right.

(upbeat music) Ouch!

Getting stung like crazy.

Ow!

Woo!

Hot bees.

Hot bees.

Ah!

These are what are calle Africanized bees, theyre nasty.

Hurts.

They're getting me like in my face, my neck and my legs.

Ah, retreat.

Dang, these bees are terrible.

I woke them up.

That's what I call Monday morning, right there.

All right.

Monday be like, really?

(upbeat rock music) (tool whirs) How do you cut a tire?

Dangit.

Let's try this thing.

(lighthearted music) (tool whirs) Dang it!

(tool whirs) Ah!

(tool whirs) Making this look awfully difficult.

(tool whirs) I don't think they like that!

Ow.

This just doesn't seem to cut.

Is that just thick rubber down near the hub?

I was thinking I could pry it out.

(tool whirs) Try a wood blade, I don't know.

(tool whirs) I don't know why I can't cut right near the rim, I guess there's steel in it or something.

We got a plan.

It's a mean and nasty plan and it's gonna work.

I'm gonna cut just right around here.

Just open it right up.

(upbeat rock music) (tool whirs) There we go.

That's what I want.

They just fit their brood right in that tire, right in the shade, they love it I'm glad this guy didn't go and try to move these bees on his own.

That couldve just been deadly.

I often say it's gonna be easy, but I really believed it on this one.

So we got flyers coming back.

They're just chunked with pollen right now.

The hive is moved three feet away, they're confused.

So I'm gonna vacuum up bees, what bees I can.

I'm gonna tear the tire apart a little more and just wrap it.

That was just more than I bargained for, I didn't expect that to be so hard to cut.

So it goes.

(vacuum sucking) (upbeat rock music) (tool whirs) Yeah, they'll clean this up big time.

So I made a mess of that one.

I went in, I moved that tire kind of too aggressively.

I gotta put my veil on.

Ow, ow, ow.

They did not make that easy.

I made it hard.

I kind of screwed up trying to cut into the tire.

It was just kind of a bummer, I was hoping to really just take that apart bit by bit and it just turned into a mess.

I learn something every time I touch bees, and it's usually when I'm prideful when I think it's gonna be an easy one and just, that's when the bees say, "Uh-uh-uh, you didn't read the book, son."

(popping) (lighthearted music) (bees buzzing) (car door closes) Bonjour!

- Bonjour!

(speaking in French) (both laughing) - Good to meet you too.

Good to see you.

Thanks for having me out.

I'm at Bee Mindful bee farm today with my good friends, Natalie and Les.

These guys are the real deal.

We're talking natural beekeeping.

Y'all are gonna teach me a little about about top bars?

- And natural beekeeping.

- Natural beekeeping.

I love it.

I love it.

That means treatment free, really serving the bees.

Putting the bees to work in a way that they wanna work, not in the way that the beekeeper wants to work.

- I'm gonna show you how to keep bees in horizontal top bar hives, no frame, simple.

- I love it, I've never touched a top bar, so I'm excited to get in and and try that.

- You got the expert right here.

Les is gonna show you all his tricks.

- Les is a wealth of knowledge.

He's been doing this for a long, long time.

He's an author, noted beekeeper.

I'm not worthy.

I'm not worthy.

- No, no.

(group laughs) - I'm stoked to learn something new and I can't wait to just break into their hives.

- Let's do it.

(claps) (upbeat rock music) - I always try to be open to different ideas and natural beekeeping has been on my radar for a long, long time.

- [Natalie] There you go.

- So what are you doing there, Les, you're trying to find where the comb is?

- [Charlie] I see.

- It just sounds different?

- It's hollow.

- Oh, I hear it.

- When there's no honey.

- That's cool.

So on a top bar hive, tha means a hive without foundation.

So that's a rescue comb, I've seen that.

The bees build their own comb, so I'm gonna learn how to manipulate comb that's hanging from a bar, and you have to do so very carefully.

- This is rabbit caging, we staple it to the bar and then we band it to make like a thing that you can skewer things on.

- And then you then you can put a removal, you can put comb, you can insert the comb and hang it there.

- Absolutely, if you have natural comb, you can just skewer it on there and hang it back down.

So you can reuse brood comb, babies.

- That's awesome.

- Resources, anything.

- Natalie is a force of nature in the beekeeping community.

She's gone through the Texas Master Beekeeper program.

She's way at the top level there - So the horizontal configuratio is you have at the entrance a comb of honey usually, by the wall, and then you have the broods nest.

- She's a native French speaker.

So in French speaking parts of Africa, in the Congo, in Nigeria, and with refugees, she's teaching beekeeping, writing manuals, working with locals and carrying her wisdom to the beekeeping world there.

- And then everything that they pack on for their hoard for the winter comes in the back of the hive.

So when you open it up and you're not gonna disrupt it.

- Okay, you're not gonna- - You're not cracking it open like in the Langstroth.

- Take the brood apart.

- That's right.

Everything is fascinating about bees.

It's amazing, you always keep learning no matter how long you've been doing it.

- That is beautiful.

- [Natalie] They're social life, the way they organize, the efficiency with which they go forage.

- [Charlie] Look at them festooning there.

I love when they do that.

- The way they can connect people to me is huge.

And how they can reconnect us to nature.

The best thing when you got honey on the bar like this, you can cut straight from the back under the bar into your container and put the bar right back in.

- Oh right.

- And take the honey home.

So you don't have to hav extra equipment to replace it.

- No extractor.

- You don't have extractor needs.

Everything is super simple.

- Wow.

- I met Charlie actually at apprenticeship test for the Master Beekeeper Program in Texas.

- Can I see how heavy that, oh, I'm moving kind of fast, sorry.

- He's gonna learn how to slow down.

- I get excited.

- Learn how to move the top bars.

- And you gotta be careful how you hold it, right?

- Yes, always stay in the vertical plane.

- That's pretty honey too.

- Yeah.

- [Charlie] It's nice and light and new comb.

- Some nectar.

- That is ready for the honey show, I'd say.

(Natalie laughs) - [Natalie] Okay, so you'r gonna put it next to this one.

- Okay.

- And you slide it down.

- I just crushed one, when I put it in.

- He's gonna learn how we just don't crush bees.

If you have bees in the way, you're gonna take the bottom edge of that bar and align it with the top edge of the other one.

And when you do that, you're gonna be creating no crush points, right?

- [Charlie] I see, and then you slide it down, okay.

- And also we'll teach him how to keep his bees so that he doesn't feel like he has to rely on treatments.

And we're gonna show him how the local bees, the survivor stock, are really the key to all this natural beekeeping.

- [Charlie] Tell me, these hives have never been treated with any kind of chemical.

- No.

We don't treat our hives whatsoever.

We believe in resistant bees.

Meaning even if they have mites, they are thriving, and they don't, they might have the viruses, but that doesn't do anything to them.

- They survive.

- So that's the key to successful natural beekeeping is using local survivor stock, we call that.

- [Charlie] Right.

- [Charlie] Right.

- I'm just thinking differently just by spending time with Les and Natalie.

Working bees slower, working bees in a way that benefits the bees instead of just me.

I've heard it said that natural beekeeping serves the bees, and commercial beekeeping serves the beekeeper.

Is that right?

- That's pretty much it.

- I'm thinking about growing.

They don't use chemicals in their hives.

I have to use all kinds o chemicals to keep my bees alive.

- [Natalie] There you go.

Very good.

- Namaste baby.

(Natalie laughs) - We're gonna go out and build a top bar hive.

All right, I'm hooked.

I'm ready.

- You are, very cool.

- Really got me thinking, a lot more questions than answers today.

(honey dripping) - Okay, so we have some of our top bar hives that are assembled ready for pickup with customers.

We have the basic one -with the strings.

That we were looking at at the teaching apiary.

Then we have the hinged roof.

So just one handed, you can open it up, you can work your bees that way.

And this is for people that want something a little bit more fancy, right?

- Ooh, fancy, fancy.

Okay.

- But that's the principle.

Super simple.

Super cheap.

- Love it.

That's the kind of carpentry I'm good at.

Little super cheap.

(Laughs) - So we're gonna show you how to make those.

- Let's do it.

I like that wood.

That's my kind of wood.

- [Natalie] Yeah it's reclaimed everything.

- Reclaimed, that's great.

- And then we're gonna measure them at 20 inches.

- Okay.

- [Natalie] So we're gonna mark it right here.

- Why the angle?

- To the walls?

- To the walls, okay.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- Oh wow.

- Oh wow, that's amazing.

(slow upbeat rock music) (saw cutting) - You don't mess around.

- No.

- Love it.

(saw cutting) - So now we got our pre sized bars.

We need to rip them in 1 and 3/8s.

- Okay.

(saw whirs) (saw cutting) (slow upbeat rock music ends) And that's all it takes.

- Yeah, and with- - Already got a top bar.

- Reclaimed wood, you ca make a couple bars at the time and they're better insulated.

- The top.

Yep.

(energetic music) - These are 2 by 10s.

We cut three pieces of the same length.

Which is four feet long.

- Okay.

- So the end pieces, same thing, pieces of 2 by 10s.

And we cut a 30 degree angle.

- Okay.

- Basically 235 millimeters.

- What are millimeters?

- They're the only way to measure anything!

- In the United States, Liberia and Burma, we use imperial.

- How do you make divisions and calculations, when you have fractions everywhere?

- Isn't it crazy?

Isn't it crazy (laughs) - Les is that.

- The I'm used to fractions everywhere.

You use millimeters?

- I'm French, so.

- You're French.

So in France they do everything in millimeters, carpentry, everything.

- All metric system.

There's no inches.

- We talked about it in the '70s, it just never happened.

(group laughs) - We're gonna build it upside down.

So you're gonna center it at the edge right there.

This is gonna go with the bevel, the larger one to match your board right here.

And then you're gonna screw it in place.

- Your equipment is way too clean.

It should be covered in honey, and- - Because I don't do removals that much.

Not structural ones anyway.

- Right.

(drill whirs) - You're gonna put a support screw in.

It's pre-measured so you have a little hole over there and you don't drill it in too much, it's just a support.

And you're gonna just sit it on those support screws.

And now we're gonna drive screws in both sides.

(drill whirs) There we go.

Tight, your turn.

- Great.

(drill whirs) - [Natalie] Very good, now we're gonna do the same thing on the other side.

- Sweet.

- Teamwork.

- Love it.

(drill whirs) So it sure kind of beat hours and hours making frames.

- Absolutely.

- Although I kind of like making frames.

Very meditative.

It's very zen.

- When you like the pain, you like the pain.

- When you like... (laughs) Yeah, maybe I do.

(Natalie laughs) Maybe I do.

Look at that.

- There you go.

- So which is the, this is the back of the boat, that's the front, you paddle?

- Yes, it's a canoe.

- Let me guess, 30 degrees.

- Yes, everything is 30 degrees.

- 30 degrees.

30 degrees.

- We keep it simple.

- 30 degrees.

- It's foolproof.

- That doesn't include me, so.

(drill whirs) - One, and two.

(drill whirs) And you're gonna do the same thing with the extra long screws.

- [Charlie] Okay.

(upbeat music) (drill whirs) - [Natalie] Good.

(drill whirs) That's right.

- Boom.

- Boom.

Voila!

- Let's set it up.

- Let's flip it over.

- I feel like Ron Popeil.

(laughs) - We gotta put some bars in there.

- Bars in there.

- We can put the thinner bars or the wider bars.

- Now we just need some bees.

- Now it just, you just need some bees.

And this is your hive, now.

- Get outta here.

No way.

- That is your hive.

- What an awesome day working with these two.

I learned so much.

Yeah.

(laughs) - Yeah.

- That's very nice.

- That was so much fun.

- My first top bar.

That's great I'm gonna give this a try.

They were so kind to give me my own top bar hive, I'm gonna put some bees in there I'm gonna see how it works.

(car door closes) (honey dripping) (slow upbeat rock music) I'm going back to school today.

I'm at UTSA, University of Texas San Antonio.

Can I just pull this and just see if it works?

(laughs) We're gonna be meeting with Dr. Ferhat Ozturk, or as I like to call him Dr. Oz.

This guy is the honey king.

He knows all about honey.

Th medicinal properties of honey.

We're gonna get into the lab, get a little weird science going We're gonna be checking out pipettes and all kinds of equipment and it's gonna be an adventure.

Always learning something new.

(humming "action spy song") (slow upbeat music) (knocking) Dr. Oz!

- Hello?

- How you doing?

- How are you?

- Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

- Good to see you.

Awesome.

This is where it all happens.

- Oh yeah, this is- - This is great.

- The whole lab and everything, yeah.

- Holy smokes.

All this honey, that is really cool.

- Oh yeah.

These are honey from different parts of Texas.

- Wow.

- My name is Ferhat Ozturk.

I'm an assistant professor of practice at the Integrative Biology Department of UTSA, University of Texas at San Antonio.

- So you are doing loads of research just on honey?

- Yes, I do.

Like for the last 10 years.

- Is that the core of everything you do?

- Yes.

Actually I got my PhD in gene therapy.

So what I'm doing is, I'm collecting honey samples from beekeepers and then I'm analyzing their bioactivity potential.

So my research is about which honey can be used for medical purposes So today I will show you a study about the antimicrobial properties of honey.

So how honey suppress the growth of the bacteria or how honey kills the bacteria, especially in the wound areas or other places.

So it's in my lab and I'll share it on.

- Show me the way.

Okay, great.

I'll follow you, awesome.

Going to the lab.

This is cool.

All right.

- Yeah.

(lighthearted music) - [Charlie] All right.

What have we got here?

- These are our honey samples from different parts of Texas that we have collected.

And you can see honey has all these different variety of colors, like from the light, you know, the water white, all the way to dark amber.

People ask, okay, like we will use honey for medical purposes, but which honey to use?

Most of the time.

I say, I mean the darker the color of the honey, the higher the potential, bu it's not always the same case.

- Well people ask me about the health properties of my honey.

And so I just lie to them and I say, it'll make you taller, smarter, more charismatic.

(Ferhat laughs) Just look at me.

And so they oh, so they just buy my honey.

- But there is, that is true to some extent because honey is an anti-aging component.

- I love it.

I love it.

So I can, it's not really a lie.

I love it.

- But yeah, like if you put honey as a mask to your face.

Like about 20, 30 minutes of mask, it will suppress your acne growth, because the bacteria in ther cannot survive with the honey.

- Oh.

- And also the inflammation because of the acne is also suppressed because honey is anti-inflammatory.

So by this way you look younger.

- That's great, and so you're proving this in the lab essentially?

- Yes, in the lab.

But before we touch anything else, because of the biosafety cabinet, everything has to be sterile, goes into it.

So we have to have our gloves on.

- Okay.

- Proper PPE.

- PPE.

I'm all about PPE.

- Yes.

Oh, okay.

(upbeat rock music) - Gloves on.

Ready.

All right.

Good deal.

- Okay.

Let's have a seat here.

- Wow this is like a salad bar.

(laughs) - Oh yeah, it does.

Okay, so I need your help for some of the things.

So this is agar.

- Eh!

- You know agar, right?

- That's me!

Agar.

- Today we're gonna grow the staph aureus.

Have you heard about resistant bacteria, or antimicrobial resistance?

- Mm-hmm.

- This is one of the major diseases that will, is expected to kill more than 10 million people by 2050.

- Wow.

- So it will kill more people than cancer and heart attacks.

- Staph infection.

- Yeah, staph infection.

- Okay.

- Staph aureus.

And now we have medicine resistant staph aureus, which means that the regular antibiotics, they cannot kill it, but honey can kill it.

- [Charlie] Well, we're gonna solve the world's problem, save 50 million people.

- And today we are gonna see how the local honeys can suppress the growth of staph aureus.

So, and then, because we are doing it together, I'm gonna put your name, your initial, and my initial.

- [Charlie] Oh man, I'm a scientist today.

- [Ferhat] C.A., look at you.

- I love it.

- Okay.

So we are gonna grow the bacteria here.

I wanna see how Charlie behaves in the lab as a scientist.

So what we'll do is, can you find out the pipette for hundreds?

So these are micropipettes.

- I remember from high school, never pipette by mouth.

- Yes.

(laughs) - I never, they always said that and I said never worry about that.

- But this one's micropipette, so you cannot pipette these things by mouth.

Look at this, if you assum that you pipette this by mouth- - You die.

(both laughing) - You can say, you gonna suffer.

He had some experience from the high school about the science or lab, but I want to test his skills.

'Cause he's a good bee removal.

He's a professional bee removal.

I mean, from the, you know, top of the houses, or from the top of the trees, he can go up to 40 feet high, but I want to see how he's in the lab.

Okay, so we just put it here and we take it.

Now we are ready to transfer our bacteria.

So this is our vortex, so w just need to mix our bacteria.

- Gonna spin it.

Oh wow.

- Yeah.

This is vortex.

- That's like a cocktail mixer.

- We work in the lab that's microbiology, so we need to measure microliters.

So very small amounts of, you know, liquids.

And also we need to work o the bacteria in a safe manner.

- [Charlie] I like my bacteria shaken, not stirred.

(Ferhat laughs) - Not stirred.

Okay.

- You're working with me.

- If you go to the bar.

Okay.

So do you wanna try this?

- Sure.

- I want to see his potential to become a microbiology or like honey scientist.

Okay, go ahead and take the pipette.

- Here?

- And push one.

Level one.

- Once I'm in or after?

- No, no, before you go in.

- Oh, before.

- Push one.

- One.

- Okay.

Go in, go deep.

Release it.

There you go, you got 100 microliters.

See you have a microliter thing.

Okay don't, yeah, don't put it upside down.

I want you transfer it to here, to the center please.

Push all the way down.

- The one and two?

- Yeah, go down, yeah.

There you go.

- Right there?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- Now this is the fun part.

We are gonna have some whirling.

- Spin this - We're gonna spin this, yeah.

So this is our cell spreader, so we need to spread all the bacteria and you can keep spinning if you want, go up and down.

There you go, make sure that it rise up, once it's spinning, keep going.

- That's cool.

Like making a crepe.

- Yep.

(laughs) Okay.

I think we are good.

Now we have the bacteria on the agar, so it will grow, but we want it to grow with honey.

So what we do is, this is a metal bore, we will make some wells and we put the honey into those wells.

- Yeah.

- So you can just again, make a bore here, like a well here.

- Okay.

Here.

- Yeah, that looks good.

Okay.

Okay.

- And here?

- Yes.

Okay.

And then one more.

There you go, and those holes or those wells, will be for honey.

So I'm gonna use one dark honey.

- Okay, I'll grab that.

- And then, one little bit lighter honey.

- Okay.

- One Argentine honey.

- Nice.

- And let's say this is the Walker honey.

like the Walker- - Walker honey, all right!

Good Texas honey.

- So this is the buckwheat honey from them.

- Right.

- Because we have four holes, we can use these four different honeys.

Now let's move them in.

(popping) (lighthearted music) Just drop it into the well.

Okay, there you go.

Now you wanna go with the leatherwood.

- Sure.

- Okay.

Just get a little bit and then drop it there.

Again, this is by experience you get, oh.

- Oops.

(Ferhat laughs) I got a little on the outside, does that mess it up?

- No, I don't think so.

I mean, it's very little amount.

I don't think it will cramp the growth.

- This is Walker.

- Yes.

- Our good friends near Waco.

Right here?

- Mm-hmm.

- Everything you do is so precise.

Small, like a scientist.

- Yeah.

- Think that's it.

- Okay.

So now we close it.

- Okay.

That's so cool.

- So look at these nice colors.

- That is, love 'em.

So we put them in incubator or?

- Yes.

- Oh, okay cool.

- Oh, cool.

You know that thing.

- We're going to incubate, love - Now this is the final version.

So you can see the different colors of honey.

- That looks good.

- Little bit extra here.

- Oops, yep.

- [Ferhat] This is good enough.

Yep.

There you go.

- Ooh.

- [Ferhat] And you put it anywhere you want.

- [Charlie] It feels like my body temperature.

- Yeah, it does.

- Okay.

- [Ferhat] So tomorrow morning we will check it out.

If honey has suppressed their growth.

But do you wanna see some that already worked?

- Sure.

So this, these are clear.

- Mm-hmm.

- [Charlie] This has a ring, like a dark ring.

- Oh yeah, this is called zone of inhibition.

So the bacteria are inhibited, in this zone they cnat come in.

- And there's a larger ring around here.

- Yes and because there was honey here.

- I see.

- This is 100% honey.

This is 50% honey, 40%, 20% goes on.

- Okay.

- [Ferhat] So this is, what you're gonna see- - So you're proving that it's working.

- Yeah, this is a proof that honey suppress or inhibits the growth of staph aureus.

- That is so cool.

- Yeah.

Now you're a scientist.

- Now I'm a scientist.

Now we're like, I feel like we're on the forefront of, you know, using our product.

I mean, the honey as we know, it tastes good.

We know.

And there's, you know, people talk a lot about the the health properties of honey.

- Yeah, now we're showing it.

This is evidence-based, you know, honey research, so.

- Wow, who knew that honey had the potential to literally save lives someday.

You need to start producing honey, right?

- Yes, we need the bees all the time.

- All right.

- Yes.

Without the bees.

No honey.

- We've talked with our friends, Natalie and Les.

So we're gonna bring you some bees, so maybe we can get out into bees and learn some bees.

- Wow, I'm so excited.

- That's so awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- Appreciate it.

(scribbling) (upbeat music) I rescued bees in a birdhouse that are just itching to get into my new top bar hive.

So Natalie and Les are giving me a crash course on how to set one up.

- Awesome, so maybe we'll show you a little bit how we put our rescue bars together and then we can tackle the birdhouse.

- And we'll do some zen mindful beekeeping things.

(Charlie laughs) - Well, I like that.

- I used to do tai chi, so that's good, okay.

- Well, great.

All right, let's get after it.

(energetic music) Oh, so I've set us up in a little shade this morning.

I hope that's a good spot.

- That's a great spot.

- [Charlie] Okay, cool, awesome.

- [Natalie] What a cute little birdhouse.

- Little birdhouse.

It's got not a big hive.

- That's okay.

- It's a little colony.

- And we brought some comb by the way.

- I'm gonna pick this up.

I'll pick this up, oh you brought some comb, okay.

I've got a little bit of comb as well, so.

There's that.

- Particle board, yeah.

- I think so.

- [Natalie] Okay.

- [Charlie] We can do that.

(energetic music) (drill whirs) I'll put this on.

- Just in case.

- Yeah, I don't need to get stung.

- Were re-watching the first episode and you are getting stung quite a bit.

- If I were smart, I would probably be a dentist.

(Natalie laughs) - [Charlie] Little wasp nest.

I don't think anybody's home.

- [Natalie] There you go.

- [Charlie] That's a nice little hive, some bees.

- [Natalie] It's got some.

- [Charlie] I see three combs.

- [Natalie] I brought also one of these.

- [Charlie] Oh, nice.

Very cool.

- So this is the rescue bar.

So you just bend it like that.

- So I just stapled the piece of wire that I cut.

- I see, I see.

- So it makes teeth.

Because then you just kind of bend it vertical.

- Okay.

- And then you push all the teeth, another 90 degree - Nice.

- So you have that.

Do you wanna try?

- Sure.

Yeah.

Bending the teeth.

Boom.

- Yeah.

- Boom.

- Super easy.

- Boom.

When was my last tetanus shot?

Oh, I don't know.

(Natalie laughs) Well, that's great.

- It works really well.

- So that's ready to- - For Les.

- That's ready for Les.

- I think so, right?

(Natalie laughs) - [Charlie] Let's get on with it We need a bigger space.

- Thank you.

And you can't do that with honey - Right, honey's too brittle.

- [Natalie] You set up your little table here, you make sure there's no queen on one end.

- Okay.

- Push it in.

- Push it in like that.

- Right.

So you basically skewer it on there, and now you have that comb.

- There's larva in there?

- Yeah.

You wanna see?

- [Charlie] Cool.

- So it's a little tall.

- Okay.

- [Natalie] If I can borrow somebody's hive tool, I'll just cut the bottom of it just a little bit trim.

- Okay.

- So.

- [Charlie] Do they ever secure it to the bottom?

- Sometimes if the comb is too long and you push it in.

It will, they will attach it.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Do you wanna try hanging the comb on it?

- Sure.

- That's a donation comb.

- Oh, you're kind.

- From another colony.

- That's great.

That's great.

Thank you.

That'll really encourage them, right?

They've got that space.

So I just take this all the way up to the bar?

- That's right.

Yep.

- And then I just fork it right in.

- Yeah you fill where the prongs are and, yep.

- That's awesome.

- That's it.

- Money.

Woo.

And then that goes right in there.

- [Natalie] Yeah.

- We've loaded the comb into the top bar.

Now it's time to add the bees, but first we gotta find the queen.

Do you see big mama?

- [Natalie] I got a queen clip too.

- [Charlie] Let the queen find the queen.

- [Natalie] Yeah, well I'll kind of lift up and if she's in there, then I've got her in the clip.

- [Charlie] Scooping bees!

- [Natalie] The gentlest way to get the bees in the hive.

- So typically with the way old Charlie does it, is take the bee bag and dump bees, I really like this method, it's more gentle, and mindful, and thoughtful of kind of scooping the bees and introducing them an looking for the queen as we go.

- [Natalie] No queen yet.

- Yeah, pretty much.

(Natalie laughs) - There she is.

- Oh, you got her?

- [Charlie] Do you wanna put her in a clip or should we just?

- [Natalie] Whatcha think?

- [Natalie] In the hive?

- [Charlie] Oh good, we're gonna do it Charlie style, that's good.

(Natalie chuckles) - You get practice with shaking bees.

- Shake, shake, shake.

It's like Jenga.

(laughs) - [Natalie] They're looking for the entrance, so what I would do, is I would give them a little opening.

- [Charlie] Okay.

- [Natalie] Do we have a stick or something?

There we go.

- [Charlie] Oh there, they're fanning right there.

Cool beans.

Y'all.

That's great.

- That's what's really cool, when you look from here, they're all kind of lik facing the entrance of the hive and just kind of coming in.

- They're coming in.

This is great.

And then we just put the tin on now or?

- Yep.

- I love it.

All right, we gotta selfie this out, my first top bar.

Yay!

I'm a top bar beekeeper now!

I shouldn't say it that loud.

I should say it more mind- - I'm a top bar beekeeper.

- I am a top bar, calm, non-neurotic, beekeeper.

Easy and intuitive.

Can't believe I waited this long to give top bar a shot.

(popping) (energetic music) Al and I are on our way to San Antonio to a STEM Fair.

We're going to preach the gospel of the bees.

We brought some authentic beekeeper filth with us too.

(laughing) (popping) We just really like to share what we know about bees.

And I just love seeing people say, "Oh wow, this is a thing."

Getting people to think about bees and beekeeping as a career, as an industry, but also just as an important piece of the big picture of our environment, of our ecosystem.

Ah, bees!

- The males don't do any work.

- They don't do work.

- No just the female worker bees When they get 21 days old, they start to chew their way out.

- That's so crazy, I didn't know that.

- [Charlie] And you know what the first thing she does is?

She turns around and she goe back into her room and cleans.

- Wow.

- Just like your parents would probably want you to do.

(parents laughing) - Yes.

- [Charlie] So bees go out of the hive and they go to, what do bees look for when they go out of the hive?

- Nectar.

- Oh my goodness.

You know your bees.

- All right.

- So where does nectar come from?

Nectar comes from?

- Flowers.

- Flowers!

Oh my goodness.

You know your business.

So they go to the flower, they get nectar, they get pollen.

They also go and get water to manage their hive.

And then they make?

- Honey!

- Honey, dude, nice!

- All right.

We're just having a heck of a good time.

We just love talking bees all day.

I'm amazed how smart the kids are.

What they know about bees and they're 5 and 8 years old.

And they're just, they're telling us what bees do and what they're for.

- Ah!

- [Al] They sting you?

(laughing) - When they sting you, they die.

So they don't want to sting you.

This is Betty Bee.

She's very sweet.

She's very sweet.

She's well trained.

I've trained her.

How fun was that?

Seeing those light bulbs go off in people.

Hey man, bees do this and we need 'em and they're great.

And it's a real feel good.

It's a real, really lifts me up.

(honey dripping) All right, schools out.

We're gonna rescue some bees for UTSA's critically important honey research.

We got bees in a tree.

We got a bee situation.

We need to help this family out.

They got a huge open air hive here in San Antonio.

We have a giant lift.

(energetic rock music) Brakes.

Beautiful.

We're going to get underneath it and take this beautiful hive apart.

I got good assistants, Dr. Ozturk and Natalie.

Oh, are you ready to get after it?

- Oh yeah, I'm so excited.

- Always ready.

- You've done bee removal?

- I have.

- And this is your first time doing bee removal?

- Yes.

- I'm gonna teach Dr. Oz a little bit about bee removal.

And these are gonna be your bees.

- Yes, we'll have them in our apiary.

- So rescue bees out of the tree and then they're going t University of Texas, San Antonio We are pumped.

These bees are going to college.

It's a good size open air hive.

Take it apart real slowly.

I might just vacuum her up, that sometimes happens.

Gonna try to find the queen.

- Save the bees, people!

- Save the bees.

- All right, boom, wonder twin powers activate.

- Boom.

- Woo!

(upbeat music) - I don't have any experience with the bee removal, so this will be my first time.

- I'm gonna put the smoker on your side.

- And then this is?

- Then let's put this- - On back?

- On the outside.

We'll do this.

- To be honest, I am like nervous if these bees are already established here, so will they be more defensive of their house?

You're gonna remove the limbs with the saw.

- Chainsaw.

- Do you think it will disturb them?

- Yeah.

- Make them agitated a little bit?

I think the challenge will be like the height of the hive, but we are saved by this giant lift.

(engine dying) - Oops.

I'm a professional.

I know how to do these things really well.

Up.

Bye.

(laughing) Oh you all right?

Sorry.

Just like riding a bicycle.

All right, I'm gonna cut some limbs.

- You are a fast driver.

- I am.

Once I figure it out.

- Should I start smoking?

- Give it a little puff.

We need to cut away the branches to get close enough to the hive.

Taking comb down one by one is the best option for finding our queen, and preserving the comb for the top bar.

Chainsaw 30 feet off the ground with a bunch of feral bees?

Just another Tuesday.

(chainsaw cutting) All right, so I'll put my veil o Immediately, these bees start zapping me right in the face.

Let's see what we got.

A lot of bees, so.

- [Ferhat] Lots of drones.

I can see that.

- [Charlie] If we find the queen then we'll just vac up the rest of the bees.

So that's my goal here, is to try and find that queen.

Oop.

Oh!

While we're all thumbs here, Natalie is prepping the top bar hive.

- I gotta get those bars ready, and this while they're doing that, I keep myself busy.

And then the problem is that your fingers hurt after you're done with this.

This is one that's been used, and you can clean it off, and just kind of reuse it, so that's the best part is that you can keep using it.

Basically this is thinner, shallower, because this got cut in half, because wood got so expensive.

But really this is better because it's more insulated above the comb, right?

So they overwinter better in this.

So we're gonna have these for the rescue, but if people can get these, that's better.

- [Charlie] You can be the vac man, just look for that queen.

Whoever finds the queen gets a free lunch.

- [Natalie] Well that's not fair.

I'm down here.

- [Charlie] We'll get you up here, Natalie.

- [Natalie] (laughs) I want free lunch.

- [Charlie] There, I'm gonna go ahead and take this next one down.

Definitely a lot of honey.

See, and we're also not where the queen's gonna be, right?

So the queen does not spend time in the pantry or the kitchen, she's with the babies.

- But they have drone combs, right?

- [Charlie] Yeah, that's drone comb for sure, yeah.

Okay, I'm gonna take this whole, right here.

(upbeat music) Oh, now we're in brood.

- Ready?

- Yep.

- So going as deep as possible, so to clean up.

- Now look at that larva.

Lots of larva.

These are good for Natalie.

- For rescue bars.

- [Charlie] For rescue bars.

I love seeing hives like this.

It teaches me as a beekeeper what to do in my colonies, 'cause we're really just trying to replicate what they do in the hive.

We got some good brood comb.

- I see that.

- [Charlie] But I think we've got a swarm forming up here, it looks like.

And I think we might try to shake that into that tote.

- [Ferhat] Oh, look at this beautiful white one.

- [Charlie] Yeah, I'm really thinking we're gonna get this comb off and then just do big old shake here in a second.

Shake all the bees, oh.

- Oh.

Maybe the queen?

- Maybe the queen.

(dramatic music) - [Charlie] Okay, let's have this ready.

- They're moving to that direction.

Oh, nope, she's not.

The drone.

- [Charlie] Why don't we do a big shake?

I'm going to put my hood on.

- [Ferhat] Ready for the big shake.

- [Charlie] Ready?

Okay.

♪ Queen finding ♪ Where is she?

Come on big lady.

And boom!

There she is.

Oh, I see her.

- [Ferhat] Really?

- [Charlie] Hold the tote for me Just like that.

(dramatic music intensifies) There she is.

We got the queen!

- [Ferhat] Long live queen!

- We got the queen.

We got the hive.

(Natalie speaking in foreign language) - [Ferhat] Yay!

I saved the most number of bees.

- Nice.

That's your brood comb.

You wanna come up?

Okay.

Okay.

You're limber.

Oh my goodness, like a ballerina.

I think I'm just gonna cut the whole thing off.

- So that they don't come back?

- Yeah, that's what I'm thinking (lift raising) - [Ferhat] Very good.

Woohoo!

Now we have the moisture is adjusted to 16 to 17% and they cap it afterwards and they store it for a long tim Uh-oh.

- Ah, finally.

I got stung by a bee.

So I removed this sting right away, and I put, I made some mud from the dirt wherever I am, so the mud is helping.

So it's suppress the inflammation and the pain because of the sting goes away very quickly.

So right now I don't feel the pain, almost none.

It hurt at first when I got stun - [Natalie] Oh, we're gonna switch.

Okay.

- You can sneak back, sneak past the fat guy.

- Ooh, I just got stung on the belly because of it, squeezed the bee.

- [Ferhat] You okay?

- Squeezed the bee on my belly!

(chainsaw whirs) (chainsaw cutting) (energetic music) - [Natalie] Hey!

- [Charlie] I think we're good.

- [Natalie] This is like the rides at the carnival.

- [Charlie] Oh, we made that look easy.

You got it?

- Yeah.

That's all the comb?

Did you put it all in?

- [Ferhat] Yes, four of them.

- [Natalie] That's great, I'll give you A plus.

- [Ferhat] Oh!

(laughs) - Looking good guys!

All right, we got those bees.

That was great.

- We sure did.

- I'm gonna load up the trailer, we're gonna head to UTSA, we got the address.

You've got all the bees, and then we will caravan there, and then we're in your hands.

Onto the university and a new home for these pretty girls.

Wow, we got a lot of bees there for sure.

- There's quite a few bees.

- Yeah.

So they're like, "Look at this place, it smells great!

We wanna move in!"

Look at 'em, running in.

These bees are fanning an saying, "Come here, come here!

This is where you should live."

It's been so cool to slow down and take a more meditative approach to beekeeping.

- Hello lady.

(upbeat music) There she is.

She went in.

- There's something to be said for taking your time with these amazing creatures.

- That's it.

- That's fancy.

Not only did we save some bees, we learned how bees and honey can save us someday.

That was like a natural fit to go from those lobes of comb that fit perfectly in the hive.

We had the queen.

That was great - It worked out beautifully.

- Today we saved some bees, the organic beekeeping way, And with a new beehive here, we are so excited.

- [Charlie] I love how bees have the ability to bring people together.

What a day, that was awesome.

- [Natalie] That was awesome.

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