Theresa Edwards and Auva Saghafi suit up to protect themselves when handling the beehives .
Bee Haven
JEFF EDWARDSBee Haven
Dressed in a white protective suit from head to toe , Jeff Edwards smokes the beehive to calm the bees before his wife , Theresa Edwards , opens it up to check on the honey . “ All the honeybees that you see out on all the flowers are female ,” she explains . These are called workers , and they collect pollen and nectar from the flowers . The drones , which are male , are responsible for mating with the queen , and if the males don ’ t mate , the other bees will either kill or starve them to death , she says . “ When I see a little honeybee out there on a flower , I say , ‘ You go , girl !’” Theresa says .
18 July 2021
A College Station couple makes bees their business By AUVA SAGHAFI
The couple hadn ’ t planned on keeping bees when they moved to College Station in 2011 . But after acquiring eight additional acres of land in their backyard that was previously owned by a beekeeper , Jeff suggested they start beekeeping themselves . “ I wasn ’ t a big fan at first ,” Theresa says . “ I don ’ t like things flying around my head .” Now she is the primary beekeeper , she says . “ My bees love me ,” she says . “ When you ’ re working around bees , you have to go slow , methodical , and be kind of gentle .” HoneyPotDoc began in 2018 with a couple hives . Then , as the Edwards settled into it , they began to increase the number of their hives and now have 11 . “ Then we started getting all the honey , and wondered , What do we do now ?” Theresa says . They had so much honey , they didn ’ t know what to do with it . “ That ’ s when we started going to The Stella at The Local . Then we just gathered a reputation from repeat customers .” Now , HoneyPotDoc will still sell at The Local on occasion ; however , they more often offer pickups from their home .
Jeff , a licensed veterinarian and the chief of anatomic pathology at Antech Diagnostics , cares for the bees when