Barbara Domel likes having gentler bees, especially around her grandson, Jack, who enjoys helping her with them.
By Maggie Malson
Operating under the philosophy that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, Mike and Barbara Domel, Meridian, created a diversified agriculture business providing income, friendships and recreational fun.
The couple owns and operates Meridian Livestock Auction and Double Creek Farms. They rank in the top 10 annually for Angus registrations in Texas. Barbara also has honeybees.
“Thinking back to our childhood, our parents had a job in town, then farmed or ranched,” Mike Domel says. “We raised hogs, chickens, and cattle. My dad did carpentry work — anything to put food on the table.
“If you put all your eggs in one basket and it falls, then you’re sunk,” he adds. “We have the sale barn, which complements the Angus business. Barbara has her honeybees.”
Eight years ago, Barbara read about the declining bee population and the importance of bees as pollinators. “We all need to be raising bees was my opinion!” Barbara Domel says with a smile.
Mike’s family raised bees when he was a young man, so he encouraged Barbara to get some.
“The first time she harvested her hives, she had a mess,” he chuckles. “Honey was all over the kitchen and everywhere else. A guy told me I had $960 worth of honey there, but I said we’ll make more money giving it away!”
The couple gives honey to friends, family and customers. “It’s more of a hobby at this time,” Mike says. “We don’t take many vacations so this is a fun sideline.”
Learning about bees
Barbara started beekeeping by visiting with a local beekeeper. She purchased 2 hives and has gradually built up to 20 active hives, with 12 more coming this spring. She buys bees from a bee farm in East Texas.
“We have a blast with the bees,” she says. “I’m an amateur beekeeper, and I really love it.”
Barbara spent time online researching bees and beekeeping, reading literature on bees, talking to other beekeepers, and joining local bee associations.
“There are many sources of information, and some of it is just learning by trial and error,” she says.
Barbara offers a few tips to others wanting to get started. She recommends reading The Beekeeper’s Handbook. She also suggests working with an experienced beekeeper.
“We have mites and other pests that get into bees and you need someone knowledgeable about bees to help get rid of the pests,” she adds.
In addition, Barbara says you need some basic equipment to start, including a bee suit and a smoker.
“You also need to know where you’re getting your bees and what breed of bees you want,” she says. “Get basic bee knowledge and get involved locally with people who are already working with bees.”
Benefits of honeybees
These black-and-yellow striped insects help pollinate flowering vegetables, including cucumbers, squash and tomatoes and flowering crops, like alfalfa.
Honey is used as a natural sweetener, as well as for baking and cooking. Honey also provides health benefits.
“A few individuals around here cannot take any medication, and one of them has found that local honey from our hives has helped with her health,” Mike says. “Local honey has been known to help with allergies, too.”
The couple owns and leases property all across Bosque County in south central Texas.
Several of their landlords like bees on their places.
“I’ve got bees from one end of the county to the other,” Barbara says.
“The productivity you get is higher when you have bees around,” Mike adds. “We’ve had alfalfa, sunflowers and sweet corn. The bees love the sweet corn.”
Mike serves on the local appraisal board and says bees qualify for agricultural use. People have contacted the Domels because they have some ranch land that won’t work for cattle, but they want it for agriculture use.
“I’m currently working with a gentleman to put bees on his property,” Barbara says.
She explains that bees are like any kind of livestock. They require attention.
“You can’t put them out there and forget about them, or you probably won’t have any bees left,” she says. “You have to take care of them.”
Mikes points out a similarity between bees and cattle: genetics.
“It’s amazing how much the genetics are involved,” he says. “It’s just like breeding cattle. If you want bees to be aggressive and be good foragers, you can go with that kind. If you want a real gentle bee, you can get a different kind of queen.”
One of the genetic benefits the couple has realized is that when a queen goes out to mate, she mates with whatever bee comes along.
“The domestic bees are mating with Africanized bees and making them not as bad,” Mike explains. “Traditionally, the Africanized bees are very aggressive. Mating has calmed those bees down. You can also ‘requeen’ hives and get a lot of the meanness out of bees, but they are still energetic harvesters.”
Mike points out that when bees are out foraging, they usually won’t bother people. They are too busy trying to get nectar. Barbara likes having gentler bees, especially around her grandson, who enjoys helping her with them.
Harvesting honey
Harvest time depends on the weather and the honey flow.
“The honey flow is when there are a lot of flowers and plants blooming, and the bees are making honey,” Mike says.
“Dry weather can mean no flowers and a very poor honey flow,” Barbara adds. “Every year varies.”
Some professionals start early and may harvest 10 times per year, but Barbara harvests her honey twice, once in the summer and once in the fall.
“When I harvest my honey, I’ll keep it separate versus mixing it all together from the different hives,” she says. I have the alfalfa honey separate from the wildflowers honey. The fall honey has a darker, heavier flavor.”
Mesquite honey was lightest she’d ever had.
“When I give honey away, some people have a definite preference,” she says. “Some prefer light. Others like the darker honey.”
Barbara uses foundation frames and the bees make comb and honey on the wooden frames. In the summer she checks to make sure the honey is capped, meaning most of the frame is filled and covered in beeswax.
“The frame has to be 95 percent capped for honey to have the right moisture content,” she explains.
She uses a hot knife or another tool to scrape the wax cap off the comb then puts the frame in an extractor, which spins and forces the honey out.
“Once that is done, it’s put through filters and strained,” she says. “Then you have the raw honey.”
Friendships and fun
“The bees have been a lot of fun,” Barbara says. “When you mention bees, it leads to many conversations. People want to know more about them.”
“We’ve worked in the cattle industry our whole lives,” says Mike, who took out his first cattle loan at the age of 10. His great uncle lent him $600 to buy cows. He also began buying nurse calves for his family when he was still in high school. He put himself through college working sales and purchased the livestock auction 32 years ago.
“The bees are just another part of agriculture,” he adds. “We’re in the Angus business, so when you go into the Texas Angus Association, you make new friends. Here at the sale barn, people come in and visit, whether they are buying cattle or not. We’ve also met many new friends who are also beekeepers. It’s like 3 different extended families.”
The couple stays busy, spending long-hour days at the auction yard and managing their cow herd with their son, Matthew. In addition to their market sale every Tuesday, they have also started special roping cattle sales 4 times a year.
“The bees have been fun and give us a break in the day,” Mike says. “It’s kind of recreational to go check your bees, walk by the hives and see what they are doing.” ❚
“What’s The Buzz?” is excerpted from the April 2017 issue of The Cattleman magazine.