Hello neighbors! My name is Shawn Massirer and I have been a Twin Rivers resident since 2015. In 2020, I convinced my friend, Evan Taddia, and his family to move from Dripping Springs, Texas to Twin Rivers. Evan had been raising bees on his homestead near Austin but didn’t have a place to keep them in Waco. Fortunately, we were able to relocate the bees to some family land near Crawford, Texas and continue building the bee empire Evan had started. Our beekeeping business is called “Rebel Rose Honey + Supply” so give us a follow on social media.

I have a lot of hobbies so when the opportunity arose to learn about bees, I was instantly intrigued. Evan knew the basics of beekeeping and from there we have expanded on our knowledge about bees and the “rabbit hole” that is beekeeping. We have grown our bees using simple tricks like “walk-away” splits, raising our own queen bees, as well as removing bees from water meter boxes, trees, home attics, and second story balconies. We even removed some bees for our own HOA! All of these bees were taken to our apiary so they can continue to live and thrive. Additionally, bees can be used for agricultural tax exemption which I love because I hate fixing fences because of dumb cows.

The main job of a beekeeper is to see to the well being and growth of their bees throughout the year. Just like traditional farming we have certain tasks that must be done at specific times of the year. A couple of the more important times are early Spring when we set up the hives for the coming Spring flower bloom and Honey harvest where we pull boxes of honey off the hives and get them ready for the Summer “dearth.” We also perform periodic inspections throughout the year to make sure there are no signs of disease or other distress and add supplemental feed as needed when it’s not Honey season.

Bees are essential pollinators and are credited with pollinating 90% of the world’s flowers with one third of food production being dependent on bees. In addition to being a critical part of our food supply bees also provide other products like wax, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly. Bees have been used for homeopathic medicine using bee stings like acupuncture and breathing therapy. They have even been used in war being slung by catapults to harass troop formations.  

Yes, we do sell local honey and creamed honey at The Collective which is located next to Shipleys at 8810 Woodway Dr. Waco, Texas 76712