SAN ANTONIO — Some tips that entomologist Molly Keck recently gave 26 aspiring beekeepers: Beetles might eat the pollen patties meant to feed their bees. Bees might get cranky when it's overcast. If people drive too long with bees that aren't properly sealed, the bees might escape into the car.
A student giggled nervously. Keck, 42, has tight, blonde curls and an upbeat personality and works for the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in San Antonio. She started teaching Beekeeping 101 around a dozen years ago — when a new Texas law made it possible for people with relatively small tracts of land to get big property tax cuts if they keep bees.
After that, interest in beekeeping "really kind of exploded," Keck said. The Texas beekeeping boom was the result of a chance meeting between a hobbyist beekeeper and a legislative aide for a rookie state lawmaker. That conversation led to the "bee bill," which in 2012 created the tax break that sent landowners scrambling to beekeeping classes like Keck's.
The bill garnered limited attention at the time, as lawmakers in Austin were having higher-profile fights over state budget cuts, abortion laws and immigration policies. But it shows how with an interested lawmaker and the right support, a regular person can on occasion influence major change in the Capitol on an issue they care about. "This has changed everything from a business perspective because now we have people calling us all the time, like, 'Hey, want to put bees on our l.