TLC Bees
Small business documentary

Beekeeping was supposed to stay a hobby for Tamara Carroll. Pollen Pants, our documentary about TLC Bees, the San Antonio small business she owns and founded, lets her tell how it became more. The full version runs seven minutes, and a two-minute excerpt is here as well.

She started with one hive and grew to 34. With only a few hives and years of drought, she wasn’t getting much honey. So she began leasing hives to people who needed bees on their property. In Texas, honeybees count as livestock, which can lower the property tax on 5- to 20-acre properties.

The film doesn’t hide the work: boxes of 50 pounds or more and summer inspections in a bee suit at 100 to 105 degrees. There are 40,000 to 60,000 bees around you, which is why Tamara counts on her beekeeping partner, who is also her best friend. She loves teaching, especially answering kids’ questions, and ends with a request: plant pollinator-friendly flowers and skip pesticides and herbicides. If you own a small business, this is the kind of documentary we make.