Regional Beekeepers Spring 2026: Honey Flows, Varroa, and What’s Working (387)

WEBVTT

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I live

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Oscar Villa

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, vivo in Chicago, Illinois.

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My name is Oscar Villa, I live in Chicago.

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Welcome to

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Bekeeping Today Podcast.

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Welcome to Beekeeping Today podcast presented by Better

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Bee, your

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source for beekeeping news, information, and entertainment.

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I'm Jeff Ott.

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And I'm Becky Masterman.

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Today's episode is brought to you by the Bee Nutrition superheroes at Global Pad.

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Be sure to check out

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com.

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Gracias, Oscar, for that wonderful opening.

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Captured at the Midwest Honey Bee Expo

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this last

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when

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was it, Becky?

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Was it February or was it January?

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It was the Midwest Honey Bee Expo.

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Midwest Honey Bee Expo.

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Oh yes, because it was Midwest.

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Oscar, I wish we had that whole conversation we had with Oscar.

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I wish we had recorded it

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because he has got quite a story about his beekeeping business.

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We'll invite 'em on talking about business of bees.

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And speaking of business of bees, we are delighted to bring you our regular

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Regional beekeepers from around the country.

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We've tried to get a good selection of beekeepers

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so we have representatives of all the different regions.

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And

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I am

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going

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to

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go

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around

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the table and just by

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alphabetically, just

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Beekeepers, just

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introduce yourself.

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And for our new listeners

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and our listeners who've listened to us for the last couple of years, they already know you.

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So

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Ang, we'll start with you.

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Hey

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y'all, my name is Ange.

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I run a beekeeping business called Baiket

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Bees

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and we are a 300

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hive

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operation.

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For the last several years we've been our migratory operation producing queens

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and honey and beeswax products.

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We're actually making a big transition this year to being stationary in the northeast.

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And so that has come with

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Many winter tasks.

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But yeah, the season is about to kick out up here

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and we are slowly, slowly getting ready

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And Bonnie.

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My name is Bonnie Morse.

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I am just north of San Francisco in California.

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We help manage about 350 colonies.

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We do a lot of consulting,

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a lot of classes for newer

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beekeepers.

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private lessons

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and hive

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management.

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Our season has already been going.

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It starts.

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Our season is really February to early June.

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So we are in the middle of it right now.

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Dwayne.

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Hi, Dwayne Combs, owner of Arizona Beekeepers LLC.

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We do bees year-round here.

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We sell nucs, we're selling more honey, and it's good to be here

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And let's see who we have, Jay.

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hey, Jay Williams.

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I run the pollination program

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at a farm-based resort called South Hall Farms, just south of Nashville, Tennessee.

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Manage a couple hundred hives

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and we are heavily involved in beekeeping experiences for people, honey

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tastings

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and the like.

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Aside from the honey flow, this is my favorite time of year when I get to jump on the

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Keeping Today

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podcast and talk to you all about bees

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And I'm grateful that you're allowing me to yap on and on year after year and keep on doing this.

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And I'm still welcome at the table.

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So

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thank you

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Well thank you for joining us, Jay.

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And

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Paul.

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Hi.

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My name's Paul Longwell.

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I'm in the Pacific Northwest.

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I'm just a hobby beekeeper

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and ready to deal with overwintered hives this year, which was

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It

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plus

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for me.

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Excellent.

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Well, thank you everybody for joining.

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For our new listeners

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who are new this year.

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This group of beekeepers have been getting together, I think, for the last two and a half, last three years, twice a year, to discuss what's going on in their particular region, their challenges, what's going well, what's going bad

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And it's a way for beekeepers to hear

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other beekeepers what they're dealing with and how they're solutioning them

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and share their information for with everybody.

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So

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This has always been fun

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and

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even entertaining at times.

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So let's open it up to a quick

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just a general question and just we're sitting.

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the first half of 2026, how's the beginning of the season been for you?

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Someone jump in there and state your name and then we'll jump in there.

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Oh this is Dwayne.

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Okay, Bobby, go ahead.

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Ladies first, Dwayne.

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This starts already.

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There we go.

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I have sinned and I repent.

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It's been an interesting year because our rain has been so

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it's been warm, not as much rain, lots of colonies building up.

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Usually this would be swarming happening everywhere.

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In a turn this year, we're seeing more mite and disease problems, which is kind of even though they're big colonies, it's slowed them down a little bit

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population wise.

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They're making lots of honey, which in our area we're not really a honey area, so it's been great to see.

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And it's also great that, you know, we're getting in there and treating, but they're not swarming.

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So it's it's been pretty good so far

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Bunny, do you know what honey they're making?

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You know, our county

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there are so many microclimates.

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Like the honey is different from like mile to mile.

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So it really depends.

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In some areas they can do eucalyptus

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We have this one little island where

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invasive Echium they build a lot of comb on and actually can make

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it's probably the only true varietal we can get here in Moran.

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In other areas

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it's manzanita they get a lot of

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right now.

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So it's it's really all over the board and if we harvest honey like in the same week in the spring, it'll range from like almost translucent in the south of our county and 15 miles north, it looks like molasses

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So it's really all over the place.

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All right, Dwayne, your turn, buddy.

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All right.

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I am so excited.

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We've had

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the wettest

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years

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since the 80s.

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And if you give me rain in the desert, I will give you honey.

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Wait, did you take Bonnie's rain in California?

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I think he did.

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Is that is that what it means?

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But we don't care

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Because we are loving it.

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I'm happy in an average year for 30 pounds of honey a hive, and

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right now

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we're running 110 pounds per hot

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Wow.

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Oh

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my gosh.

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I have a new problem

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selling

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honey.

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So and I'll talk more about that later.

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Jay, you look

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like you're gonna

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say something here.

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So

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I feel like

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hopefully no one turns back the the dial and like listens to me two years ago, but I feel like it's very similar.

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what's what's happening right now.

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We were

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we got hit with a terrible ice storm in the southeast, end of February, early March, knocked out tons of trees, really set us back.

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And then, you know, March kind of did the March thing.

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And we went from first gear to like we're in fifth gear right now.

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The black locus is on full

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bore.

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The red

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bud

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came and went really fast.

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The catalpa

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seems like it's lining up really well.

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Clover

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is coming on like clover

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does.

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So it's really exciting time.

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What is the interesting thing about this year

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is that

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We are not getting the most amazing starts.

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In other words, our virgins were late late to the game because it was so cold, so we really couldn't raise a ton of virgins.

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So now we're actually a little bit later to the game of making our splits than normal

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And where I think that's going to impact our our local beekeepers is that a lot of the younger hives are not going to make honey this year.

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It's not going to happen.

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You can already you can already tell, you know that.

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And so our overwintered our strong ones are gonna do what they do, but there's no extra bonus that you're gonna get this year, I guess is my point.

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And I do worry about some of the younger beekeepers who overwintered their first or second years because it was really tough

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Our mic counts were a lot higher.

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Again, the winter is pretty rough.

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So if they

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made it to this point right now, I think they're gonna be rock stars.

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But but it's definitely

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it was a tough winner as winner scope.

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Paul, how about you?

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It's been a real

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mild

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northwest winter this year, which was really surprising and

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the rain that we usually get in April.

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hasn't been happening other than one or two weeks, but there's been a lot more early swarming happening in the area

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and a lot of maple honey is being brought in right now.

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I'll just let you know those aren't my

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swarms.

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Yeah, I don't know.

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I always kid you about it.

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Ange, how's your early season going?

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I love this podcast because I just love hearing the different things that are happening when we all convene in the moment.

00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:32.120
Like, Jay, you're ahead of me with the black locust.

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Right, so you're like forward in time.

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And Paul, you're like back in time

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with the maple, which we just passed

00:09:38.560 --> 00:09:39.680
maple, we're now into

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Dandoland up here in the northeast.

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So it's cool.

00:09:43.180 --> 00:09:45.899
It's cool to like see where we all fall on this continuum.

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Or don't, in Bonnie's case, who's like getting eucalyptus and all kinds of gorgeous, tasty stuff.

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Yeah, so here in the northeast, we just passed Maple

00:09:55.980 --> 00:09:57.580
and the bees are growing up

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that overwintered.

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It was also

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a long

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cold winter here.

00:10:02.640 --> 00:10:04.960
So we didn't have as much luck with our

00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:05.600
nooks.

00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:07.360
We like to overwinter a lot on nooks.

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They were

00:10:07.760 --> 00:10:09.200
they're usually quite small.

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They did not endure the winter well, but our breeder

00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:15.040
queens did and their daughters did.

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And so we have

00:10:16.660 --> 00:10:20.980
a really nice breeding population to select from this year.

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And we have been getting ready to do we're doing a trial about the heritability of rose

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sensitive hygienic traits

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And so we're kind of staging for that at the same time as staging our robot winter

00:10:33.180 --> 00:10:34.620
tides for a bunch of queen

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cells

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at the same time as starting queen

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season.

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So

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It's all kind of rolling out at once over here.

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Well, thanks for taking time to stop and talk with us.

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That's great.

00:10:45.300 --> 00:10:47.380
We appreciate it.

00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:52.680
We're gonna take our first break and hear from our sponsors and we'll come back and we'll talk about what else but Varroa.

00:10:52.680 --> 00:10:55.320
We'll be right back.

00:10:55.320 --> 00:11:01.000
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Understands the work.

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-tactical.

00:12:23.080 --> 00:12:23.400
com

00:12:24.920 --> 00:12:27.160
Welcome back, everybody.

00:12:27.160 --> 00:12:27.560
Jeff

00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:29.639
wants us to talk about Varroa now.

00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:31.240
We're gonna bring it down a little bit.

00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:31.319
I

00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:32.360
but I want to like

00:12:32.519 --> 00:12:33.639
point the finger

00:12:33.880 --> 00:12:35.319
at Jeff.

00:12:35.579 --> 00:12:36.139
Because

00:12:36.380 --> 00:12:40.860
because, you know, usually we try to limit it, but we're gonna let's let's go for it.

00:12:40.860 --> 00:12:42.380
Let's talk about Varroa

00:12:42.779 --> 00:12:44.380
and if you could share

00:12:44.920 --> 00:12:45.079
what

00:12:45.240 --> 00:12:47.399
it looks like in your region.

00:12:47.399 --> 00:12:51.240
Maybe if you're trying something new, there are a lot of new products out there.

00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:53.000
And what your outlook is.

00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:53.800
That would be great.

00:12:53.800 --> 00:12:56.519
Who wants to start us off on this fun topic?

00:12:56.519 --> 00:12:57.480
I can do it.

00:12:57.480 --> 00:12:58.120
All right.

00:12:58.120 --> 00:12:59.560
Okay, let's go.

00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:02.240
20% of my hives don't know what varrows

00:13:02.560 --> 00:13:05.040
are, and another twenty percent

00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:07.280
don't know how to live without them

00:13:07.339 --> 00:13:09.899
So I ended up using formic acid

00:13:10.139 --> 00:13:18.220
followed by oxalic vaporization, followed by apigard, to finally get my problem under control.

00:13:18.880 --> 00:13:21.760
And this is all December to February.

00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:23.520
December to February.

00:13:23.520 --> 00:13:23.840
Wow.

00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:25.040
December to February.

00:13:25.040 --> 00:13:25.600
Wow.

00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:26.320
That's a lot of

00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:28.400
a lot of investment and control.

00:13:28.400 --> 00:13:29.840
And and is it working?

00:13:29.940 --> 00:13:32.740
The treatment of the three did get them under control.

00:13:32.740 --> 00:13:34.500
I think what I'm going to

00:13:34.820 --> 00:13:35.140
is

00:13:35.380 --> 00:13:38.660
creating my own oxalic acid sponges

00:13:39.060 --> 00:13:39.380
because

00:13:39.700 --> 00:13:40.660
I've seen

00:13:41.380 --> 00:13:43.940
results and the stuff that's on the market

00:13:44.180 --> 00:13:46.100
doesn't really work well.

00:13:46.100 --> 00:13:46.500
I'd

00:13:46.660 --> 00:13:48.420
love to try the new product

00:13:48.580 --> 00:13:50.900
where they claim that they can keep the Varroa

00:13:51.060 --> 00:13:51.300
from

00:13:51.460 --> 00:13:51.780
from

00:13:52.100 --> 00:13:55.060
multiplying, but it's forty four dollars a hive

00:13:55.220 --> 00:13:55.540
and

00:13:55.459 --> 00:13:57.140
I'm a poor desert person.

00:13:57.300 --> 00:13:58.500
I can't afford that much per

00:13:58.660 --> 00:13:59.300
hive.

00:13:59.300 --> 00:13:59.540
So

00:13:59.700 --> 00:14:01.860
we'll use oxalic acid

00:14:02.019 --> 00:14:03.140
sponges.

00:14:03.140 --> 00:14:06.420
Jay, why don't you share with us what's going on?

00:14:06.540 --> 00:14:07.260
This past winter

00:14:07.420 --> 00:14:08.140
was really tough.

00:14:08.140 --> 00:14:10.540
I saw some of the highest Virro accounts I've seen.

00:14:10.540 --> 00:14:12.380
Makes my my head spin.

00:14:12.380 --> 00:14:14.060
A lot of the hives that had those high

00:14:14.220 --> 00:14:16.060
Virro accounts are no longer with us

00:14:16.140 --> 00:14:18.780
They had they had a great history and now they're done.

00:14:18.780 --> 00:14:24.220
But what that means is it's paved the way for hopefully a s a stronger crop, a livestock that's out there.

00:14:24.140 --> 00:14:29.340
We did a lot of oxonic vaporization and we are testing out a new product this year.

00:14:29.340 --> 00:14:31.900
So I don't know if it's gonna be the best product ever.

00:14:31.900 --> 00:14:32.140
We'll see

00:14:32.300 --> 00:14:33.660
called Noroa.

00:14:33.459 --> 00:14:36.500
And to what Dwayne is mentioning, it is a pretty high buy-in.

00:14:36.500 --> 00:14:41.620
It's a little bit higher price than I'm used to, but if it works, it'll be great, and I'm willing to give it a shot.

00:14:41.500 --> 00:14:43.980
It's essentially two bags or two two treatment

00:14:44.220 --> 00:14:44.380
that

00:14:44.700 --> 00:14:45.180
ease.

00:14:45.180 --> 00:14:48.860
And the challenge with Narola, I love the idea, love the concept.

00:14:48.860 --> 00:14:49.740
I really hope it works.

00:14:49.740 --> 00:14:52.380
But the challenge is you've got to get it in at the right time.

00:14:52.380 --> 00:14:54.700
And so you you don't want the bees to consume it.

00:14:54.700 --> 00:14:54.780
You

00:14:54.940 --> 00:14:56.460
actually want them to store it.

00:14:56.459 --> 00:14:59.980
and expose the mites to that stored liquid feed.

00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:03.100
The the challenge that I see for this product and the market

00:15:03.339 --> 00:15:08.779
is most people don't spend the time to really realize when is the flow starting, when is it ended.

00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:10.760
A lot of people in my area they feed you know one-to-one

00:15:10.920 --> 00:15:17.160
in the beginning of the season to start to spike their production and and get things going, but those bees are actually consuming that sugar.

00:15:17.160 --> 00:15:18.200
They're not actually storing it

00:15:18.520 --> 00:15:19.400
to stimulate the queens

00:15:19.560 --> 00:15:19.640
to

00:15:19.800 --> 00:15:20.680
lay.

00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.080
And so there's this really, really short window where I feel like this thing is gonna work.

00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:25.200
And I tried to do it this year.

00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:26.000
I'll I'll get back to

00:15:26.160 --> 00:15:26.960
whether it worked.

00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:30.400
But it's really right when the honey flow is a gonna start

00:15:30.560 --> 00:15:34.960
so that the bees have transitioned from burning that fuel to actually storing it.

00:15:34.959 --> 00:15:39.839
And that's when, you know, I think this thing will shine if it truly works to to sterilize the rural mite.

00:15:39.839 --> 00:15:41.040
That's that's the concept behind

00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:42.240
neurologic.

00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:44.399
How long will a treatment with that last?

00:15:44.459 --> 00:15:45.740
It's supposed to last six

00:15:45.899 --> 00:15:47.740
six months, a long time.

00:15:47.740 --> 00:15:48.860
If if it works.

00:15:48.860 --> 00:15:54.060
That's why I think it's you know it's worth giving it a shot, but like like Dwayne, like that's a pretty high buy-in

00:15:54.220 --> 00:15:55.180
per colony

00:15:55.259 --> 00:15:55.899
And you know, you

00:15:56.060 --> 00:15:58.620
sort of you can't just do it's like any other treatment out there.

00:15:58.620 --> 00:15:59.660
You can't do one colony

00:15:59.819 --> 00:16:00.459
in your yard.

00:16:00.459 --> 00:16:02.060
You gotta do the entire yard.

00:16:02.060 --> 00:16:05.019
And so, you know, we typically run yards that are at least ten

00:16:05.180 --> 00:16:05.500
to twenty

00:16:05.660 --> 00:16:06.540
hives per eight

00:16:06.699 --> 00:16:07.019
period

00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:08.040
And if I'm doing AD

00:16:08.280 --> 00:16:11.160
periods, this, you know, it generally starts to rise pretty quick.

00:16:11.160 --> 00:16:12.920
So again, I'm definitely willing to

00:16:13.160 --> 00:16:14.040
do it if it works.

00:16:14.040 --> 00:16:16.600
I'd be willing to give it a shot for the first year, but we'll see.

00:16:16.600 --> 00:16:17.880
I'll get back to you.

00:16:17.560 --> 00:16:19.960
Yeah, I'd be really interested to hear how the

00:16:20.280 --> 00:16:22.040
both how it works and then how the honey

00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:26.680
numbers are, like if it increases their pro productivity during that six-month period.

00:16:26.300 --> 00:16:27.100
It'd be amazing.

00:16:27.100 --> 00:16:27.980
There was beekeepers in

00:16:28.140 --> 00:16:28.300
Aria

00:16:28.459 --> 00:16:32.060
that fed it in the beginning of March and they might as well have thrown the stuff in the trash.

00:16:32.060 --> 00:16:33.980
There's there's no way that that it was

00:16:34.140 --> 00:16:35.260
the efficacy is there

00:16:35.420 --> 00:16:41.260
and it's it's tough to see that, especially after the fact and hear, wait a second, you guys fed at the wrong time.

00:16:40.540 --> 00:16:41.820
But that's what it is.

00:16:41.820 --> 00:16:43.100
I had a a beekeeper

00:16:43.260 --> 00:16:47.740
at one of the expos ask me about, you know, when to apply it and it it took me back

00:16:47.899 --> 00:16:50.220
and and I was like, this is actually really

00:16:50.459 --> 00:16:51.500
this isn't easy.

00:16:51.500 --> 00:16:52.300
It's it's

00:16:52.420 --> 00:16:52.899
It's a

00:16:53.060 --> 00:16:56.660
obviously a an effective product if it's used right, but

00:16:57.139 --> 00:16:57.380
you

00:16:57.620 --> 00:16:59.620
really do have to know your bees

00:16:59.779 --> 00:17:01.699
and know your nectar flow

00:17:01.860 --> 00:17:02.180
and

00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:05.800
And then you have to have time at at that point to go ahead and apply it.

00:17:05.800 --> 00:17:06.920
How did you apply it?

00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:10.839
Because it also fascinates me that one of their ways is to put it on the bottom board.

00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:15.120
Yeah, I don't I'm not a fan of doing that and maybe it's just cause I'm at old old fart now.

00:17:15.120 --> 00:17:15.200
I

00:17:15.360 --> 00:17:16.800
I put it inside of a shim on top of the

00:17:17.360 --> 00:17:17.600
shim.

00:17:17.760 --> 00:17:18.080
It's just not

00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:19.040
yeah

00:17:18.860 --> 00:17:24.779
And I hope that doesn't cost me the the success, but to put it all the way in the bottom, I don't I just don't like that at all.

00:17:24.779 --> 00:17:26.059
It's too close to the door.

00:17:26.059 --> 00:17:32.059
I want to talk to somebody who who did it and it was successful because it's it would be a ease of application, but

00:17:31.960 --> 00:17:34.120
Boy, does that make me nervous too.

00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:35.560
You know what I think we should do

00:17:35.800 --> 00:17:37.720
if we truly get successful at

00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:38.440
is like

00:17:38.600 --> 00:17:38.760
like

00:17:38.920 --> 00:17:39.160
Ang

00:17:39.320 --> 00:17:40.120
and I network.

00:17:40.120 --> 00:17:43.320
In other words, typically I feel like every single time we have these conversations, I'm

00:17:43.560 --> 00:17:45.960
like Anshed, I'm like two weeks ahead of her

00:17:45.600 --> 00:17:49.120
So I feel like this is where like we get together as a as a you know

00:17:49.280 --> 00:17:54.559
community and we say, all right, if you're two weeks ahead of me, this is what I'm seeing now, this is when you should apply it.

00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:57.440
You know, a lot of us are in our silos saying, well, I think the black looks

00:17:57.600 --> 00:18:00.559
is coming on, or I think the red butt, or when's the two of poplar.

00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:05.000
And I feel like this is when the Southern beekeepers need to take care of the northern beekeepers

00:18:05.240 --> 00:18:06.120
because that's when like

00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:07.799
if she were to use it, this is when you're gonna

00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:10.519
be a rock star at it, not when you're just guessing.

00:18:10.740 --> 00:18:11.620
Jay, if you're y

00:18:11.780 --> 00:18:15.460
if you're applying it during the flow, how do you keep it out of your honey?

00:18:15.460 --> 00:18:20.260
So you apply it right before the f the flow actually really starts, before it really kicks in.

00:18:19.860 --> 00:18:21.539
Because I don't really want it to go in my honey.

00:18:21.539 --> 00:18:24.740
I want them dead to sort of be exposed to it and then basically it's gone.

00:18:24.740 --> 00:18:28.980
If they eat it within a few days, it's it's not a long-lasting treatment.

00:18:28.760 --> 00:18:29.160
Yeah, 'cause

00:18:29.400 --> 00:18:31.160
instinctively I'd think that you put

00:18:31.320 --> 00:18:33.320
you would put it on when they're in a durs

00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:35.160
so you know that they consume it.

00:18:35.160 --> 00:18:35.320
But

00:18:35.640 --> 00:18:35.960
Yeah.

00:18:35.960 --> 00:18:38.360
Yeah, you don't want them to consume it, you want to store it.

00:18:38.360 --> 00:18:38.679
Yeah.

00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:40.240
Last year

00:18:40.560 --> 00:18:41.520
we used

00:18:41.840 --> 00:18:46.160
Oxalicribble and Vapor as well as the standard release pads.

00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:47.440
We made them ourselves.

00:18:47.560 --> 00:18:49.800
And we had good success with that.

00:18:49.800 --> 00:18:56.120
I'm not seeing high mic counts coming out of the winter, but I do feel like

00:18:57.100 --> 00:19:04.220
Some of our nook losses are due to like not having a standardized treatment for different size nooks going into the winter.

00:19:04.220 --> 00:19:06.220
So that's something I really want to work on.

00:19:06.220 --> 00:19:10.620
It's easy for me to understand how much to treat my 10-frame hives

00:19:10.360 --> 00:19:10.440
with

00:19:10.600 --> 00:19:11.320
Soxalic

00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:14.760
and informic if I need to, , but it's a little bit more

00:19:15.159 --> 00:19:15.240
well

00:19:15.399 --> 00:19:15.720
telling

00:19:15.880 --> 00:19:17.480
it's like an eight frame highs or

00:19:18.340 --> 00:19:21.620
you know, like a five-frame hive and there's many different sizes.

00:19:21.620 --> 00:19:23.940
I'd like to get a little bit more precise about that.

00:19:23.940 --> 00:19:25.940
I think that's impacting some of our

00:19:26.179 --> 00:19:28.100
loss numbers over winter.

00:19:28.100 --> 00:19:29.140
And it's just

00:19:30.179 --> 00:19:35.620
Yeah, for me, the more I feel like I can standardize things, the more I can see the patterns and opportunities.

00:19:35.620 --> 00:19:38.980
Well, I've just been thinking about that a lot recently.

00:19:38.940 --> 00:19:39.100


00:19:39.260 --> 00:19:39.500
well

00:19:39.820 --> 00:19:39.899
I

00:19:40.220 --> 00:19:45.340
first of all I started monitoring a lot sooner than I normally used to do it.

00:19:45.340 --> 00:19:48.220
So I've already monitored, determined my Vero

00:19:48.620 --> 00:19:52.220
levels are low, so I put Voroxan on all my hives

00:19:52.220 --> 00:19:52.380


00:19:52.780 --> 00:19:54.220
maintain them at the low s

00:19:54.380 --> 00:19:55.020
level.

00:19:55.020 --> 00:19:55.820
And then

00:19:56.220 --> 00:19:58.540
like Jay, I'm trying to figure out how to use Nora

00:19:58.780 --> 00:20:00.460
on one or two of my hives.

00:20:00.460 --> 00:20:02.380
Have you applied it already, Paul?

00:20:02.380 --> 00:20:03.740
I haven't applied it to Nora

00:20:03.980 --> 00:20:04.460
yet.

00:20:04.460 --> 00:20:05.180
No, I'm

00:20:05.620 --> 00:20:09.700
I have Baroxon and everything right now and I have to figure out my

00:20:10.020 --> 00:20:11.380
seasons on that.

00:20:11.380 --> 00:20:12.180
Bonnie, here

00:20:12.420 --> 00:20:13.060
you've already mentioned

00:20:13.220 --> 00:20:16.580
mites, but go ahead and give us an update, please.

00:20:16.460 --> 00:20:20.700
Yeah, usually coming out of winter we don't see a lot or a lot of diseases

00:20:20.860 --> 00:20:22.380
and you know we've we've

00:20:22.540 --> 00:20:22.620


00:20:22.780 --> 00:20:25.980
done a pretty good job in the long term with our breeding program.

00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:27.820
We have a lot of hygienic behavior, so

00:20:27.980 --> 00:20:28.940
in general

00:20:29.040 --> 00:20:31.280
We haven't done a lot of treating in the spring

00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:36.560
because just by splitting the colonies and getting that brood break, they they tend to do pretty well.

00:20:36.560 --> 00:20:39.280
But this has been a very different season.

00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:39.480
So

00:20:39.640 --> 00:20:40.520
we have used

00:20:40.760 --> 00:20:44.440
probably, you know, in the past we've maybe had to treat 15 to 20%

00:20:44.600 --> 00:20:45.480
of the hives.

00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:49.080
It's probably closer to 6570 this season.

00:20:49.100 --> 00:20:54.539
But you know, an even bigger problem that I'm seeing than Varroa, not to shift the subject, but

00:20:54.700 --> 00:20:59.899
are small high beetles, because we've really not had a problem with small high beetles.

00:20:59.899 --> 00:21:03.659
They've been here about fourteen years now.

00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:12.080
But I think just with our soil type and the precipitation and lots of different factors, they've never really been a problem except in empty equipment

00:21:11.460 --> 00:21:16.820
equipment are really weak hives with way too much honey to have to take care of.

00:21:16.820 --> 00:21:18.900
And it's a game changer this year.

00:21:18.900 --> 00:21:22.580
We're throwing beetle plasters in pretty much every hive.

00:21:22.360 --> 00:21:23.399
We've seen slime out

00:21:23.639 --> 00:21:28.760
a couple slimeouts and full-size hives, which we've never seen since they've been here.

00:21:28.760 --> 00:21:33.720
So I I'm actually a little more concerned with the small hive beetles right now.

00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:36.639
I mean Varroa is always there and we're always kind of watching it

00:21:36.799 --> 00:21:38.799
and you know adjusting what we need to do.

00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:42.799
But those small high beetles, I wasn't expecting what we've been seeing.

00:21:42.760 --> 00:21:45.080
How do you generally treat your small high beetles?

00:21:45.080 --> 00:21:46.360
Is it just beetle blasters, so you

00:21:46.520 --> 00:21:48.120
do anything else besides that?

00:21:48.120 --> 00:21:51.640
We've never really had to do anything else beside that in the past

00:21:51.880 --> 00:21:54.520
because it's been really not a major problem

00:21:54.860 --> 00:21:57.019
I don't know if we're gonna have to look into other

00:21:57.260 --> 00:21:59.500
opportunities, but it just was never

00:21:59.740 --> 00:22:01.100
it was never an issue.

00:22:01.100 --> 00:22:04.059
And that seemed to manage the population enough.

00:22:04.019 --> 00:22:05.059
in the past.

00:22:05.059 --> 00:22:07.380
So I'm not sure if we're gonna have to shift strategies.

00:22:07.380 --> 00:22:09.299
You know, the Beetle Blasters are just easy.

00:22:09.299 --> 00:22:11.700
They're inexpensive, you know.

00:22:11.700 --> 00:22:13.460
So yeah, we may have to

00:22:13.620 --> 00:22:13.779
we

00:22:14.019 --> 00:22:16.260
may have to look into something else.

00:22:16.360 --> 00:22:17.639
Do you keep your hives in

00:22:17.880 --> 00:22:20.360
full sun or are they in the shade usually?

00:22:20.360 --> 00:22:24.679
You know, my hives are in the full sun, but like I said, we do a lot of consulting for people.

00:22:24.679 --> 00:22:26.519
We've got a lot of hills.

00:22:26.340 --> 00:22:28.340
and a lot of big trees.

00:22:28.340 --> 00:22:28.660
So

00:22:28.900 --> 00:22:29.860
we tend to

00:22:30.020 --> 00:22:32.500
there are a lot of hives that end up in shade.

00:22:32.500 --> 00:22:36.419
And yes, those definitely, you know, have a a bigger problem.

00:22:36.740 --> 00:22:40.179
But one of these hives that was like four boxes

00:22:40.340 --> 00:22:44.179
And I I looked at it, it was beautiful, it was packed full of bees.

00:22:44.340 --> 00:22:48.500
The next time Gary went by, my husband, it was totally slimed out.

00:22:48.500 --> 00:22:50.179
And it was in full sun.

00:22:50.060 --> 00:22:51.420
We see that in Florida

00:22:51.580 --> 00:22:53.340
'cause it gets so full of honey

00:22:53.500 --> 00:22:57.100
that I don't exactly know what the heck happens, but it's like the bees

00:22:57.340 --> 00:22:58.860
I guess it's probably when the bees go

00:22:59.020 --> 00:23:00.220
to the outside of the box

00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:03.120
to evaporate the honey that the hive beetles can then just like

00:23:03.280 --> 00:23:04.160
take over.

00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:07.760
And then you'll have a whole full huge massive hive just abscond

00:23:07.920 --> 00:23:09.120
and get slammed out.

00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:09.680
It's like

00:23:09.840 --> 00:23:11.520
so frustrating.

00:23:11.340 --> 00:23:17.740
Yeah, this one was like a queen and a tiny little cluster left by the time we got there and then just larva

00:23:17.900 --> 00:23:19.020
everywhere

00:23:19.040 --> 00:23:19.280
So

00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:22.880
that's that's just not something that we've really experienced much.

00:23:22.880 --> 00:23:23.520
Yikes.

00:23:23.520 --> 00:23:24.480
Do you guys want to hear a gross

00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:25.600
story that'll make you

00:23:25.760 --> 00:23:26.720
gag?

00:23:27.360 --> 00:23:28.080
Well sure.

00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:29.600
Absolutely.

00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:33.120
The seventh grader in me really wants to hear this.

00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:35.400
All right, Jeff, there I was.

00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:36.760
The hive was like

00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:39.320
seven supers tall, you know, on our way at

00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:39.880
ten.

00:23:39.880 --> 00:23:40.600
It was amazing.

00:23:40.600 --> 00:23:43.480
I went out of town for vacation, came on back.

00:23:43.340 --> 00:23:44.940
Reached up to my seventh super

00:23:45.179 --> 00:23:46.620
waiting to pull off the full honey

00:23:46.780 --> 00:23:47.340
super.

00:23:47.340 --> 00:23:48.380
This thing was heavy.

00:23:48.380 --> 00:23:50.940
I was like, I'm in the money, like I've just arrived.

00:23:50.940 --> 00:23:51.900
This thing whatever.

00:23:51.900 --> 00:23:53.100
And I crack it open

00:23:53.260 --> 00:23:54.539
and what do I do?

00:23:54.539 --> 00:23:55.820
I literally pour

00:23:56.260 --> 00:23:57.700
Small high beetle slime

00:23:57.860 --> 00:23:59.860
all over me and I took a shower

00:24:00.179 --> 00:24:02.179
in small high beetle slime.

00:24:02.179 --> 00:24:03.780
It was just all over me.

00:24:03.780 --> 00:24:05.940
So I quickly excused myself

00:24:05.940 --> 00:24:08.179
I might have passed out, but we're not gonna get into that.

00:24:08.179 --> 00:24:10.019
And then I had to throw everything away.

00:24:10.019 --> 00:24:10.659
It was horrible.

00:24:10.659 --> 00:24:13.059
But I will never forget that feeling of

00:24:13.220 --> 00:24:16.820
covered in small high beetle and then the slime and then that smell and

00:24:16.980 --> 00:24:18.659
never get out of your nose

00:24:18.340 --> 00:24:18.980
That is

00:24:19.220 --> 00:24:20.179
disgusting.

00:24:20.980 --> 00:24:22.020
That is disgusting.

00:24:22.020 --> 00:24:22.580
We're talking

00:24:22.740 --> 00:24:24.500
this is like six or seven years ago.

00:24:24.500 --> 00:24:25.700
I'm still talking about it.

00:24:25.700 --> 00:24:29.620
Inch, I'm telling you, hours of therapy to get through this.

00:24:29.080 --> 00:24:29.160
That

00:24:29.320 --> 00:24:29.400
's a good thing.

00:24:32.920 --> 00:24:34.680
I don't want you to make the same mistake.

00:24:34.680 --> 00:24:38.440
If you guys move your hives to the desert of Arizona, you won't have small hive

00:24:38.600 --> 00:24:39.080
beetle

00:24:39.240 --> 00:24:40.280
problems.

00:24:39.960 --> 00:24:41.960
They can't reproduce in concrete soil.

00:24:45.080 --> 00:24:45.640
Jay, did

00:24:45.800 --> 00:24:46.840
anybody get a picture?

00:24:46.840 --> 00:24:52.120
Oh no, not a no one was around, thank goodness, because if they were they it would be on YouTube, it'd be on some America's Funnies

00:24:52.280 --> 00:24:54.760
Home videos, because it was horrible.

00:24:53.960 --> 00:24:56.440
I mean it was just there was nothing graceful about it.

00:24:56.440 --> 00:24:58.040
Did you say a bad word or two?

00:24:58.040 --> 00:25:00.200
I don't know any bad words, Jeff, so I don't know what you mean.

00:25:00.920 --> 00:25:03.640
Small hive beetle is a growing problem

00:25:03.800 --> 00:25:06.440
and they're and they're spreading around the country and especially as

00:25:06.600 --> 00:25:08.760
I don't know, the country's warming.

00:25:08.360 --> 00:25:09.960
Let's talk about small high beals

00:25:10.120 --> 00:25:13.880
since Bonnie opened the subject and Jay just slimed us with it.

00:25:13.880 --> 00:25:15.320
I want a picture, Jay.

00:25:15.320 --> 00:25:15.399
You

00:25:15.559 --> 00:25:17.000
gotta recreate that moment.

00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:18.600
I'm telling you, you gotta get out of your head.

00:25:18.600 --> 00:25:19.399
Yeah, I don't want to incha

00:25:19.639 --> 00:25:21.720
introduce that idea in your head.

00:25:21.900 --> 00:25:24.220
So who else dealing with the small high beetle?

00:25:24.220 --> 00:25:24.540
Jay

00:25:24.700 --> 00:25:30.140
raised his hand, Bonnie, Ange, Paul and I haven't yet

00:25:30.260 --> 00:25:31.059
That I'm aware of.

00:25:31.059 --> 00:25:33.700
And Dwayne, you you have concrete soil you said.

00:25:33.700 --> 00:25:34.179
Yeah.

00:25:34.179 --> 00:25:35.460
They can't reproduce.

00:25:35.460 --> 00:25:35.940
Flower to

00:25:36.100 --> 00:25:36.820
be keeping

00:25:37.220 --> 00:25:37.940
so many

00:25:38.100 --> 00:25:38.260
sa

00:25:38.580 --> 00:25:38.660
they

00:25:38.820 --> 00:25:39.700
love sand.

00:25:39.700 --> 00:25:40.179
They love

00:25:40.419 --> 00:25:42.179
sand and wet.

00:25:41.940 --> 00:25:45.539
We see a few hive beetles in our irrigated land.

00:25:45.539 --> 00:25:47.940
You know, people have irrigation for their homes

00:25:48.100 --> 00:25:54.260
and they'll put their bees on the irrigated land and they can have a few hive beetles, but it's never been a real problem.

00:25:54.060 --> 00:25:54.540
And Paul

00:25:54.700 --> 00:25:56.220
in the Pacific Northwest, there's

00:25:56.460 --> 00:25:57.900
come up on packages

00:25:58.220 --> 00:26:02.060
sometimes, but they're not around by the end of the season, is that correct?

00:26:02.140 --> 00:26:03.820
They're not around by the end of the season.

00:26:03.900 --> 00:26:07.580
That's also one reason why we're not bringing nucs into our our yard

00:26:07.740 --> 00:26:08.140
operation

00:26:08.300 --> 00:26:08.780
either.

00:26:08.780 --> 00:26:11.820
We're just bringing packages which are easier to treat.

00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:14.120
Note to self, don't pull a heavy super

00:26:14.280 --> 00:26:15.480
off above your head.

00:26:15.480 --> 00:26:16.920
Just don't go on vacation.

00:26:16.920 --> 00:26:19.240
Do any of you have to deal with the Australian sap

00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:20.040
beetles?

00:26:20.040 --> 00:26:24.200
Same family as the small high beetles, but smaller

00:26:24.240 --> 00:26:24.800
No.

00:26:24.800 --> 00:26:25.360
No.

00:26:25.360 --> 00:26:26.000
Okay.

00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:27.200
We deal with them a little.

00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:29.360
They're not as harmful on the overall colony

00:26:29.520 --> 00:26:33.920
level, but they create havoc and stored equipment if there's any bee bread in it.

00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:37.600
And the bees can't clean those frames out then, won't clean them out

00:26:37.540 --> 00:26:42.260
And it gets like this yellow I mean this orange kind of sawdust looking stuff on it.

00:26:42.260 --> 00:26:44.420
And it's from the larvae tunneling into

00:26:44.580 --> 00:26:44.740
the

00:26:45.060 --> 00:26:45.780
frass.

00:26:45.940 --> 00:26:46.980
The bee brad.

00:26:46.980 --> 00:26:49.140
It's not the frass, it's from them tunneling

00:26:49.460 --> 00:26:49.780
into

00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:54.240
the bee bread and like everything, I think that's where it's all coming from.

00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:56.720
But if you stick one of those frames in the

00:26:56.880 --> 00:26:57.920
in the direct sun

00:26:58.080 --> 00:26:58.720
for like ten

00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:01.120
minutes, it will be crawling

00:27:01.440 --> 00:27:01.760
with

00:27:02.080 --> 00:27:04.880
sabbeetle larvae.

00:27:03.940 --> 00:27:08.100
Paul said bad things about nucs, so I want to say something positive about them.

00:27:08.100 --> 00:27:09.779
I I sell nucs, but

00:27:09.940 --> 00:27:10.260
and I

00:27:10.419 --> 00:27:14.179
sold the heaviest nucs I've ever had this year

00:27:14.260 --> 00:27:15.140
But the problem was

00:27:15.299 --> 00:27:20.020
our flow was so great, every other day we're shaking nectar out of the frames so that the Queens

00:27:20.260 --> 00:27:20.500
has some

00:27:20.660 --> 00:27:21.860
place to lay.

00:27:21.860 --> 00:27:24.660
It was just a horrible problem this year.

00:27:24.540 --> 00:27:25.980
I think you're bragging.

00:27:25.980 --> 00:27:27.020
I don't think that's a problem.

00:27:27.340 --> 00:27:28.220
No, no.

00:27:28.460 --> 00:27:29.420
No.

00:27:29.420 --> 00:27:30.060
No.

00:27:30.060 --> 00:27:31.660
No, it is a problem though, because

00:27:31.820 --> 00:27:35.660
like we we have a similar issue when you're trying to make queens that you have like

00:27:35.820 --> 00:27:36.940
you end up with

00:27:37.140 --> 00:27:41.780
plugged up nectar frames and then you can only use so many plugged up nectar frames

00:27:41.940 --> 00:27:43.620
but it's not a honey frame.

00:27:43.620 --> 00:27:44.660
So like what do you ho

00:27:44.820 --> 00:27:47.940
if you have big enough hives where you can put it on there to cure, that's great.

00:27:47.940 --> 00:27:49.540
But otherwise you just got like

00:27:49.460 --> 00:27:51.300
Nectar frames, you end up having to hose them

00:27:51.460 --> 00:27:53.540
out so that you can use the wax.

00:27:53.540 --> 00:27:54.340
It's like totally

00:27:54.580 --> 00:27:55.540
silly.

00:27:55.620 --> 00:27:56.900
So is that what you do then

00:27:57.060 --> 00:27:58.340
as a solution?

00:27:58.080 --> 00:27:59.760
You shake 'em out, you hose them out?

00:27:59.760 --> 00:28:01.520
In the southeast that's what I did.

00:28:01.520 --> 00:28:01.920
Yeah,

00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:03.520
that's what we were doing.

00:28:03.520 --> 00:28:06.160
You know, that and we tried to replace frames.

00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:06.960
I mean we would

00:28:07.120 --> 00:28:07.760
we would

00:28:07.840 --> 00:28:09.440
give them built out frames

00:28:09.600 --> 00:28:12.799
and pull these nectar frames out, put them in a box

00:28:12.960 --> 00:28:13.840
and let 'em

00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:20.080
recollect it there and bring it back to their hive so they had you know they weren't on the streets causing problems

00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:20.400
Little

00:28:20.560 --> 00:28:21.520
busy work.

00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:23.440
We keep our ladies busy.

00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:24.640
I have a questi

00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:26.000
I have a a question

00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:29.920
you can all refuse if you don't want to, but since we've kind of had like a

00:28:30.240 --> 00:28:31.760
a little negative trend.

00:28:31.760 --> 00:28:34.720
One of the things we did at the Honey Producers meeting last year

00:28:34.880 --> 00:28:36.080
was we had a segment called

00:28:36.240 --> 00:28:37.200
That Didn't Work

00:28:37.360 --> 00:28:38.880
and and people shared

00:28:39.040 --> 00:28:39.360
like

00:28:39.820 --> 00:28:40.140
something

00:28:40.300 --> 00:28:44.220
that went wrong and and we had heard some really good stories.

00:28:44.220 --> 00:28:47.020
I bet you all, in addition to that gross

00:28:47.260 --> 00:28:47.500
high

00:28:47.660 --> 00:28:50.220
beetle issue, Jay, I bet you all have something

00:28:50.760 --> 00:28:50.919
just

00:28:51.159 --> 00:28:52.440
generally in your operation

00:28:52.600 --> 00:28:56.039
that you you thought might work or that that it just turned out to be a

00:28:56.279 --> 00:28:57.880
a little bit of a failure

00:28:58.039 --> 00:29:01.320
or or something that that happened beyond your control

00:29:01.480 --> 00:29:03.639
that really impacted your your bees

00:29:04.320 --> 00:29:05.840
Anybody willing to share anything?

00:29:05.840 --> 00:29:06.800
Oh yeah, I got one.

00:29:06.800 --> 00:29:07.280
Okay.

00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:08.960
Yeah.

00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:10.800
My problem is heat.

00:29:10.800 --> 00:29:11.760
Okay.

00:29:11.760 --> 00:29:13.680
And during the day the the

00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:20.000
Bees can go out, collect water, cool their hive down like an evaporative cooler, and the forager

00:29:20.160 --> 00:29:22.880
bees can take 122 degrees.

00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:23.680
Okay?

00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:24.320
But

00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:24.960
when

00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:25.680
the sun

00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:26.640
sets

00:29:27.220 --> 00:29:28.580
And it's 105

00:29:28.900 --> 00:29:29.700
or 109

00:29:29.940 --> 00:29:34.020
in the shade and there's no shade and the bees can't go out and get water.

00:29:34.020 --> 00:29:35.060
Okay.

00:29:35.060 --> 00:29:36.020
I watch my

00:29:36.180 --> 00:29:38.500
I watch my brood die.

00:29:38.340 --> 00:29:38.660
I mean

00:29:38.820 --> 00:29:39.940
I don't notice it that

00:29:40.100 --> 00:29:41.940
I don't notice as much that the queen

00:29:42.179 --> 00:29:49.140
is losing her s you know, her sperm until she no longer you know, well that comes in the fall when she no longer can lay.

00:29:49.140 --> 00:29:49.460
But

00:29:49.400 --> 00:29:51.960
I mean you sit there in June first

00:29:52.280 --> 00:29:53.560
and look at a ten

00:29:53.880 --> 00:29:55.480
frame, two-box

00:29:55.720 --> 00:29:56.360
hive

00:29:56.600 --> 00:29:58.680
with eighteen frames of bees

00:29:58.840 --> 00:30:01.080
and six frames of brood.

00:30:00.940 --> 00:30:05.500
Then on July 1st you look at it and now you've got three frames of brood

00:30:05.820 --> 00:30:06.139
and

00:30:06.620 --> 00:30:10.059
14 frames of bees, and then you look at it in August

00:30:10.220 --> 00:30:12.539
and you've got spotted brood

00:30:13.019 --> 00:30:14.940
spread over three frames

00:30:15.260 --> 00:30:18.860
and you're down to twelve frames of bees.

00:30:18.860 --> 00:30:21.419
And I mean I've tried using insulation

00:30:21.660 --> 00:30:22.460
I know mistress

00:30:22.620 --> 00:30:29.660
work, we can put mistress over the bees, but when you're trying to do, you know, more than just a backyard beekeeper thing

00:30:29.860 --> 00:30:29.940
the

00:30:30.179 --> 00:30:33.779
finding mistress and finding the water out in the desert gets expensive.

00:30:33.779 --> 00:30:34.019
So

00:30:34.179 --> 00:30:35.220
I mean you just I

00:30:35.460 --> 00:30:35.620
last

00:30:35.779 --> 00:30:36.100
year

00:30:36.260 --> 00:30:41.299
I made a deal with a rancher up north and I solved the temperature problem, but it was a dry

00:30:41.900 --> 00:30:42.620
summer

00:30:42.860 --> 00:30:46.860
and so I was running up every week with sugar water to keep 'em going.

00:30:46.860 --> 00:30:47.500
I mean it just

00:30:47.660 --> 00:30:48.780
heat is just our

00:30:49.100 --> 00:30:50.380
it's our winter.

00:30:50.460 --> 00:30:52.700
Anybody else have a sad story?

00:30:52.560 --> 00:30:53.920
I have a funny story.

00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:56.080
You know, we're a fairly small operation

00:30:56.240 --> 00:30:59.280
and like in our day-to-day when we're consulting, like our

00:30:59.520 --> 00:30:59.760
i

00:30:59.920 --> 00:31:02.320
we use a van, not a truck.

00:31:02.220 --> 00:31:07.660
Because, you know, like some areas, bees, you people don't want their neighbors knowing or whatever.

00:31:07.660 --> 00:31:07.900
So

00:31:08.140 --> 00:31:12.380
unmarked van, which means we move bees in vans, in closed

00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:14.400
vehicles frequently.

00:31:14.400 --> 00:31:17.280
And when we were first starting our operation

00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:24.960
and building up our own apiaries, Randy Oliver and his son would come down with a truckload of bees and make nucs.

00:31:24.740 --> 00:31:28.660
But the last season we needed them, we only needed like 40.

00:31:28.660 --> 00:31:28.900
So

00:31:29.140 --> 00:31:37.700
we took our van up to Grass Valley, loaded them all up, and about 10 minutes after leaving, our van started filling with bees.

00:31:37.620 --> 00:31:37.940
And

00:31:38.180 --> 00:31:39.380
we pulled over

00:31:39.620 --> 00:31:42.260
and it was clear that the nuke

00:31:42.420 --> 00:31:43.140
where the open

00:31:43.380 --> 00:31:44.740
where the opening had come out

00:31:44.900 --> 00:31:46.820
was in the center of the van

00:31:47.140 --> 00:31:49.620
and we weren't gonna unload it.

00:31:49.880 --> 00:31:50.200
So

00:31:50.440 --> 00:31:54.680
we drove for three hours with thousands of bees in our van.

00:31:54.680 --> 00:32:01.000
I didn't let my husband open the windows because I felt really bad about these bees becoming homeless.

00:32:00.820 --> 00:32:04.020
So I wanted to wait until we got back to the apiary

00:32:04.180 --> 00:32:05.940
where they could find homes.

00:32:05.940 --> 00:32:08.660
And the crazy thing is we were on a major like

00:32:08.840 --> 00:32:11.640
five lane highway for a significant part.

00:32:11.640 --> 00:32:16.120
I don't think anyone noticed that our windows were moving.

00:32:16.120 --> 00:32:21.000
And I'm pretty sure if I saw movement in someone's window, I'd do a double

00:32:21.240 --> 00:32:22.200
take.

00:32:21.640 --> 00:32:24.760
But I don't think anyone in three hours noticed.

00:32:24.760 --> 00:32:26.360
Oh, that's funny.

00:32:26.360 --> 00:32:28.360
Monnie, did you get any stings?

00:32:28.360 --> 00:32:30.040
Did they sting you at all?

00:32:29.940 --> 00:32:31.539
No, and that's when we really learned

00:32:31.700 --> 00:32:31.779
like

00:32:31.940 --> 00:32:33.940
it's no big deal having bees in in a c

00:32:34.100 --> 00:32:37.139
in a closed vehicle because they're not interested in you in all.

00:32:37.139 --> 00:32:40.980
They just want to go to the window where the sun is shining in.

00:32:40.919 --> 00:32:41.240
So

00:32:41.400 --> 00:32:44.840
yeah, and they were actually they weren't just in the back window.

00:32:44.840 --> 00:32:48.280
They were all over the driver and passenger windows as well.

00:32:48.280 --> 00:32:49.720
That's funny.

00:32:49.540 --> 00:32:50.260
And?

00:32:50.260 --> 00:32:51.300
Oh, a story?

00:32:51.300 --> 00:32:53.060
I was just gonna say I've been on the road with a van

00:32:53.220 --> 00:32:54.340
fill of bees a lot.

00:32:54.340 --> 00:32:56.420
I always love like driving down the

00:32:56.580 --> 00:32:57.780
highway with

00:32:58.240 --> 00:32:58.480
people

00:32:58.720 --> 00:32:59.280
next to you

00:32:59.440 --> 00:33:00.480
just being like, what

00:33:00.640 --> 00:33:02.640
the heck is happening?

00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:03.120
I mean,

00:33:03.280 --> 00:33:03.440
Sad

00:33:03.600 --> 00:33:03.680
like

00:33:03.920 --> 00:33:04.080
sad

00:33:04.240 --> 00:33:04.480
story

00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:04.960
for us

00:33:05.120 --> 00:33:07.280
continues to be recovering from the

00:33:07.760 --> 00:33:07.919


00:33:08.080 --> 00:33:08.640
hurricane

00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:09.440
Helene

00:33:09.600 --> 00:33:14.640
times, , we lost a big set of R Vs there in twenty twenty four and I mean

00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:15.919
last year because of

00:33:16.140 --> 00:33:18.540
federal funding freezes and delays and

00:33:18.780 --> 00:33:19.820
chaos.

00:33:19.820 --> 00:33:23.500
We ended up not being able to get our recovery money in time.

00:33:23.500 --> 00:33:24.300
So this year

00:33:24.460 --> 00:33:26.300
we're, you know, buying a lot of and

00:33:26.460 --> 00:33:28.300
constructing a lot of new equipment

00:33:29.400 --> 00:33:29.720
making

00:33:29.880 --> 00:33:31.080
a big transition

00:33:31.400 --> 00:33:31.720
into

00:33:31.880 --> 00:33:34.920
a lot more Langstroth hives here in the Northeast.

00:33:34.920 --> 00:33:36.840
And so I guess it's a good it's a nice story

00:33:37.080 --> 00:33:37.320
because

00:33:37.720 --> 00:33:43.080
This year we actually get to recover, but we did have to take quite a hit last year in both our queen

00:33:43.240 --> 00:33:46.840
production and our ability to recover from our losses.

00:33:46.660 --> 00:33:49.620
So I finally feel like we're coming out the other side of that, but

00:33:49.780 --> 00:33:53.140
man, it was really a walloping that we took there.

00:33:53.140 --> 00:33:55.700
I have a quick one, and if you don't like it, you can cut it.

00:33:55.700 --> 00:33:55.940
But

00:33:56.060 --> 00:33:56.860
There I was.

00:33:56.860 --> 00:34:01.180
And I thought, new beekeeper, and I'm sure everybody in this group has done the same thing.

00:34:01.180 --> 00:34:02.300
You think, you know what?

00:34:02.300 --> 00:34:03.660
I gotta move this hive.

00:34:03.660 --> 00:34:05.580
I'm just gonna be really quick.

00:34:05.260 --> 00:34:14.780
And I'm gonna go at night when, you know, no one's doing anything and they're all at home, and you park your car up and you're like, I can't see anything, I'll just shine the headlights right on the front of the hive.

00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:15.520
And I'll just run over

00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:16.319
the hive.

00:34:16.319 --> 00:34:17.279
It'll be really quick.

00:34:17.279 --> 00:34:19.039
No one will even know anything's happening.

00:34:19.039 --> 00:34:21.520
And I'll grab that hive and I'll move it before they know.

00:34:21.520 --> 00:34:24.559
And what ends up happening is it never goes that way.

00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:32.159
All the bees came out, they all sting me, and if you've been around bees long enough, you know that when a few sting you in one location, then everybody else wants to go in that location, right?

00:34:32.159 --> 00:34:33.840
Because the pheromones are being kicked off.

00:34:33.840 --> 00:34:37.360
So the whole place stinks like bananas, so you know that it they're mad

00:34:37.440 --> 00:34:42.560
And for whatever reason, everybody decided that I was bent over at the front of the hive trying to shove

00:34:42.800 --> 00:34:47.919
some things in the front door so they don't come out of me, which meant that the headlights were shining right on my ass

00:34:47.960 --> 00:34:52.040
And so because the light was right on my butt, all the bees were stinging my butt.

00:34:52.040 --> 00:34:53.800
And then everybody else wanted to sting my butt.

00:34:53.800 --> 00:34:55.560
And before you knew it, I had 30 beehive

00:34:55.720 --> 00:34:56.040
stings

00:34:56.200 --> 00:34:57.080
right on my, you know

00:34:57.260 --> 00:35:01.020
stingers hanging on my butt and then it looked like I was the road runner because I was running around going, oh

00:35:01.820 --> 00:35:04.140
and I couldn't move a thing and I ran back to my car

00:35:04.380 --> 00:35:04.940
and I

00:35:05.100 --> 00:35:07.180
I kid you not, I got in the car and I was like, well

00:35:07.340 --> 00:35:08.300
that didn't work.

00:35:08.300 --> 00:35:09.340
And that was it

00:35:09.260 --> 00:35:09.980
That's where you'll hear

00:35:10.140 --> 00:35:10.620
beekeeper

00:35:10.780 --> 00:35:11.500
say the most curse

00:35:11.820 --> 00:35:11.980
curse

00:35:12.140 --> 00:35:13.500
words, those nighttime B

00:35:13.740 --> 00:35:14.220
moves.

00:35:14.220 --> 00:35:14.300
Oh

00:35:14.460 --> 00:35:14.780
my gosh.

00:35:15.020 --> 00:35:16.300
Red craft bombs.

00:35:16.300 --> 00:35:16.540
Oh

00:35:16.700 --> 00:35:17.500
my gosh.

00:35:18.000 --> 00:35:18.960
Minus the

00:35:19.120 --> 00:35:24.640
the sensitive spot stings that sounds really reminiscent of my very first beehive move.

00:35:24.640 --> 00:35:25.360
It was the

00:35:25.740 --> 00:35:25.820
It

00:35:25.980 --> 00:35:26.940
was late at night and

00:35:27.180 --> 00:35:28.460
but at that time we used hive

00:35:28.620 --> 00:35:29.260
staples

00:35:29.420 --> 00:35:30.060
and it had

00:35:30.220 --> 00:35:30.460


00:35:30.700 --> 00:35:34.460
full honey soupers on top 'cause they were abandoned hives and we just thought we'd

00:35:34.620 --> 00:35:34.860
s

00:35:35.040 --> 00:35:35.360
hive

00:35:35.520 --> 00:35:36.000
staple

00:35:36.160 --> 00:35:39.360
those boxes all together and throw them in the back of the pickup truck and

00:35:39.600 --> 00:35:41.360
just be done and they don't like

00:35:41.520 --> 00:35:44.080
pounding on the side of the colony with a hammer and a

00:35:44.340 --> 00:35:44.740
Staple

00:35:44.980 --> 00:35:45.140
and

00:35:45.300 --> 00:35:48.580
oh they were bearding up front too, so that was the other thing.

00:35:48.580 --> 00:35:49.300
It was fun

00:35:49.860 --> 00:35:50.420
fun times.

00:35:52.420 --> 00:35:53.860
Lessons learned, right?

00:35:53.860 --> 00:35:58.420
Let's take this opportunity for a quick break to hear from our sponsors and we'll be right back.

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00:37:49.520 --> 00:37:50.240
Welcome back

00:37:50.400 --> 00:37:51.680
everybody.

00:37:51.540 --> 00:37:53.540
Okay, we know what didn't work.

00:37:53.540 --> 00:37:55.380
What's going to work this season?

00:37:55.380 --> 00:37:57.140
What are we excited about?

00:37:57.140 --> 00:38:04.180
I'm excited about honey, because it looks like, you know, Dwayne was saying he gets an average of like 30 pounds per hive.

00:38:03.740 --> 00:38:06.140
You know, in some areas we get maybe

00:38:06.380 --> 00:38:06.700
twenty

00:38:06.940 --> 00:38:09.260
pounds per hive if we're lucky.

00:38:09.260 --> 00:38:14.540
And we're seeing more apiaries where spring honey is going to be able to get pulled.

00:38:14.440 --> 00:38:18.920
Hopefully we have a decent summer and get our our fall coyote bush to bloom.

00:38:18.920 --> 00:38:19.079
So

00:38:19.320 --> 00:38:21.560
fingers crossed, hopefully it's gonna be a better honey

00:38:21.720 --> 00:38:23.079
year for our area.

00:38:23.160 --> 00:38:25.800
Paul, I didn't prep you for this question, but

00:38:26.120 --> 00:38:28.040
You're doing something that I

00:38:28.200 --> 00:38:34.840
wonder how many beekeepers are working on, but you're working with a 3D printer to make bee parts or tools.

00:38:35.040 --> 00:38:35.680
and other

00:38:35.920 --> 00:38:38.320
experimenting with a 3D printer in your beekeeping.

00:38:38.320 --> 00:38:39.840
So can you tell us what you're doing

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:41.680
and how that's going?

00:38:41.680 --> 00:38:43.440
Part of the problem is I run

00:38:43.760 --> 00:38:44.480
a lot of hive

00:38:44.640 --> 00:38:46.240
IQ hypes.

00:38:46.140 --> 00:38:49.180
And there's not a lot of things out there like feeder

00:38:49.420 --> 00:38:49.740
rims

00:38:49.900 --> 00:38:52.700
or double screen boards for doing your in

00:38:53.020 --> 00:38:53.099
your

00:38:53.260 --> 00:38:54.700
queen raising and that.

00:38:54.700 --> 00:38:56.779
So what I've been doing is I've been making

00:38:56.940 --> 00:38:57.099


00:38:57.339 --> 00:38:57.980
three D

00:38:58.140 --> 00:38:58.779
parts

00:38:58.940 --> 00:38:59.660
like f

00:38:59.820 --> 00:39:00.140
feeder

00:39:00.300 --> 00:39:00.700
rims

00:39:00.940 --> 00:39:03.820
and you know your perch for your frames and that

00:39:03.980 --> 00:39:04.300
and

00:39:04.540 --> 00:39:06.060
if I find a problem

00:39:06.380 --> 00:39:09.180
I just try to design something and make it

00:39:09.339 --> 00:39:10.540
make it available

00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:12.040
It's really it's really

00:39:12.200 --> 00:39:12.840
fun.

00:39:12.840 --> 00:39:14.760
I've made bee waters that have

00:39:14.920 --> 00:39:21.640
sit in their fountain, , you know, there's all kinds of stuff out there that already somebody else has done just modifying it.

00:39:21.300 --> 00:39:21.460
I

00:39:21.700 --> 00:39:23.860
also teach a lot of classes, so

00:39:24.100 --> 00:39:28.180
you know the many hives you can get for, you know, like thirty nine dollars or so at a B

00:39:28.420 --> 00:39:28.900
store?

00:39:28.900 --> 00:39:29.540
Well, I went

00:39:29.700 --> 00:39:30.980
I enlarged one two

00:39:31.140 --> 00:39:32.020
hundred percent

00:39:32.240 --> 00:39:33.200
And now they have

00:39:33.360 --> 00:39:33.440


00:39:33.680 --> 00:39:35.120
a couple of bee clubs have

00:39:35.440 --> 00:39:38.000
hives that they can turn around and take into

00:39:38.160 --> 00:39:40.080
a school or something that or

00:39:40.320 --> 00:39:41.360
you know, they only live

00:39:41.660 --> 00:39:43.100
you know, five pounds.

00:39:43.100 --> 00:39:46.540
But they have full frames, they have drone frames on them.

00:39:46.540 --> 00:39:50.140
They can show all the different parts without having to carry, you know, a hundred

00:39:50.300 --> 00:39:51.820
pound hype around.

00:39:51.740 --> 00:39:52.780
I really admire that

00:39:52.940 --> 00:39:59.900
and using the new technology as a way to expand your beekeeping operations and the tools that you have available.

00:39:59.900 --> 00:40:00.780
I think that's really

00:40:00.940 --> 00:40:02.460
I like that creativity.

00:40:02.460 --> 00:40:03.420
Hey Paul, will you

00:40:03.580 --> 00:40:05.020
will you ship stuff?

00:40:05.020 --> 00:40:05.180
Oh

00:40:05.340 --> 00:40:06.300
yeah.

00:40:05.960 --> 00:40:06.920
Out of state?

00:40:06.920 --> 00:40:07.560
Okay.

00:40:07.720 --> 00:40:09.640
One of the things I've done if you could see it

00:40:09.800 --> 00:40:10.040
here

00:40:10.200 --> 00:40:11.080
is a little

00:40:11.320 --> 00:40:11.640
cap

00:40:11.960 --> 00:40:12.280
that

00:40:12.440 --> 00:40:12.760
your

00:40:13.080 --> 00:40:17.800
broodminders go into, so you're not sitting there unwrapping everything.

00:40:17.800 --> 00:40:19.880
Wow, that's cool.

00:40:19.540 --> 00:40:20.820
We could definitely use that.

00:40:20.820 --> 00:40:25.860
So does that fit in between the bottom bar of your frame and the top bar of the next

00:40:26.020 --> 00:40:26.740
super?

00:40:26.740 --> 00:40:27.460
Yes.

00:40:27.460 --> 00:40:28.020
Huh.

00:40:27.980 --> 00:40:28.460
It's it's

00:40:29.339 --> 00:40:30.059
brilliant.

00:40:30.059 --> 00:40:32.140
It's less than a quarter of an inch, so

00:40:32.380 --> 00:40:35.020
how do we get pricing and availability?

00:40:35.180 --> 00:40:35.819
Yeah

00:40:36.820 --> 00:40:37.940
Do we have a website yet for

00:40:38.100 --> 00:40:38.660
you, Bob?

00:40:44.580 --> 00:40:45.220
You know, little

00:40:45.540 --> 00:40:46.420
little things like

00:40:46.740 --> 00:40:50.180
like this, you know, here's a little super, you know, people can get.

00:40:50.340 --> 00:40:51.940
You've done models of different bees

00:40:52.340 --> 00:40:52.820
the queens

00:40:52.980 --> 00:40:54.740
and and the workers and varroa

00:40:55.220 --> 00:40:55.299
I

00:40:55.539 --> 00:40:56.579
I bought some

00:40:56.819 --> 00:40:59.380
files from somebody that has actually a queen

00:40:59.619 --> 00:41:00.579
and a drone

00:41:00.740 --> 00:41:01.299
and

00:41:01.460 --> 00:41:03.140
a worker bee and I've been

00:41:03.299 --> 00:41:04.500
larger them to sizes.

00:41:04.500 --> 00:41:06.099
I'm working on what we call

00:41:06.440 --> 00:41:08.440
Because they're so complicated you have sub

00:41:08.599 --> 00:41:08.920
sports

00:41:09.079 --> 00:41:09.800
I have to work on.

00:41:09.800 --> 00:41:11.640
I'm working on that issue right now.

00:41:11.640 --> 00:41:12.280
I like that.

00:41:12.280 --> 00:41:13.160
3D printing.

00:41:13.320 --> 00:41:13.640
Who would have

00:41:13.800 --> 00:41:15.320
funked that ten years ago?

00:41:15.320 --> 00:41:16.680
Five years ago.

00:41:16.240 --> 00:41:18.880
Using a 3D printer to create beekeeping tools.

00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:19.680
Thanks, Paul.

00:41:19.680 --> 00:41:21.760
Is there anything else we want to talk about?

00:41:21.760 --> 00:41:22.320
Yeah.

00:41:22.320 --> 00:41:24.480
I'm excited about selling honey.

00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:28.080
Now, you know, if I can get in front of people, I can sell.

00:41:28.080 --> 00:41:28.880
I mean

00:41:29.120 --> 00:41:31.600
We have an arrangement with our chiropractor

00:41:31.840 --> 00:41:34.480
where we give her honey for treatment.

00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:34.800
And

00:41:35.040 --> 00:41:37.040
two weeks ago I gave her cash

00:41:37.200 --> 00:41:38.400
because she's got more honey

00:41:38.560 --> 00:41:38.960
almost

00:41:39.120 --> 00:41:40.240
than I do.

00:41:40.420 --> 00:41:44.740
And she scolded me and made me promise to bring only honey.

00:41:44.980 --> 00:41:47.380
So, you know, I've got this honey problem.

00:41:47.380 --> 00:41:49.300
You know, we've got friends and neighbors

00:41:49.460 --> 00:41:53.060
and the people that know you have honey that come up to you.

00:41:52.840 --> 00:41:54.440
How do we go beyond that?

00:41:54.440 --> 00:41:55.960
And I looked at farmers

00:41:56.120 --> 00:41:57.400
markets and in my area

00:41:57.560 --> 00:41:59.480
there's three companies that do farmers

00:41:59.640 --> 00:42:02.760
market, and I swear they're trying to produce a farmers

00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:04.680
market on every corner

00:42:04.740 --> 00:42:05.620
And so it's just

00:42:05.780 --> 00:42:07.780
they're just not cost effective.

00:42:07.780 --> 00:42:08.260
And so

00:42:08.500 --> 00:42:09.220
my wife's

00:42:09.380 --> 00:42:10.660
the lady that does her hair

00:42:10.820 --> 00:42:12.100
owns a hair shop

00:42:12.340 --> 00:42:16.500
and it's in a community and they had a parade.

00:42:16.440 --> 00:42:17.320
and a farmer

00:42:17.480 --> 00:42:17.800
's market

00:42:17.960 --> 00:42:19.320
going on the other corner.

00:42:19.320 --> 00:42:19.800
So I just

00:42:19.960 --> 00:42:23.720
set up my little table and sold five hundred dollars worth of honey for the day.

00:42:23.720 --> 00:42:23.880
So

00:42:24.760 --> 00:42:26.599
I I'll I'll go to street corners.

00:42:26.599 --> 00:42:27.960
I'm thinking about going

00:42:28.119 --> 00:42:31.160
to orthodox synagogues.

00:42:30.720 --> 00:42:31.039
for

00:42:31.279 --> 00:42:31.760
honey

00:42:31.920 --> 00:42:34.799
when they need honey for some of their holidays.

00:42:34.799 --> 00:42:40.480
I've got a community college that offers programming to retired for $50

00:42:40.799 --> 00:42:41.680
a year.

00:42:41.540 --> 00:42:41.860
They can

00:42:42.020 --> 00:42:45.220
listen to all these people talk and I'm now on their schedule

00:42:45.380 --> 00:42:47.540
and so once a month I go do a honey

00:42:47.700 --> 00:42:48.980
tasting party.

00:42:48.980 --> 00:42:49.300
I

00:42:49.460 --> 00:42:52.420
go to people's homes and do honey tasting parties.

00:42:52.420 --> 00:42:53.060
I go

00:42:53.320 --> 00:42:53.560
to

00:42:53.880 --> 00:42:56.040
groups that, you know, ha

00:42:56.280 --> 00:42:58.680
have speakers come in and sell honey.

00:42:58.680 --> 00:43:01.640
And so I'm I'm upping my game.

00:43:01.180 --> 00:43:02.140
You're the Tupperware

00:43:02.300 --> 00:43:03.020
of beekeeping.

00:43:03.500 --> 00:43:04.620
I'm working on that.

00:43:04.620 --> 00:43:05.260
Okay.

00:43:05.420 --> 00:43:05.660
That's

00:43:06.220 --> 00:43:06.780
Amazing.

00:43:07.180 --> 00:43:09.180
Right now I'm running I'm running

00:43:09.420 --> 00:43:09.740
three

00:43:09.900 --> 00:43:11.740
hundred dollars a month.

00:43:11.440 --> 00:43:15.440
And I want to get it up to four thousand dollars a month and I wanna have honey

00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:16.320
ladies.

00:43:16.320 --> 00:43:20.079
Could we could we make that like more gender neutral, Dwayne?

00:43:20.579 --> 00:43:20.980
Honey

00:43:21.140 --> 00:43:21.700
peoples.

00:43:21.700 --> 00:43:23.220
Honey pedals.

00:43:23.700 --> 00:43:24.579
That would work.

00:43:24.579 --> 00:43:24.980
Honey

00:43:25.140 --> 00:43:25.859
pedlers.

00:43:25.859 --> 00:43:27.060
They could have little like like

00:43:27.220 --> 00:43:29.619
tricycles with like a honey

00:43:30.040 --> 00:43:30.840
It's kind of bell

00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:31.080
and

00:43:31.640 --> 00:43:33.000
go through neighborhoods.

00:43:33.240 --> 00:43:35.720
Yeah, like a like an ice cream job.

00:43:35.720 --> 00:43:36.040
Yeah.

00:43:36.040 --> 00:43:37.240
I tried to get my eleven

00:43:37.740 --> 00:43:40.860
grandchildren to sell for me, but kids today don't want to work.

00:43:40.860 --> 00:43:42.300
The pay's gotta be right.

00:43:42.300 --> 00:43:45.740
Yeah, the pay has to be right, yeah.

00:43:45.740 --> 00:43:48.940
Yeah, come on, grandpa, it can't be for free.

00:43:48.840 --> 00:43:49.720
, that's

00:43:49.960 --> 00:43:51.560
everything's expensive, you know?

00:43:51.560 --> 00:43:51.720
Her

00:43:51.960 --> 00:43:52.600
generation has

00:43:52.840 --> 00:43:53.960
really got a lot to face

00:43:54.280 --> 00:43:54.920
down.

00:43:54.920 --> 00:43:56.920
They clean equipment for me for a dollar

00:43:57.080 --> 00:43:58.120
afraid.

00:43:57.760 --> 00:43:58.480
There you go.

00:43:58.480 --> 00:44:00.400
Oh, I have a a grandpa

00:44:00.560 --> 00:44:01.040
one.

00:44:01.040 --> 00:44:01.600
I'm went to

00:44:01.920 --> 00:44:02.240
go into

00:44:02.400 --> 00:44:03.680
some new broodminder

00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:04.800
sensors

00:44:05.040 --> 00:44:07.040
and so I'm going like Gee Wills, I gotta

00:44:07.160 --> 00:44:12.840
put 'em in these hives, what am I gonna name the hives so I remember 'em as a seventy year old person, what they are.

00:44:12.840 --> 00:44:16.040
So I said, Well I'm gonna name 'em after my grandchids.

00:44:16.040 --> 00:44:16.360
Well,

00:44:16.600 --> 00:44:17.880
Nora, Ruby

00:44:18.040 --> 00:44:18.680
and that

00:44:18.940 --> 00:44:19.260
Said,

00:44:19.420 --> 00:44:20.619
is that okay with my wife?

00:44:20.780 --> 00:44:22.460
She goes, No, you can't name him

00:44:22.619 --> 00:44:23.020
Ruby

00:44:23.180 --> 00:44:23.980
because I can't sit there

00:44:24.300 --> 00:44:24.460
saying

00:44:24.619 --> 00:44:25.980
Ruby's gaining weight.

00:44:26.780 --> 00:44:29.579
So I named him after all their old pets that we had.

00:44:29.579 --> 00:44:31.740
So we have Rufus and Ziggy

00:44:32.060 --> 00:44:32.380
and

00:44:32.780 --> 00:44:34.300
Zach and Max and

00:44:34.620 --> 00:44:36.940
No, no, really, I was talking about the hive.

00:44:36.940 --> 00:44:37.500
Really, I

00:44:37.740 --> 00:44:38.220
well that's

00:44:38.380 --> 00:44:39.100
funny.

00:44:39.100 --> 00:44:41.660
I'm also excited about honey this year.

00:44:41.660 --> 00:44:46.540
We've been trying to set ourselves up to do more honey production and I've been running my

00:44:46.900 --> 00:44:48.820
production budgets and

00:44:48.980 --> 00:44:49.380
capital

00:44:49.620 --> 00:44:50.580
scaling budgets.

00:44:50.580 --> 00:44:54.660
I'm just feeling pretty confident in our and what we have planned.

00:44:54.660 --> 00:44:55.780
So I'm looking forward to

00:44:55.940 --> 00:44:57.620
to pulling a lot of honey

00:44:57.760 --> 00:45:02.080
Yeah, we also have this, so we're going to be doing a two-year trial where we look at our breeder

00:45:02.320 --> 00:45:02.960
queens

00:45:03.280 --> 00:45:03.600
and

00:45:03.840 --> 00:45:06.240
run different varroamite essays

00:45:06.480 --> 00:45:07.920
on those queens.

00:45:07.760 --> 00:45:10.720
and then raise a bunch of daughters and run those same essays

00:45:10.880 --> 00:45:15.840
on those daughters and try to map some heritability of those traits, like how heritable

00:45:16.240 --> 00:45:16.400
are

00:45:16.560 --> 00:45:19.520
hygienic or Varroa sensitive traits.

00:45:19.520 --> 00:45:20.640
Because we're curious.

00:45:20.640 --> 00:45:21.440
You know, field work

00:45:21.600 --> 00:45:22.400
and science, oh

00:45:22.640 --> 00:45:24.400
sometimes they tell different stories

00:45:24.640 --> 00:45:24.880
And

00:45:25.039 --> 00:45:29.359
do you have a market for your honey, your increased honey production, or are you going to

00:45:29.920 --> 00:45:34.319
Yeah, we have a really robust local food scene here and so

00:45:34.559 --> 00:45:36.000
we are hoping to partner

00:45:36.240 --> 00:45:37.039
with CSA

00:45:37.359 --> 00:45:38.160
Farms

00:45:38.140 --> 00:45:38.619
and sell

00:45:38.779 --> 00:45:40.779
our honey sort of direct to

00:45:41.099 --> 00:45:41.260
their

00:45:41.660 --> 00:45:42.299
customers.

00:45:42.299 --> 00:45:43.740
We also have a big demand.

00:45:43.740 --> 00:45:45.980
Part of the reason that we started doing this is because

00:45:46.140 --> 00:45:47.099
we could sell

00:45:47.820 --> 00:45:48.060
two

00:45:48.300 --> 00:45:50.300
times what we produce right now.

00:45:50.300 --> 00:45:50.700
And so

00:45:50.860 --> 00:45:57.340
just knowing that we have a big demand, we want to be able to fill that and then also do these sort of wholesale partnerships.

00:45:56.960 --> 00:46:00.000
Yeah, it's a good moment for honey in our area, so we're excited.

00:46:00.320 --> 00:46:02.560
You know, I'm actually gonna divert from the crowd here.

00:46:02.560 --> 00:46:02.720


00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:04.800
I think selling honey is awesome, but

00:46:05.059 --> 00:46:12.500
What I'm really excited about this year is, you know, I'm I'm, I guess, the one person in this crowd that's like pretty heavily involved in agritourism.

00:46:12.500 --> 00:46:12.819
And

00:46:13.059 --> 00:46:13.380
the

00:46:13.539 --> 00:46:14.660
overwhelming

00:46:15.020 --> 00:46:18.220
interest and and level of excitement around these

00:46:18.460 --> 00:46:20.060
and learning and experiences

00:46:20.220 --> 00:46:21.020
is incredible.

00:46:21.020 --> 00:46:22.940
I never thought we'd get to where we are right now.

00:46:22.940 --> 00:46:23.660
It's it's

00:46:24.020 --> 00:46:26.980
70% of our business easily, 70 or 80%.

00:46:26.980 --> 00:46:27.460
And so

00:46:27.780 --> 00:46:30.660
people really want to experience what is it like to be a beekeeper?

00:46:30.820 --> 00:46:33.780
You know, opening up a hive, tasting honey barehanded out of the hive.

00:46:33.780 --> 00:46:36.020
It's it's definitely hitting.

00:46:35.740 --> 00:46:37.820
And what I'm most excited this year is

00:46:38.060 --> 00:46:39.980
we are rolling out like officially

00:46:40.140 --> 00:46:41.420
something called Be Still

00:46:41.580 --> 00:46:42.300
Meditations.

00:46:42.300 --> 00:46:44.300
And so we bring people out to the yard.

00:46:44.480 --> 00:46:46.160
and essentially put them on a yoga mat

00:46:46.319 --> 00:46:51.279
and we have a certain yard where hives are higher up and the bees fly over your head as you lay on the yoga mats

00:46:51.520 --> 00:46:52.720
and we lead you through

00:46:52.880 --> 00:46:55.279
sow bowls and some some grounding work

00:46:55.440 --> 00:47:00.400
And it is overwhelming how many people want to do this thing and how relaxed they get.

00:47:00.400 --> 00:47:01.920
It's one of those things where like

00:47:02.079 --> 00:47:04.240
we are all hustle and bustler, right?

00:47:04.240 --> 00:47:08.480
All of us are like trying to make this thing work and survive at this amazing hobby we have

00:47:08.460 --> 00:47:14.860
And sometimes the sort of the hidden bonus, at least that I've learned over the years, is the therapeutic value of these bees.

00:47:14.860 --> 00:47:20.300
I spent twenty years as a fireman and I saw some pretty rough things in this world, and bees are what

00:47:20.540 --> 00:47:22.620
slave my life and have kept me sane.

00:47:22.620 --> 00:47:25.340
And for me to be able to share that and have people tap

00:47:25.500 --> 00:47:25.820
into

00:47:25.980 --> 00:47:31.660
how they focus you you know, you have to control your breathing, you gotta be self aware, all these things that you all know, but

00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:31.920
the

00:47:32.080 --> 00:47:34.240
the average Joe out there doesn't.

00:47:34.240 --> 00:47:38.080
And so I'm really blown away by how many people want to do this thing.

00:47:38.080 --> 00:47:46.560
You know, and they don't necessarily want to be a beekeeper, but they want to be around the vibration, the frequency, and everything that the bees bring to all of us that we are sort of used to.

00:47:45.600 --> 00:47:46.640
And so that's what I'm really

00:47:46.800 --> 00:47:46.880
mo

00:47:47.040 --> 00:47:47.680
most excited about.

00:47:47.680 --> 00:47:48.000
We're gonna

00:47:48.160 --> 00:47:49.760
we do it every single Saturday pretty much.

00:47:49.760 --> 00:47:50.560
You know, that's just the B

00:47:50.720 --> 00:47:50.960
still.

00:47:50.960 --> 00:47:54.000
We do APA tours now three times a week, four times a week.

00:47:54.000 --> 00:47:57.280
Thousands of people were coming through your yards, and it's a great spot to be in.

00:47:57.280 --> 00:47:57.600
So

00:47:57.660 --> 00:47:59.900
How do you keep the people from being stung?

00:47:59.900 --> 00:48:00.860
We have really docile

00:48:01.020 --> 00:48:01.580
bees.

00:48:01.580 --> 00:48:01.660
Our

00:48:01.820 --> 00:48:02.300
Carnies

00:48:02.540 --> 00:48:03.500
and a carney

00:48:03.660 --> 00:48:05.340
Italian line is pretty awesome

00:48:05.500 --> 00:48:06.860
and everybody's in a suit.

00:48:06.860 --> 00:48:10.140
You know, no one's really going out there without anything on

00:48:10.260 --> 00:48:14.420
But then the the bee still meditation there comes a point where you're allowed to actually take your veil off

00:48:14.580 --> 00:48:18.260
and most people take their gloves off and the bees are very, very chill

00:48:17.980 --> 00:48:22.059
It also helps that we do it in the morning, helps that we're doing it in yards that don't have ten

00:48:22.299 --> 00:48:23.099
supers of honey.

00:48:23.099 --> 00:48:23.660
You know what I mean?

00:48:23.660 --> 00:48:26.539
It's we we do definitely stack the the odds in our favor.

00:48:27.020 --> 00:48:28.380
How many hives do you have in

00:48:28.619 --> 00:48:30.059
in the location?

00:48:29.840 --> 00:48:30.960
Brilliant idea.

00:48:31.040 --> 00:48:35.120
Where we're doing the Beastal Meditation, there's probably no more than like fifteen, fifteen

00:48:35.280 --> 00:48:36.000
to twenty.

00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:36.800
Nothing crazy.

00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:38.560
And they're not again, they're not like

00:48:38.660 --> 00:48:41.780
eight frame big time honey producers, they're more like a nuke yard.

00:48:41.780 --> 00:48:42.180
Our nuke

00:48:42.340 --> 00:48:43.780
yard is the most popular one to do it in and

00:48:43.940 --> 00:48:47.220
and the nucs are no more than like four, five super tall nucs.

00:48:46.800 --> 00:48:47.200
It's pretty

00:48:47.360 --> 00:48:47.920
chill.

00:48:47.920 --> 00:48:49.280
That would be very fun.

00:48:49.280 --> 00:48:50.640
Anything else?

00:48:50.720 --> 00:48:52.880
Something that happened to me l this year

00:48:53.040 --> 00:48:54.560
was really exciting.

00:48:54.560 --> 00:48:58.720
A mile from my house, there's what used to be a horse farm

00:48:58.740 --> 00:49:00.820
And they've planted all kinds of trees.

00:49:00.820 --> 00:49:03.860
They have peaches, they've got citrus, they've got

00:49:04.100 --> 00:49:06.740
desert trees, eucalyptus, and

00:49:06.900 --> 00:49:09.780
we had a tremendous weed crop this year.

00:49:09.640 --> 00:49:10.119
And so

00:49:10.279 --> 00:49:13.559
but last year was real dry and so this lady called me in

00:49:13.720 --> 00:49:13.880
like

00:49:14.119 --> 00:49:18.680
last November and said, What would you charge me to pollinate my trees?

00:49:18.680 --> 00:49:19.640
And I said,

00:49:20.119 --> 00:49:24.279
Well, if I can leave bees there, I'm not going to charge you anything.

00:49:24.480 --> 00:49:25.120
And so

00:49:25.440 --> 00:49:30.000
I drive, work all my bees, and drive home and it's 3.

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:30.080
5

00:49:30.240 --> 00:49:31.200
miles or less.

00:49:31.200 --> 00:49:32.560
And we may copy you

00:49:32.720 --> 00:49:34.320
because they're looking for ways of

00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:35.760
expanding

00:49:35.960 --> 00:49:39.640
the revenue streams and so we might look into the B classes.

00:49:39.640 --> 00:49:40.440
That's great.

00:49:40.440 --> 00:49:43.320
How many suits did you have to buy to start it?

00:49:43.320 --> 00:49:46.280
We have on property about thirty-five suits.

00:49:46.460 --> 00:49:47.660
all from Guardian B

00:49:47.820 --> 00:49:49.580
apparel and they they do a really good job.

00:49:49.580 --> 00:49:50.140
You want to have

00:49:50.380 --> 00:49:52.540
ones that you can really like lay your head down.

00:49:52.540 --> 00:49:55.500
So the, you know, you have to be kind of careful with the type of suit.

00:49:55.500 --> 00:49:57.900
And they're all ventilated, so because you're laying in the sun.

00:49:57.900 --> 00:49:59.580
So you gotta be careful.

00:49:59.240 --> 00:50:01.240
We do something kind of similar at Hydrin

00:50:01.400 --> 00:50:05.000
Meatery here in our county, which is a really fun meetery.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:10.760
I think they're the only ones in the country that do a champagne style mead and they do all these different varietals.

00:50:10.760 --> 00:50:13.960
And we do it's called the bee experience.

00:50:13.260 --> 00:50:19.580
And I do a short farm tour and talk about forage and what bees forage for and native bees and habitat

00:50:19.740 --> 00:50:21.820
and then we get everyone suited up.

00:50:21.660 --> 00:50:23.420
and they get into hives with us.

00:50:23.420 --> 00:50:26.140
I usually get 'em to get their gloves off and start tetting

00:50:26.300 --> 00:50:27.340
bees, you know, with

00:50:27.580 --> 00:50:31.100
a finger, you know, within like five minutes, which is fun.

00:50:31.100 --> 00:50:34.140
And then they pull frames of honey and go in the metery

00:50:34.300 --> 00:50:35.020
and my husband

00:50:35.180 --> 00:50:35.820
Gary

00:50:36.380 --> 00:50:43.260
They extract the honey with them and while we're getting it in bottles, because they all get to take a bottle home, they do a tour and tasting.

00:50:43.260 --> 00:50:43.500
So

00:50:43.740 --> 00:50:45.819
really fun, really popular.

00:50:45.500 --> 00:50:49.580
And like you said, Jay, it's not like most of these people, they don't want to be beekeepers.

00:50:49.580 --> 00:50:50.380
They just want to be

00:50:50.620 --> 00:50:51.580
experience.

00:50:51.580 --> 00:50:53.740
Yeah, they just wanna know what we're all talking about.

00:50:53.740 --> 00:50:59.340
And also I don't have to worry that like Mother Nature may throw at me a curveball and I won't make honey

00:50:58.960 --> 00:51:00.880
'Cause I can yap all day long.

00:51:00.880 --> 00:51:01.280
You know,

00:51:01.440 --> 00:51:01.600
that's

00:51:01.760 --> 00:51:06.800
endless supply and and I don't have a fixed amount of honey that I can sell that will limit my PL for the year.

00:51:06.800 --> 00:51:10.480
Yeah, and that issue that Dwayne brought up about people getting stung

00:51:10.640 --> 00:51:15.119
In the eight years we've been doing it, I think we've had three people get stung.

00:51:15.119 --> 00:51:18.880
You know, you like one of them, you know, a a bee fell into the water

00:51:19.039 --> 00:51:19.200
i

00:51:19.359 --> 00:51:20.319
in the in the w

00:51:20.559 --> 00:51:25.359
during the extraction and they tried to like fish it out and it got stung on the finger.

00:51:25.160 --> 00:51:25.800
Another one th

00:51:26.120 --> 00:51:31.880
the person wasn't wearing gloves and they they put their, you know, hands on them when they got a frame.

00:51:31.880 --> 00:51:33.320
So it's very infrequent.

00:51:33.320 --> 00:51:33.800
I mean

00:51:33.880 --> 00:51:41.800
RBs are really nice too, and in those eight years there's only one time when I've opened a hive and just the sound of them, it was like, yeah, not using them.

00:51:42.440 --> 00:51:43.400
Lit back on.

00:51:43.400 --> 00:51:44.200
Yeah, yeah.

00:51:44.760 --> 00:51:45.880
Well, I can't believe

00:51:46.120 --> 00:51:48.440
our time has come to an end.

00:51:48.440 --> 00:51:51.800
I know we could all go longer, but we all have things to do.

00:51:51.800 --> 00:51:53.960
You're all busy beekeepers.

00:51:53.940 --> 00:51:58.980
I appreciate you taking the time this spring to come out and talk to each other, let

00:51:59.220 --> 00:52:01.780
our listeners listen in, and hopefully

00:52:01.940 --> 00:52:04.260
learn something from your experiences and from

00:52:04.640 --> 00:52:04.720
your

00:52:04.880 --> 00:52:07.520
knowledge and and what you've done with your bees.

00:52:07.520 --> 00:52:09.760
So thank you everybody for joining us.

00:52:09.760 --> 00:52:11.440
It's been a pleasure, everybody.

00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:12.400
Thanks for having us.

00:52:12.400 --> 00:52:13.839
Thanks for having us.

00:52:13.640 --> 00:52:15.319
Yeah, thank you.

00:52:15.319 --> 00:52:17.240
We'll talk to you in the fall.

00:52:17.240 --> 00:52:19.160
Happy beekeeping season, everyone.

00:52:19.160 --> 00:52:20.039
Good luck.

00:52:20.039 --> 00:52:21.240
Thanks for having us.

00:52:21.240 --> 00:52:22.440
Bye.

00:52:22.900 --> 00:52:26.980
And that about wraps it up for this episode of Beekeeping Today.

00:52:26.980 --> 00:52:30.260
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00:52:30.420 --> 00:52:34.580
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00:52:34.580 --> 00:52:35.700
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00:52:35.400 --> 00:52:39.559
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00:52:39.559 --> 00:52:45.799
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00:52:45.799 --> 00:52:50.359
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00:52:50.880 --> 00:53:00.240
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00:53:00.240 --> 00:53:04.079
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00:53:04.079 --> 00:53:04.960
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Feedback, just head over to our website and drop us a note.

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We'd love to hear from you.

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Thanks again, everybody.