May I have your attention, please? The following
is not the real Jeff Fox review. If you failed
freshman science, but now teach honeybee anatomy
at your local bee club, you might be a beekeeper.
If you use a queen clip to keep your hair out...
your face during hive inspection, you might be
a beekeeper. If you go to the car wash and the
attendant there says, I can't get rid of these
orange spots on your vehicle, you might be a
beekeeper. Welcome welcome to Be Love Beekeeping
presented by Man Lake. A very special thank you
to all those who contributed ideas for the new
versions of the not real Jeff Fox worthy intros.
If you sent one in and didn't hear it today keep
listening over the next few weeks you will probably
hear it. Our guest today is a special representative
from Man Lake to discuss what we need to do for
our bees in the spring. plus new beekeeping inventions,
wax -dipped woodenware, and much, much more.
Before we check in with her, let's hear a couple
new wild and crazy beekeeping stories from our
listeners. From Arizona. I've had hives get so
hot that frames of honey have melted and bees
have come surfing right out of the entrance.
And this from Oregon. The first time that I got
stung was the day that I got a swarm call. Now
realize that this day I was just hanging out
at home in my underwear. So at that time I just
put on a whole bee suit, socks, boots, and went
out. I didn't even realize that I had forgotten
to zip the ankles closed until we shook the swarm
out onto a sheet and a bee crawled up my leg
and stung my left butt cheek. Alright. Enough
for the silliness today. Let's get on with our
guest. I would like to welcome our special guest
today, Jenna Prozoski. How are you, Jenna? I'm
doing fabulous. I'm excited for spring. Definitely
ready to get into the beekeeping season this
year. Well, speaking of that, I want to jump
into where you live and what it's like beekeeping
there. You're in Minnesota. Yes. Are you sort
of in the middle part of the state? North Central.
So if you put a pin right in the center of Minnesota,
we're about an hour north of there. So we do
have harsher winters, colder temperatures in
the wintertime. We just wrapped up a pretty nasty
cold stretch where there was a lot of below zero
temperatures. So I'm glad to be past that. I'm
hoping that that's the last of it for this year.
for the listeners. We're recording near the end
of February. This isn't going to come out until
in March sometime. Hopefully by March, you've
got flowers and 60 degrees and who knows. In
March, where we're at, we usually get at least
one good snowstorm. It's usually around the big
basketball tournament, college basketball tournament.
We seem to always get a snowstorm beginning of
March. And even sometimes we've gotten snow in
early April, so our winters do last a long time
here. I don't feel that sorry for you then. I
thought it was a lot colder in Minnesota, but
we've had snow in May. And a couple of years
ago, we had a freeze in our garden on June 30th.
I as long as I've been gardening, I don't think
I've really had a hard freeze after the beginning
of June. So I I'm lucky to have at least a little
bit more temperate climate once we get into into
June. Anyway, any idea how your personal bees
are doing this year? So I have three hives. It's
not a huge beekeeper. I like to keep bees for
pollination in my garden because I'm an avid
gardener. So far, so good. All three colonies
were really strong going into the winter. Just
as a preventative, I always add in extra winter
feed just to be safe. I need to get into my hives
yet to see exactly how much of that they have
left. Because yesterday was really the first
warm day that we've had this winter where I could
do that. So I'm hoping this week to get in. But
so far, so good. All three are still buzzing
inside their boxes. That is awesome. In fact,
I'm doing the same thing today because we may
hit 50 degrees here today. We're having a little
warm snap, so I'm going to go see how they're
doing on food. And you should have bees even
flying then doing their cleansing flights at
50. Yeah, yeah, so I'm pretty excited for this
afternoon and it's a nice sunny day, so I think
it's going to be a good one. So I'm going to
let people know up front you are marketing director
for Man Lake. We're in love with Man Lake around
here as people know I'm not gonna apologize for
that one little bit But I want to hear and we
are I promise listeners. We are not turning this
into an infomercial today, but I think there's
some things that People don't know about Man
Lake that'd be good for them to know for example
your app and your AI tool Can you just give us
an idea of some of those things? Yeah, so over
the past year and a half, two years, we have
really put a lot of energy towards building resources
for beekeepers because we know, especially when
you're first getting started, it's not necessarily
an easy hobby to get into. There's tons of information
out there. tried to just become a reliable resource
for beekeepers. So on our website, we have Bella,
who is an AI chatbot, and we have put a lot of
energy into training her. So she's giving good
information. So if you have just a general beekeeping
question, you can go on and just type it in and
she'll give you an answer. Some people are in
Florida, some are in Alaska. How does Bella know
how to answer their questions? It is helpful
if you can provide that information. So I'm in
Florida, when should I feed my bees pollen substitute?
So the more information that you put into your
question, the better answer that you're going
to get from her. And we have really put Bella
to the test and we've asked customers, even commercial
beekeepers to just throw some crazy questions
out there. And the feedback has just been phenomenal
on the answers that she's giving. She's very,
very good. Very, very smart. Yes. Thanks to all
the good information that went into it. Yeah,
exactly. How about your app? What can you do
on the app and why do I want the app versus just
looking up things on my computer? Yeah. So, you
know, a lot of people would think, oh man, like
has an app that's just for shopping. You can
shop on there. Absolutely. All of our products
are available there, but there's also a full
resource library. So We have our videos on there,
blog articles. There's also a plant identification
feature, which we layered in a list of bee friendly
plants. So if you're out in your garden, you
want to take a snap of that plant to see if it's
bee friendly, pull up the app, identify the plant,
and it'll tell you whether or not it is good
for bees. So what if I'm out on a hike? in the
hills and I see some kind of plant that is just
covered with bees. So I'm like, I want to get
that in my yard, but I don't know what it is
Will it do that also or only tell me if it's
good for bees? No, it will identify and tell
you what that plant is There's also a feature
if you were to build a pollinator garden in your
area You can select your region and it will list
out all the pollinator friendly plants that are
native to your area So you can focus on native
plants that are bee friendly as well Okay, what
if I'm somebody that doesn't want to use an app?
afraid of AI and I want to talk to a live person,
is there some way to call Man Lake and say, hey,
I'm a brand new beekeeper or I've just been doing
this a couple of years and I have a question
about such and such. Yeah, we have a dedicated
customer service staff that will answer your
phone calls. One really exciting thing is that
a lot of them are also beekeepers and we have
also put them. through the University of Florida
Master Beekeepers course. Not everyone has completed
the course yet, but they are. That's that's part
of their their training is to learn about beekeeping.
So if you are getting started and you're uncertain
of what to get, how many hives to start with
and just those basic questions, just give us
a call and we can answer those questions. OK,
here's one thing that I want to know, and this
may or may not have anything to do with Mad Lake.
but it has to do with equipment. How do we know
what is good equipment to buy? And I'm talking
wood and wear for starters. Boxes, frames, for
those of us that have bought them from different
places, and some of them seem to hold together
real well. Some it seems like, oh, when the frames
get propolized and I pry that thing up, it's
splitting apart. Yep. How do I know what's quality
so I know what to buy and not? So my best advice
is make sure that you are buying from a trusted
supplier that manufactures in the US that is
not importing their woodenware and is especially
not importing their frames and foundation. And
I say that specifically because there are quality
control efforts in place with the beeswax coating
that we put on our foundation. And that is not
in place in other countries. So if you are buying
products from Man Lake, I can confidently tell
you that it's safe for you to use in your hive.
It's safe for your bees. If you're ordering off
of some of those Chinese apps where you can get
things super cheap. I cannot confidently tell
you that what you're getting is quality and what
you're getting is going to be safe for your bees.
Speaking of foundation, how do I know when to
replace it? Can I just keep foundation forever?
You can't. And the reason is, is that your bees
are out foraging and when they're bringing things
back to the hive, they're not only bringing nectar
and pollen back, they're bringing things from
the environment. So over time, pesticides and
will build up in the hive. A general rule, five
years, you can stretch it out a little bit further,
but I think if you try to hold yourself to that
five -year mark, chances are you'll be switching
it out around six or seven, if you're a beekeeper
like me. Well, and it's hard to ever switch it
out because it is the bees work so hard to draw
out all that comb. And at some point, it's true
what you're saying. You do have to realize there's
a buildup of pesticides and stuff in there, and
there's times to just throw it away and let them
start over for their own health. Exactly. And
you can see it in the color of the comb. It just
darkens over time. And at a certain point, you
just need to replace it. And one thing that I've
done that I've found Helpful is I don't replace
an entire box at one time So I'll just rotate
certain frames out every year so I'll pull two
or four frames out and replace and basically
just you know move move the frames that were
in there in put my new frames on the outside
and then Just just rotate them out Speaking of
that. What's the deal with black foundation?
If you have not used black foundation, you definitely
should It's not necessary in your honey supers,
but in your bird chamber, it is so much easier
to see the eggs in the cells. It just provides
that contrast to where it's night and day difference.
It really is. So I'm guessing also in what you're
doing, and I know you're going to all the trade
shows and. and the Honey Bee Expos all over the
country and stuff. Tell us about some of the
new products you see out there, because I'm kind
of a gadget guy, and I love hearing about anything
new and whether you think they work or not. Give
us an idea. The newest thing on the market, and
everyone, I think, is offering some fashion of
this, is the wax -dipped woodenware. And I actually
would like to talk a little bit more about that
and how you know that you're getting something
that is wax -dipped. Because if you're looking
at our wax -dipped boxes, the finish on it isn't
all that different from just a regular box. I
mean, if you have an untreated box next to a
wax -dipped box, there's just a slight color
difference. So you actually have to spray water
on to see whether or not a box is wax -dipped.
Because with the process, the boxes or woodenware,
because we have tops and bottoms that are dipped
as well, are dipped at such a high temperature
that when you dip it into the solution, it actually
almost boils the moisture out of your box and
then the wax permeates it. So you don't really
see it on the outside. But with the new wax -dipped
products that are out on the market, those boxes,
tops and bottoms, they're going to last 20 -25
years out in the fields because you've sterilized
but with that high temperature and you've removed
all the moisture from the wood -aware. And you
don't have to paint them, right? You don't have
to paint. It is a beautiful natural finish. You
certainly could paint if you wanted to and there's
people that will. I know there's a lot of beekeepers
that like to paint the outside of their boxes
if they've got several hives. next to each other,
just so there's a little bit of differentiation.
When the bees are coming and going, they can
orient and identify which hive they belong to
based off of what's on the outside of the box.
But you don't have to paint. You can just leave
it as that nice natural look for your backyard.
They really are pretty. They're beautiful, absolutely
beautiful and functional. And I've thought about
taking some before I had heard about the whole
dipping process of taking some that were like,
quote, ready for paint and putting a nice varnish
on it. But most varnishes are toxic and you don't
want to do that to the bees. And even some paint,
you have to be careful. You have to pay attention
to what you're doing. And I think it's a bit
of a misconception to new beekeepers that you
can just paint your boxes and put your bees in
there right away. I would strongly recommend
against that because there's also the fumes and
the smell. So if you have a box that you're putting
a brand new package of bees in and it's freshly
painted, I think that you are increasing the
chance that that package could abscond and just
up and leave. So don't want to encourage the
bees to do that in any way. Well, yeah, off -gassing
definitely is a thing. And they may leave or
they may just not be quite as healthy. Yeah.
Because there's so much of it. So, so yeah, if
you want to paint, paint, leave it outside, let
it be in the sun and air out for a few days.
Yeah. Air out, dry out, then put your frames
in and put your bees in. Yeah. I think that's
really good advice. Any other new type inventions?
New inventions. I'm trying to think the biggest
things. There is a new mite treatment that is
coming out. this spring, we're waiting on EPA
approval. It's called Naroa. And I think that
that could be a game changer. As far as new inventions,
we also have a new high stand that's going to
be coming out on the market. That's all the legs
are adjustable. So you can put it on an uneven
surface and adjust the legs to make sure that
your hive is level. I'll take a couple of those.
Yeah, we should have that in the next couple
of months as well. There's a few other things
that we're working on. I just can't talk about
them yet. Top secret. We'll let you know when
they come out. Top secret. I don't want to promise
something, and then all of a sudden it's two
years before we have it. Yeah, because if it's
still in development, it may not work first time
out. Yep, exactly. You don't want to be selling
them until they're really tested and working
well. Yeah. We've talked quite a bit about overwintering
bees, and so I don't want to get into that. right
now, even though you're in Minnesota. I want
to talk about spring. What do you do for your
bees in the spring? Really, as as my bees are
coming into spring, it's our spring can be very
late. So there's not necessarily a lot of forage
available. So my my first thing is is it starts
to warm up. I'm putting a pollen substitute honey
on there. At Man Lake, we have a feed mill here
in Hackensack. And so we make all of our pollen
substitutes, both the dry and the patty formulas.
And we did just come out with a new one last
year called our Rocket Fuel Patties that has
natural pollen as well as the Apis Biologics
supplement in it, which adds vitamins, minerals,
enzymes to really mimic the profile of natural
pollen. So that's one of the first things. that
I'm putting out there as a pollen substitute
and then syrup as well, just to allow that colony
to build up before there actually is a nectar
flow. One of the saddest things that I've ever
seen was in February. Oh, yes, the bees are doing
great. And in March or April, they're dead. And
they ran out of food in March. Yes. And that,
believe me. If you are so fortunate as to have
your bees get through winter, do not let them
starve in the spring. Please. Please check if
they need food, feed them. It's OK. It is OK.
And if you put extra feed on there that does
not get consumed and your bees make it through
winter, I guarantee you you're not going to regret
that because. It's expensive to replace bees,
but at the same time for anybody that's new to
beekeeping and you do lose your bees, don't get
discouraged. It happens to everybody and it's
okay. It's okay as long as you learn from it.
So make sure that you're going in and inspecting
that hive thoroughly as you clean it out to try
to figure out what happened. If your bees have
their heads stuck in the comb with their little
butts facing out, chances are that they did starve.
And so you know next year that you need to add
additional feed. So whether it just be sugar
added on the top of the frames of the mountain
camp method or use the winter patties that we
sell, it's just a cheap insurance policy to make
sure that your hive makes it through winter.
And also moisture can be such a challenge, especially
as we get closer to spring. Here the temperatures
will bounce up and down one day. It'll be 50
degrees the next day. It'll be 20 degrees and
That can cause moisture issues in the hive So
as you're coming into spring checking your moisture
boards to make sure that they're not saturated
to where they can still help control moisture
levels can also also be a cheap insurance Just
replacing out that moisture board So how do people
know when to stop feeding bees? Really the bees
will decrease their consumption. And you can
also just watch them as they're coming and going.
If you're watching your bees and landing on the
entrance and you can see that their pollen sacks
are full, you don't need to be offering a pollen
substitute at that point because they're out
there and they're finding it. There's one thing
I love to see. It is. I'd love to see bees coming
in with those big. Yeah. Hunks of pollen stuck
on there. I think it is one of the most amazing
and beautiful things you can see. It's fun to
watch and it's also really interesting to watch
the different colors that they'll bring in. Yeah.
And if you don't notice it on the bees themselves
when you're doing an inspection and you take
a frame out and you're like yellow, orange, red,
and all these colors in between, here's something
to add to your app. In addition to the plant
identifier, a pollen identifier. I will take
that note down. Pollen color chart. I know that's
probably impossible, but it'd be cool to take
a picture and go, oh, well, that's from such
and such a tree or something like that. Ask Bella
to do something along those lines. We all experience
dead outs from time to time and you mentioned
how to tell if your hive starved what other things
if somebody has a dead out and they're Inspecting
what else could they find that would help them
learn from what happened? For example, if they
went into fall with their Varroa counts a little
high How do they know that in the spring when
they have a dead out? That's a tough one I would
strongly recommend that you're monitoring and
treating early before going into winter as far
as knowing for sure what your levels were when
that colony perished. I honestly, I don't know
the answer to that. Anything else from looking
at a dead out that could teach us something about
what happened? If moisture was an issue, a lot
of times you'll see just your bees down piled
up at the bottom on your bottom board. A lot
of times you'll see mildew in the hive and it
just, if moisture was the reason that your hive
perished, it can be a pretty - It's gross. Gross
thing to clean out. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of
yucky. One of the things that I've done is bought
a power washer. Yeah. So I can really scrub that
stuff out really good. Some people use a flame,
burn it, which seems like a really good idea
too. You've been beekeeping long enough. I'm
sure you've had some wild and crazy things happening
to you. Give me an idea of one. Yes, I will tell
you about the first swarm that I caught. It was
my second year of beekeeping and I was out working
in my garden and I keep my hives right in my
garden and I noticed a lot of activity and I
thought, oh great, they're swarming. Something's
going on here. And I ended up leaving for a little
bit and coming back. And the swarm was in a tree
just next to my hives, probably about 25 feet
up in the air. And I am very fortunate that my
husband owns a construction company. So I called
him up and I said, these swarms, we need to get
up there. And we actually took a scissor lift
and drove it to where the swarm was and lifted
up and cut the tree branch into just a cardboard
box and I was able to catch my first swarm with
a scissor lift. So it was pretty cool. You know
how many swarm catchers would just absolutely
kill to have access to a scissor lift? It definitely
made it much easier and safer to get up to where
they were because honestly they were high enough
up in the hives. I wouldn't have felt comfortable
climbing up there with the ladder. There's no
way I would have just watched them go wherever
they were going to go at that point. Twenty five
feet is high. It was really high in the air.
I couldn't believe it. I mean, even if you're
up like 12 or 15 feet on a ladder and you're
holding a box and if you're cutting off a limb,
you've got some kind of cutting tool and you're
trying to hold the ladder. Yeah. And I'm surprised
more people don't die doing that every year.
Sorry, that's not funny, but that's really everyone
needs to. exercise caution when catching swarms
that are high up in trees. Yeah, okay. Well,
thank you for everything and for all the advice.
And lastly, I know you've been at Man Lake for
a long time. And I don't know very much about
the history of the company. What do you know?
What do you want to tell us about it? So Man
Lake was founded by Jack and Betty Thomas in
1983. I started with the company about 13 years
ago, and they were still actively involved at
that point. So I was fortunate enough to be able
to meet them and work with them. And they started
Man Lake Bee Supply in their garage at their
home on Man Lake, which is where the name came
from. So there is a lake. or a chain of lakes
in Hackensack that's Man Lake, Woman Lake, Child
Lake. So that is where the name came from. Shortly
after they started their supply business, they
moved into the town of Hackensack, which for
those of you that have not had the chance to
visit here, there's about 300 people in this
town. So it is a very, very small town. We actually,
at certain points in our history, have employed
more people than what actually lived in the town
of Hackensack. So it's a pretty cool place to
work because it is just a small town environment
and we are just the biggest company here. So
it's really been a pleasure to work and work
for this company and just seeing how we've been
able to grow. Jack and Betty founded the company.
They expanded into California, then Pennsylvania,
Texas. We bought Kelly Beekeeping. So now we
have a location in Kentucky and also Florida.
And I've been able to be a part of that growth
with the exception of the California location.
We had that when I started here, but everything
else has been added on since I started at the
company. So how many retail stores and how much
of your business is online versus retail? So
we have six retail stores. The majority though
is still online just because our locations are
not necessarily in really populated areas. The
locations that we have were more so centered
around commercial beekeeping and trying to have
locations that are convenient for commercial
beekeepers to access as they're moving around
the country doing their pollination. Any other
advice for new beekeepers or someone that maybe
isn't one yet, but is thinking huh? That sounds
interesting and by the way for people in that
category It is wonderful and it's harder than
you would expect Beekeeping definitely is harder
than what you would expect and I would strongly
encourage anyone that is thinking about getting
started in beekeeping to take a year and do some
research, so read some books, take a beginner's
class, find a mentor if you have one in your
area, or join your local beekeeping club, and
take the time to learn about beekeeping in your
area before you actually get started. Then, once
you get started, my best advice for a brand new
beekeeper is when you are doing your hive inspections,
do not feel like you have to find the queen.
everybody goes in and I can't find my queen.
I don't think she's in there. I didn't see her.
And if you look at the frame, it is full of eggs
and larvae, a beautiful brood pattern. You don't
have to find your queen. Just make sure that
she is laying eggs. If you see eggs, you have
a queen. If you see eggs, you have a queen and
don't take the time to tear apart your entire
colony looking for her. You know she's in there.
What if somebody just wants to take the time?
If you want to take the time, absolutely. Tips
for finding your queen is look for a frame that
has eggs in it, eggs that are just laid so they're
going to be very tiny which they're the black
foundation comes in very handy it's going to
make it much easier for you to see those and
just slowly scan. You can watch the worker bees
as well because oftentimes they'll circle around
her so if you just watch their behavior sometimes
you can spot your queen that way. And by the
way if you want to see the queen so bad and you're
new at it so it's taking you an hour or two you
are not making your bees happy. And they will
likely let you know when they have reached their
tolerance point for Joe Beekeeper and it's time
to go away and you start getting hit in the face,
you know. Exactly. One last thing that I wanted
to mention that has never before come up on this
show or today. And that is I know a lot of beekeepers
also like to keep backyard chickens. Seriously.
Man Lake has poultry stuff too. Yes, you can
do all of your shopping for your bees and your
chickens on our website. Let's face it, the two
hobbies go hand in hand. You have your little
backyard farm. I'm sure a lot of you are gardeners
as well. So hopefully someday down the road,
we'll be able to get into that as well. And compared
to bees, I can say from experience, chickens
are much easier. They are. They are. They're
dirtier, but they are much easier. Anyway, Jenna,
I appreciate your time very much. Thanks for
being with me today. Yeah, happy to be here.
Thanks again for joining us here on Be Love Beekeeping
presented by Man Lake. Another great place for
more information on everything related to this
podcast is in our email newsletter. You can sign
up for it for free at BeLoveBekeeping .com. And
remember, if you're not just in it for the honey
or the money, you're in it for the love. See
you next week.