May I have your attention, please? The following
is not the real Jeff Fox release. If your teenage
son wants nothing more than to live the life
of a drone bee, you might be a beekeeper. If
you do more splits than a gymnast, You might
be a beekeeper. If you refer to your divorce
as swarming behavior, you might be a beekeeper.
I'll give you a minute to think about that one.
Welcome welcome to Be Love Beekeeping presented
by Man Lake. Our guests today are coming to us
all the way from Florida and Argentina as we
will have David and Paulo from Vita Bee Health
on the show. We will be discussing all things
Varroa and Vita's new oxalic acid based strips.
Before we check in with them we have a brief
update on this year's record colony losses. Researchers
from Washington State University are projecting
that U .S. honeybee colony losses could be upwards
of 70 percent this year. The last figure we heard
was 62 percent, so this news is getting even
worse. While colony losses average 40 to 50 percent
annually, this number is a big increase. Here's
a quote from their press release. This year,
a combination of nutrition deficiencies, mite
infestations, viral diseases, and possible pesticide
exposure during the previous pollination season
led to the higher losses. Sorry for the bad news,
but we did promise updates as they came in. Now
to learn more about keeping our bees healthy,
let's get to today's interview. I would like
to welcome to the show today two very special
guests coming to us, one from Florida and that
is David Westervelt and all the way from Argentina,
Paulo Miego. How are you this morning, guys?
Doing great. Yeah. Hello. Hello. Thank you. Thank
you for the invitation and for the time. You're
welcome. And Paulo, I know I didn't pronounce
your name perfectly. I apologize. It was perfect.
Close enough. No, it was perfect. Tell us what
it means. So, Mielgo is a Spanish surname from
Extremadura, Spain. And the first part of the
of the surname, which is Miel, is honey in Spanish.
So yes, quite unique name for this job. You were
destined to... to have a job here. Now these
guys both work with VitaBee Health and so we're
going to be talking about all things Varroa and
I know we get sick of hearing about Varroa but
I don't know about you but I always have something
to learn. These guys know the ins and outs of
it and other ailments that are hurting our bees
out there and they can give us a lot of great
information. David? Would you first tell us a
little bit about your experience in beekeeping
and then Paula will let you do the same? Sure,
that'd be great for me to tell you about beekeeping.
I started beekeeping when I was about five and
a half years old. I got interested into it. Because
a neighbor of my dad's had bees on our property,
ran about 40, 50 hives of bees on our property.
And my dad thought I was nuts. He's like, why
are you going out to work, play with bees? And
I was in shorts and nothing else. So as I got
involved in them, I went further and further.
By the time I was in senior and high school,
I had about 125 hives and actually wanted to
become an inspector. Unbeknownst to me, I decided
to go into the Army and spent 14 years in service
going throughout the whole world. But during
that time, I got to check on bees throughout
28 different countries and then came back to
the States and went into the Florida Department
of Agriculture working as a other personnel service,
they call it OPS. So you're virtually nobody.
And I worked through there doing research and
working on then a new pest called varroa mites
and tracheomites. And so we were testing different
products. I worked all the way up to being the
Chief of Apiary Inspection for 28 years with
the Department of Ag there in Florida. Retired,
and Sebastian asked me if I wanted to come to
work for VITA, and I was very happy. I'd known
them through the ApiGuard, which is one of the
products that we also sell, which is a thymol
product, and I've enjoyed every bit of retirement
working with Paula. Sebastian, Max Walken, it's
a whole group. It's a wonderful group. Thank
you, David. And my apologies, I pronounced it
Vida. So thank you. Vida, Vida Bay Health. Well,
you know your stuff. Go ahead, Paulo. OK, well,
I'm second generation of beekeepers here in Argentina.
I've been working with bees since I remember.
Argentina is the only country in the world that
you can go to the best school. became a big bet.
So I am a big bet. Instead of studying all the
animals during your five years of university,
you focus only on honeybees. So that is my degree
in this world. And I'm starting. giving some
talk when I was very young to be keepers as a
consultant here in Argentina. And after that,
I agreed to go in Mexico and other South American
countries. And I end up accepting a job for a
company in Argentina that tried to develop a
few feet for the honeybees back in 2011. So that
is when I started to work on R &D. In 2016, I
received an offer from VITA, VITA Europe or VITA
V Health. We call VITA because it's an Italian
word, which means life. And they offered me the
possibility of being in charge of the R &D department.
And I accepted and I moved to the UK. And since
then, I'm working for VITA in R &D. But you're
back in Argentina, your home. I'm back in Argentina.
Yes. Yes. I'm back in Argentina now. Before we
get into all the Varroa everything, David, give
us a wild and crazy beekeeping story. You said
earlier you have tons of them. I'll go back to
one that happened about 45 years ago. When I
was 12 years old, we decided to go to North Carolina,
which we have a cabin in North Carolina. And
my mom and dad and I drove up there in a Datsun
pickup truck. If you can remember, you're talking
in the 70s. So we drove up there and bought 35
hives of bees. At the time, the hives of bees
were about $15 apiece. And that was my savings
I had saved from working on bees. And so we loaded
the bees up. They were all in singles. And we
could fit about 17 in the back of a Datsun pickup.
The problem was, mom could sit in the front,
my dad could sit in the front. So I got the fun
of riding on the back of the truck with 17 hives
of bees all the way from North Carolina down
to, well, we got down to Orangeburg, South Carolina,
I think it was, and we were getting a little
low on fuel. So we stopped. to get fuel. And
where we stopped at, there was this little guy
airing up his bicycle tire. And he looks over
at me and says, Mr, what are you sitting on?
And I said, beehives! Like, you know, nothing.
The bees were, it was cool. They were inside.
About that time, the inner tube on his bicycle
went pow! And it sounded like a gunshot. He took
the car for a run and left his bicycle sitting
there. I think he was more scared of the bees
than anything else. But we also found out that
day they had a bank robbery that had happened
just right on the Georgia -South Carolina border.
And they had traffic stop checking everybody.
And we found out if you have a load of bees on
the back of your Datsun and you're riding in
the back of it, they let you ride on through
the checkpoint. Guided us right through and told
us to keep going. They figured I guess there
wasn't any bank robber in our truck We got those
hives home and I was probably the youngest North
Carolina Registered beekeeper because I got registered
in order to purchase the bees They had to be
inspected and in order to get them into Florida.
They had to be inspected So I was registered
as a North Carolina beekeeper when I was 12 years
old. So we did get all those bees back down to
Florida. By the way, our family had a Datsun
B210. I had one, had a red one. It was red. It
did not have a heater. That was like a luxury
add -on at the time. That was my first car that
I drove, B210. All right, back to bees. For those
of us that are in cooler climates and spring
is upon us now, the bees are starting to fly,
is now a time that we need to be concerned about
Varroa? Or have they had a nice long brood break
and we can just ignore it for a while? Yes, now
is when you want to definitely do your spring
checks to make sure where your mite level is
at. Hit them while there's a... brood break as
they're coming out of that brood break get your
treatment started get the mites under control
so you can have a good honey flow coming on your
mites will start multiplying about doubling every
six weeks so it's better to have a low number
or a non -detectable than have them you know
through the wintertime months. What's a low number?
Because I used to hear three or four percent,
now I'm hearing one or two percent. What is acceptable
before I need to treat? Yeah, we recommend below
three percent. So at three percent and above,
you need to treat anything below that, preferably
non -detectable, meaning you're getting pretty
much all zeros and maybe a one is the best level.
Your main problem isn't necessarily the mites,
it's the viruses, a vector. I want to hear about
some of your products. I know some of them like
Apigard, Apistan have been around for a long
time. Could you maybe, Paulo, give me just a
brief what the different products are. And listeners,
we promise not to turn this into an infomercial,
but this is good information. What they are.
And then I want to talk about your new product.
Go ahead. Yeah, sure. So we have Epstein in the
U .S., which I'm sure it was the first Prada
register for borough control in the U .S. and
many, many other countries was the first Prada
that worked very, very well for many years until
the resistance to tau flu ballinate arrived or
occurred. And so from that moment, the Prada
started to have some efficacy problem. not because
of the product, but because of the active ingredient
resistance. So, VITA have been working on that
matter for many years, investing a lot of money
on researching how to work on the resistance
to tau fluvalinate. And we proved that if you
do not use any tau fluvalinate or flumethrin
for three years in a row, the products start
working very well again. and these studies have
been for the last 20 years proving that if you
treat every three years with apistan, the product
works 95 % or above. Let me just take a minute
here to thank our presenting sponsor, Man Lake.
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started, Man Lake has the equipment and the expertise
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wax dipped hive kits. They are absolutely beautiful
with a natural finish and they're made to last,
in fact, for up to 25 years. No painting necessary.
And don't forget your discount code MLBlove10.
It's in the show notes. For $10 off your first
$100 purchase. Now, back to the guest. So Epistane
still is a very important tool for the beekeepers
in the US. It is important that you can use this
product only if you don't use it for the last
three years, at least two or three years. So
be watching for that resistance build up, in
other words. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. The
second product is what we call Apigar. In the
US, you call it Apigar. Well, Apiary. That's
why I used the long A. Yeah. Yeah. I will say
many times Apigar. I'm sorry for that. But you
mean Apigar. That's OK. So Apigar is a thymole
-based product. with a very unique technology
because it's a prada that works by contact and
by vapor. So we need bees to go and pick up the
shell and remove the shell from the tray or from
the doscar because in that way the small tiny
thymol particles remain on the body of the bees
and they distribute the thymol through the colony.
and in that way is how the Prada works, apart
from the vapor. Regarding the unique formula
of APgar, because it works by contact and by
vapor, these two modes of action make Varroa
very difficult to develop any resistance to the
Prada and to the active ingredient. So this is
a very important tool for the beekeeper, even
more now in the US and Canada, because the last
two or three years, you have the increase of
the resistance to amytras has been developed
and moved through every state in the U .S. and
having a lot of problems with this kind of product
based on amytras. So Apigar is one of the best
tools to help and to reduce the varroa resistance.
Are there times when you should or shouldn't
use these products? based on heat, based on brood
cycle? APR, yes. APR, you cannot use when you
have the super on because the potential of no
contamination of the honey, but it may transfer
some odor of thyme mold to the honey. Never happen.
Yeah, but it cannot be used when you have the
super on. And also if the temperature is high
above 77 Fahrenheit. you can reduce the dose
to the half. And that is allowed in the US, and
that will have a similar efficacy as the full
dose at lower temperature. Epistan also you cannot
use during the honey flow when you have the super
on, but Epistan hasn't got any temperature restriction.
It works with a low or high temperature. Also
it's very cold. Apiga will not work as it should
be because it needs temperature for the vapor
and for the activity inside the colony so the
bees can go and pick up the shell. That is also
important. So the range of temperature for AP
guard is important. All right, but let's be realistic
here. There are times that we need to treat when
we do have honey supers on. What do we do then?
So we, after many years of hard work, We got
the registration of barroxan, which is an oxalic
acid strip. It's a very unique type of cardboard
strip, which is allowing the US to be used during
the honey flow with super on. So this is a very,
very important tool for the beekeepers. And even
more now that the summer treatment is being very
key point to arrive to the fall with the lower
number of mites before the full treatment in
the fall. So, varroxan is a new product that
is in the U .S. market ready for the beekeepers.
Last year, a lot of us saw Randy Oliver's formula
online and experimented with it. Is this similar
to that, this varroxan? It is that it's oxalic
acid. The efficacy is actually a little better
than that. And the thing with a homemade product
like Randy's, you're having to heat your product
mature solution and everything. So let's say
you're in Florida where we're at pretty much
sea level. 212 is your boiling point. If you're
up north 4 ,000 or 5 ,000 feet, you may have
a total different temperature. So when you're
heating oxalic acid in your other products in
there, you can actually change the chemical.
So using a strip that is produced under a control
that releases at a certain rate is a lot better,
gets you a better efficacy than what you do with
a homemade product. It's a lot safer. Speaking
of safer, I did Randy Oliver's recipe last year.
And I wondered, is it going to be safe to now
cook soup in that pan that I just made this in?
You know, can I get clean enough? Some of the
strips had a lot more of the formula on them
than some of the others. I don't know if that
makes sense for the bees or not. So while it
actually did work, I really had concerns about
it, too. Frankly, I'm glad to hear that there's
something that's formulated safely and is just
going to make sense. I think a lot of people
are going to like it. So basically, Varroxan
is safe because why? Because of many things.
It's safe for bees and safe for beekeepers because
it's manufactured under GMP rules. That means
that every step is controlled. And when the Prada
leaves the factory, each strip will have the
same amount of active ingredient per strip. And
that is very, very important for the final dose
to the colony. There have always been sentences
that organic Prada will not develop resistance.
And that is not true. That is not true at all.
If you apply the same active ingredient, even
if it's organic, all the time, all the time,
all the time, Varroa can develop a different
type of resistant, which is not chemical like
for amitrase or tau fluvalinate, could be a behavior
of resistant, either a different type of resistant.
So applying an overdose of the same active ingredient
all the time, even if it's organic active ingredient,
it will develop resistance. Maybe it will take
longer, but at the end, you will have problems
with that active ingredient. Again, barroxan
is based on oxalic acid, which most of the honey
already has oxalic acid on it. Many foods that
we normally eat every day have even more oxalic
acid than the full dose of barroxan, but it is
important that we control the dose and we know
overdose to avoid any risk of oxalic acid into
the honey, because at the end of the day, the
honey goes to the consumer. So it is important
that we know which dose we are giving to the
colonies. So for this reason, the barroxan is
safer for the bees and for the beekeeper. Living
outside homemade product that, yes, when you
mix oxalic acid, and glycerin, and you overheat,
you produce formic acid. So that is very, very
dangerous for the cookers that way. It's very
dangerous. So yeah, this should be taken on consideration.
And David mentioned the boiling point. I happen
to be at 5 ,700 feet elevations. I'm not even
sure what our boiling point is, but yeah, it's
It's higher up here. But if you're at sea level,
yeah, things are different. My next question
is, when I do an OA vaporization, I have to wear
safety goggles and protective gloves and a big
mask and stuff like that. What kind of safety
measures do I need to take when I'm using Veroxan?
If you go through the label, still those safety
guidelines are on it. because when the product
was under registration process, in order to get
the product into the market, we accepted all
the safety that was on the oxalic acid label.
Because the oxalic acid registration and boraxan
are linked. So we accepted those safety guidelines.
But to be honest, when you use a boraxan strip,
there is no vapor going out. So there is no problem
of any danger. breathing in the apiary. So the
only thing that you need to wear is gloves, with
a keeper's glove or any latex glove, just to
avoid the direct contact with the strip. That
is the main thing that you need to wear when
you are using Barroxan. And then don't wipe your
eyes with those gloves. No, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no. Remove it before or wash them.
OK. What is the efficacy of Roxanne? The efficacy
is over 95 percent, is what we have on our studies.
In the U .S., we have very good efficacy on tests,
trials done in Washington and in California.
In Missouri, we have run many studies in the
U .S. with universities. probably investigate
a researcher. Everything is done with the universities.
But the efficacy will depend on many different
things. You can have higher efficacy or lower
efficacy depending on the time of the year that
you treat. Summer treatment, you may have 15
frames of growth. So the number of Varroa inside
the colony are really, really high. And even
if the product kills 95, 94, 98 % of the mite,
if you started with 1 ,000 mites, you finish
with a slow number of mites. But if you start
with 10 ,000 mites, even with 95 % of efficacy,
when you wash your bees, at the end, you will
see mite. So the efficacy will be 95, but you
may need a follow -up treatment sometime. Also,
if there are refestations, the efficacy will
be affected where you place the strip, how you
apply the product, that is really, really important.
Barroxan needs to be in contact with the bees
all the time because you need the bees to go
and chew the strip, remove the active ingredient,
and distribute the active ingredient through
the colony. So it is very important that when
you place a strip, you place in frame with brood,
if that is possible, because you will know that
bees will be taking care of the brood. So you
will have all the time bees walking around the
strip. And so that is important because we receive
some questions from beekeepers that they place
the strip between the boxes, like the homemade
product at the tower. And in that way, the efficacy
will not be the same. The strip should be folded
in half and placed between the frames in the
middle of the cluster, so we know that bees are
in contact all the time. On the label, it's allowed
that you move the strip from one side to another
side. And why is this? Because you are applying
four strips. Folding in half are eight strips.
a half a strip. So it's a lot of trip for the
bees. So some bees, they used to move away from
the strip because they don't like it, because
it's an acid. At the end of the day, it's an
acid because it's something that is not normal
for the bees. So they move away. And if they
are not in contact with the bees, you don't have
good efficacy. So if you go back three, four
weeks, after the application of barrock sand,
and you see that the nest has moved away from
the tree, you need to take the tree and place
it again in the middle of the business in order
to ensure that the tree is in contact with the
bees. So this small thing will improve the final
efficacy of the product. Makes a lot of sense.
For our listeners that are in parts of the world
where tropyl -alapsed mites have also infiltrated,
do these work on those mites as well? No, no,
no. There are a few old studies on thymol that
work. Probably formic acid, but oxalic acid in
this way, no. Maybe if you make evaporates, maybe
yes, but... We need to test it, but I don't believe
we have a big efficacy. Still work to do there
then. Yeah. David, I get asked this question
a lot. Why is an alcohol wash so important versus
a sugar roll test? Your accuracy. If you do an
alcohol wash and you're getting the bees that
are older bees from, let's say, outside the dive
or from off of a window seal or somewhere, you
know, if you're in your hunting house, you will
not get an accurate mite count. So you always
have to take the bees from emerging brood, young
bees coming out, and you'll have a more accurate
mite count using 300 bees. So if you get 300
bees and you end up with nine mites in that alcohol
wash, you're at that 3 % level. You can take
that and really figure out if there's a mathematical
equation you can look at to figure how many bees
or how many mites are in your whole hive from
that and which is fairly simple to do but that
gives you your most accurate where powdered sugar
you'll get about probably 75 % of your mites
off of the bees but since you're using such a
small sample size 300 bees you're not getting
an accurate count. So alcohol is the best. And
a lot of people say, well, if you use powdered
sugar, you're not killing the bees. There's been
some research now that after you've shaken the
bees without powdered sugar on them, they end
up dying within 72 hours anyhow. So you're not
doing anything else but slowly killing the bees,
the three or four hundred. How often should we
be testing? I recommend every four weeks, four
to six weeks. I know some backyard beekeepers,
it's hard for them to do that. But because reinfestation,
it's not that your mite level builds up. You
know that it's going to double every six weeks
after springtime starts because of your brood
cycle, the way the mite regenerates or their
mite cycle. But what ends up happening is we
have what are called mite bombs or hives that
are dying away from your actual apiary. And so
your bees go over for a free meal and get their
leftover honey and everything. But they also
bring all their mites back because that hive's
slowly dying. And so they bring all these mites
back. So that's why it's good to do every four
to six weeks, check your bees. So is it true
that drones tend to drift around from different
hives to different hives also? Yes, actually
what we're finding is we used to say that worker
bees didn't drift that much unless it was in
a bee yard like your commercial operation where
they're all in a row. But there's some new studies
out of actually here in the University of Florida
that shows worker bees do a lot more drifting
than we originally thought. what happens with
workers and drones. Drones are welcomed pretty
much all the time back to any hive. But workers,
as long as they have some nectar coming in or
pollen, they're accepted to any hive too. And
they were doing some work at a UF here. And it's
amazing that they were finding bees drifting
within the yard to apiary, but also drifting
upwards of two miles away to other hives. What
we used to think we knew, we're finding out with
better research and more research that some of
the books that we've got out there may have been
correct at the time, but some people used to
say that it was a king bee and now we know for
sure it's a queen bee. How about some advice
for brand new beekeepers? I think a lot of people,
especially hobbyists, they think, oh, yeah, I've
heard of these Varroa mites, but I'm going to
be treatment free because I believe in organic
everything and I won't have those mites. My bees
are healthy and they're all by themselves here.
Any advice for them? I love to talk about that
because actually with Vita, we have a couple
products that you can incorporate in with IPM
integrated pest management. And one of them,
it isn't a product we sell, but having bees that
are hygienic or resistant somewhat to mites,
definitely. Now for a backyard beekeeper, some
of these strains of hygienic bees, or let's call
them Russian bees, some of them, may not be what
they're suited to manage because they're more
defensive bee. those genetics are out there.
So then we also have some products that are via
Vita cells that are actually they cause the bees
to groom themselves and remove the mites. It's
called the bee gem. And so it helps where the
mites or the bees are coming in with the mites
on them to remove them off. So if you're wanting
to go chemical free, there's a couple different
things. There's actually a couple of nice papers
out there that give you a huge amount of opportunities
to be chemical free. But I'll tell you, after
about 18 months to two or three years, you'll
find out that as hard as you try to be chemical
free, you'll finally have varroa mites. So using
something, you know, if you want to be more organic,
which our varroxin is organic, thymol product
is a very chemical free, even though it's a thymol
product, it's very easy to use. Be aware that
you're going to have mites, you're going to have
other pests like small high beetles and things
that are there. Knowing what's out there and
educate yourself, get a good mentor, get involved
at the beekeeping club. Not necessarily always
go checking on the internet because some of the
stuff you find on the internet isn't necessarily
what you need. Oh come on, half of the information
there is great. You just don't know which half.
The half. 75 % of the half is correct. Yep. And
by the way, new beekeepers, you will get Varroa
and Varroa will kill your bees, period, unless
you do something about it. Yep. Or the viruses.
The viruses that are associated. You know, we're
now saying there's roughly about 72 to 75 viruses
that are associated with honeybees and Varroa
mites. And there's actually some new viruses
that aren't even Varroa part, meaning they're
not vectored by Varroa. But there's some new
information coming out on some wax moth viruses
that we would never think that wax moth would
harbor a virus that would be lethal to anything.
Guys, I appreciate your time. I think we could
spend hours and hours on all of this. If people
have more questions, where should they go for
some guidance? There are a few options. One of
them is going to a VW Health website. The other
one is contacting David. David, if you can tell
your phone number or email, we'll help. We'll
stick something in the show notes for people.
Guys, is there anything else that's imperative
that we talk about on this topic? Actually, yeah,
something I'd like to put out, you know, beekeepers,
I get called all the time that wax moths killed
by hives. And something that I like, I was just
at University of Florida teaching our 18th year
of bee college. And I'm the one person that I
should have graduated by now, but I did all 18
years of either teaching or always in that capacity.
But wax moths are a secondary They're there to
really destroy the old comb so a new hive can
move into there. Having a good, strong, healthy
hive will control wax moths. All right, Paulo.
Do you have a wild and crazy beekeeping story?
You've been doing this for a long time. Yeah.
So it is funny today. It wasn't at the time.
So I was very young. I went to Mexico to help
400 beekeepers to convert from normal honey producer
to organic honey producer in Chukatan. So I've
been there working for one year and traveling
every day to visit different communities in the
middle of nowhere. So hours on a van in the middle
of the Chukatan. And most of these small communities,
they do not speak Spanish. They speak Masha.
which is their all local language. So when I
arrived there, there was always children that
they helped us with the translation from Spanish
to the Magia. So we used to go to different apiaries
and see the colony, watch colony and give some
advice. And it was one day that there was a very,
very old beekeeper, very old beekeeper. and he
only speaks Maya, so we went with the... I don't
remember exactly, but it was a 12 -year -old
nephew or something like that to the abjury.
It was a two -hour walk in the middle of the
jungle. At some point, we get lost in the middle
of... of that. Uh -oh. Yeah, you cannot speak
with the man because he... doesn't speak Spanish,
so only Maya. We were walking and walking and
walking for different places until some point
that he saw a tree and said, oh, I found the
way back. And finally, after eight hours of walking
around the middle of Xucatay, we returned to
the small village in this part of Mexico. So
it was very fun. after that. But at the time,
it was scary to spend the night in the middle
of the jungle there. So yeah, that was one of
the funny... Glad you made it back. Any experiences
where bees treated you in some kind of way you
didn't expect? Well, in Mexico was complicated.
In the south of Mexico, the bees... They were
waiting for you. They heard the engine of the
van arriving miles away, and you start dressing
up far away, and they start arriving and giving
you the welcome to Mexico. It's a chilly place,
but really lovely place to work with bees. It's
amazing. Everything is virgin, and yeah, it's
a potential. There's the honey. 100 % organic,
because they don't do much with those bees. And
they have a lot of barroa. So what happened with
those bees and barroa, why they don't die, is
because naturally, the colony swum, and they
go and they left empty the colony. And because
they return every six or eight weeks to that
apiary, because they are far away, so they are
walking only to... harbored the honey, whatever
honey that is there. So in that period, there
was another swarm going into that hive. So it's
not always the same hive. You always have new
hives, and so they produce three to five kilos,
which is two and a half... About eight to 11
pounds? Yeah, with the potential of making 40,
50 kilos of honey. because they have eight, nine
months of bloom everywhere, beautiful weather.
And yeah, so Baroa killed the hives, even now.
So this is the truth. Are there a lot of Africanized
genetics? Is that why they were so hot? Yeah,
yeah, yes. Most of the south of Mexico, they
have that Africanized bees, which is OK for them.
It's the way that they always have bees because
they go and return, go and return. But as a commercial
beekeeping, it's very hard to do it in that way.
Well, I love how you put it. They were waiting
to welcome you. Yeah. Paolo and I both have been
throughout Guatemala, Costa Rica, Guyana. I travel
significantly through the Caribbean. Now, it's
funny because a lot of the bees in the Caribbean
act like Africanized bees, but when we've done
tests on them, they're actually just Apis mellifera
mellifera or a form of the European honeybees.
They're just more defensive, but throughout Costa
Rica and Guyana, they're very Africanized and
yet they still manage them. They make a lot of
honey on them. They do meet you when you come
up to the with the truck. You better be suited
up and they will. introduce themselves to you.
I'll take my nice friendly bees here anytime.
Hey, David and Paulo, thank you so much for your
time today. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
Thanks again for joining us here on Bee Love
Beekeeping, presented by Man Lake. Another great
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