WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.660 May I have your attention, please? The following 00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:10.699 is not the real Jeff Fox release. If you have 00:00:10.699 --> 00:00:14.679 ever done a happy dance when your bees first 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:20.640 emerged in spring, you might be a beekeeper. 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:26.359 If you have a love -hate relationship with hay 00:00:26.359 --> 00:00:34.659 fever season, You might be a beekeeper. If you 00:00:34.659 --> 00:00:38.820 have ever seen the back of a bee from inside 00:00:38.820 --> 00:00:45.539 your veil, think about it now. You might be a 00:00:45.539 --> 00:00:56.979 beekeeper. Welcome, welcome to Be Love Beekeeping 00:00:56.979 --> 00:01:00.219 presented by our good friends over at Man Lake. 00:01:01.420 --> 00:01:04.500 Question for the day, how do you use your beekeeping 00:01:04.500 --> 00:01:08.340 skills to help others? In today's episode, we're 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:10.680 going to have a discussion with two people that 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:13.599 have found amazing ways to help underprivileged 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:17.280 beekeepers in the Caribbean. But first, a brief 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:20.079 update on the huge losses of honeybees here in 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:23.640 North America. A while back, We had Chris Hyatt 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:28.700 on the podcast discussing how 1 .1 million colonies 00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:32.420 had been lost this year. More recent polls have 00:01:32.420 --> 00:01:36.739 increased that figure to 1 .6 million colonies. 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:40.400 Research is still in progress to find the causes 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:43.299 and we'll keep you posted as more info becomes 00:01:43.299 --> 00:01:46.219 available. Let's lighten the mood with a few 00:01:46.219 --> 00:01:49.140 fun facts about the honey bees that we so much 00:01:49.140 --> 00:01:53.329 love. Did you know? that honey bees beat their 00:01:53.329 --> 00:01:58.370 wings an incredible 11 ,400 times per minute, 00:01:58.849 --> 00:02:01.469 which creates their characteristic buzzing sound. 00:02:02.209 --> 00:02:05.150 And have you ever wondered if the bees know when 00:02:05.150 --> 00:02:07.629 you're afraid of them? Well, here's something 00:02:07.629 --> 00:02:10.830 maybe you didn't know. Bees can sense the hormone 00:02:10.830 --> 00:02:14.550 released by scared humans and will attack if 00:02:14.550 --> 00:02:17.689 they feel their hive is threatened. Did you know 00:02:17.689 --> 00:02:22.550 that honey bees can recognize human faces? So 00:02:22.550 --> 00:02:24.969 hey be nice to those bees and hopefully they'll 00:02:24.969 --> 00:02:29.430 be nice to you. And did you know that Saint Valentine 00:02:29.430 --> 00:02:33.169 is the patron saint of beekeepers and also of 00:02:33.169 --> 00:02:36.610 love? And we just dubbed him the patron saint 00:02:36.610 --> 00:02:40.250 of this podcast. I'd like to give a shout out 00:02:40.250 --> 00:02:42.530 to Vita Bee Health for their support of this 00:02:42.530 --> 00:02:46.330 podcast. Vita's Varroa Control range of products 00:02:46.330 --> 00:02:51.270 includes Apistan, Apigard, and now Varroxan Extended 00:02:51.270 --> 00:02:55.229 Release Oxalic Acid Strips. Thanks guys. Now, 00:02:55.250 --> 00:03:01.449 let's have a chat with David and Beau. I'd like 00:03:01.449 --> 00:03:03.969 to welcome our two guests today. One of them 00:03:03.969 --> 00:03:08.009 you've met before, David Westerveld, but we have 00:03:08.009 --> 00:03:10.129 somebody a whole lot more fun than him today. 00:03:10.370 --> 00:03:13.259 And that is Beau Sturck. How are you, Beau? Good, 00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:16.159 good. I'm good to go. And David, did you disconnect 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:19.259 after I just slammed on you right there? No, 00:03:19.300 --> 00:03:23.479 I didn't hang up yet. But when I go back a long 00:03:23.479 --> 00:03:26.599 ways, we know how to answer each other's questions 00:03:26.599 --> 00:03:29.360 sometimes before they're even asked. Well, I 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:31.599 can tell you guys tease each other. So I just 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:33.780 thought I'd jump on both sides to get started 00:03:33.780 --> 00:03:37.930 today. But we're going to be talking about. Bees 00:03:37.930 --> 00:03:40.990 Beyond Borders. We'd love to talk about nonprofits 00:03:40.990 --> 00:03:44.590 from time to time on the show. Before we do that, 00:03:44.770 --> 00:03:47.789 Bo, tell us a little bit about you and your beekeeping 00:03:47.789 --> 00:03:50.030 journey. It goes back quite a while. I've been 00:03:50.030 --> 00:03:53.550 doing bees for a little over 30 years now, and 00:03:53.550 --> 00:03:55.830 I started with a friend of mine. I made my living 00:03:55.830 --> 00:03:58.689 as an artist and had an artist friend in town 00:03:58.689 --> 00:04:01.030 here. I'm in St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest 00:04:01.030 --> 00:04:03.289 city in North America, in North Florida, northeast 00:04:03.289 --> 00:04:08.389 corner. A friend came down with a multiple sclerosis, 00:04:08.610 --> 00:04:11.629 another artist, and she started needing therapy 00:04:11.629 --> 00:04:15.210 and found that she started using bees for apotherapy 00:04:15.210 --> 00:04:18.790 and it was working. At that time in Florida history, 00:04:18.949 --> 00:04:21.870 we only had 400 beekeepers in the state. Right 00:04:21.870 --> 00:04:25.389 now we're around 6 ,500 plus, I think it is. 00:04:25.769 --> 00:04:28.769 And with that... 400, most of them were commercial 00:04:28.769 --> 00:04:30.930 and it was hard to get bees up in this area. 00:04:31.689 --> 00:04:33.509 So there was nobody, backyard beekeepers were 00:04:33.509 --> 00:04:36.689 pretty rare. So I just raised my hand and said, 00:04:36.829 --> 00:04:39.810 hey, I'll... I'm not afraid of insects. I had 00:04:39.810 --> 00:04:43.069 a large insect collection as a kid in high school. 00:04:43.529 --> 00:04:46.089 I collected coleoptera, beetles. I had a large 00:04:46.089 --> 00:04:48.949 beetle collection. So I loved insects. And so 00:04:48.949 --> 00:04:51.529 I raised my hand. The next thing you know, I'm 00:04:51.529 --> 00:04:53.949 keeping bees for her, keeping a hive so she could 00:04:53.949 --> 00:04:56.750 go out and collect bees three times a week. She 00:04:56.750 --> 00:05:00.720 was doing them in her legs. As we know with apotherapy, 00:05:00.939 --> 00:05:04.459 the toxins release your body's cortisol, so you 00:05:04.459 --> 00:05:07.680 get that little cortisone boost. So she had mobility 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:10.959 in her legs with the bee stings. And it worked 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:12.939 for about three years before the disease caught 00:05:12.939 --> 00:05:15.300 up with her. But in the meantime, I'm keeping 00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:17.920 bees at her house. And like all beekeepers, we 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:19.819 start dividing the hives. And before you know 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:22.540 it, you've got too many hives. And obviously, 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:25.379 now I'm in the bee business and having to learn 00:05:25.379 --> 00:05:29.569 this crazy trade. and get addictive. And I've 00:05:29.569 --> 00:05:31.290 got one of those personalities that just keeps 00:05:31.290 --> 00:05:33.310 saying, well, wait a minute, what does that, 00:05:33.310 --> 00:05:36.810 what, wait, what, what does that mean? And researching 00:05:36.810 --> 00:05:39.870 it. And before you know it, I just keep going. 00:05:40.410 --> 00:05:42.430 Right about then, I started getting involved 00:05:42.430 --> 00:05:45.829 with the state API inspector that we had in Florida 00:05:45.829 --> 00:05:48.290 here at the time. And he was doing some mission 00:05:48.290 --> 00:05:51.850 work through the state, actually. We had a program 00:05:51.850 --> 00:05:55.980 with our governor at that point was... aiding 00:05:55.980 --> 00:05:59.120 and giving, had a separate organization set up 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:02.220 a nonprofit called Favica, which was basically 00:06:02.220 --> 00:06:06.040 a peace corps to the Caribbean. And if something 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:08.560 goes on in the Caribbean, usually Florida is 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:11.339 the first one being tropical, we're... we catch 00:06:11.339 --> 00:06:14.480 all the trade and problems and issues that go 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:17.379 down. So they started doing some missions down 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:19.459 there and he dragged me along on a mission and 00:06:19.459 --> 00:06:22.019 said, you know, let's go and we're going to take 00:06:22.019 --> 00:06:25.120 on Barbados, I think was my first one. And we 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:27.319 went down and work with beekeepers and then. 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:30.259 A couple of years later, I came down to St. Vincent 00:06:30.259 --> 00:06:32.860 and the Grenadines, and they'd gone down and 00:06:32.860 --> 00:06:35.360 inspected, found American fowl brood in the country, 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:38.279 sent me down the following year, said, we found 00:06:38.279 --> 00:06:40.480 100 hives. They all have American fowl brood. 00:06:41.019 --> 00:06:43.360 You get to be the bad guy and go down and be 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:46.660 the issue of the hammer and start burning colonies. 00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:51.540 So I volunteered, said, great. Flew down, got 00:06:51.540 --> 00:06:54.019 down there and couldn't find any bees. I started 00:06:54.019 --> 00:06:56.240 doing my presentation and told them what was 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:57.879 gonna go down and they said, we don't have bees. 00:06:57.939 --> 00:07:00.800 What are you talking about? We don't have, they 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:03.600 haven't been here now for over a year. Sure enough, 00:07:03.860 --> 00:07:06.360 all the colonies had collapsed. They couldn't 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:09.339 grow any crops. I got to see crop failure firsthand. 00:07:09.800 --> 00:07:12.079 You go in a restaurant and they'd have little 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:15.259 gherkin pickles. You know, fingers, they're using 00:07:15.259 --> 00:07:18.509 a razor blade on a pickle. for cucumbers on your 00:07:18.509 --> 00:07:22.089 salad. The Grenadines had none in Bequia. They 00:07:22.089 --> 00:07:23.889 had no bees at all and they hadn't had them for 00:07:23.889 --> 00:07:27.029 a couple years because of the failure. And it 00:07:27.029 --> 00:07:30.209 was a real interesting eye -opener. So we were 00:07:30.209 --> 00:07:33.170 able to, at that point with that project, we 00:07:33.170 --> 00:07:36.290 were able to get bees from St. Lucia. We brought 00:07:36.290 --> 00:07:38.870 them in, we brought 20 hives over on a ferry 00:07:38.870 --> 00:07:43.129 into into Grenadines Island of Bequia. We quarantined 00:07:43.129 --> 00:07:45.949 them there to make sure they were clean and slowly 00:07:45.949 --> 00:07:49.110 reintroduced bees back on the island. So it was 00:07:49.110 --> 00:07:50.990 a real learning experience on that end of it. 00:07:51.290 --> 00:07:53.670 Did you burn the old equipment first? Well, that 00:07:53.670 --> 00:07:56.189 was the key was everybody had to burn their equipment. 00:07:56.449 --> 00:07:58.230 Okay, everybody get rid of this old equipment 00:07:58.230 --> 00:08:00.689 and, you know, we can't use it and going through 00:08:00.689 --> 00:08:06.470 the whole steps. And did they? No. We got it 00:08:06.470 --> 00:08:09.209 up to about 400 hives and then, you know, a couple 00:08:09.209 --> 00:08:11.730 of years later go by and all of a sudden we're 00:08:11.730 --> 00:08:13.790 having failure again. Well, what happened? You 00:08:13.790 --> 00:08:16.490 got rid of that equipment. No, we never did. 00:08:16.670 --> 00:08:19.129 Sure enough, all that equipment showed its ugly 00:08:19.129 --> 00:08:22.170 head again and it dropped it back down to under, 00:08:22.170 --> 00:08:27.170 yeah, maybe like 125 hives. And slowly by now, 00:08:27.230 --> 00:08:30.370 I was down a little two years ago and they did 00:08:30.370 --> 00:08:32.309 have most of that was gone. Most of it rotted 00:08:32.309 --> 00:08:35.750 away or termites got it. So they've started over. 00:08:36.049 --> 00:08:38.649 They've got it up to around 500 colonies at this 00:08:38.649 --> 00:08:42.350 point that I could figure out. I mean, it's hard 00:08:42.350 --> 00:08:44.409 to get an estimate. There's so many backyard 00:08:44.409 --> 00:08:47.029 beekeepers down there and they really hide their 00:08:47.029 --> 00:08:49.789 hives, keep them remote. They are a little bit 00:08:49.789 --> 00:08:52.950 more defensive with some of that African genetics 00:08:52.950 --> 00:08:54.750 in it. They're afraid you're going to want to 00:08:54.750 --> 00:08:57.570 burn them or something. But is that where the 00:08:57.570 --> 00:09:00.470 idea of bees beyond borders came from? Yeah. 00:09:00.600 --> 00:09:03.220 Yeah, it started with that. And so I was going 00:09:03.220 --> 00:09:06.100 down and then that organization that I was working 00:09:06.100 --> 00:09:09.139 with slowly was getting phased out with the new 00:09:09.139 --> 00:09:11.960 governors and the political scene in Florida. 00:09:11.980 --> 00:09:16.019 It changed and they had to close down. And so 00:09:16.019 --> 00:09:19.179 I just kind of launched it. I started working 00:09:19.179 --> 00:09:22.539 with Andrew Coté a little bit in programs with 00:09:22.539 --> 00:09:26.200 Bees Without Borders. And he wasn't really pushing. 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:29.480 He was pushing more African direction. And there 00:09:29.480 --> 00:09:31.419 are groups that are working in Africa a little 00:09:31.419 --> 00:09:35.139 bit more with Bees Abroad and Bees for Development. 00:09:35.779 --> 00:09:38.179 So I've never worked with those groups, but I 00:09:38.179 --> 00:09:40.200 have worked, you know, I know Nicole and I know 00:09:40.200 --> 00:09:43.519 the crews, but they're more African -based. They're 00:09:43.519 --> 00:09:46.940 based out of the UK. And being in the US here, 00:09:47.220 --> 00:09:50.299 I felt a real need to work really with the Caribbean 00:09:50.299 --> 00:09:53.860 and be a little bit closer here, like with that 00:09:53.860 --> 00:09:57.139 aid back and forth between the country's connections. 00:09:58.059 --> 00:10:00.779 There's an old adage, you know, if the U .S. 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:04.120 sneezes, they catch a cold. So the Caribbean's 00:10:04.120 --> 00:10:06.480 really susceptible to a lot of problems that 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:08.440 come up. They actually, now it's going to catch 00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:11.960 the flu. A lot of programs in Haiti, which I'm 00:10:11.960 --> 00:10:15.019 real fascinated with, but now that's all off 00:10:15.019 --> 00:10:18.360 limits once again. Sure. Yeah, it's not safe 00:10:18.360 --> 00:10:21.659 to go into Haiti right now. No. David, tell us 00:10:21.659 --> 00:10:24.309 a little bit about the need. Well, the need is, 00:10:24.309 --> 00:10:27.190 you know, education is our main focus going down. 00:10:27.529 --> 00:10:30.889 Not really trying to change the way they keep 00:10:30.889 --> 00:10:33.610 bees, but let's say for like in Haiti where they 00:10:33.610 --> 00:10:37.769 do a lot of log gums or other methods of keeping 00:10:37.769 --> 00:10:40.330 bees. So instead of us going down there trying 00:10:40.330 --> 00:10:42.389 to teach them, well, you need to run Langstroth 00:10:42.389 --> 00:10:45.470 Ives, we go down and see what they have, what 00:10:45.470 --> 00:10:49.690 materials, and we try to assist them. And first 00:10:49.690 --> 00:10:51.960 of all, teaching them what parasites are out 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:56.279 there, what diseases, and what all we can help 00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:59.440 them with without changing their bee techniques. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:03.820 And so we do the education. And with Bo and I 00:11:03.820 --> 00:11:06.559 both, we both have that background in agriculture. 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:11.399 So we also assist them with other projects like 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:16.059 in planning for bee forage and native bee forage 00:11:16.059 --> 00:11:19.899 and assisting them in learning what plants they 00:11:19.899 --> 00:11:22.759 need to have out there. And that's the biggest 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:26.240 thing, especially in Haiti, where they can't 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:31.200 afford to make or buy Langstroth equipment. So 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:36.039 top bar or no frame equipment, you know, or minimal 00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:41.080 frame equipment works best for them. And we've 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:44.039 done a lot of education where you're teaching 00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:46.559 the farmers in some of the other islands where 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:50.679 they're spraying haphazardous all the time, doesn't 00:11:50.679 --> 00:11:53.840 matter day or night, whatever, we're educating 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:57.159 them also. And I mean, we do some outreach here 00:11:57.159 --> 00:12:01.700 in the U .S. with education, so we do a lot of 00:12:01.700 --> 00:12:04.080 education. All right, if you could come educate 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:06.399 some of my neighbors here, that'd be great, too. 00:12:08.370 --> 00:12:12.049 You know, I had to do the education here in Florida 00:12:12.049 --> 00:12:16.289 being regulatory before. Yeah, I mean, it took 00:12:16.289 --> 00:12:20.230 us a couple years to educate the general public, 00:12:20.350 --> 00:12:22.990 you know, the importance of honeybees. And we're 00:12:22.990 --> 00:12:25.190 seeing that right now in some of the Caribbean 00:12:25.190 --> 00:12:28.450 islands, where they're scared to death of bees 00:12:28.450 --> 00:12:31.509 because they're stinging insects. And here in 00:12:31.509 --> 00:12:34.269 Florida, at least, we're protected under the 00:12:34.269 --> 00:12:37.860 right to farm and the right the placement of 00:12:37.860 --> 00:12:40.460 beehives. That's what we're working with right 00:12:40.460 --> 00:12:43.700 now, some of the Caribbean islands like Barbados, 00:12:44.379 --> 00:12:47.600 where they have no laws in protecting where they 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:51.500 can put bees. So if the neighbor complains, they 00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:55.179 could be thrown out of their bee yard, even if 00:12:55.179 --> 00:12:58.820 it's their own property. So what's the main focus? 00:12:58.980 --> 00:13:01.899 What is the mission of the organization? Food 00:13:01.899 --> 00:13:04.240 security. I think it does involve beekeeping 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:08.399 is we try to really get rural development and 00:13:08.399 --> 00:13:11.179 food security for everybody. And the said old 00:13:11.179 --> 00:13:15.720 adage of eat local is the key to it all. Most 00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:19.379 of the islands throughout the Caribbean are basically 00:13:19.379 --> 00:13:23.120 importing honey at these extraordinary exorbitant 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:26.080 prices. And they're getting it from all the wrong 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:28.419 sources because they just need drums of honey. 00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:30.620 And of course, they're getting it in from who 00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:33.620 knows where. As we all know, we can't control 00:13:33.620 --> 00:13:36.340 what's in a drum of honey that comes in. We don't 00:13:36.340 --> 00:13:38.899 know if it's from Vietnam or Ukraine or China 00:13:38.899 --> 00:13:42.659 or Korea. We just really don't know these sources 00:13:42.659 --> 00:13:46.730 anymore and what quality it is. honey, as we 00:13:46.730 --> 00:13:49.929 all know. Dave and I were also involved with 00:13:49.929 --> 00:13:53.350 American Bee Federation Education Program, and 00:13:53.350 --> 00:13:57.409 we're state delegates. So we're involved on all 00:13:57.409 --> 00:14:00.049 levels of it, trying to keep this economy of 00:14:00.049 --> 00:14:02.830 bees and honey and everything moving forward. 00:14:03.179 --> 00:14:06.940 So when you talk about food security, is it mostly 00:14:06.940 --> 00:14:09.399 honey or is it the fact that they desperately 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:12.039 need the pollinators too? They need the pollinators 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:14.000 because most of the crops that they do grow, 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:16.419 these farmers are root crops, so they are really 00:14:16.419 --> 00:14:19.720 looking at a lot of those cubiculates for pollination 00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:22.320 that they really need. Not as much the fruit, 00:14:22.460 --> 00:14:24.200 they're really the fruit trees and most of that 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:27.600 they have other native pollinators that are out 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:29.990 there. We're trying to always make them aware 00:14:29.990 --> 00:14:32.750 of all the other pollinators in the countries 00:14:32.750 --> 00:14:35.570 that we visit. But it's really trying to get 00:14:35.570 --> 00:14:38.149 pollination and food security honey. Our part 00:14:38.149 --> 00:14:41.950 in Haiti is getting to even harvest honey. They're 00:14:41.950 --> 00:14:44.649 looking at the brood like a bare wood as protein. 00:14:45.169 --> 00:14:48.850 So they actually will take the pupas and the 00:14:48.850 --> 00:14:51.529 larva and they'll fry it up. So that's a whole 00:14:51.529 --> 00:14:54.070 different commodity right in itself. So it's 00:14:54.070 --> 00:14:56.629 really hard to get them to keep bees in a box 00:14:56.629 --> 00:15:00.240 and understand. you know, to keep your your parent 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:02.720 colonies going and not be eating everything there. 00:15:03.059 --> 00:15:07.860 Food is a real sick problem. Let me just take 00:15:07.860 --> 00:15:10.159 a minute here to thank our presenting sponsor, 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:13.000 Man Lake. One of the things I love about Man 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.000 Lake is their commitment to education because 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.500 that commitment shows how much they want you 00:15:18.500 --> 00:15:21.870 to be successful at beekeeping. One great resource 00:15:21.870 --> 00:15:24.389 is their mobile app. You know, it's not just 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:27.710 for shopping. It's packed full of all kinds of 00:15:27.710 --> 00:15:30.830 helpful information, including videos, articles, 00:15:31.230 --> 00:15:33.909 plus a plant identification feature designed 00:15:33.909 --> 00:15:36.950 to help beekeepers identify and plant bee healthy 00:15:36.950 --> 00:15:40.129 plants for their area. It's free, so download 00:15:40.129 --> 00:15:43.210 the Man Lake app today. And speaking of shopping, 00:15:43.570 --> 00:15:46.710 don't forget your discount code MLBlove10. It's 00:15:46.710 --> 00:15:50.230 in the show notes for $10 off your first $100 00:15:50.230 --> 00:15:56.610 purchase. Now back to the guest. I've worked 00:15:56.610 --> 00:15:59.149 in all areas of Haiti like Dave has. We've both 00:15:59.149 --> 00:16:02.289 worked in different directions. But you get out 00:16:02.289 --> 00:16:04.970 in the mountains there and still to this day, 00:16:05.049 --> 00:16:07.830 labor, you're lucky you make a dollar and a half 00:16:07.830 --> 00:16:12.500 a day for an eight to 10 hour day. Port -au -Prince 00:16:12.500 --> 00:16:14.720 labor is up since the earthquake there. It's 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:19.059 up to around $6 for a 12 -hour day in the sweatshops. 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:23.879 So it's a real tough life to grind out. And if 00:16:23.879 --> 00:16:26.519 you can have something on the side, try to get 00:16:26.519 --> 00:16:29.279 your food crops up a little bit and have that 00:16:29.279 --> 00:16:34.299 honey as an income source. And then they end 00:16:34.299 --> 00:16:36.159 up with a little bit of wax, hopefully, that 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:39.340 they can turn into some cosmetics. We try to 00:16:39.340 --> 00:16:42.389 teach a little bit of that also. It's amazing 00:16:42.389 --> 00:16:46.029 the value of honey on almost all the Caribbean 00:16:46.029 --> 00:16:50.529 islands. 20 years ago, their honey prices were 00:16:50.529 --> 00:16:55.669 still somewhere around $10 to $15, somewhere 00:16:55.669 --> 00:16:59.269 around a four ounce bottle. So it takes you about 00:16:59.269 --> 00:17:03.190 four four ounce bottles to make a pound. And 00:17:03.190 --> 00:17:07.410 they are still getting anywhere from $25 to $30 00:17:07.410 --> 00:17:10.369 a pound for their honey. when they're selling 00:17:10.369 --> 00:17:13.230 it throughout in Haiti the same way. And some 00:17:13.230 --> 00:17:15.849 islands even more than that. I mean, it's crazy 00:17:15.849 --> 00:17:18.430 the numbers that you hear. If you had a dozen 00:17:18.430 --> 00:17:20.329 hives down there, you could actually make a living. 00:17:20.710 --> 00:17:22.890 You could fly back and forth and still come out 00:17:22.890 --> 00:17:25.970 ahead. I mean, it's just nuts. That is crazy. 00:17:26.349 --> 00:17:28.609 What's your next big project? Do you have something 00:17:28.609 --> 00:17:31.970 coming up? I do. Right now, I've got one going 00:17:31.970 --> 00:17:35.470 on. We're going to start one down in Turks and 00:17:35.470 --> 00:17:39.029 Caicos. Turks and Caicos lost their bees 30 years 00:17:39.029 --> 00:17:40.930 ago in a hurricane, and they haven't had any 00:17:40.930 --> 00:17:44.470 back. We were able to find some bees in the Bahamas. 00:17:45.089 --> 00:17:47.789 Eight or 10 years back, Ted Dennard from Savannah 00:17:47.789 --> 00:17:51.829 Bee had taken bees down to Exuma in the southern 00:17:51.829 --> 00:17:56.289 Bahamas. They've come out pretty clean so far. 00:17:56.490 --> 00:17:58.910 Jennifer Berry was working on that program. They 00:17:58.910 --> 00:18:00.990 seem to be pretty mite -free from what we've 00:18:00.990 --> 00:18:03.430 been able to find out. I'm going to go down here 00:18:03.430 --> 00:18:06.559 in this next week. We've got a beekeeper down 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:08.900 there that's going to sell us four boxes of bees, 00:18:09.099 --> 00:18:11.299 and we're going to put them on a private plane, 00:18:11.819 --> 00:18:14.859 fly them into Turks and Caicos. We've got permission 00:18:14.859 --> 00:18:17.839 from the chief veterinary officer there to bring 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:19.660 them into the country. So we're working with 00:18:19.660 --> 00:18:23.180 the Bahama government agency for making sure 00:18:23.180 --> 00:18:25.119 we are allowed to export them and at the same 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:27.700 time allowed to bring them into Turks and Caicos. 00:18:28.299 --> 00:18:30.299 So we're going to do that here in the next month. 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:32.359 and then we have a program Dave and I are going 00:18:32.359 --> 00:18:35.279 to be doing some teaching up in Arkansas outside 00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:38.660 of Little Rock. So things like buying bees and 00:18:38.660 --> 00:18:41.859 flying them to an island someplace sounds pretty 00:18:41.859 --> 00:18:45.240 expensive. I assume that's where the 501c3 comes 00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:49.160 in. How do you get donations? How do people donate 00:18:49.160 --> 00:18:53.150 and what are they used for specifically? Well, 00:18:53.150 --> 00:18:55.910 we're not getting paid. Dave and I are both strictly 00:18:55.910 --> 00:18:58.789 volunteers on this whole operation, as we've 00:18:58.789 --> 00:19:01.730 been doing. But we use it for exactly these kind 00:19:01.730 --> 00:19:04.730 of programs. I've got a private donor that said 00:19:04.730 --> 00:19:07.670 he would put up money for this program. He lives 00:19:07.670 --> 00:19:11.150 in Turks, and he's a new farmer down there. He 00:19:11.150 --> 00:19:14.829 has a plot of land and has enough cash on the 00:19:14.829 --> 00:19:17.470 side that he says, let's go do it. I'll put up 00:19:17.470 --> 00:19:20.490 the money for it. And so we got his security. 00:19:20.910 --> 00:19:24.490 The foundation gets money coming in periodically 00:19:24.490 --> 00:19:26.890 from different sources. I can't say it's anyone 00:19:26.890 --> 00:19:29.710 in particular, but a lot of private foundations. 00:19:30.710 --> 00:19:32.990 Grants have gotten really hard to come by anymore, 00:19:33.509 --> 00:19:36.630 especially now with the cutbacks. We were starting 00:19:36.630 --> 00:19:40.549 to work on a new program down in Jamaica. I started 00:19:40.549 --> 00:19:43.849 one down there in a couple locations, but that 00:19:43.849 --> 00:19:46.609 grant just fell through. It's gotten so hard. 00:19:46.849 --> 00:19:50.079 There's so much competition in foundations. funding, 00:19:50.140 --> 00:19:52.900 especially out of country. So we're just going 00:19:52.900 --> 00:19:55.460 to take the money and go forward with it. We 00:19:55.460 --> 00:19:59.519 have a site, a link on our website on the beesbeyondborders 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:04.819 .com site that there is a donation location on 00:20:04.819 --> 00:20:08.319 there and a QR code, I believe still on there 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:11.559 that we can work with. So we get donations that 00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:13.579 come in and we just kind of put it toward, you 00:20:13.579 --> 00:20:16.779 know, the programs and move forward. for either 00:20:16.779 --> 00:20:21.380 for our travel trips or we never work 100 % with 00:20:21.380 --> 00:20:23.900 a program. Dave and I have gotten stuck with 00:20:23.900 --> 00:20:26.799 that already or we've gotten pulled into a country 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:29.500 and all of a sudden the program wasn't there 00:20:29.500 --> 00:20:32.380 that they talked about it. So we always have 00:20:32.380 --> 00:20:35.039 to make them put up, they've got to put up something 00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:37.859 to meet in the program to get us enticed. So 00:20:37.859 --> 00:20:41.660 we try to do a 50 -50 if we can with programs 00:20:41.660 --> 00:20:43.579 that they've got to have some skin in the game. 00:20:43.710 --> 00:20:46.190 for us to come in and do the program because 00:20:46.190 --> 00:20:48.569 it can be real pricing and it's just the logistics 00:20:48.569 --> 00:20:51.009 and everything are just crazy. Talking about 00:20:51.009 --> 00:20:53.049 Haiti is you have to have a driver. You just 00:20:53.049 --> 00:20:57.589 can't drive down there. You need a car and a 00:20:57.589 --> 00:21:00.250 driver and the costs are just crazy when you 00:21:00.250 --> 00:21:02.930 start getting into the rentals in these third 00:21:02.930 --> 00:21:05.269 world countries like that. Port -au -Prince has 00:21:05.269 --> 00:21:07.670 no stop signs. There's no stop lights. It's just 00:21:07.670 --> 00:21:10.009 chaos. You get on the main highway. That's a 00:21:10.009 --> 00:21:12.650 four lane highway and it has an intersection. 00:21:13.109 --> 00:21:15.269 And it literally, there's no light. And it's 00:21:15.269 --> 00:21:17.029 just like the cars, you're just going through 00:21:17.029 --> 00:21:19.329 this and it vibrates. And all of a sudden you're 00:21:19.329 --> 00:21:21.630 through it. And you just go, how did I get through 00:21:21.630 --> 00:21:24.430 a fourth lane, across a four lane highway and 00:21:24.430 --> 00:21:27.089 make it? You may have somebody standing in the 00:21:27.089 --> 00:21:30.490 middle that looks like a police officer directing 00:21:30.490 --> 00:21:34.430 traffic, but no one follows him. No, no. That's 00:21:34.430 --> 00:21:37.339 the thing. It's chaos. Or it's just a regular 00:21:37.339 --> 00:21:39.359 citizen that was trying to cross the street and 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:42.960 got stuck. You just can't ever get to the other 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:47.720 side until midnight or something. Hey, give us 00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:50.500 an idea. What has been one of your favorite projects? 00:21:50.859 --> 00:21:53.579 Where was it? How did it go? Haiti, actually, 00:21:53.720 --> 00:21:55.980 I've done a couple programs down there for over 00:21:55.980 --> 00:21:58.259 the years, quite a few, and I was working in 00:21:58.259 --> 00:22:01.500 a real remote area up in the mountains and came 00:22:01.500 --> 00:22:04.680 across a character that had six logs on the ground 00:22:04.680 --> 00:22:07.740 and had no beekeeping experience. It was taught 00:22:07.740 --> 00:22:10.259 to him by his grandfather, had never seen a smoker 00:22:10.259 --> 00:22:13.160 before. No clue. We worked it through that I 00:22:13.160 --> 00:22:15.880 was able to show him how to build some top bar 00:22:15.880 --> 00:22:18.779 hives. He was two and a half hours off road, 00:22:18.940 --> 00:22:21.480 off the grid, completely up in the mountain. 00:22:21.740 --> 00:22:23.819 The four -wheel drive couldn't go and we'd walk 00:22:23.819 --> 00:22:26.279 a half hour from there back into the village. 00:22:26.759 --> 00:22:29.839 And we were able to get some moped to bring us 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:33.240 in some sheets of plywood. And we cut it up with 00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:36.039 a handsaw, taught them how to do top bar hive 00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:39.460 with it. I've designed a hive, you get four of 00:22:39.460 --> 00:22:41.640 them out of a sheet of plywood, top bar hive. 00:22:41.819 --> 00:22:43.759 And then just get a thick plank of wood and we 00:22:43.759 --> 00:22:47.900 just cut our top bars with that. So we had minimal 00:22:47.900 --> 00:22:52.519 amount of equipment put into it. And after a 00:22:52.519 --> 00:22:55.440 year, he was up to about 25. And when he got 00:22:55.440 --> 00:22:58.500 25 of these colonies going, he was able to get 00:22:58.500 --> 00:23:01.940 enough money to afford a moped. And the moped 00:23:01.940 --> 00:23:04.500 got him into school, and then he got it up to 00:23:04.500 --> 00:23:07.140 50. And now he was able to go to college, and 00:23:07.140 --> 00:23:09.819 he became an agronomist in four years. So all 00:23:09.819 --> 00:23:12.099 of a sudden it went from having just logs that 00:23:12.099 --> 00:23:14.640 he had no clue as to what it was to becoming 00:23:14.640 --> 00:23:19.140 now an agricultural officer in that region of 00:23:19.140 --> 00:23:21.819 Haiti in the mountains. And he was able to get 00:23:21.819 --> 00:23:25.079 other people involved to start packaging honey. 00:23:25.500 --> 00:23:27.420 And before you know, they were able to make a 00:23:27.420 --> 00:23:29.980 drum of honey and sell it to a candy company 00:23:29.980 --> 00:23:32.940 in Port -au -Prince. I don't mean to overdo what 00:23:32.940 --> 00:23:35.690 you're doing or... Throw hyperbole on it, but 00:23:35.690 --> 00:23:38.490 you guys are humble about it that story. You 00:23:38.490 --> 00:23:43.369 just told me Bo Your help has affected generations 00:23:43.369 --> 00:23:46.750 Hopefully that's not just one person getting 00:23:46.750 --> 00:23:50.589 a meal tonight. That's long -term Generational 00:23:50.589 --> 00:23:53.430 help and that is spectacular. Yeah, I know it's 00:23:53.430 --> 00:23:55.490 it's it's really humbling when you go in and 00:23:55.490 --> 00:23:58.630 You know after I got the hive then then it became 00:23:58.630 --> 00:24:00.789 down to okay. No, I've got a guy I've got top 00:24:00.789 --> 00:24:03.799 bar hive here built take a log and now I've got 00:24:03.799 --> 00:24:06.079 to stick my arms in this log and pull out the 00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:08.839 frames and transfer it. How do you transfer a 00:24:08.839 --> 00:24:12.900 log, hive into any other equipment? I mean, it 00:24:12.900 --> 00:24:15.680 was just crazy. Well, especially a guy that wears 00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:19.940 no protective gear. Yeah, exactly. It was pretty 00:24:19.940 --> 00:24:22.779 humbling to take a machete and kind of pull these 00:24:22.779 --> 00:24:25.880 crumbs of froth. frames comb out, and you don't 00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:28.240 have rubber bands. So I took an old bed sheet 00:24:28.240 --> 00:24:31.359 and I made little hammocks out of bedsheets and 00:24:31.359 --> 00:24:34.240 tied them to the top bar. And when you're working 00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:37.160 in a place like that, where do you stay? It's 00:24:37.160 --> 00:24:40.160 pretty, it's pretty remote. I try to get to a 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:43.119 hotel. I mean, if you can, that's been kind of 00:24:43.119 --> 00:24:47.420 my goal anymore. Getting older as I am, I'm in 00:24:47.420 --> 00:24:50.119 my mid 70s, early 70s there. I just have to have, 00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:54.740 I need hot water and no bugs. No bedbugs and 00:24:54.740 --> 00:24:57.559 hot water is what I tell them. And I'm good to 00:24:57.559 --> 00:25:02.019 go. I've stayed in tin sheds. I mean, you name 00:25:02.019 --> 00:25:05.660 it, you're just in really remote. In fact, the 00:25:05.660 --> 00:25:07.420 first time I was down there, the first night, 00:25:07.940 --> 00:25:09.740 they put me in a metal building. We shared a 00:25:09.740 --> 00:25:11.339 light bulb with the people on the other side 00:25:11.339 --> 00:25:15.720 of the wall, even. And I had a cot in a bucket. 00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:18.279 And about three in the morning, somebody opens 00:25:18.279 --> 00:25:20.920 the door, comes walking in, the guy says, My 00:25:20.920 --> 00:25:24.119 neighbor, I have no idea who it is. Some guys 00:25:24.119 --> 00:25:27.000 walking in the room and he says, my roommate's 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:29.980 snoring. Can I sleep in this other cot at three 00:25:29.980 --> 00:25:31.900 in the morning? And he's going to wake up and 00:25:31.900 --> 00:25:35.799 go, okay. No idea to wake up in the morning to 00:25:35.799 --> 00:25:37.839 see some guys sitting there combing his hair. 00:25:38.220 --> 00:25:41.119 It's just the baffling. You never know what you're 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:43.319 going to get. And they come in there carrying 00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:45.640 roosters in there and under their arm. And that's 00:25:45.640 --> 00:25:47.500 going to be your breakfast. You're just like, 00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:50.720 what? Okay, here we go. That sounds like a real 00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:53.819 adventure. I want to go with you sometime. Hey, 00:25:53.839 --> 00:25:57.279 David, in some of these remote places, Bo mentioned 00:25:57.279 --> 00:26:00.420 American Falbrood in another country than that, 00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:04.900 but do you see the same kind of problems in those 00:26:04.900 --> 00:26:08.319 countries that you see here? Yeah, American Falbrood 00:26:08.319 --> 00:26:11.480 isn't as widespread down in the islands, but 00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:14.480 they're starting to get more Varroa and even 00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:16.900 small high beetles are starting to get into there. 00:26:17.200 --> 00:26:21.099 And most of the islands we deal with, like Haiti, 00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:25.019 they have agricultural persons down there, like 00:26:25.019 --> 00:26:27.039 the agronomists that Beau was talking about. 00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:30.619 They have, like, extension officers. But most 00:26:30.619 --> 00:26:33.799 of them, if they have any education, they get 00:26:33.799 --> 00:26:37.019 out of there, come either to the states or to 00:26:37.019 --> 00:26:40.319 other islands. So it's amazing when we get the 00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:43.950 lake. We were actually in Haiti. I remember there 00:26:43.950 --> 00:26:46.609 was an extension agent there that had about 50 00:26:46.609 --> 00:26:51.220 hives of bees. And after myself and another person 00:26:51.220 --> 00:26:53.759 had gone through the bees, we found Varroa mites 00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:57.420 and we showed him the Varroa mites. He was an 00:26:57.420 --> 00:27:01.880 extension agent for Haiti, and he was so amazed 00:27:01.880 --> 00:27:05.420 he had decided he could spend enough time to 00:27:05.420 --> 00:27:08.460 pull the Varroa mites out of the hive. And we 00:27:08.460 --> 00:27:10.839 were like, no, you're better to figure out a 00:27:10.839 --> 00:27:14.200 treatment or, you know, try some different products 00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:17.420 and get rid of them. But he felt that his time 00:27:17.529 --> 00:27:19.950 value of the time was low enough that he could 00:27:19.950 --> 00:27:23.849 do it by hand and get them out. But then we got 00:27:23.849 --> 00:27:27.009 the same person we were looking at, and you talk 00:27:27.009 --> 00:27:30.490 about people they have very little to do with. 00:27:30.750 --> 00:27:33.529 We looked at his feet, and he had a pair of shoes 00:27:33.529 --> 00:27:36.150 on, it looked like. But when we really looked 00:27:36.150 --> 00:27:39.329 at him... He had the top part of the shoes, the 00:27:39.329 --> 00:27:42.190 soles were totally gone, and he was still, because 00:27:42.190 --> 00:27:44.970 he wanted to impress us that he had shoes, he 00:27:44.970 --> 00:27:47.490 was walking around with nothing but the top of 00:27:47.490 --> 00:27:50.849 the shoe on. And walking over these, we called 00:27:50.849 --> 00:27:55.009 them cow horn cacti that they use for fencing, 00:27:55.549 --> 00:27:57.609 because they've got these big hard cactuses. 00:27:58.210 --> 00:28:01.890 Those things could pierce through my boots that 00:28:01.890 --> 00:28:05.930 I wore. And to watch him walk barefoot, well, 00:28:06.009 --> 00:28:09.990 sort of barefoot over him was amazing to us. 00:28:10.809 --> 00:28:13.450 And the other, I was going to tell a story from 00:28:13.450 --> 00:28:16.089 being in the little town of Plaisance, which 00:28:16.089 --> 00:28:20.529 is in the southeast side of Haiti, sort of middle 00:28:20.529 --> 00:28:23.490 part. You're just in the mountain area. We had 00:28:23.490 --> 00:28:26.150 an educational program we were doing one morning. 00:28:26.359 --> 00:28:30.839 And we asked the people how far was the furthest 00:28:30.839 --> 00:28:33.839 distance anybody had come for this training. 00:28:34.400 --> 00:28:37.339 And we had, I think it was 27 people in the training. 00:28:37.799 --> 00:28:41.759 One guy had walked 21 miles to get there and 00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:44.940 actually had started two days before. He'd started 00:28:44.940 --> 00:28:47.920 in the afternoon, walked during the night to 00:28:47.920 --> 00:28:50.920 get there and walked two nights to get to that. 00:28:51.210 --> 00:28:54.789 So and then stayed. And that was the first meal 00:28:54.789 --> 00:28:58.329 when we had we buy like Bo was saying we purchase 00:28:58.329 --> 00:29:01.890 a lot of stuff. So normally the meals are something 00:29:01.890 --> 00:29:04.650 that we pay for. And that was the first meal 00:29:04.650 --> 00:29:08.490 he had had in three days. And so it was an honor 00:29:08.490 --> 00:29:11.829 to give him a smoking tool and a big lighter. 00:29:12.049 --> 00:29:14.430 It was really funny because he'd never owned 00:29:14.430 --> 00:29:19.329 or never seen a lighter before. And so, you know. 00:29:19.420 --> 00:29:23.460 He'd always made fire with either sticks or or 00:29:23.460 --> 00:29:27.099 had it always going. So yeah, the simple things 00:29:27.099 --> 00:29:30.019 in life. I had a guy one time walking four hours 00:29:30.019 --> 00:29:32.579 each day, each each morning for four days in 00:29:32.579 --> 00:29:34.859 a row. He walked four to five hours in the morning 00:29:34.859 --> 00:29:37.220 and at night going home in the mountains. And 00:29:37.220 --> 00:29:38.980 there's this, you know, it's just all gravel 00:29:38.980 --> 00:29:41.359 pass up through the mountains. It's not flat 00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:44.339 land at all. It's pretty rough. So I've made 00:29:44.339 --> 00:29:47.559 you got rice and beans and peas before he left. 00:29:47.559 --> 00:29:51.119 Yeah. That economic situation that brings up 00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:54.460 a really hard question and that is if you're 00:29:54.460 --> 00:29:56.839 educating somebody and you're working with them 00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:01.259 with their bees and for example They have you 00:30:01.259 --> 00:30:04.859 know, they're overrun with Varroa. I Have a feeling 00:30:04.859 --> 00:30:07.079 they can't afford to go out and buy some kind 00:30:07.079 --> 00:30:11.099 of treatment even if it was in the country What 00:30:11.099 --> 00:30:13.180 do you do? How do you help them in those kind 00:30:13.180 --> 00:30:16.190 of situations? You teach them methods that they 00:30:16.190 --> 00:30:19.410 can do like breaking brood cycles. The biggest 00:30:19.410 --> 00:30:22.450 thing down in Haiti and most of the Caribbean 00:30:22.450 --> 00:30:26.210 and islands is they have temperatures pretty 00:30:26.210 --> 00:30:32.230 much 75 to 90, 95 degrees year round. So they 00:30:32.230 --> 00:30:36.269 don't go off of seasonal brood breaks. So you 00:30:36.269 --> 00:30:39.750 end up having the nectar flows. So if you have 00:30:39.750 --> 00:30:44.059 a dearth, your brood will break. So we also try 00:30:44.059 --> 00:30:47.440 to teach them to split or, you know, separate 00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:51.019 the queen out. So you do a queenless split and 00:30:51.019 --> 00:30:53.700 allow that brood to break. And then they can 00:30:53.700 --> 00:30:56.980 do methods of powdered sugar is one, even though 00:30:56.980 --> 00:30:59.599 they can't afford the powdered sugar. It was 00:30:59.599 --> 00:31:02.279 so amazing to us. We taught them powdered sugar. 00:31:02.440 --> 00:31:05.640 They collect the powdered sugar, sift the mites 00:31:05.640 --> 00:31:08.700 back out of them, or they'd pour it into, you 00:31:08.700 --> 00:31:11.990 know, let it sift down into water. And then take 00:31:11.990 --> 00:31:15.269 the water and let it dehydrate to get the powdered 00:31:15.269 --> 00:31:18.910 sugar, the sugar crystals back out. And it was 00:31:18.910 --> 00:31:22.009 amazing to watch them do that. I mean, like Beau 00:31:22.009 --> 00:31:25.930 said, in Haiti, it's not unusual for it to be 00:31:25.930 --> 00:31:31.670 less than a dollar a day for income. And so what 00:31:31.670 --> 00:31:34.730 they can save on, we've had some that try to 00:31:34.730 --> 00:31:37.829 use botanicals. They have a couple different 00:31:37.829 --> 00:31:41.390 plants down there. that it seems that if you 00:31:41.390 --> 00:31:44.509 use the leaves that cause the bees to actually 00:31:44.509 --> 00:31:47.210 start grooming and removing the mite. So, you 00:31:47.210 --> 00:31:51.789 know, combination of brood splitting and doing 00:31:51.789 --> 00:31:54.960 that can assist. We're trying to get a little 00:31:54.960 --> 00:31:57.299 bit more research to have them do down there. 00:31:57.660 --> 00:32:00.000 Also, I mean, here in the States, we always claim 00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:02.539 that, you know, bees live 40 days down there. 00:32:02.539 --> 00:32:05.339 They're flying a little bit more. And the bees 00:32:05.339 --> 00:32:08.799 seem to be a little bit smaller. We believe we're 00:32:08.799 --> 00:32:10.559 kind of come to the conclusion that the bees 00:32:10.559 --> 00:32:13.599 gestation period is a little bit quicker. So 00:32:13.599 --> 00:32:15.980 they don't have quite as much of a mite problem 00:32:15.980 --> 00:32:18.640 just having that quicker gestation turnaround. 00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:20.839 And the bees just don't live as long because 00:32:20.839 --> 00:32:23.480 they're flying so much more. But we're doing 00:32:23.480 --> 00:32:26.680 seeing more and more climate change is really 00:32:26.680 --> 00:32:29.480 taking some little bit of an effect we're seeing. 00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:33.259 We they've mentioned seasons down there. We're 00:32:33.259 --> 00:32:35.759 starting to see more of a just a wet season or 00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:38.799 dry season. We're not seeing these ebb and flows 00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:43.380 like we used to dry, wet, dry, wet. And so they're 00:32:43.380 --> 00:32:45.440 really getting to be it's getting harder and 00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:48.200 harder for them to get a crop of honey in these 00:32:48.200 --> 00:32:50.980 dirt seasons. Right now we're just in Barbados 00:32:50.980 --> 00:32:54.210 here. a couple weeks ago, Dave and I, and it's 00:32:54.210 --> 00:32:56.410 really in a dirt season again. And it should 00:32:56.410 --> 00:33:00.349 be more rain should have started or not. So it's 00:33:00.349 --> 00:33:02.829 really a tough, tough time for everybody. One 00:33:02.829 --> 00:33:05.910 of our biggest programs, it wasn't our biggest 00:33:05.910 --> 00:33:08.569 program, but probably the most beneficial one 00:33:08.569 --> 00:33:11.890 was probably when we did Dominica where, you 00:33:11.890 --> 00:33:15.390 know, we had them down there. They were making 00:33:15.390 --> 00:33:19.910 about three pounds of honey per hive per year. 00:33:20.140 --> 00:33:23.380 And after Bo and I had spent two trips down there, 00:33:23.819 --> 00:33:27.140 they were actually up to about 30, 35 pounds 00:33:27.140 --> 00:33:30.880 of honey. And all of that was actually technique. 00:33:31.400 --> 00:33:33.900 We taught them not to take the honey right as 00:33:33.900 --> 00:33:37.240 soon as it was being capped to allow them to 00:33:37.240 --> 00:33:41.140 store the surplus and then pull that little bit 00:33:41.140 --> 00:33:45.200 off out of the honey super. It really made a 00:33:45.200 --> 00:33:47.420 difference, but then they got hit by a humongous 00:33:47.420 --> 00:33:51.400 hurricane and wiped out about 98 % of their bees. 00:33:51.880 --> 00:33:54.660 So they're just starting to come back. All right. 00:33:54.740 --> 00:33:57.920 Let's end on a fun note here. Bo, you look like 00:33:57.920 --> 00:34:00.799 someone, and with all your traveling, I bet you've 00:34:00.799 --> 00:34:04.480 had many multiple wild and crazy beekeeping stories. 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:06.920 uh... man which one do you want which what which 00:34:06.920 --> 00:34:09.619 direction do you want to go crazy or just are 00:34:09.619 --> 00:34:12.280 funny let's start with funny and go crazy after 00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:15.659 that funny funny i had a good one done in indiana 00:34:15.659 --> 00:34:18.860 uh... it was my first real encounter with african 00:34:18.860 --> 00:34:21.500 icebees and they dragged us around the island 00:34:21.500 --> 00:34:24.579 and uh... all of a sudden they got everybody 00:34:24.579 --> 00:34:27.719 decided this little tour group of ours and about 00:34:27.719 --> 00:34:29.619 uh... dozen people and they all wanted to go 00:34:29.619 --> 00:34:32.239 up and look inside of a hive In Guyana, they 00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:34.619 take, everybody's ever worked with African bees, 00:34:34.699 --> 00:34:37.480 they'll actually take 55 -gallon drums and light 00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:40.320 them on fire around the outsides of the apiaries, 00:34:40.539 --> 00:34:44.139 the big fields, and they will literally fog the 00:34:44.139 --> 00:34:48.119 entire basin fields in smoke. Besides having 00:34:48.119 --> 00:34:50.679 somebody, it's a full -time job for one person 00:34:50.679 --> 00:34:53.400 to run a smoker, and their smokers are not like 00:34:53.400 --> 00:34:56.400 ours. They're three times the size. They literally, 00:34:56.599 --> 00:35:00.940 they look like a two -gallon... two to three 00:35:00.940 --> 00:35:03.940 gallon cans with a big bellow on it. And their 00:35:03.940 --> 00:35:06.619 job is to smoke. And they started smoking it 00:35:06.619 --> 00:35:08.219 and I said, there's too many people, I'm out 00:35:08.219 --> 00:35:10.840 of here. I just knew the CO2 coming off their 00:35:10.840 --> 00:35:13.380 breath was gonna set them off. And sure enough, 00:35:13.780 --> 00:35:16.539 I got about 100 yards away, if not a little bit 00:35:16.539 --> 00:35:21.090 more, 120. 120 yards away from it. And man, I 00:35:21.090 --> 00:35:23.409 could hear the dogs starting to bellow and a 00:35:23.409 --> 00:35:26.949 goat yelling. And I knew that hell was breaking 00:35:26.949 --> 00:35:30.409 loose down on the field. And sure enough, out 00:35:30.409 --> 00:35:33.269 of the thickets comes Jerry Hayes. Everybody 00:35:33.269 --> 00:35:36.510 knows Jerry. Yeah, I know Jerry. He comes out 00:35:36.510 --> 00:35:38.710 of there and pushes, and I said, this ain't looking 00:35:38.710 --> 00:35:41.030 good. He says, no. And I says, well, I'll tell 00:35:41.030 --> 00:35:42.809 you what, Jerry. He says, I'm not going to have 00:35:42.809 --> 00:35:45.010 a job if this starts happening. At that point, 00:35:45.010 --> 00:35:48.130 he was our chief vaper here in Florida. And he 00:35:48.130 --> 00:35:50.150 says, I'm going to be out of a job if this happens 00:35:50.150 --> 00:35:53.610 in Florida. And with that, I said, well, I'm 00:35:53.610 --> 00:35:55.610 going to have the distributor ship for EpiPens. 00:35:55.969 --> 00:35:58.449 And he said, man, that's a good idea. You take 00:35:58.449 --> 00:36:01.170 the East Coast, and I'll take the West. And man, 00:36:01.170 --> 00:36:03.829 with that, a guy come running. They had a t -shirt 00:36:03.829 --> 00:36:06.449 over a guy's head. And he come out of there, 00:36:06.570 --> 00:36:08.469 Ben, he was so stung up, they ran him to the 00:36:08.469 --> 00:36:11.510 hospital the next day. His eyes were swollen 00:36:11.510 --> 00:36:14.769 shut and his lips were as big as cucumbers. I 00:36:14.769 --> 00:36:18.010 mean, it was crazy to see that environment, how 00:36:18.010 --> 00:36:21.030 fast African bees can go off on people. And they 00:36:21.030 --> 00:36:25.030 just yelled, everybody back in the bus, go. They 00:36:25.030 --> 00:36:27.849 will track you down. And they have a memory as 00:36:27.849 --> 00:36:31.230 African bees will remember up to three days later, 00:36:31.650 --> 00:36:34.340 you can't get near it. And when one colony goes 00:36:34.340 --> 00:36:36.539 off, it's the one next to it goes off and the 00:36:36.539 --> 00:36:39.099 next one next to it goes off. So when they all 00:36:39.099 --> 00:36:42.199 go, it's craziness. Do you think that's because 00:36:42.199 --> 00:36:44.780 of the pheromone released when stinging is going 00:36:44.780 --> 00:36:47.940 on? Yeah, absolutely. Or do you think they see 00:36:47.940 --> 00:36:50.420 the behavior of another hive and react on that? 00:36:50.780 --> 00:36:53.570 It's the pheromones in the air. Yeah. The funny 00:36:53.570 --> 00:36:56.289 part of that was that we had amongst the people 00:36:56.289 --> 00:36:59.949 there was David Dijon, the African beef genesis 00:36:59.949 --> 00:37:04.170 from Brazil, and he was with us. And he says 00:37:04.170 --> 00:37:06.210 that even down in Brazil when they get like that, 00:37:06.289 --> 00:37:08.789 they'll actually wear a plastic shield in front 00:37:08.789 --> 00:37:11.789 of their face under their veil. They have a plastic 00:37:11.789 --> 00:37:14.070 shield because the bees are actually releasing 00:37:14.070 --> 00:37:17.269 venom in the air and it vaporizes and it'll close 00:37:17.269 --> 00:37:21.340 your eyes up when it gets really thick. I have 00:37:21.340 --> 00:37:25.199 not heard of that. That is, wow. Yes. Okay. Hey, 00:37:25.239 --> 00:37:27.619 Dave, you also mentioned that wherever Bo goes, 00:37:27.900 --> 00:37:31.559 swarms go. What do you mean by that? It seems 00:37:31.559 --> 00:37:35.159 like throughout the travels that we've had, it 00:37:35.159 --> 00:37:38.320 never fails wherever we're at. I mean, we were 00:37:38.320 --> 00:37:41.900 driving through, I think it was a Lutheran. All 00:37:41.900 --> 00:37:44.780 of a sudden, there was a swarm of bees going 00:37:44.780 --> 00:37:47.920 through the edge of a town. As we drove through 00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:50.900 the swarm, we had to stop the van we were in 00:37:50.900 --> 00:37:54.340 and get out and we caught the bees in a box. 00:37:54.860 --> 00:37:57.739 And it was so funny because we had to go, Bo 00:37:57.739 --> 00:38:02.099 went and found a box and we put the bees in the 00:38:02.099 --> 00:38:05.239 box and everybody was just amazed because I mean, 00:38:05.360 --> 00:38:07.820 as you know, with the swarm, I don't even think 00:38:07.820 --> 00:38:10.219 did we have a smoker that day? I just remember. 00:38:10.619 --> 00:38:13.679 No, no, no. We caught these bees and put them 00:38:13.679 --> 00:38:17.480 in the back of the van in a cardboard box and 00:38:17.480 --> 00:38:20.460 everybody was just amazed because that actually 00:38:20.460 --> 00:38:24.820 made the news. It had me in a bright yellow shirt 00:38:24.820 --> 00:38:30.139 that I was wearing and Bo and us just picked 00:38:30.139 --> 00:38:34.280 up the bees and it was kind of funny because 00:38:35.590 --> 00:38:38.150 Chikara, who was with us, she's like, wherever 00:38:38.150 --> 00:38:40.769 y 'all go, bees just coming. That's happened 00:38:40.769 --> 00:38:43.650 in Arkansas. It's happened in Barbados. It's 00:38:43.650 --> 00:38:46.369 happened in Freeport, Bahama. Freeport, yeah. 00:38:46.829 --> 00:38:48.949 Yeah, we were getting a swarm out of the bushes. 00:38:49.050 --> 00:38:51.190 I was teaching them how to do a removal. They 00:38:51.190 --> 00:38:53.030 are all, of course, suited up in their white 00:38:53.030 --> 00:38:55.150 jumpsuits, and we're coming in. Next thing you 00:38:55.150 --> 00:38:57.650 know, the news crew shows up. As the news crew 00:38:57.650 --> 00:38:59.969 shows up, they go, where's the body? They thought 00:38:59.969 --> 00:39:02.230 we were the coroners going into the bushes looking 00:39:02.230 --> 00:39:06.610 for a dead body. No, we're just beekeepers. No 00:39:06.610 --> 00:39:10.170 bodies here except bees. We're trying to get 00:39:10.170 --> 00:39:13.269 a plug for the beekeeping association. Hey, you 00:39:13.269 --> 00:39:15.670 two are awesome. I appreciate you being with 00:39:15.670 --> 00:39:20.110 me today. It's beesbeyondborders .com. Any last 00:39:20.110 --> 00:39:24.289 words? Enjoy beekeeping. I think that's always 00:39:24.289 --> 00:39:27.650 the main thing is find your passion and whatever 00:39:27.650 --> 00:39:29.829 you like to do with bees and learn. The more 00:39:29.829 --> 00:39:33.409 you learn, the better off we all become as beekeepers 00:39:33.409 --> 00:39:37.110 and ambassadors for this wonderful little insect. 00:39:37.570 --> 00:39:39.590 It's like we talk about here. It's all about 00:39:39.590 --> 00:39:42.849 the love of bees. David? That's for sure. Well, 00:39:42.929 --> 00:39:45.630 one thing we do like is training the trainers. 00:39:46.369 --> 00:39:48.369 And you know, when we go down to the islands 00:39:48.369 --> 00:39:52.269 or even into any of the states that we go to, 00:39:52.590 --> 00:39:55.389 we try to train people so that they can follow 00:39:55.389 --> 00:39:57.829 through with what we love to do, which is loving 00:39:57.829 --> 00:40:00.130 bees. Yeah. Now we're getting, we're getting 00:40:00.130 --> 00:40:02.230 older and we like to train trainers. That's our 00:40:02.230 --> 00:40:05.960 big goal is we can't do it all. I'm ready to 00:40:05.960 --> 00:40:08.280 support you and get down there and join you sometime. 00:40:08.719 --> 00:40:10.880 Thanks again guys. Love having you. Thank you 00:40:10.880 --> 00:40:14.000 very much. Thank you. Thank you Eric. Have a 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:19.440 good one. Thanks again for joining us here on 00:40:19.440 --> 00:40:23.199 Be Love Beekeeping presented by Man Lake. Another 00:40:23.199 --> 00:40:26.360 great place for more information on everything 00:40:26.360 --> 00:40:29.599 related to this podcast is in our email newsletter. 00:40:30.139 --> 00:40:32.880 You can sign up for it for free at BeLoveBeekeeping 00:40:32.880 --> 00:40:36.039 .com And remember, if you're not just in it for 00:40:36.039 --> 00:40:38.400 the honey or the money, you're in it for the 00:40:38.400 --> 00:40:39.900 love. See you next week.