May I have your attention, please? The following
is not the real Jeff Fox release. If you know
darn well that flailing and swatting at bees
only antagonizes them, but you realize you did
it last week anyway, you might be a beekeeper.
ever address a queen bee as your highness. You
might be a beekeeper. If you have ever made up
a joke that begins an Italian, a Carniolan, and
a Russian walk into a bar, you might be a beekeeper.
Welcome welcome to Bee Love Beekeeping presented
by our good friends over at Man Lake. Our question
of the day is this and it's especially pertinent
to sideliners. How many different income streams
have you created for your beekeeping business?
Today our guest is Ryan Griffith and we'll be
discussing the small business side of beekeeping
including taking care of other people's bees.
Before we jump into that, A listener recently
brought this tidbit of information to my attention.
We all know that bee stings hurt a little bit,
right? But have you ever heard of the Schmidt
sting pain index? Yes, there actually is such
a thing. This sting pain index rates the painfulness
of 78 different stinging insects and it rates
the level of pain over 25 different body locations.
The pain was rated on a 1 to 10 scale relative
to a sting on the forearm. So let's talk about
bee stings now. I'm going to list the three least
painful locations first. They were the skull,
the middle toe tip, and the upper arm, all scoring
just a 2 .3. So, hey, if you're ever going to
get stung, pick one of those places. But the
three most painful locations were these. Number
one the nostril coming in at a 9 .0 on the pain
index Second was the upper lip at an 8 .7 and
third was Sorry, I'm not gonna say this on a
podcast. Let's just say ladies You don't have
to worry about getting stung there. Anyway, it
was a 7 .3 on the pain index So I'm curious and
please email me Eric at be love beekeeping comm
Let me know your thoughts. Have you found more
painful or less painful places? And go ahead
and take a guess at which insects have the most
painful stings. It's not a honeybee. Now let's
head to Connecticut for our discussion with Ryan.
I'd like to welcome our special guest today to
the show. We have Ryan Griffith coming to us
from Connecticut. Hey, how you doing, Ryan? I'm
doing good. How are you? Good. What's the name
of your farm and apiary up there? My farm's name
is Neckers Farm, N -E -C -K -E -R -S Farm. We're
out of Brantford, Connecticut. We're mostly honeybee
management and honeybee rescues, but we also
specialize in mushroom growing. Okay, Neckers
Farm, does that have anything to do with teenagers
in the backseat of a car? No, no, no. So I live
in an area called Indian Neck in Brantford, Connecticut.
And anybody that grew up here like I did, you
know, we're known as Neckers. We have an adjacent
area that's called Stoney Creek, and everybody's
known as Creakers. So it's basically an homage
to the locals where I live. So the Neckers and
the Creakers, it's like the bloods and the whatever's
the... We actually go around the bonfire and
have fun together. Oh, good. So it's never a
competition. So it's a good town to live in.
Good. Hey, we have a ton to talk about today.
You have so much experience and I don't know
where to jump in. So we're just going to jump
in all over the place. And starting with when
we were texting the other night, you were doing
you were catching a swarm in the dark. Yes. Is
that normal for you to do this in the dark versus
the day? What I notice is if you don't get that
swarm and you wait for the next day, a lot of
times you're going to lose it. So it's better
to take care of something now instead of putting
it off for tomorrow because it might not be there
tomorrow. I do a lot of them unfortunately. A
lot of them are usually angry. The one I did
the other day fortunately was very peaceful and
I did it without a sting. It's a little bit more
dangerous but if you really care about these
creatures and we're a true honeybee rescue and
I always feel that the way a society treats the
most fragile creatures around them is the best
way to judge that society. And you never know
what genetics you might get. That might be the
genetics that might have the silver key for mite
control. You never know. But yeah, we'll do a
lot of rescues at night. I'm always working till
sundown. We do seven days a week, 16 hour days
during the spring and summer, and it's just nonstop.
But thankfully we get the winters off. You cannot
tell me that beekeepers aren't hard workers.
We love it though. Does it work though if you
love what you do? Exactly. I know how sore I
was last night. I think the hardest time I have
is keeping a truck on the road because we put
so many miles on our trucks going all over the
place. I think that's probably the biggest issue
I have is just keeping a truck healthy. So do
you find that catching swarms at night, is their
temperament different than during the day? They're
more confused. So when they land on you, they're
more apt to get into your clothing. I'm only
going to wear a veil. I don't wear gloves. They're
going to go where the warmth is. So your body
is going to be the first spot. So that's where
you're going to get the stings underneath your
armpits. That's where you're going to get them
in between your elbow. Anywhere where there's
a joint, you're more likely to get stung. They're
going to go to the back of your neck and try
to climb up inside your veil. They seem more
confused on average. It's not like they're directly
trying to sting you like an angry swarm. It's
more of they're going to crawl all over you and
find an avenue maybe up your pants cuff and sing
you on your legs. And you're on an extension
ladder in the dark. You don't have time to brush
them off. You don't see them. And when you're
getting stung under the clothing, you have to
carefully. carry that swarm down that ladder
and just deal with them stinging you the whole
time. Because the worst thing you do is panic
on a ladder. Later, we're going to get to a wild
and crazy beekeeping story of yours. So be thinking
about that in the meantime. I have a feeling
you have a bunch of them. Yeah, I was going to
say which one. Because in general, that was pretty
good already. But you mentioned a second ago,
bee rescue. Tell us about your bee rescue operation.
What do you mean by that? So there's multiple
reasons why I think that it's important to have
honeybee rescuers. I think that it keeps the
PR for beekeepers in the best avenue. Nothing
is worse than having a neighbor that is head
set on ruining your dream of being a beekeeper.
They'll go to the local legislation. They'll
talk really loudly. If their kid gets stung by
a bee, swarm management is, I think, the second
most important thing. for backyard beekeepers
next to mite management. I think that rescuing
the bees isn't just close to my heart where I
am trying to make sure they have a good home
instead of living in a house and basically dying
off. We all know that if you leave a colony out
in a tree or in somebody's house, they're more
than likely going to die off. They might have
that rare genetic code where they're mite resistant
and they're able to survive. But I think it's
good to have several honeybee rescuers in every
single state to basically lessen the avenue where
everybody's against the beekeeper. I noticed
a lot of people have been seeing in the last
10 years where somehow beekeepers have become
somewhat of a villain in certain groups. And
by rescuing these bees, by getting them on the
tree before they make their way in the house,
By being available to get them out of the house,
it puts a lot of people at ease. I'd say the
most panic I've ever seen a human being is when
they have 10 ,000 bees coming down their chimney
and they're in the middle of the living room
and they have small children in the house. I've
seen more people hyperventilate and part of my
job is also to calm those individuals, getting
them to relax, telling them, listen, they're
going to go to the windows, they're going to
go to the lights, put shoes on, you're going
to be safe. They're not interested in you. They've
crashed into your house. This is a very chaotic
thing. Calming down the people sometimes is the
best skill that I have, and getting them to realize
that we're going to get through this. I really
think that having individuals on our side is
the most important part of beekeeping right now.
That's a great point. Especially for the backyard
beekeepers. And calming those individuals can
calm the bees a little bit as well. Absolutely.
They can sense our pheromones. I, you could tell
an angry person when they come to your house,
when the bees are right in their face, I have
a nine, a seven and a five year old that are
walking up and down my driveway every single
day. And they're, they're riding their bikes
on the driveway. There could be 30 beehives just
in my driveway alone. And obviously there's a
ton in the backyard and whatnot. My kids will
walk right past that. They don't even pay attention
to the bees anymore. They're, you know, they'll
notice them. If they're, they're getting a little
agitated, obviously they'll, they'll take pause.
But I think it's always funny when somebody from
the town has to come by or somebody's grabbing
honey. And my seven year old will go right up
to them by the hand. Oh, don't worry about it.
Just walk with me and you're safe. And they'll
bring them right to my door. I absolutely love
that, that she has the skill set to be so confident
to just go right up to another adult, bring them
down right to my front door and say, listen,
they're not that dangerous. And I think, except
for sick bees and certain genetics, most bees
are very peaceful. They're herbivores. They're
meant to be peaceful. If you're not messing with
them, they're gonna remain peaceful. And I always
say that nine times out of 10, if you have angry
bees, it's on the beekeeper. And that's what
I've noticed over the years. We do a lot of rescues,
so sometimes we have to change those behaviors
over a couple generations and show them that
we're there to feed them, we're there to take
care of them. and we mean no harm. But usually
I could turn a colony around if you do the right
avenues. I've had really angry queens that I've
turned to somewhat peaceful queens. So is this
a full -time business for you? Yes. Yeah. It's
seven days a week, 16 hour days during season.
And we look forward to the rain days sometimes
so I can get a little bit of sleep. But even
then, if it's after June, we're jarring honey,
we're labeling honey. We have around 50 customers
that have private ABRs that we manage full -time.
They will pay us to inspect the bees, pay us
for the colonies, and pay us to jar their honey,
label their honey. It's basically the full aspect.
They get pollination services and they get all
the honey without any hard work. It's usually
a real positive for more of the affluent community.
So I think a lot of beekeepers are trying to
figure out, especially hobbyists and sideliners
are trying to figure out other ways to make money
doing this thing that they love. So I would love
for you to talk to us a little bit more about
that. Do you have to be in an affluent community
for this? And I would assume probably, but how
do you get that business? What do they expect
you to do? Do they get any tax breaks for having
bees around? Give us the whole lowdown. So the
United States of America, particularly like solar
fields, they have to have a certain percentage
of agriculture. So that's one avenue right there.
And honeybees are the quickest, smallest land
impacts agricultural option that you could put
right on a solar yard. and they get their tax
credit for it. So they need to do that by law
to basically get that agricultural tax credit.
If you get into it with some of the solar companies,
they might put you in the right position to do
that for them, and they'll pay you for every
inspection fee and whatnot. I would always say
don't sell yourself short. If you're going to
go into somebody else's hives, you're going to
manage them, possibly get stung 10, 15 times,
you deserve to get paid well. The other part
of your question is an affluent neighborhood.
There are always some individuals in your area
that have extra income or extra funds that they
might want to spend on having pollination there
year -round or just have bees near year -round.
I can't tell you how many clients I have that
will put a chair right in front of their bees
and just watch them during their morning coffee.
Beekeeping is extremely therapeutic. I have individuals
that got out of the military and they have PTSD
and they say that this is one of the things that
really soothes them. It's very rhythmic. The
sounds from bees, the movement from bees, it's
very common. One thing I tell a lot of my clients,
if you ever get in a bad argument, you lose a
family member, get into those beehives, because
I think it's one of the only things that I can
think of that can, it's mood altering. It's not,
you know, your coffee's mood altering, you know,
somebody wants to smoke, somebody wants to drink,
that's mood altering. This is something where
there's no ill effects and it's mood altering.
So if you've had a bad day, you go in that beehive,
you might forget why you had a bad day. Because
you're so micro -focused on those bees that you're
not thinking about what you need to wear for
the next event, what you need to buy for a gift,
whatnot. You're only thinking about those bees
because if you mess up, they're gonna light you
up. And if you really care about them, you're
not going to want to put your hands around the
other side of the frame too fast and squish them
or whatnot. You're going to take great care of
them. So the only thing you're focused on is
those bees that are in front of you. And I'll
hear a lot of people say, you know, after they
went through those beehives, they forgot why
they were angry. You know, Mary, I always tell
married couples, if you're going to fight, go
in that beehive. And they're like, you know,
right, we forgot why we were fighting. And it
works. It works. And it's, it's Imagine just
spending an hour doing something and you're no
longer upset or you have a clearer view on what
made you upset in the first place. I think honeybees
have that ability. Apiary marriage therapy, you've
just created something. By the way, we've had
the guys from Hives for Heroes on the show. Yeah.
And it was really fun to talk about what they
do. And there are other similar kinds of organizations
out there too that do a great job. And yeah,
that therapeutic aspect can really be amazing.
I'm curious if you have some client that just
loves their bees and has morning coffee with
them. And then in the spring, their bees are
dead. What do they think about you as their beekeeper?
Or do you give them realistic expectations upfront?
I don't lie to my clients. I try to tell them
exactly what the deal is. Generally, we have
an 80 to 90 % overwintered rate. Quick break
to thank our presenting sponsor, Man Lake. I've
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forget your discount code MLBlove10, it's in
the show notes, for $10 off your first $100 purchase.
This is the first year where we lost about 40
% of our colonies. the bee loss was extensive.
I know I'm ahead of the national average, but
I'm not used to losing 40 % of my colonies over
winter. We did the same thing as we did every
single year. I was in colonies on December 28th,
booming, strong, beautiful colonies. Everything
looked great. I go there six weeks later. And
in Connecticut, all of January and the first
two weeks of February, were cold. And there wasn't
a day this past year that it really made it over
40 degrees. So the concept of absconding, even
absconding slowly, you would think that the bees
would die right in front of the hives. I was
coming back to collapsed hives that there was
zero bees in them. And there's no bees at the
bottom board. There's no bees in front of the
hive. And it was It was one of the first times
where I like, do I even know what I'm doing?
And that's something you get as a beekeeper.
You're always questioning yourself. My grandfather
said a beekeeper with more answers than questions
is not necessarily a beekeeper I would trust.
And I mean, anybody that's talking to me, particularly
clients, they'll see I changed my answers in
real time. I'll look at a frame and I'll say,
nope, nope, we're not gonna do what I said. We're
changing what we're gonna do. just based on what
you see. And you have to have adaptability as
a beekeeper. Yeah. So where did those bees go?
I don't know. I don't know. And I know that a
lot of people in my state and a lot of other
states that I talk to experience the same exact
thing. Really strong mite -free colonies or at
least low mite numbers that just disappeared.
I did notice a month ago, queens that were laying
really well, at the beginning to middle of February
into the beginning of March, completely stopped
laying and either became a drone layer or just
completely disappeared. And I've never experienced
it. Once or twice, you know, one or two colonies,
you know, we manage around 500, give or take.
This year, our numbers are lower because we lost
so much, but we'll probably get up to 500 by
the end of the season. The queens just either
disappeared, became drone layers. And it's something
that I've not experienced before. And it's brand
new. So these are colonies that made it that
their queen still collapsed. And I was able to
move brood over and place queens where I could.
It's something new. And I've never seen it before.
And I'm only a small amount of information. You
need thousands of hives to basically get a lot
of data. Well, there's a lot of research going
on trying to figure out what happened this winter.
My gut, it's just my gut. I think it's something
to do with the Queens. And it's, something's
going on with, I mean, Queens used to last five
years easy. Now they're only lasting a year and
a half to two years. Do you think it's genetic
or do you think it's chemical? Do you think it's?
herbicides, pesticides. I know you have to speculate.
I'm asking you to speculate. You always get in
trouble when you make these clear answers. There
was a recent study about aluminum being found
in honeybee's guts, and we know that aluminum
can possibly alter several animals' sexual reproductive
organs. If it's in our atmosphere and it's affecting
them, they could be the canary in the hole, and
if it's affecting them, it's going to affect
us. But personally, from my experience, that
having my firstborn was a lot of jumping through
hoops. And I know a lot of my friends experienced
that where it wasn't easy having our firstborn,
having our first child. And I know that there's
a lot of studies in Europe where they're having
issues with that. So I'm wondering maybe if it
is something atmospheric, maybe if it is chemical,
maybe if it is pesticide -related. Am I going
to state that it is? No, I could never do that
without the research in front of me. Now, I only
asked your opinion, that's okay. Yeah, is my
opinion? It could be plausible, very plausible.
I just don't think it's genetic. And if it's
not genetic, then it's something going on. I
just read an article about microplastics. Yeah.
Do they have something to do with it? Yep. Is
it all the glyphosate out there? Is it aluminum?
Is it? Right. And chances are it's a combination
of things, right? Right. The thing that drives
my brain to really think is how did it hit the
whole country all at once? Yeah, it's crazy.
It didn't just hit the colony, because everybody
wanted to focus on the almonds, but it didn't
just hit the almonds. It hit the Northeast with
people that didn't touch the almonds. It hit
the entire country. So certain people were unaffected.
One of the yards where I had the highest green
flailers I got 37 out of 45, actually 42 because
three didn't go into fall. 37 out of 42 made
it through winter. And then I started seeing
a couple of queen collapses. So that's, that
gears me to think that something's up and it's,
it's, I don't think it's something that's going
to just go away tomorrow. I think we're, we might
be in the long haul. Whatever is, is happening.
It's, it's not just we can treat for mites and
it's going to go away. That's my gut. That's
what I feel. I feel like it's queen -related.
What made it queen -related? Sure, it could be
chemical. Could be pesticide. Could be something
in the atmosphere that we don't even understand.
Could be microplastics. Could it be a combination
of all of them? Sure, it could be. We're always
trying to find the cure without trying to find
the cause. And we do that with everything. We
always try to cure cancer. We never try to figure
out what's causing it or eliminate what's causing
it. We'll put a label on something instead of
eliminating it from production, which kind of
seems backwards as far as I'm concerned. Yeah,
no kidding. Well, on your successful years, your
80 to 90 % success rate, which is great. What's
your secret there? Is it mostly my control? My
control? I treat six to seven times. I'm a big
proponent of oxalic acid. I love reading what
Dr. Randy Oliver puts out. I think he's... a
great resource for anybody that really wants
to get good at beekeeping because he doesn't
give his opinions. He just gives you the data
and he lets you come up with your own opinions.
I think that's the best way to approach it because
we all know beekeeping is regional. You could
have certain pollens in your area that will create
stronger bees. You can have certain pollens in
areas that will make weaker bees. Everybody knows
if you send bees to blueberries, it's going to
possibly weaken the colonies a little bit. And
I guess that's because the acidic in the soil
that might translate into their pollen. Everything's
regional. So I love reading a lot of his stuff
because that's just straight facts. And I can
implement them or not implement them. I think
that mites are, I want to say easy when you get
on a regimen and you also have to keep testing.
because I believe mite drift is a real thing.
If a colony collapses near you, guess what? All
those mites, as your colonies are going to rob
them out, you can go from zero out of 100 mites
to 10 or 15 out of 100 in a day. That's a real
thing. One thing I noticed out of rescues is
particularly dead outs. When I go to a colony
that died in somebody's house, you'll see where
the mites were chewing out of the dead pupa.
and they're still alive after the colony collapses.
So that's telling me that, you know, when this
hive is getting robbed out, they're just gonna
hitchhike right onto those bees. And if it collapsed
because they have something like a 60 out of
a hundred, you know, 60 mites per a hundred bees,
that's a high infestation. And if that's immediately
getting robbed out, all those mites are going
to your hive. So you could do everything right
and still collapse on mites. I like to treat
six to seven times. I like formic acid. I like
oxalic acid. Once in a while, we do use thymol
based, but those are pretty much our regimen.
We try to stick to organic. And I'm not saying
go either way. I tell people what the options
are. I'm organic. If my customer doesn't want
to be organic, that's their choice. And I'm not
really going to push it on anybody. That's just
my choice to be organic. Yeah. Hey, tell me more
about your business model. Give people other
ways and ideas of how they can make money doing
what they love. Well, you got to think outside
the box. The Sea of the Bees has been a big slogan
and it was really about our native pollinators.
I'm not going to say honeybees hijacked it, but
we got to the point where we keep talking about
how our native pollinators are in dire straits
or even becoming extinct in some species. We
don't have the numbers anymore to basically cover
pollination throughout the country. And that's
more than just the food we grow. That includes
all the trees that are in our environments. And
honeybees quickly bring a pollinator into your
backyard that can basically pollinate a lot of
the trees that people don't even think about.
I'm sure when, I forget what tree it was, when
the dodo went extinct and the tree that they
used to produce, they didn't even think about
that tree until 20, 30, 40 years ago later when
they stopped seeing saplings. It wasn't something
that they originally thought of. When you bring
honey bees onto a property, you're bringing pollination.
You're bringing it to the maples, the oaks, all
the other wonderful trees that we have in our
area. So if you can sell that to your customers,
you're being honest. You're being truthful. We
don't have the needed pollinators anymore. This
is a pollinator. Do you want to pollinate the
trees on your land? Do you want to keep your
ecosystem healthy? Do you want to feed the birds?
This is a box that creates 2 ,000 dead insects
a day that can feed a ton of birds in your area.
That could be a little bit morbid to some, but
it's the truth. Who hasn't seen the catbird sitting
in front of the hive, just picking off one after
another bee? And you know, that might be their
only food in that area. You go, you walk around
sometimes and you see nothing flying in the air.
Putting bees on other people's property can be
profitable if somebody is willing to take care
of them. And there needs to be this war against
native pollinators against honeybees. I just
found is kind of ridiculous. They've coexisted
since Jamestown. There was never really a big
issue until we started using a lot of pesticides.
We need a pollinator in our environment. We have
one. It's called the honeybee. It's a great pollinator.
It works. If somebody wants to privately own
them on their property, you can sell them the
bees, you can sell them the gear, you can sell
them your maintenance services, and they're provided
with something that is going to be pure magic
on their property. I'd say don't sell yourself
short. I would say if you're brand new at this,
you deserve $50 an hour right off the rip. Beekeepers
are struggling right now to sell honey, to sell
products, because it's a lot of influx of foreign
honeys, particularly in our country. And a lot
of it's funny honey. I mean, how many times have
you gone to a market you've tried honey and you
said, nope, that's not honey? I've done it more
times than I could count. You wonder how they
can get away with it, but you're also not the
person that's going to call anybody out. But
you know, when you have real honey, it's it's
got a taste complex of, you know, 20 seconds
where it's ups and downs, spicy and oh, there's
floral in it. It's I always say the word magic.
It's magic in your mouth, you know, and it keeps
you healthy and it's medicine. Oh, absolutely.
That's why I got into it in the first place.
We have doctors in our town that are actually
prescribing honey for the flu. Yeah, it works.
I mean. It does all kinds of good things. I got
into it for the allergy deal. Yeah. Yeah. And
it works. Speaking of funny, honey, there is
a particular chicken restaurant chain that's
been around in this country and well all over
the world for decades. And if you go in and you
get one of their nice biscuits and then you go
over to the condiment shelf and they have what
they call Honey flavored spread or something
like that. Okay, there's an extreme example of
what you're talking about. Absolutely. Compared
to real life good honey. And once you eat real
honey, you can't go back. We could probably talk
for hours about how you take care of. clients
weren't going to run out of time before then.
But I have one question. Do they expect some
kind of a really beautiful hive or do you throw
old boxes on their property or you know what
I mean? Depends on the client. Yeah. Okay. I
have yards that should be in magazines that could
be in magazines. I have yards of clients that
I can't take pictures of because they're very,
very private and they don't want any pictures
on the private property. I have yards that have
a $10 ,000 electric fence. We have a lot of bears
where we live. It depends on the property. I
also have people that want the used box. Give
me the old stuff. And that's fine. I'll be there
and I have one yard where I have six different
hives there that are each painted in a custom
Easter egg color. And it looks like six Easter
eggs, Easter egg hives that are right on a hill.
It depends on your customer. And if you're going
to be a salesman of putting bees on somebody's
property, you have to work with what they like.
I don't like gimmicks. I can't stand gimmicks
or snake oil salesman, but I will cater to aesthetics.
So if somebody needs a specific aesthetics, a
certain type of hive stand, I will definitely
make it happen. I try to gear them away from
certain types of gimmicky. hives that are for
other countries and I'm sure you've heard it
a hundred times. I don't want to mention the
name, but where it's easy extraction and the
people love it and it has the cheap little wood
parts and it's not made for overwintering. I
just say, just keep it simple. Langstroth is,
you know, or top bar. I prefer Langstroth a hundred
times. Some will come out there and look at the
hives with me. Some will just do once or twice
and say it's not for me and I take care of it
100 times. Some I don't even talk to. Some, you
know, just you bill them and they basically pay
the bill and you never even see them or hear
from them. It all depends on each individual.
We all have individual personalities so you can
get clients from all different spectrums. Once
you get the ball rolling and they talk to their
friends and they say, oh, we got a really good
beekeeper. You're going to get business through
word of mouth. You're going to have to have a
good overwintered percentage. You're going to
have to be honest. You're almost always on camera
anyway, so don't do anything that's disingenuine.
I've seen it. I've seen it. I've gone to people's
houses where they charge, and there's people
that do it. They'll charge $10 ,000 at the season,
and they'll only go there for four or five visits.
That's not my business model. I don't believe
in that at all. and then I'll go to the hives
and they're loaded with mites, they're loaded
with hive beetles, there's no honey to be had
and this colony just collapsed. So they just
did it for a paycheck. If you're going to do
this and make it profitable, it's absolutely
possible. But you're going to have to be honest
because people that have extra money to spend
on bees for like a side thing, they're not going
to want to spend it on bees. for a gimmick that
they've saved up a certain amount of money. They're
smart enough there. Don't take your clients as,
as foolish individuals. You know, be honest,
be real, you know, yes, we're beekeepers. Yes.
We have a little inner synchroses. We like talking
to insects more than we like talking to people.
Most times let them know that we're not going
to be that, that person that's going to basically
be a servant on their property. We're going to
be quirky. That's who we are. You know, and we
might talk to ourselves, mutter to ourselves
as we're going through the bees and whatnot.
That's who we are. Show them who we really are.
And they'll appreciate it because too often or
not that some of the individuals, the clientele,
that you're bringing something different to the
table that they've not experienced before. And
it's just being you. And then most beekeepers
are very similar. Just be you and you'll do fine.
That's the advice I would give any new beekeeper
that wanted to take care of bees on somebody
else's property. and start a business model like
that. Man, I'd hire you right now. You're a good
salesman on this, too. I just love what I do.
I can tell. So and that makes a huge, huge difference.
All right. I want to hear if you can think of
one of your favorite wild and crazy beekeeping
stories. What happened to you? Oh, gosh. All
right. I'll give you one of my rescues. I was
in Dutchess County, New York, and I came there,
you know, Mid -afternoon takes to go look at
the house. I'm up on an extension ladder. I'm
looking at the the hive that's in this house
It's an old old colonial house Plaster ceilings
plaster walls and I start taking a look at it
And the reason why they called me is because
bees were getting stung or people were getting
stung on the street I was like, okay, there probably
wasn't bees. This is about 30 feet up. I get
up there the second I'm up there I'm already
getting lit up and these bees are coming at me.
I I got to the point where I looked at everything
and I noticed that this was a massive colony.
And when I thermal imaged everything, it was
probably a radius of about three feet. So that
means six feet by six feet. Wow. And I'm about
five and a half to six hours away from home.
And I told the homeowner, I'm like, I'm going
to have to stay here tonight. I'm just going
to sleep, you know, sleep in my truck and whatnot.
He goes, no, no, no. Come to my house. We start
first thing in the morning. It was a 16 hour
removal. and I must have gotten stung well over
100 times. And it was plaster, ceilings, cutting
everything out. That was just doing everything
on a ladder, having everything overhead. Your
veil is pressed up against your face. You're
getting stung in the face when every time they
drop on you, you're covered in honey. Everything
from top to bottom, you're just covered. One
of the worst things about being on a ladder doing
a cutout is when the honey starts really getting
on that ladder. and now you no longer have a
good footing. And so you're trying to balance
this 15 pound comb that you're trying to carefully
bring it down so you don't make the bees angry.
Meanwhile, you're basically walking on honey,
which feels like ice, and they're stinging you
consistently during the whole time. And it's
like, you have to watch it to see how chaotic
it is. And you're just thinking about... Why
am I, how dumb am I to do this right now? But
you gotta love it. You gotta love the bees to
do it. If I didn't have that love, there's no
way anybody else would do it. If you don't have
the love for bees, what would you be doing getting
stung 100 times, covered in honey, sticky, you
know, and then the plaster dust is getting in
between your joints, so it's just scratching
everything. I've probably been up 80 feet up
a pine tree collecting a swarm, and I would say
that the cutouts are far worse. far more dangerous
you know you're 80 feet up a tree and you feel
that branch creak underneath your foot and you're
like oh man there it is this is the last one
then you have a certain sense of calm when you
finish it's that's success when you rescue that
colony and you you have the queen in your hand
and you see all the bees even if they were just
angry and a bowl full of vinegar you get that
colony to basically reproduce and they get a
second chance that makes it kind of worth it
it makes it you know I told you earlier, we rescue
snapping turtles. We rescue birds. I was feeding
birds in high school. I'd get up every two hours
just to feed a baby bird with a dropper. It makes
it worth it when you do a release or if you rescue
those animals. Because even if they just look
back for a second, even if they don't look back
for a second, you feel like you did something.
And you don't know what that snowball effect
is down the road. But yeah, I could give you
hundreds of stories of rescues that were kind
of awry where I'm so you're only supposed to
go up about four sections of a staging. I've
had many where I'm six sections of staging up
the side of the house and we're not tied into
the building. And again, everything's covered
in honey and you're doing your best or you're
on top of the roof or whatnot. And you got to
you got to have a little bit of crazy in you,
I guess. And but at the same time, love what
you do. Well, you got to love the bees. And Ryan,
you love the bees. I do. You're willing to risk
your neck for the bees. Hey, thanks a ton for
being with me on the show today. I'm going to
have you back sometime. You've been a delight.
All right. All right. Well, I was happy to be
here. Thanks again for joining us here on Be
Love Beekeeping, presented by Man Lake. Remember
right now to follow or subscribe and share this
podcast. Also a quick shout out to Vita Bee Health
for their support. Vita's Varroa Control range
of products includes Apistan, Apigard, and now
Varroxan Extended Release Oxalic Acid Strips.
Thanks guys. Enjoy spring everybody, enjoy your
bees, and remember, if you're not just in it
for the honey or the money, you're in it for
the love. See you next week. you