May I have your attention, please? The following
is not the real Jeff Fox review. If you have
lost more than five hive tools and your lawnmower
has found two of them, you might be a beekeeper.
If once a year your kitchen becomes sticky from
floor to ceiling. You might be a beekeeper. If
you think that Varroa mites were created by Satan
himself, you might be a beekeeper. Welcome welcome
to Be Love Beekeeping presented by Man Lake.
We have a really fun show today as we'll be joined
by guest Jeff Horchoff or as he's affectionately
known by the nickname Mr. Ed. He's a beekeeper
in Louisiana, a YouTube star and someone who
really loves honey bees and knows how to find
the joy and fun in beekeeping. And we're excited
to announce for our listeners that right now
are on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, iHeart, et
cetera, that this is our first episode that's
also a full video episode. So if you want to
see Mr. Ed as well as hear him, check out the
episode on our YouTube channel, Be Love, Be Keeping.
But however you prefer to consume your podcasts,
hey, we are just glad you're here. Before we
chat with Mr. Ed, let's check some honeybee headlines
from around the world. Coming to us from the
BBC, bee attack injures dozens in France. Several
dozen people were injured, with three rushed
to hospital in critical condition in an unusual
bee attack in a French town. Local authorities
said 24 passersby were hurt when hundreds of
bees suddenly attacked people in the central
southern town of Irelac on Sunday morning. The
three that were in critical condition are now
stable. According to local media, one of them
was a 78 year old woman who was stung 25 times
and had to be resuscitated after cardiorespiratory
arrest. Police and firefighters fenced off the
area and a beekeeper was called in to save the
day. He came in, he got a lot of smoke going,
I'm not sure what all else he did, but he saved
the day. Eventually he moved the beehives completely
out of that area. So the question is, what caused
the bees to go crazy and be attacking people?
They don't have Africanized genetics there. According
to the mayor, Pierre Mathonnier, Asian hornets
threatening a beehive may have been the catalyst
for the attack. But Christian Carrier, the president
of the regional beekeepers union, was really
skeptical of that. He said that bees generally
avoid leaving their colonies altogether in the
presence of Asian hornets. Instead, he said that
the unusual incident may have been due to the
bee colony becoming too large for its beehive
and becoming quote, overactive when the beekeeper
handled it. It may be that the bees didn't have
enough space and that their colony had no intention
of swarming. This can trigger strong aggression,
he said. However, he also said that bees could
be stressed because of a problem with the queen,
or could have been reacting to external factors
such as heat waves, early blossoming in May -June,
and subsequent lack of food in July, or a sharp
drop in temperatures. So, it could be anything
from hornets to heat waves to drop in temperature.
Nobody really knows. What we do know is the causes
of the incident will be analyzed and that the
beehives have been moved outside of the town.
This next brief story would be funny if it weren't
so sad. A beekeeper and grandmother who keeps
her bees in a private woodland in Dorset, England,
said that her beehives were vandalized last month.
She believed that it was bored teenagers who
kicked over 23 of her beehives. With a lot of
effort, she fixed the broken boxes, settled down
her bees, and eventually got things back to normal.
But then it happened again. Here's a quote from
her. My hunch is that it's a fellow beekeeper.
It just smacks of jealousy and somebody with
a grudge against me. The first incident we put
down to mindless vandalism. Everything that was
on stands was now on the ground. It was in all
directions, so I know it wasn't the wind and
it wasn't animals because nothing was chewed.
I was gobsmacked. But if kids had done it, I
don't think they would have risked or been bothered
to go all the way back to the middle of nowhere
to do it again. The area has never been an issue
before for bored kids, and this is the first
time that we've had such trouble in over 20 years
of beekeeping. I believe whoever's done it had
a motive for doing so. I think it's someone with
a grudge. Alright, enough of that. Let's get
to our guest. I'd like to welcome to the show
today, one of the funnest beekeepers out there,
Mr. Ed, how are you? Just doing great. Great,
Eric. Thank you for inviting me on this evening.
I really do appreciate it. I am a huge believer
that beekeeping should be fun. And when you and
I were talking the other day, I could tell you've
got the same philosophy. In fact, I even wrote
something down. You said beekeeping should be
fun first. Yeah. Explain I make that a big point
in my presentations because There's there's a
lot of people who have never been beekeepers
becoming beekeepers and There's some something
Inspired them to want to become to keep bees
to have bees something inspired them and A lot
of people are very much aware of what was the
impetus to begin being a beekeeper. But I think
that the underlining reason that people do it
is because they think it's going to be fun. That
somewhere inside of them, they say this is going
to be fun. Regardless of why you become a beekeeper,
a particular element of that reason why is in
your heart, in your mind, you said this is really
going to be fun. So I stress that point of beekeeping
should be fun all the time because all too often
we get caught up in the particulars of keeping
bees and that can be making you more aware of
what has to be done instead of the fun that you
should be having while you're doing it. And many
beekeepers will lose that aspect of fun because
they are so caught up with the particulars of
being a beekeeper. People get so serious. I don't
see many people having fun doing it. Oh yeah.
And you know what? If you really love the bees,
it really is fun. Yeah. But some people just
put on their straight face and like, I'm not
going to get stung no matter what today. And
I've got to do this, this, this, this, and this.
And the bees are going to cooperate either that,
or they've got to have a PhD to do everything
exactly right. And then it's easy to lose some
of that fun aspect of it. So that's exactly right.
That's exactly. Do you like to be called Mr.
Ed? Oh yeah, that's definitely my name. Okay.
By the way, for those of you listening that don't
know Mr. Ed, He's like a god on YouTube. No,
don't say that. 150 million subscribers or something?
No, no, not 150 million. Okay, 150 plus thousand
and that's really impressive. Right. but that's
because you have an addictive personality and
people just love you. So I appreciate you taking
a few minutes to be with us today. Oh, Eric,
I'm happy to be there. Like I said, I like to,
I like to talk about bees. Just ask my wife.
I like to talk about bees almost every chance
I can because I find them so fascinating. I belong
to two bee clubs and I go to the meetings every
month, both, both of me. Cause I just like doing
it. I like being around people. who are interested
in bees, and I like hearing their stories of
their experience of keeping bees, because each
beekeeper's story is unique. We may follow same
procedures, but the experience of that procedure
is unique to the individual beekeeper. And those
are what are so interesting to hear. Somebody's
perspective, their perspective of the experience.
That's... It's a great feeling to be around that,
because when you hear it, when I hear it, it
relives my experiences. So it's kind of like
a drug feeding, you know, you're feeding your
addictions, in a sense. Another thing that's
amazing to me, speaking of unique, is how every
colony can be unique. In what sense? Well, they
have different personalities, they do things
at different times. You may have two colonies
that you brought up side -by -side, treated them
exactly the same way, and all of a sudden one
is swarming and the other's not. Or one is just
happy to be there and practically give you a
kiss when you do a hive inspection and the other
not. And they're just all unique and different.
And I'm sure they have a zillion similarities,
but I love the uniqueness too. Right. I agree
with what you're saying. It's true. I don't try
to categorize bees in particular. It's generalized
with them in the sense that how they behave.
But I would say that every time I open up a wall
or a ceiling or a floor or whatever where I have
access to this colony, There's no doubt it is
unique because I see something brand new every
single time I open up an area to expose a beehive.
And without fail, once that hive is exposed,
I always, always, always just pause, just to
take it in. It'll never be that again. And so
this is the moment. That's, that's one of the
things I also, another thing I talk about in
my talks is Beekeeping gives the beekeeper the
opportunity, the chance to live in the moment
that you're on. That when you open up your box,
there it is, right here. Well, you know, it's
not going to do you any good if you're in your
mind, you're back there worried about what you
ate for lunch or how are you going to pay for
your car note or your house note. If you're not
present in the moment, you've already lost that
uniqueness that you talk about. Keeping bees
affords the beekeeper the opportunity to practice
a lost trait that is living in the moment. Because
that's where life is lived. It's not lived in
the past. It's not lived in the future. It's
in the present. It gives beekeepers the chance
to train themselves to be present to what's in
front of them. The whole rest of the world can
disappear. All that your being is, is right in
front of you. And this is one of the sayings
I say quite often as my experience as a beekeeper
is I lose myself in the wonder of the bees. So
it's not, it's not I'm no longer Jeff, Mr. Ed,
I'm present with the bees. And so in the sense,
there's a communal thing going on that you're
there with the bees and you can take all this
stuff in and it happens in a blink of an eye.
It's not like this is like some prolonged half
an hour experience. It's a very quick thing because
there is business to do at hand, but that pause
to take this in and to live in that moment, there
you go, that's beekeeping right there at its
fullest, right there. That's great advice. Do
you think that's why it's so therapeutic? For
sure. It can be. You know, if they choose that,
it can be. You know, like you said, people keep
bees for varied reasons. You know, some people
want the science of it. Some people want the
honeys. You know, whatever their reason, it still
doesn't change that there is the opportunity
for that beekeeper to experience what is right
in front of them to the fullest. That opportunity
is there. Yeah, absolutely. You and I could talk
for hours about everything with beekeeping. When
we were chatting the other day, we kind of narrowed
it down of what our topic is going to be tonight.
And that is the importance of how to keep bees
where you are. And for example, You're in Louisiana,
deep south, I'm north in the mountains. We're
doing things completely opposite. Our experience
I should say is completely opposite although
the bees aren't. Right. So we do need to learn
about bees but we need to learn about beekeeping
where we are and bee behavior where we are. Let's
start it off by please explain what it's like
where you are. So I live in southeast Louisiana.
And like I told you when we spoke on Monday or
the other day, I always think that this particular
part of the United States, the Southeastern part
of the United States, in some way we are isolated.
We live like in a bubble because we aren't afflicted
with a lot of the issues that are prevalent in
other areas of the United States. in particularly
the mite count, and it may be due to that mite
count being lower than in other areas. We have
a tremendous feral bee population in our area.
That is due to habitat. We have tremendous expanses
of marsh areas, lowlands, areas that are high
in food. sources, resources for the bees, as
well as habitat, water, protection. And so these
things facilitate the growth of the feral bees,
because for us here, particularly in my area,
we're prone to flooding, high waters due to just
because we're so low as our elevation. New Orleans,
which is 50 miles from here, is their elevation
is five feet below sea level, where my house
is right here in the beta springs, I'm 27 feet.
So we're very low. And we're very flat. So people
tend to build houses elevated. And these elevated
houses are just ideal situations for bees swarms
to to find and then move into. And so Consequently,
I'll probably do, I'd say I'll probably do about
50 or 60 removals a year. And so many of them
are in elevated houses because that's a great
place for bees to find a new location. Quick
break here to thank our presenting sponsor, Man
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native bees, and other pollinators. The Man Lake
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-friendly plants that thrive in your area, and
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plant them in my yard. If you haven't already
downloaded the Man Lake app, give it a try today.
Oh, and did I mention it's free? And if you're
shopping for beekeeping supplies, don't forget
your discount code MLBlove10. It's in the show
notes for $10 off your first $100 purchase. And
plus we have with our climate of warm weather,
almost subtropical weather all year round. our
bees fly. The coldest months are always January
and February. Other than that, even our winters
we might get four days of temperatures below
20, maybe, but it's not all the time. So it's
very mild temperatures and so our bees fly almost
all year round. So of course you need to have
a lot of stores for your bees to be able to let
them do that. And with the food resources in
our area, that's generally not an issue. You
mentioned mite count. Do your colonies have small
mite counts, just naturally? Like I told you
before, I don't treat. I'm treatment -free. I've
never treated. I know that the only time I really
go into my hives is to when I split them and
when I collect rent. So when I split them, I
check the drone brood because that's in the burr
comb. When I separate the hives, I look in there
and I'm gonna find some mites in there, but two,
three, it's not overrun by mites. And I don't
do mite washes. I don't check. I allow the bees
to take care of themselves. I lose hives, but
our losses, this last year we had about it wasn't
bad last year about 20 21 percent uh hive loss
you have so many swarms and do so much splitting
it's easy to make that up oh yeah i i always
whatever my losses are i make up with splits
over what i lost you called yourself to me a
hands -off beekeeper oh yeah i am and i have
to get this out there okay And even though I
totally respect everybody's different beekeeping
style or approach or philosophy, what you do,
hands off, doesn't work everywhere. I just want
people to know that. If you try that where I
am, your bees are dead. That's just his life.
Okay? I've tried, it doesn't work. It is hard
enough when we're really keeping track of Varroa
to get your bees through winter when they can't
fly for a few months and the temperatures are
below zero every night and there's two or three
feet of snow on the ground. Okay but I'm jealous.
I wish I could be more of a hands -free beekeeper
because I could do a lot more of it that way
and it just I don't know just sounds a little
more fun and carefree versus some of the worries
we have here. I think it is just the area that
I'm in allows me that freedom. And I also add
on to every time I say, you know, I'm a hands
-off beekeeper, that I don't recommend you doing
that. You know, that's the way it works for me
here. I'm not gonna say it's gonna work for anybody
else where they live. It works for me. And that's
really, like you said, just when we started,
you have to learn how to keep bees. where you
live. It's that simple. You can't expect to have
your bees survive keeping your bees if you live
in Minnesota the way that I keep them here in
Louisiana. It's not going to work. It's not going
to work. I'm blessed. I don't have to do all
the things most beekeepers have to do to keep
our hives going. They just do it by themselves.
Let's address newer beekeepers for a minute.
How do they learn? I mean, you're saying you
got to learn how to do it in your area. What
is your recommendation on how they learn to do
that? I think that basic tools that every beekeeper
needs to be aware of to have particular successes
doing bees. The first one is they have to know
bee biology. They have to have an understanding
of bees and how they operate, how they grow,
how their life cycles are, the particular aspects.
Because of all the different ways of keeping
bees, of all the varied ways of keeping them,
bee biology does not change. It's the one constant
of everything, bee biology. So as a new beekeeper,
that would be paramount in becoming successful.
learning bee biology, followed closely by learning
what is the nectar sources, what is blooms in
nature, at what time, so that you can coordinate
what you need to get done in your bee hives,
so that they can stay in pace with what's going
on in nature. Because it's all in all of beekeeping,
particularly with raising nukes to sell or honey
processing, building up a honey production, it's
all about timing. If you're not aware of a time
pattern in your beekeeping, you're not going
to ever really go beyond a certain point. You
may always have bees and they may always be in
a yard, but you're not going to get the growth,
the potential of doing it. So you have to...
You have to be aware of biology. You have to
be aware of the growing on what's in nature.
And you have to be aware that it's all in timing.
You have a very, very, very, very small window
to get your bees up and going. And then then
you can kind of like slack off. But it's very
intense in those that early spring time. And
you better be ready for it if you want to have
success. Give me an example. For example, you
do splits at what time and why? What's the nectar
flow going on? I start our splits. So for us
in Louisiana, and again, it's very unique, our
red maples and willows are blooming and it can
be as early as early December to mid December.
Our first food sources for the bees are in December,
December, January, right? So And I talk about
this in my talks. And again, this aspect of what
beginning beekeepers should be aware of, it all
starts with the winter solstice. So the moment,
December 22nd, which is the shortest day, the
shortest amount of daylight hours in a day, after
December 22nd, it incrementally gets longer.
Daylight becomes longer. So as the daylight becomes
longer, then nature starts coming alive at that
point. So if you, as a beekeeper, can understand
this concept that what's going on in nature is
going on, it's going on in your beehive as well.
So as this daylight hour is increasing, photosynthesis,
the trees are making leaves. photosynthesis getting
ready to happen, the bees are now starting to
build up. Our queen is laying in December. In
early December, she's already laying because
once that willow pollen starts coming in, boom,
she's going to start up again. So with the start
of the daylight hours increasing, then the start
of the whole process of splitting our hives begins
because I'm already mid -February, I'm going
into my hives, inspecting them to see if I've
got swarm cells in there. So it's interesting.
There's a few things that I go into a hive to
tell me what's going on outside of the hive.
And so I go in that hive and I can see, yeah,
well, we're starting to get brood production.
We're getting a little bit of pollen, a little
bit of nectars coming in. But it's just a buildup.
It's a very, very gradual, slow buildup. And
I don't even start worrying about anything until
I see drone brood being produced in the hive.
Because once you see drone brood production starting,
it's getting ready to start. You're still two
weeks, three weeks away from it happening, but
it's getting ready to happen. So, this is the
time as beginner beekeepers, you need to have
everything set up in preparation for what's coming.
Now, for me, it's February, but where you are,
that's probably not until April probably, right?
Yeah. Yeah, we're lucky if we see bees flying
if they have a few warm days in March. Otherwise,
it's April before they can even get out. Yeah,
so again like what you said before you have to
know keep bees specific to your area and And
I preach this all the time at our clubs that
you know if you want honey if you're not Haven't
made your splits by the middle of March You ain't
gonna get no money you get some but if you want
honey production you had better have your hives
split before March 15th, because if you're not
split before March 15th, well, at least the ones
that can be split, then more than likely, your
hives are gonna swarm on you. You gotta be ahead
of them so they don't swarm on you, because if
they swarm on you, there goes your honey. That's
the biggest fear for me is losing that primary
swarm, because that's my old queen, and that's
where my honey is. with my old queen. Yeah. And
where beekeeper A is, maybe a couple of weeks
behind you or maybe a couple of months behind
you. I have found that it's also really interesting.
It's made me a lot more observant of things like
nectar flows because when I first got into beekeeping
many years ago, I read all this stuff about the
dandelions are going to be the first thing that
they're going to be able to forage on. Right.
Well, We have lots of dandelions around here.
I never see bees on them. Well, why is that?
Because they found something they like better.
That's exactly right. Something easier for them
to get than dandelions. So then I'm like, okay,
well, there's nothing else down at ground level.
It's got to be these trees or those trees. Even
though they don't have flowers, bright flowers
like an apple tree or something, they have flowers
and that's where those bees are going or some
shrub or something which is what i said earlier
about learning what's in your area and when it
blooms because you're going to be a better beekeeper
if you know those things absolutely hey i don't
think i warned you about this uh ed but everybody
that comes on the show gets to tell their favorite
wild and crazy beekeeping story Now this can
be something that happened to you that is painful
or embarrassing or just super, super unusual.
Can you think of anything like that? Well, you
should have told me that before where I could
have thought of it. I'm guessing you have a thousand
of them and the hard part is narrowing it down.
There's not a lot of real things that man, it's
like a well actually like catching that Mark
Queen. That was a big deal. That was. Tell everybody
about that. That was before we were recording.
It is it's a great story. So I have been keeping
bees since 1978 and As I said, I'm a hands -off
beekeeper. So I don't mark Queens. I mean, I
know what they are I've seen them in other people's
hives my theory on Mark Queens is if you mark
you Queen if a beekeeper marks their Queen particularly
a new beekeeper Gets a mark Queen The only thing
that Mark Queen does for that beekeeper is say,
I'm going to go into my hive and see if I can
find my queen. And I think that's the worst thing
you can do is to open up your hive just to go
find your queen. It's terrible. So it's like
she's got this mark on it and you can find her.
Well, it makes it easier. Well, I don't agree
with that philosophy. So I don't mark my queens.
And I've been doing removals For 15 years, I've
been doing removals, going to people's houses,
taking them out, catching swarms. I've been doing
that 2011. So it's 14 years. 2009 is when I started
doing that. And two weeks ago, we did a removal
across the lake about 40 miles away. And it was
a apartment complex in a big metropolitan area.
removing the comb. And I take a lot of care when
I'm removing the comb to locate the queen because
I think it's very important to make sure she
is safe when I do removal. So I take a lot of
care to locate her. And I probably find her 85
% of the time when I do a removal, I'll locate
the queen and cage her. So I'm doing the removal,
open up the wall, start cutting out the comb.
I cut out a huge piece of comb. and I start vacuuming
the bees off of it and there's the queen running
around and she's got a big blue dot on her and
so I was I said look at this I got a marked queen
I've never ever seen that and I know that 2025
is is blue supposed to be blue so there's no
way that this was a 2025 queen that swarmed and
then was developing so it was just somebody had
marked the queen With that color cuz that those
bees had probably been in the wall since probably
February or March they've been in that wall based
on the comb age of the comb. So It was not a
2025 queen, but it was a marked queen and that
was very very unique That absolutely is. All
right before I let you go if anybody's wondering
Hey, where is the fun in beekeeping? Where has
it gone? Hey, give us some advice. Where is it?
And with that, why do you love bees? So, I keep
the bees for a group of Benedictine monks here
in Covington. I'm their beekeeper, right? Before
we even had bees at the Abbey, I was discerning
to become a monk myself. So, I was going to be
a monk. Part of the... the work of monks is,
you know, you, you have jobs and I've always
been a woodworker. So I was already involved
in their, in their casket building and the bees
would then be a further job that I would be assigned
to as a monk. So I developed the bee program
over there. And with the aim of that being my
job when I was a monk and So one of the things
that happened, and the question is, so you have
to know that part about me, that I had aspirations
and desires of becoming a monk. In that monastic
life, prayer is a very, very, it's like half
of being a monk is a prayer life. And what I
learned through the prayer life of the monks
is a spiritual relation with bees. In other words,
The bees were no longer just these bugs in a
box, but rather they were the creation, the work
of God. And in bees, I see the hand of God. And
for me, because you asked me what it is, this
is the fun of beekeeping, because when I work
bees, I'm not doing work, I'm doing prayer. Because
for me, it's a very spiritual experience, not
just a physical act that's going on. It's a twofold
part and it becomes, beekeeping becomes more
meaningful through this act of offering of, it
becomes prayer. Your work becomes the prayer.
So why would I want to make my prayer anything
but the best it can be? So I want it a good offering
so when I work bees this is the best I'm at my
best I want to do my best because this is how
I praise God through this work so that for me
is the fun part and that that is what keeps my
aspect of why I'm a beekeeper for so many years
alive because every time I'm doing it it's new
every time I open it up it's new I don't see
the same oh, same oh, even though it is, because
I see it as a prayer, as offering, and as such,
it's a beautiful thing, and I'm part of that.
And therein lies also my joy, my happiness, my
fulfillment, because I am fulfilled in doing
this. Each beekeeper has their own philosophies
on why they keep bees, but It is the individual
philosophy that also gives the beekeepers longevity
of being a beekeeper, purpose, and direction.
It goes way beyond just bees. Many, many, many,
many of my friends, fellow beekeepers, it is
an experience of prayer, of seeing God in the
bees. I don't talk about it a lot, but it's just
a very, I think, unspoken thing in Beekeepers,
because we have a hard time putting the exact
words to why we do it. But for me, it's very
specific why. And I try to portray that, even
though I don't talk about it in my videos, that's
what I try to portray, that if you can see the
joy that's inside of me when I'm doing this,
the reason behind that joy is because it's an
offering, and I'm praising God by what my work
is. That is so beautiful. Wow, best answer I've
ever had to that question by a mile. You'll get
better. They'll get better ones. Mr. Ed, Jeff
Horchoff, thank you so much for being with me
today. Oh, thank you so much for inviting me,
Eric. Thank you. God bless you, brother. Thanks
again for joining us here on Be Love, Be Keep
being presented by Man Lake. Remember right now
to follow or subscribe and share this podcast.
Also a shout out to Vita B Health for their support
of the show. Vita's Varroa Control range of products
includes Apistan, Apigard, and now Varroxan Extended
Release Oxalic Acids Trips. Hey, thanks guys.
We really appreciate it. Enjoy this beautiful
summer, 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.