in a world brimming with complexity few creatures
embody harmony like the honeybee with tireless
precision she dances from bloom to bloom each
motion guided by millennia upon millennia of
instinct each act in service to the whole and
then There are the beekeepers, watchful stewards
of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist,
part poet, they move along their hives with the
efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to
the bee's needs as best they can comprehend,
and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the
Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing
like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their
journey. Welcome, welcome to Be Love Beekeeping
presented by our great friends and partners in
beekeeping. Man Lake. Today's show features my
recent conversation with a longtime Massachusetts
beekeeper and entrepreneur Rick Rowe. We're going
to discuss making mead, making money in the bee
business, and so much more. Rick is a wealth
of information and an absolute joy to talk to.
I think you'll love him. First in our invention
mention segment I'm trying out a few new tools
of the trade that may not be brand new but some
of them are new to me. everybody has their own
way of lighting a smoker i know and it's one
of those age -old how do i really figure this
thing out well and how do you keep it lit you
know i usually just throw a bunch of flammable
anything that i can get my hands on in that smoker
get it started let it burn for a while then add
some fuel that i like but last weekend i tried
this beastart smoker starter it's this stuff
right here and i kind of liked it what it is
you've got these What would you say these are
about two inches long by I don't know half an
inch wide And it's really easy to light these
things even on a windy day So you just light
two or three of them put them in the bottom of
your smoker let them burn for a couple of minutes
So it gets really hot in there, and then you
add whatever fuel you like. It's easy. It's easy
easy. I like it I know, I know, I'm probably
the only hobbyist who still doesn't have a hot
uncapping knife, until now. I recently tried
out the Speed King uncapping knife and wow, I
mean wow. Now realize, they don't work on all
frames, especially if the bees didn't draw the
wax out quite deep enough past the edges of the
wooden frame. But for those frames that are drawn
out, well, take a look at this. It is fast, it's
easy, it's clean, the wax comes off beautifully.
And this thing heats up so fast, you almost need
to be careful. Lastly, let's talk about the age
-old Hive Tool. I know these things are like
the tools of the trade. It's sort of like, you
know, how can I make a better mousetrap kind
of situation. Here's your normal old Hive Tool
right here. Okay, it's got the bend. it's got
a hole I guess so you can hang it on a hook or
something and it's got a nice scraper end and
these things work great and most of us have used
them for years but have you ever tried one with
a J hook on it? I've been using one for a while
and recently I got one with an even bigger J
hook and this thing amazing if you haven't used
one of these the idea is you put it in the edge
of a frame and you can pry it out with this and
you've got the leverage here on the other frames
or the side of the box to push that frame up
that may be stuck down with a whole bunch of
wax or propolis on the other end of this thing
they have really done a nice job of grinding
on this hard steel, a very sharp edge. So you're
scraping off wax, you're scraping off anything
you need to to clean up those frames and those
boxes. They call this multifunction hive tool.
I like it a lot. I recommend trying something
like this if you haven't yet. These are the kinds
of things that are inexpensive and can really
make our beekeeping adventures a little easier
and a little more fun. And speaking of fun, let's
get to our interview with Rick. I would like
to welcome to the show. We're gonna have an awesome
time today. We're meeting with Rick Rowe in Massachusetts
today. Long time beekeeper. How are you, Rick?
Very good. How are you, Eric? I'm doing fantastic.
Except for the cough drop. Getting over a little
bug from epimondia, but other than that, doing
great. You have a big operation and it's gonna
be fun learning about different sides of the
beekeeping business. to be business itself because
there's a lot of sideliners and even hobbyists
out there that are thinking yeah I want to figure
out how to make a little bit of money while I'm
doing this and I think they're gonna get some
tips from you today as well as tips about making
mead we'll get to that so before we jump into
it for those that don't know you how long have
you been beekeeping tell us a little bit about
your journey So I've been beekeeping about 30
years, and I started my business, New England
Beekeeping Supplies, in 2006. And I ran that
business out of our home, my wife Sue and I,
and then we purchased a plot of land in Tingsboro,
where we live, and we built a facility in 2019.
And so now we have been operating out of that
facility, which we call the colony, since, yeah,
2019. So that was right before the pandemic.
Yes. Was the pandemic good for business or tough
on business? The pandemic was, I would have to
say, overall good for business, but we had to
make some quick changes, temporary changes, and
but we got through it pretty good. I know a lot
of people jumped into it and chickens and gardening
and things like that for the first time. And
some have already dropped out once they realized
beekeeping is not easy. There is a lot to learn,
but it's so rewarding. So for those of you that
stayed, congratulations. It is super rewarding.
I'm just going to go through a little list here.
A few of the different aspects of your business
and then you fill in whatever I missed. Here
we go. Okay. You make and sell mead. Yes. Beekeeping
supplies. Honey. Yes. You do pollination. Yes.
You do gift packages. Yes. You sell bees in packages
and nukes. You have what you call an apothecary.
Is that like soap and things like that? Yeah,
soap, lip balms, lotion bars, beeswax candles
we put under our pocket carry too. Yeah. And
you do beekeeping classes. And I've been teaching
beekeeping classes for probably over 25 years.
What did I miss? I think that's it. You know,
we started our business out of our home and then
we started very small, just myself. And I figured
I would start a little part -time job because
it was coming after 9 -11, and I had a commercial
contracting company. So I was building houses
and doing some commercial work as well. Boy,
that came to a very, you know, almost like grinding
halt. So I said, well, I'm gonna take my hobby
and see if I can make a little business out of
it. And that was it. I started in 2006, in April
of 2006, and then... We've had 20 years of growth
with our company, New England Beekeeping. So
a little business that took off. I have a feeling
some of that's because you got kind of hooked
on it. How many bee hives do you run? Currently,
I mean, we've run up to a thousand. But currently,
after we built our facility, we had a downscale
quite a bit because it really changed my responsibilities
within the company and I couldn't be out in the
field as much. I believe, you know, next year
we'll be probably running about six or seven
hundred hives. That's plenty. What size of staff
do you have? Yeah, we have six full time employees
and we have about, you know, about eight or nine
part time employees. Some people work one shift
and then other people, you know, work about 30
hours. So we have a really, really good crew
at we call it at the colony. Yeah. I want to
jump in first to the thing that I know the least
about. And here's my disclaimer. I don't drink.
So I'm going to probably ask some really stupid
questions about mead, but I do find it super
interesting. I know mead is something that's
been around for hundreds or thousands of years.
First of all, describe it and give us an idea
of how you make it. When I talk to people about
mead and boy do I dislike really saying this
but if people ask me what mead is the easiest
answer is not the best answer so the easiest
answer is it's a honey wine but it is not mead
is not a wine it's its own category so mead is
an alcoholic beverage fermented from honey and
water and yeast And then you can make variations
by adding spices or fruits or actually it's unlimited
possibilities on how many different meads you
could make. And that's what mead is. It's the
oldest alcoholic beverage known to man, we'll
make that claim, and dates back, you know, hundreds
of thousands of years. Compared to someone that
owns, say, a brewery, How difficult is mead to
make compared to beer? I like saying beer is
the most difficult to make, then wine, and then
mead. Mead is not as hard to make as wine and
beer. What we do in making mead is We have honey.
We make batches in the sizes of... We have two
different tanks. One of them is a 200 gallon
tank, a fermenting tank, stainless steel fermenting
tank, just like you would use in beer or wine.
And then we have two 300 gallon tanks. So we'll
take a barrel of honey out of our warming room
and bring it out at about... you know, 120 degrees
and then we will start pumping that into another
barrel. We'll be adding cold water to that barrel
and then we pump that into the fermenting tank.
Then if we're using a fruit we're going to pump
that in and we kind of mix it all into a barrel
and pump it into the tank. And then we will control
the temperature of the mead. At that point it's
called the must and we'll Keep it between 60
and 65 degrees. We have a chiller unit that circulates.
It's like a double wall honey tank, except this
is a fermenting tank. It's a double wall and
it runs through a chiller unit so you can control
the temperature of your must. And then we'll
pitch yeast into it. It will start fermenting
within 24 hours. Usually we're in the fermenting
tank for about six to eight weeks. From there
we will pump it into, usually it's going to be
an oak barrel, whether it's a Chardonnay barrel,
a bourbon barrel, a whiskey barrel, and sometimes
just a stainless steel barrel, and we'll pump
it into those vessels and we'll age it for a
year. How hard is it for a hobbyist to do? Well,
hobbyists, you know, there's a lot of hobbyists
that will make five gallon batches or they might
have small fermenting. So it's pretty popular.
My first year in beekeeping is I wanted to try
everything. I wanted to make candles. I wanted
to, you know, I wanted bees. I wanted to make
splits. I wanted to go everywhere. I wanted to
remove bees from houses. I kind of did it all.
And then the mead was another one. My first year,
you know, I tried making mead. And how did it
turn out first time? Oh, it was awful. It was
the worst. You know, the worst part is you wait
one year and, you know, for it to age and everything,
and then you taste it. And it just was God awful.
And I actually took it. I had friends over and
we were planning on trying the mead and I took
the five gallon carboy and I poured it out on
the ground in front of everybody and I said,
nobody wants to try to taste this. It was bad.
Then I met a friend who had taken my beekeeping
class and he brought a bottle of mead. to the
class and when I tried that I really complimented
on him because it was very good. Because with
mead you can taste some meads and some of them
can be very bad and then the very good ones are
very rare. And so his was very good. So we started
making mead together at my house. And then today
he's one of my partners. He invested in my company
when we when we built our facility. So Mike Mince
and so we we made the first good meat I made
was with him. And what flavors are your favorite
or your best sellers? So we have a honey that
is in the northeast area and it's it's the honey
is is made from Japanese knotweed and it's also
nicknamed like bamboo. So knotweed is from the
buckwheat family, but it is very smooth, very
caramely and it's dark and when you hold it up
to the light it has a reddish tint. So I started
making mead with that honey and started entering
competitions and I started scoring better and
better and better and to the point where I got
a perfect score. And so I call that mead red
bamboo, which is a straight traditional mead,
meaning that it's made with honey and water,
no fruit. And we age it in an oak barrel. In
most cases, we're aging ours in a bourbon barrel.
And we've done extremely well with that one in
competition. That's probably the best mead I
make. But then we make one with with black currants.
We make one with blueberries We make a sizer
with apple cider. So we have like 10 different
leads that we make All right I'm gonna be sure
to put a link to your website in the show notes
in case anybody wants to find you Wants to taste
any of this stuff. They know how to look you
up, but it's the colony ma .com, right? That's
correct, yeah. We can ship mead to about 40 states.
We're partnered with Vino Shipper. We're a little
bit different. A lot of meaderies, they'll be
like a micro brewery, like a little brew pub.
And you'll go in and it might be a small little
restaurant and they'll have mead and you can
buy mead by the glass. We're not like that. We
make mead on site. and then we bottle it and
sell it by the bottle. Are you a beekeeper who
loves sharing tips, asking questions, and showing
off your latest honey haul? Then join the hive.
Introducing the Man Lake beekeeping community
on Facebook, your new go -to for everything honey
bees. Whether you're struggling with mites, trying
a new winterization method, or just need to know
what that weird thing on your frame is, our group
is a supportive, spam -free zone for beginners
and pros alike. Stop scrolling through endless
forums and connect directly with beekeepers and
the professionals at Man Lake in one buzzing
place. We'll put a link to it down in the show
notes. Just click over and join up. Customers
can come in our store and try a sample of mead
which is nice because it's just when we when
we sample the mead when we give samples to the
mead we almost like 95 percent of the people
buy it uh they they like it it's different we
do really well in the holiday times when people
want to give it away as a gift and uh during
the holidays and uh but we have a lot of fun
with it all right let's shift gears let's talk
a little bit about honey and you just talked
about the knotweed honey yes where Where else
are you putting your bees? Or is it just in Massachusetts?
So our location, the colony, is in my hometown
of Tingsboro, Massachusetts. And we border eight
towns. And three of the towns that we border
are New Hampshire. So Nashville, New Hampshire,
Hudson, New Hampshire, Pelham, New Hampshire.
So our bees are in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
At one time we had 75 locations. Now we're running
about about 35 locations. Well, easier to keep
track of that way. Yeah. Yeah. So besides the
knotweed, what other kinds of honeys do you have?
Or are a lot of them just wildflower? Most of
them are all wildflowers. So you'll have your
early summer production, which will be like honeysuckle
and Russian olive and black locust and dandelions.
And then You'll go into all your apple and fruit
blossoms, depending on where you are. And then
you have your clover. Then we have a lot of sumac
in our area. We do have quite a few linden trees,
similar to basswood. Late summer, we have those,
you know, your goldenrod and your, we used to
have a lot of purple loosestrife. We don't. have
as much, but it seems to be making a comeback.
The state released some beetles years ago and
ate up a lot of the purple loosestrife. They
considered it too invasive. We'll have like right
now almost everything is gone by, but we have
asters. So a lot of wildflowers. We probably
have a hundred different sources. early spring
we'll have maple a lot of maple blossoms and
a little bit of poplar so it's a real wide variety
but every once in a while like with knotweed
when knotweed blooms it's it's like mid mid -August
to mid -September and it has such a distinctive
color that you can really tell when you're producing
that particular honey and you can segregate it
a little bit. But for the most part there's not
too many honeys. that we can segregate unless
we're going up to the blueberries in Maine or
you happen to get a farm that grows all raspberries
and blackberries and you know there are situations
like that but it's a it's quite a large variety
in the northeast. So what kind of advice do you
have for someone that's going from one stage
in their beekeeping journey to another and maybe
they get in as a hobbyist and they love it and
they're like okay. I want to turn into a sideliner
and then they love that and I want to do this
full time. Right. What kind of advice do you
have for some of those steps? Yeah, I give a
presentation. I've been brought into a lot of
different clubs and and I did a state presentation
on that topic and so I tell people figure out
what you want. How much money do you want to
make? Are you looking to supplement this? Are
you looking to make a career out of this? And
when I started, I said, I have to find five ways
to make $20 ,000 in each segment. And then I
went from there. And I never knew. how it would
grow. Today I can tell you that it grew into
honey. New England Beekeeping Supplies, we're
primarily a honey company where we sell to about
250 stores and farm stands, we sell honey in
buckets, we sell honey in our store at retail,
and we sell it online off our website. So that's
what we became. But find your passion. Like I
loved making mead. So mead became a part of our
business. We have five or six different people
in our company that like making candles. So we
all make. beeswax candles and we sell those in
the store. My wife Sue likes to make soaps and
lotion bars and lip balms and she makes that
at home and we bring that over to the store and
sell it there. So that we can take all these
products, the honey, the mead... the candles,
the lip balms, lotion bars, and we can package
that into gift packaging, but we can place it
on our shelves so that we have a large variety
of things to sell in our store. Every area is
difficult, especially selling packages, transporting
packages from Georgia to Massachusetts. I've
been doing that now for 20 years. And I've made
over 50 trips. It's 1 ,300 miles down to Georgia
and 1 ,300 miles back, because I'm like in South
Central Georgia, Moultrie, Georgia, from Rossman
Aperies. And then I also have packages trucked
up to us from Wilbanks Aperies. So they do that
transportation. But I've been going down to Georgia
three times a year for the first year I went
once, the second year I went twice. And starting
my third year, I go three times. And it's like
you leave Massachusetts on a Thursday. Drive
24 hours down to Georgia. You get there Friday.
Check on the bees. Then we kind of go out to
eat. We sleep in the hotel. We get up. We have
breakfast. We go pick up the bees, load them
up, and we drive straight home. Get home on Sunday.
Give the bees out on Monday. And then we turn
around and do it right the second week right
after that. And then we skip a week and do it
a third week. So there's a lot of difficulties.
And I could write a whole book on transporting
bees and what you have to look out for and how
you have to do it properly. And it's a real partnership
with the apiary down south that you're dealing
with, whether it's Rossman or Wilbanks. That's
a challenge. That's a tough way to make a few
dollars. If you're starting a business, you really
need to say, hey, how much do I want to make?
What do I like to do? What do I want to do? And
you start. From there and you see where you end
up, you know I never thought that I was going
to build a facility and we spent a lot of money
building a facility and Then I didn't know how
to set it up Because I said, where do I put my
bottling tanks? Where do I put my meat tanks?
How do I design the store? And one thing we did
was say, OK, we're going to put a building on
our lot, but we're going to make sure a tractor
trailer can get in and drive right around our
building so we can unload the deliveries. You
don't have to do that. Some people, my uncle,
who taught me beekeeping. He had a little sign
on his mailbox and he made some nice extra money
by just selling honey out of his porch and did
it for years. One thing I love about beekeepers
is they're just open to sharing all this knowledge.
Yes. In some other businesses there's So many
of these are trade secret kind of things that
you wouldn't be sharing, but beekeepers are so
awesome about it. And I really appreciate you
doing that for us. I've always wanted to share
my business experience. I've always wanted to
share my mead making, you know, what I know about
mead making and or what I know about keeping
bees or what I know about running a business.
I've never kept that a secret. I like to share
and I think it comes back to you because people
appreciate that. I know when people come in my
store and I see them like looking at my treatment
or something and I'll just say, hey, how you
doing? Have you used that treatment before? Because
we have a new one, right? Varroxan that we've
been using. And then we get into a conversation.
And then at the end of it, they just look you
in the eye and they say, wow, thank you for spending
time with me. And that's the feel good part of
the industry. How's Varroxan been working for
you? I like it very much. We needed something
that lasts in the hive, that kills mites for
an extended period of time. It does that. We
need something that's not harsh on the bees,
and it's not. So time will tell, but I think
our bees going into the winter look really good.
I have very healthy looking brood patterns. Now
we're into October. I always look when I look
at my bees in October I want to know is the queen
still laying and we're going in and the queens
are still laying which is a good sign because
now you're going to have you know a young cluster
going into the winter which is always a plus.
What have been some of the just difficult things
over the years? Oh, I mean, I think colony health
is just, is always been very, very difficult
since day one, you know, keeping the bees healthy.
I mean, when I started, I mean, we tried everything
and, you know, you had the pesticides, you know,
your Apistans and your Cuma Foss and you had
all those things and then you tried all your
IPMs and then you tried your screen bottom boards
and your fogging with mineral oil and then all
these different things that came out and then
formic acid came out and then there was different
variations of that because everybody was trying
to improve on what they had. So I think colony
health has been and will be the struggle for
some time. Especially if we're introduced to
new bee pests and then it'll make it even tougher.
Don't say the T word. Right. Right. I won't.
And we talk about Varroa so much on this show
that I'm glad we haven't talked too much about
it today. We give people a little bit of a break
today. Tell me some of the joys of beekeeping.
What do you love about honeybees? Well, you know,
from From the first day that I started keeping
bees, I probably remember my first inspection.
That was with my uncle bringing me out as a kid.
And I never forgot that. And then time went by,
and then finally I asked my uncle if he wanted
to keep bees at my house. And he said all his
bees had died from mites. It was in the mid -1990s.
And so I said, well, if I get into it, will you
help me? And from the minute I started going
into the hives, I knew I was going to really
like it. I started reading. I started going to
beekeeping meetings. I started going to conferences
and really learning about the bees. when you
have that knowledge and then you know what to
look for and you always see something new when
you're going through the hives and you know you're
outside it's most of the time it's nice weather
hopefully but yeah you can't beat that it's just
it's i love that i've never i never say i don't
want to go to work and i never say i don't want
to look at bees that day never comes like i say
if you love what you're doing it's not work it
isn't right right Yeah, any advice that you might
have for somebody that's brand new and just thinking
about getting into beekeeping I've been teaching
classes for a long time and you know, I've taught
several thousand people and a lot of those people
become my customers and The first thing that
I say in in beekeeping class is this isn't easy.
It's it's not easy Don't think it is you have
to do certain things when you're required to
do them and the bees don't wait And if you don't
do what you're supposed to do when you're supposed
to do it, then there'll be consequences and it
makes the hobby more difficult. Whether your
bees will get sick if you don't treat them, whether
you don't manage them correctly, they'll swarm
on you and now you have other issues. So there's
nothing easy about beekeeping. But if you're
up for challenges, I've played sports my whole
life. Playing sports is not easy. You don't...
walk out on a basketball court and win every
game you play. But if you work hard, you win
most of them. And that's what I was in with a
group of people that we all worked hard, we all
worked together, and we were successful. And
it's the same thing in beekeeping. If you work
hard at it, if you like it, and you put your
time into it, you can be very successful. But
to put bees in your backyard and leave them alone,
you will not be successful at all. And so I tell
people it's easy to fall in love with what you're
doing, especially if you like being outside,
if you like gardening, if you like bird feeders,
if you just like to be outside and like nature,
you're going to like beekeeping. And it's so
fun because... I always pull everybody taking
the class. And you get everybody. You get doctors,
lawyers, judges, engineers, health care providers,
construction work. You get everybody that's in
there. And it's nice to bring all those people
in and have something in common that you like
honeybees. Rick, you've been an absolute joy
here, but before I let you go, I want to see,
do you have any kind of a wild and crazy beekeeping
story? I'll bet you have 50 of them. Try to think
of one or two for us. Oh my gosh. You know, I'll
have to talk about my uncle. My uncle kept bees
at my grandfather's and he, my mother's the oldest
of nine and This uncle, I had a great relationship
with all my aunts and uncles. I loved being around
them when I was younger. But this one uncle,
we'd never seen to connect. But we did have one
thing in common. I took care of my grandmother
and he was always over there because he lived.
up the street, so I took care, what I mean by
that is I plowed her driveway, and I shoveled
her walk all winter long, that kind of stuff,
and I was always over there. So my uncle, who
I think my grandfather had told him, hey, suit
him up and take him out on the bees, I was probably
12 years old, and I never forgot that day. So.
We happened to be at my grandmother's one day,
and I said, hey, you know, you want to put bees
at my house? And he said, well, all my bees died.
He said, you know, the mites came and wiped them
out, and I don't have bees anymore. I said, oh.
I said, because I thought I would give it a try.
He said, well, come over to my house. And I'll
give you a couple of beginner books that you
can read. And then let me know. Well, I read
the books. I called them the next day. I read
them all one day. And I was, hey, I want to do
this. So he helped me get started. So my uncle,
who I had really zero relationship with, next
to zero, became my best friend. And he just passed
away three years ago. But there wasn't probably
many days where I didn't talk to him or he wasn't
over my house. And when I decided to start a
beekeeping business, I had all the older beekeepers
tell me, oh, no, no, no, you can't do that. You'll
never make any money at it. It can't be done.
And so to build something and then be successful
at it has been a lot of fun. I wouldn't have
even tried beekeeping. And then because I tried
beekeeping, it's now my livelihood. So we had
a lot of fun. I used to tease him a lot, and
he was a real, real good beekeeper. And we would
do hive openings for the classes that I would
run. So I would send like 10 people over with
him, and I would have 10 people over with me.
And my line was to wait till he got into the
hive and just yell over to him, Uncle Donald,
if you need help finding the queen, just give
me a call. I'll come over and help you. And he
would get so agitated with me. I can find the
queen on my own, he would say. So yeah, a lot
of fun. My uncle Don Landry was, I owe my beekeeping
career to him. That really is part of the fun
is the sociality of it. Kids, aunts, uncles,
grandkids. Oh, yeah. People love it. And it's
a good excuse to get together. My brother keeps
bees. I've had two of my nephews keep bees, you
know, so you can't, it's been passed on. Yeah.
I only have a few hives but just on this topic
the last time that we did a honey harvest it
was so fun because I had three grandkids here,
a couple of daughters, son, son -in -law and
everybody got involved and everybody worked together
but had fun working together, got to go home
with some honey and what else do we do where
we all come together and and you know do some
kind of a fun work like that. I love seeing when
a mother and a father with their two kids, they
take our beekeeping class. And then I had a young
man, he's a sophomore in college, walk in today.
He worked for me one summer, but he walked in
because we extracted his honey for him. And I
looked back and I thought, I said, boy, Alex,
who's like 20 years old now, I said, how old
were you when I met you? Because I let his parents
put bees at my house. And he said, I was five
years old. And so it was 15 years ago. Yeah,
yeah. And you know, they're still doing it today.
But I tell people, it's just, it's a great way
to connect with the kids. And it's a great learning
experience. When you go through biology and botany
and life cycles and development cycles, all that
stuff that you learn through beekeeping. When
those kids take those science classes or whatever
they do, they're going to have a heads up on
other people who haven't experienced it. Rick,
I'd love to spend a summer with you because there
would be so much to learn. But I'm going to just
give you the last word here. Give us one more
piece of advice. I guess my advice would be if
you're into beekeeping, really put a lot of time
into keeping the bees healthy. I don't know anybody
that's got out of beekeeping. That produce honey
their first year. So you produce honey your first
year and you're hooked, you know You're hooked
for a lifetime. Just enjoy it. It keeps changing,
you know, you know keep up with it Learn all
the new things and and just enjoy it. It's just
a it's just a great thing to have in your life
Beautiful. All right, Rick. Well, thanks a lot.
I appreciate it. Thank you Eric Thanks for joining
us on Be Love Beekeeping presented by Man Lake.
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at BeLoveBeekeeping .com Also, just a shout out
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them. Vita's Varroa Control range of products
includes Epistan, Epigard, and now Varroxan,
Extended Release Oxalic Acid Strips. Thanks guys,
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.