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 over at Man Lake.
I think you're going to love the show today as
we'll have a conversation with Chuck Cutick.
He's a 50 -year commercial beekeeper in New York.
We discuss everything from how to make money
in beekeeping, to flowers that are poisonous
for bees, to bears, addiction, and a wild and
crazy story that involves lightning. You know
what? Today I'm in the mood to cut the fluff.
Let's just get right into it. Here's Chuck. This
is gonna be so fun today. We have Chuck Cutick
with us coming to us from New York. How are you
Chuck? I'm great Eric and thanks for inviting
me to do this that it sounds like it's gonna
be fun Well, I hope so and the very first thing
for those that are watching the video version
of this Your glasses you told the truth. They
are getting lighter and lighter all the time
They started super dark when we first got on
those photochromatic or whatever they call that.
Yeah, I was out in the bright sun. What were
you doing this morning? Oh, this morning, we
filled a tote, brought it up to where we pack
honey for and they're doing some raw honey up
there. So we're pumping it over into our tanks
and going to do some raw honey up there today.
So and that's about it for this morning. So you've
been a beekeeper for nearly 50 years Congratulations.
Yeah, it makes me old now means you're not allergic
to bees yet and Anyway, but there's so many fun
things about your business that I think we can
all learn from There's lots of beekeepers out
there that don't know how to make money at it
Some of us that just do it for fun, but some
that want to start making some money So part
of what we're going to talk about is the business
side of things. But I want to jump right in with
Chuck, what do you love about bees? Because you
mentioned a minute ago before we were recording
just how much you love honeybees and beekeeping.
What is it about it? Oh, I don't think there's
anything more fascinating than a beehive. One
day the bees can be light on the verge of starvation
and two days later they can have a super almost
filled with honey. It's just Just amazing what
they can do. I mean, to me, when I look in a
beehive, and you know, I don't believe in evolution,
I believe in creation, and I look in a beehive
and I just see God's creation right there in
front of me. Just amazing what goes on in there.
Just I'm involved in God's creation every day,
you know, out in the outside with the flowers
and the trees and the bees and, you know, and
the people that we work with, you know, I'm just
blessed to be in this industry. You know, I think
part of what to me fits in with that is the harmony
between all of it Flowers need bees bees need
flowers we need the fruit from the trees that
flower which wouldn't happen without the bees
and Hopefully we're also giving back and helping
the bees out in some small way now that not that
they couldn't probably do better without us but
But you know, we do try to make their life as
good as we can also so yeah that harmony is an
interesting thing as far as all the things that
you do in beekeeping and I'm just gonna rattle
some of them off because With your business you
sell honey. You sell nukes and queens. You do
pollination. You have a retail store you do classes
You do all kinds of everything. Is there something
that's your favorite part? This might sound silly,
but I think one of the things I really enjoy
is putting bees into blueberries in North Carolina.
The farmers up there that I deal with are, they're
like friends now over the years. And we just
have a great relationship and it's just a good
time of the year. And, you know, I can. I don't
do a lot of heavy work anymore but I do enjoy
getting on loaders and unloading the semi and
spread them into the blueberries it's just. I
guess that's one of my favorite things now that
that I do in bees and you know to see the. The
see what happens you know with the with the bloom
and you know and then they have to irrigate the
for frost protection and. It's just a cool business
to be involved with the blueberry growers and
then to see the end result before we come north,
we usually stop there and pick some blueberries.
We're part of the business. Probably one of the
most important parts of the blueberry business
is the pollination side. Right now, that's one
of my favorite things left to do, that I still
do. Give me a little bit more detail on that.
When do you go there? How long are the hives
there? How many hives do you take? We usually
bring around 3 ,000 up from South Carolina to
North Carolina. We brought them in as early as
first week in February, but when we first started
going in there, normally they wouldn't go in
until the first or second week of March. for
quite a few years there, it got earlier and earlier,
but now it's headed back to where it was originally.
We're not putting bees in now until the beginning
of March, which is nice. Do you do any almond
pollination too? We do send some bees to almonds.
We usually send them beginning of February, anywhere
from one to five loads, depending on how our
bees are looking and what we're not going to
need for blueberries. So blueberries sound like
the priority. It's close by, it's only two hours
away. Almonds are a lot better for the bees than
blueberries, but I've got this... When I was
a little kid, I wanted to grow blueberries, so
I'm not growing blueberries, but I'm helping
other guys make money at their blueberries, so
it's kind of fulfilled a wish of mine in a way.
Now when you say that the almonds are better
for the bees than the blueberries explain that
a little bit. Oh The blueberries they use so
much fun decides And and we're in you know We're
on the East Coast of South Carolina and the blueberries
in North Carolina are on the East Coast and there's
a band roll You know along the coast where where
yellow Jasmine is prevalent. That's like a poison
plant to the bees So we deal with that every
year It's not a fun thing, but... OK, I just
learned something. What is yellow jasmine and
how is it poisonous to the bees? I admit, I didn't
know this. I always tell people I'm not too bright
because we take bees to South Carolina and the
state flower for South Carolina is yellow jasmine.
Yeah, the nectar and the pollen is poison to
the bees. We've told our workers too that come
in to do not eat the pollen when some of them
will you know They like to stick their hive tool
and eat a little pollen, but we told them there
when the yellow jasmine is blooming don't Don't
eat any of that pollen and a couple of them,
you know They don't believe you and they they'd
some of that pollen and they were they got sick.
So it's It's not a very good plant. It's pretty
to look at, but it's not good for the bees. Yeah.
How do you find the transportation all the way
out to California and back? Is that very hard
on them? I guess any time you put bees on a truck
there could be problems, but usually it's cold
going out, so I don't think it affects the bees
too much. Probably the worst thing is getting
stuck in the bug stations. You know, if you're
in there for any length of time it can, you know,
you can lose some frames of bees. But normally,
I think as long as they keep moving, you know,
stop at night to sleep, you know, you don't want
the guys stopping in the middle of the day. But
we haven't had any real issues losing bees, trucking.
So the problem is heat? The heat, yeah, but we
run four ways. We leave a six inch space between
the rows down through the middle of the truck
so they get plenty of air. Then they can hang
out and not mingle with other hives. If the guys
push them tight together, then the bees are mingling
and fighting. But if you keep them spread apart,
we seem to be okay. Yeah, and it keeps them cooler.
I had a guest on the show a while back that helped
clean up. I think it was in Washington State.
The bee truck that rolled over there and they
had a huge mess on their hands and you know You
see at least one of these someplace in the country
every year where a full semi will tip over going
around a corner or something and and Glad you
haven't had to deal with any of that I'm looking
at your website here and and speaking of different
kinds of Pollination and stuff. It's really cool
to be reminded just how different honey can be
based on what the bees are working. And so if
you wouldn't mind, if you remember what's on
your website, I want to ask you about some of
these specific kinds of honey, because it starts
with just clover honey, which everybody's used
to. You know, it's similar to what you're going
to get in the grocery store. Of course, yours
is better. Ours is better. Yeah, that's what
everybody says. Hey, ours, ours is the best.
Yours can be pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing.
Isn't it that people taste your honey and they'll
say, Oh, it's the best honey I've ever had. And
then you wonder, what have you actually been
eating? You know, and there's other beekeepers
around that I'm sure they probably tasted their
honey or some, but for some reason they all your
honey is the best. So which, you know, that's
a nice thing to hear. Uh, but Makes you wonder
what they've been eating, you know? Exactly.
I mean, they've been getting some kind of, no
offense, but crap from the supermarket. Right.
Yeah. Who knows how much of it is even honey?
It may be adulterated with who knows what. So.
Well, we don't produce all the honey that we
pack, but what we produce is the clover, the
wildflower, the blueberry, not wheat. I think
that's about. Yeah, that's about the ones that
we produce, then we buy in the others that we
pack. All right, I want to hear a little bit
about the flavor profile of them, if you can.
Tell me about the blueberry honey compared to
a regular clover or wildflower honey. Oh, man,
how do you describe blueberry? Well, it's in
the bottom end of ELA in amber, in light amber.
It's kind of right in there. Just a real nice
peculiar flavor. It's kind of a little stronger,
a little fruitier, just an interesting flavor.
It's hard to describe. All right. Well, I'm going
to ask you to keep trying. How about sunflower
honey? How does it compare? Oh, man. I don't
know. I need to get the honey sommelier back
on here. I don't really eat much sunflower. So
I don't I couldn't really tell you. We just pack
it because some people like it. I know granulates
a little quicker than other honey. So it's it's
if if you're going to cream honey and some guys
say that's one of the better honeys to cream.
All right. Do you have a favorite? And this is
like picking a favorite child. Yeah, I do. I
think, well, one of my favorites is Tupelo. I
notice you don't have that on your website. So
that means Chuck's eating it all himself. We
probably ought to go to the bank and take a loan
and buy a couple barrels, but we used to produce
a little bit in South Carolina, Tupelo. There's
a section where there's the Tupelo trees. Are
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over and join up. We make a little each year,
but it's mixed in with everything, and once in
a while in the burr comb you can detect that
there's Tupelo coming in. And one of my other
favorites is, uh, Sourwood. Yeah, I really like
Sourwood honey. And then my friend in Oregon
makes, uh, a little bit of Fireweed honey. And
that's, that's really good too. So there's, I
guess... Tupelo would be my favorite, but there's
a lot there that would be just as good as I wish
I could say it was a New York honey. That was
my favorite. But anyway, I'm going to be honest
and say, you know, those other honeys are just
so unique. And although we do make some locusts
once in a while in New York, and that's right
up there with those, if you can get pure locusts.
So, but we very seldom get much locusts. We had
the biggest locust bloom. This past spring, I
mean, it was just white every place, but it turned
rainy and cold and that was it. So we didn't
make any, but that's typical Locust weather for
us. Let's talk a little bit about the business
if you don't mind sharing. And if I ask you anything
that you don't want to answer, you don't have
to answer. Okay. Is there an area of the business
that's a little bit better moneymaker for you
than some other areas, whether it's pollination
or retail or whatever? Yeah, I think our nukes
and queens and our pollination business are pretty
good. Yeah, the nukes have been really, really
good for us. We do sell a lot of nukes. We have
a pretty good reputation for our nukes and queens.
On another topic here, as you know, the mortality
rate for a lot of commercial beekeepers was really
horrific this last winter. How did you guys come
through? We had some issues, not so much losing
the hives, but the populations dropped. differentiate
between our pollination bees and our new nukes
and queens bees. Years ago we made the decision
that the nukes were going to be just nukes. So
our whole nuke operation other than our support
hives are all in five frame nuke boxes year -round.
So right now we're shipping stuff back to South
Carolina and all the nukes are in a two -story
nuke box. So it's a two five frame nuke boxes
so it's a double five frame nuke box which equivalent
of a single so and that's how we ship ship them
back down so and we'll i think we're shipping
around 8 000 down for the winter and then we'll
winter those over in doubles but they're all
on brand new cone so every year we we draw you
know tens of thousands of frames of foundation
So that when we sell nukes, the majority of the
frames in the nukes that we sell is less than
a year old. So it's primo. Comb that has an accumulated
pesticides and things. Yeah. And in New York
where we keep our nuke is not a lot of production
agriculture as other places. So it's fairly clean
for pesticides. And there's not a lot, there's
no other big commercial guys where we keep our
nukes. It's just hobbyists, maybe a couple little
sideliners. So, you know, when we do mate our
queens, they're mating, the majority of the queens
that we sell have mated with our drones. So we
kind of keep our drone pool just for us, you
know. And what would you say is the strength
of your nukes versus others? You better get about
when you transfer me better almost put the second
deep on right away because a lot of times when
they get their nukes there's four sheets of root
and Three or more are sealed. So they're they're
they're ready to go for sure. They're gonna build
out really quickly. Yeah Okay, so of your pollinator
hives, do you have an idea of your mortality
rate on those this last winter? Like I said,
it was, we probably lost 30 % of our bees last
year. And that's summer losses. Yeah. But that's
a lot better than a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah.
But, but we did have a lot and we didn't send
many, we only sent one go to California. We were
planning on sending, you know, you plan on things
and a lot of times it's just a wish, but uh.
We thought oh, we're gonna send five to seven
loads because our bees look so good in the fall,
but There again all of a sudden when we got back
down, South Carolina in January our clusters
had shrunk down to You know three four five six
frames of bees where they were full boxes before
so but our nuke our nuke bees didn't shrink But
they're all on that brand new comb and they have
brand new queen every year where our pollination
bees were just, you know, we're just running
average bees and a lot of queens are two years
old and the combs are getting, you know, we probably
need to start pulling frames out and replacing
with some foundation. But, you know, that's easier
said than done, I guess. Well, that's a job both
for your employees and for the bees. Yeah. You
know, a lot of guys, and then we did it too.
When we first started selling nukes, we'd go
into our production colonies and you'd pull out,
you know, three combs out of each hive to make
up your nukes or more than you put foundation
in. So you're constantly replacing your frames
in your operation. When we went and decided to
do nukes or nukes and pollination bees or pollination
bees, and we don't sell any frames out of the
pollination bees, you know, we're, I'm sure we
need to start pulling And we've made plans this
spring to start pulling at least two frames out
of every hive. And replace it. And replace them,
yeah. So we didn't see the big drop in bees in
our nuc operation that we saw on the pollination
side. And South Carolina was really cold. I mean,
I've never seen such a cold winter as we had
last winter down there. I think almost six inches
of snow there at one point in South Carolina.
That was, you know, if we get anything, it's
usually an ice storm or flurries, you know, but
they'd melt before they hit the ground. Uh, but
last year and the cold, the cold hung in there
for a long time. Normally when we ship these
California in the beginning of February, there's
three, three to four sheets with, you know, good.
Good amount of brood on him. And, uh, this year,
Queens didn't even start to lay till February.
So it was, uh, it was a crazy and, and maple
didn't even start till into February. So it was
a late year. So I was kind of nervous about shipping
bees out there with no brood. So we just held
back and finally we sent one load, but. Do you
overwinter any bees in New York? We did last
year. Last year we did. We forgot a yard of 40
hives from the Nukes in Queenside. 40 doubles.
You know, everybody asked, well, how do your
bees winter? Well, I guess they did pretty good.
We had 37 left alive this spring. So, and that
wasn't, you know, we didn't prepare them for
a New York winter. Normally we get them down
there. We go to feed and, you know. But no, so
I guess our bees do winter well in New York.
And I did have a friend that he used to get 50
to 100 nukes from us every year. And he would
put them in certain yards and then he'd watch
them. And a lot of times he'd only lose one or
two out of 30 in a yard of our nuc. We don't
winter our bees, but in New York, not on purpose.
People have had good success with our bees, wintering
our bees. And we did too, even though we didn't
prepare them for winter. Yeah, how big of a problem
is Varroa where you are or where your bees are?
I guess it's just the same everywhere, isn't
it? I mean, I don't know if there's any place
that's better or worse for Varroa. Do you have
any secret tips for hobbyists or sideliners out
there? Oh, man. They don't have to be secret.
I mean, we've been using the glycerin oxalic
strips. We've been making those up for a few
years and they seem to keep the mite loads down
during the summer. I mean, we have a long period
of time. We're not like in the Midwest when the
honey flow doesn't start till the end of June
and it's over in August. We can make honey in
May, end of May up here in New York or even beginning
of May. And we can, I mean, the bees are just
bringing in nectar a couple days ago yet. Not
lots of nectar, but some. So, you know, we, there's
a long period of time where we can make honey.
So we need something to get us through that period.
And that doxella glycerin strip seemed to work
pretty well for us. So. Any other diseases or?
pests that are a big problem, in the Carolinas
especially. Well, there's one big pest, but the
bears, bears are a pest. We fight those in North
Carolina, Maine, and New York. Yeah, those are
the big pests. They get into a queen mating yard
and you can lose a lot of money quick. Now when
you say you fight them, I want to get a little
video on you fighting a bear. That brings us
to the wild and crazy story portion. You said
I should be thinking, I should be thinking about
that. I don't. You thought of anything unusual?
Oh, just moving beasts, I guess, is when I was
young and trying to get going and stuff, it'd
be, you know, it was me and my wife, pretty much.
She would be up in New York. I'd be down South
Carolina then I had bees in Florida and I and
that was before I had loaders So we'd load I'd
load it work all day in Florida Then load bees
on my truck at night and leave down there 11
at night I wanted to get across Florida to over
to just on the East Coast so I could avoid all
the traffic in the morning and so I had worked
already 24 hours and then I So I'm gonna get
a cup of coffee, but coffee never really kept
me awake. But all of a sudden, I don't know what
was in that coffee at that truck stop, but I
got all the way up to South Carolina for I had
to take a nap. So that was one long trip. It
was like 36 hours, but I had been awake for over
two days. But that kind of crazy stuff, you know,
doing the same thing in South Carolina, loading
bees and. Being on the road being up for two
days. I fell asleep in the bobcat Going to pull
bees off the truck, you know, it's just dumb
stuff like that that Just cuz I was just trying
to do too much by myself Yeah Now is that does
that go along with some of the illegal things
that you said you might be alluding to? Yeah,
yeah, yeah No more detail than that, huh? No
Darn, I was hoping we could get a confession
of some kind out of you here today. Oh, well.
Well, oh, there was one. Yeah, one crazy time
we were loading bees up in Maine out of blueberries
and we were up on this hill and we got the truck
loaded and I was up on top and it started pouring.
They were sending the nets up and it was lightning
thunder and lightning storm. It was crazy. And
I'm up on top of this load on top of this. pretty
good size, almost a mountain, but not really
a mountain. The trucker grabbed a bee net, and
the lightning struck, and he felt the electric
in the net. He dropped it. I don't know what
happened there, but he's afraid to grab the net
again. They finally got the net up on there,
and we got it netted as quickly as possible.
Just crazy things you do, and you think you're
invincible. So just thank the good Lord that
I didn't die on top of that load, I guess. I'm
sure there's a lot of beekeepers have been doing
the same thing, you know, and you look back and
say, boy, that was stupid. But anyway, you're
young and dumb and going to get it done. And
yeah, I don't know if that's crazy, funny things,
but just, yeah, I, I used to carry a transmission
with me and one of my trucks, cause I was afraid
that. I'd had problems with the one and so I'd
say I better carry an extra transmission and
then just dumped stuff like that when you're
young and you're getting going and you don't
have a lot of money and You know, you're fixing
your own truck on the road and doing all that
kind of stuff You have to know a lot You have
to be a mechanic. You have to know be biology.
You have to know business all these things Yeah
Well, let's just make a statement right now.
Beekeepers are the smartest people in the world.
How's that? Well, yeah, we could be. Or we have
the least common sense, one or the other. Or
gluttons for punishment, maybe. Yeah. Hey, a
couple last things. If I were a brand new thinking,
hey, maybe I want to get started in beekeeping
and I walked into your shop and ran into you.
What kind of advice would you have for me? Now
you're talking about a house somebody that just
wants a couple hives or somebody that wants to
be a commercial No, no just a backyard Hey, you
know, I I've got a half acre that my house is
on and I think bees are cool and I want to give
it a try Well, yeah, the first thing I ask is
why do you want to be hive? And I said, do you
want it just so you can get your own honey? And
if they say, oh yeah, that's what I want. I say,
well, go over to the shelf. Cause that honey
is a lot cheaper than anything you're going to
produce. And, and of course I always say, well,
you know, it's going to take you a couple of
years to figure it out and maybe to get your
bees to winter, you know, but I like the answer
that you, you said there was, you know, I think
bees are cool. You know, I always tell people
it's, it's beekeeping as a hobby, right? And
hobbies are expensive. You know, if you're, if
you're a golfer, you know how expensive golf
can be. If you're a trout fisherman, you know,
flies and the, you know, everything is expensive.
So you have to look at beekeeping as a hobby
as, you know, it's not going to be cheap. But
if you like, it's like looking at fish in a bowl,
right? If you like to watch fish in a bowl and
you like to watch bees flying out of a hive and
just to see the amazing things and everything
is different and all during the year you're doing
different things. That's why you should get a
beehive, just to enjoy what's God's creation
in that box. And that's a good reason right there.
To pollinate your garden, right? Your neighbor's
garden. But as far as saving money on honey,
yeah, I'm with you It's kind of like when you
get chickens you think all these eggs are gonna
be free Yeah until you buy the chicks and and
you buy the coop or build the coop and then you
buy the Food which has gone way up in price the
last few years. I mean we have chickens here
and I tell people Yeah, if you're doing it just
for the eggs only, just go to the store. It's
cheaper and easier and everything else. But if
you think chickens are fun and you want to know
that the eggs are coming from, you know, you
know what they're eating and all that kind of
stuff and how they've been treated, then that's
a cool thing. And it's the same with bees, right?
You know, you know that you're getting pure honey,
and hopefully you're not getting the poisonous
kind from South Carolina. Right. But, you know,
it's that the Yellow Jasmine goes all the way
around. It goes into the Gulf Coast states too,
and those guys have problems with the Yellow
Jasmine also. Well, I haven't lived in those
areas, so I just feel totally naive to that whole
thing. Yeah, then we decided to raise queen.
We decided to be queen raiser, you know, breeders
too. So that affects that part of it too. That
time of year, we usually raise another 25 to
30 percent, 40 percent sometimes extra cells
just to make sure we have enough to get through
that point of the year. Well, you know, and you
were talking about You know, what's your favorite
thing and all that at one point. You'd be out
in the bee yard all day long, you know, working
hard and you come home at night and there's a
few bee hives in your backyard. And I'd always
have to go and pop a cover and look at one of
those. I don't know why, but as all day and bees,
but you get home and I got to take a look at
that one hive. So it is addicting. It's an addiction,
but I think it's a good one. It's definitely
a good, healthy one. Hey, Chuck, I appreciate
your time so much. I'm going to let you get back
to work. I know you have a ton to do today, but
thanks for being with us. If people want to find
you, your website, cutics .com. Yeah, yeah. With
a K. Our four different companies will be listed
in there. I'll stick it in the show notes in
case people can't spell it, but yeah, Cutics
with two Ks. Hey, that's it. So thank you so
much Eric for inviting me to do this. I had a
good time It was uh, you made it point you've
made it painless. Oh good I want to get out there
to New York and see you sometime. Yeah, come
on out and visit and I will We'll take you around
show you what we do and put you to work That'd
be a lot of fun. All right, take care of my friend.
Thank you so much. You have a good day Thanks
for joining us on Be Love Beekeeping presented
by Man Lake. If you like this content I hope
you'll share it with a friend, follow and subscribe
to this podcast and even sign up for our newsletter
at BeLoveBeekeeping .com Also, just a shout out
to Vita B Health for their support, we appreciate
them. Vita's Varroa Control range of products
includes Apistan, Apigard, 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.