WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:06.660 in a world brimming with complexity few creatures 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:12.839 embody harmony like the honeybee with tireless 00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:17.699 precision she dances from bloom to bloom each 00:00:17.699 --> 00:00:22.420 motion guided by millennia upon millennia of 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:28.800 instinct each act in service to the whole and 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:34.560 then There are the beekeepers, watchful stewards 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:40.500 of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist, 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:45.460 part poet, they move along their hives with the 00:00:45.460 --> 00:00:50.539 efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to 00:00:50.539 --> 00:00:54.219 the bees' needs as best they can comprehend, 00:00:54.859 --> 00:00:59.670 and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the 00:00:59.670 --> 00:01:05.569 Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing 00:01:05.569 --> 00:01:12.170 like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their 00:01:12.170 --> 00:01:23.730 journey. Welcome, welcome to Be Love, Be Keeping 00:01:23.730 --> 00:01:26.590 presented by our great friends over at Man Lake. 00:01:26.829 --> 00:01:29.650 By the way, if you haven't yet, please subscribe 00:01:29.650 --> 00:01:32.569 to and follow this podcast, tell your friends 00:01:32.569 --> 00:01:35.170 about it, and click on over to BeLoveBeekeeping 00:01:35.170 --> 00:01:39.849 .com to sign up for our free newsletter. Today's 00:01:39.849 --> 00:01:43.090 guest comes to us from the Midwest and has a 00:01:43.090 --> 00:01:46.230 wealth of knowledge on everything from sideline 00:01:46.230 --> 00:01:49.370 beekeeping to farmers markets, winter beekeeping, 00:01:49.950 --> 00:01:53.870 3D printing, even writing bee related children's 00:01:53.870 --> 00:01:57.219 books. That's right and we'll discuss all of 00:01:57.219 --> 00:02:00.019 this but first let's take just two minutes to 00:02:00.019 --> 00:02:03.219 go inside the hive, this feature presented by 00:02:03.219 --> 00:02:07.739 Primal Bee. The standard beehive design is about 00:02:07.739 --> 00:02:12.060 170 years old. It was built for the beekeeper 00:02:12.060 --> 00:02:15.699 not the bee. Easy to inspect, easy to harvest, 00:02:15.819 --> 00:02:18.960 easy to stack and ship. What it wasn't designed 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:22.900 for was thermal efficiency. You see in the wild 00:02:23.180 --> 00:02:26.780 Bees choose nest sites with thick walls, tree 00:02:26.780 --> 00:02:30.219 cavities, hollow logs, spaces inside buildings. 00:02:30.780 --> 00:02:33.900 They're looking for insulation because maintaining 00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:37.080 brood temperature is one of the most energy expensive 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:41.349 things a colony does. A thin -walled wooden box 00:02:41.349 --> 00:02:45.050 loses heat fast. The bees compensate by burning 00:02:45.050 --> 00:02:47.909 through more honey, clustering tighter, working 00:02:47.909 --> 00:02:51.909 harder. It is doable, but it drains resources 00:02:51.909 --> 00:02:55.150 that could go toward building population or fighting 00:02:55.150 --> 00:02:58.750 off mites. That's the thinking behind primal 00:02:58.750 --> 00:03:02.370 bee. Thick insulated walls designed around how 00:03:02.370 --> 00:03:05.990 bees actually regulate temperature instead of 00:03:05.990 --> 00:03:09.900 how beekeepers prefer to stack boxes. after 10 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:13.360 years of testing across six countries from Florida 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:16.400 to Alaska to the Middle East. Primal Bee just 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:18.719 passed their first million dollars in sales. 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:22.099 Beekeepers in the US, Europe, and Australia are 00:03:22.099 --> 00:03:25.180 running to these hives now. If you want to give 00:03:25.180 --> 00:03:28.319 Primal Bee hives a try, I've arranged a 10 % 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:31.680 discount just for Bee Love listeners. Click on 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:34.979 over to primalbee .com forward slash Bee Love 00:03:34.979 --> 00:03:38.500 and use discount code Bee Love at checkout. That's 00:03:38.500 --> 00:03:41.159 primalbee .com slash Bee Love and be sure to 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:49.379 use discount code Bee Love at checkout. I'd like 00:03:49.379 --> 00:03:52.139 to welcome our very special guest today Bob Ford 00:03:52.139 --> 00:03:55.139 is coming to us from what the southern part of 00:03:55.139 --> 00:03:58.460 Minnesota Bob Yeah, well between Austin and Albert 00:03:58.460 --> 00:04:00.439 Lee we live on the country between Austin and 00:04:00.439 --> 00:04:04.000 Albert Lee and this is gonna be interesting today, 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.060 I think because We just have so much to talk 00:04:07.060 --> 00:04:10.379 about we are gonna be running the gamut From 00:04:10.379 --> 00:04:14.080 the kind of beekeeping you do to how you've figured 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:17.560 out how to make money selling hive products And 00:04:17.560 --> 00:04:20.199 also, you're now an author, and I think that's 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:22.939 really cool and fun. And we're going to be talking 00:04:22.939 --> 00:04:26.339 about the books that you've written. But I want 00:04:26.339 --> 00:04:30.639 to start with this. Your place is called Sticky 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:33.220 Bee Honey Farm. How'd you come up with the name? 00:04:33.319 --> 00:04:36.100 That's really fun. I tried to figure out a way 00:04:36.100 --> 00:04:41.160 to have a mascot that would be something of a 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:44.920 branding for Sticky Bee Honey Farms. I wanted 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:48.620 a funny kind of catchy name. And I spent probably 00:04:48.620 --> 00:04:51.920 two, three weeks of going through dictionaries 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:55.040 and looking at words and things like that. Once 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:58.279 I heard Sticky Bee in my head, I just all of 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:00.040 a sudden, boom, that was it. And that's what 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:04.220 I chose. And I also wanted somehow to include 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:08.550 it with a... mascot for the books to write some 00:05:08.550 --> 00:05:11.230 children's books to help children get more involved 00:05:11.230 --> 00:05:14.509 into beekeeping. And so I came up with characters, 00:05:14.829 --> 00:05:16.350 Sticky of course, and one of the first names 00:05:16.350 --> 00:05:18.850 I kept coming up with was Stinger Honey. But 00:05:18.850 --> 00:05:21.170 there's so many people have Stinger Honey that 00:05:21.170 --> 00:05:23.149 I've seen out there and it's kind of an obvious 00:05:23.149 --> 00:05:25.959 name. So. So I have Stinger as one of the characters 00:05:25.959 --> 00:05:28.920 and not in the books yet, but in the books to 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:31.879 come. So Sticky, she goes on adventures and stuff. 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:33.939 And that's why I picked Sticky Bee Honey Farms. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:35.720 I just thought it was a cute name for a little 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:38.420 honeybee. As long as we've jumped to that point 00:05:38.420 --> 00:05:41.079 already, we don't have to go through your topics 00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:43.720 in any particular order. Let's talk a little 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:46.220 bit about the books. I'd like you to tell me 00:05:46.220 --> 00:05:48.839 why you decided to start writing some books, 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:51.259 who they're aimed at, their children's books, 00:05:51.660 --> 00:05:55.100 but a little more specifically about that and 00:05:55.100 --> 00:05:57.600 where they're going from here. I started out, 00:05:57.620 --> 00:06:00.899 I started making presentations on the computer 00:06:00.899 --> 00:06:04.120 to teach children, especially the younger kids, 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:07.660 about bees. and try to make them more comfortable 00:06:07.660 --> 00:06:09.500 with these, because every time you mention the 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:12.439 word honeybee to kids, they love the honey, but 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:15.379 they're afraid of the bee part. And so I figured 00:06:15.379 --> 00:06:18.420 that I would write these books and take a character 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:21.319 sticky and let her go on adventures to help promote 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:24.660 beekeeping to younger children. I made sure that 00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:28.139 every book had a lesson to be learned in each 00:06:28.139 --> 00:06:30.759 story, kind of like the traditional books that 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:33.670 I used to have when I was a kid. and that there 00:06:33.670 --> 00:06:35.829 was always some lesson at the end that you learned, 00:06:36.089 --> 00:06:38.790 you know, learn to be nice or learn to help others, 00:06:38.810 --> 00:06:41.949 things like that. Just simple lessons learned 00:06:41.949 --> 00:06:44.550 at the end of the story. They're kind of cute, 00:06:44.629 --> 00:06:47.389 but short. And it's just a lot of fun to do it, 00:06:47.389 --> 00:06:49.610 too, as well. And I think you'd mentioned to 00:06:49.610 --> 00:06:52.750 me the other day that you were injured and kind 00:06:52.750 --> 00:06:55.410 of needed something that you could do without 00:06:55.410 --> 00:06:59.490 being outside hauling around beehives and stuff. 00:06:59.589 --> 00:07:03.139 Is that kind of what prompted you? Correct. Yeah, 00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:04.800 I probably could have started a little earlier 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:07.120 in the story, but I was a general contractor 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:08.959 for many years. I did commercial construction, 00:07:09.259 --> 00:07:11.439 a lot of hospital and school work and stuff like 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:14.300 that. And anyway, I had several back surgeries 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:18.060 over the years and I took and had a major back 00:07:18.060 --> 00:07:21.300 surgery about three years ago. And I had to lay 00:07:21.300 --> 00:07:23.959 flat on my back for about nine months. I'd had 00:07:23.959 --> 00:07:27.660 a surgery the prior year before COVID hit. It 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:30.379 didn't heal correctly. And that's the long story 00:07:30.379 --> 00:07:32.040 I won't get into it. I had a contractor back 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:34.180 out on me on a project. So I ended up three weeks 00:07:34.180 --> 00:07:36.439 out of back surgery. I ended up having to do 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:38.899 the project myself because there was a $5 ,000 00:07:38.899 --> 00:07:42.199 a day penalty for every day that I didn't get, 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:45.000 or that I went past the six weeks. So I ended 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:47.259 up doing everything myself, even laying the carpet 00:07:47.259 --> 00:07:49.899 and painting and everything. So I tore everything 00:07:49.899 --> 00:07:52.160 that they did in my back all out. So that's why 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:54.680 it was such a major surgery to tear it all out. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:56.819 And then 10 days later, I went back and they 00:07:56.819 --> 00:07:59.279 put it all back in. So I vowed that I was not 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:01.040 going to work. I was going to let it heal. And 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:03.319 I did. And while it laid flat on my back, I thought, 00:08:03.379 --> 00:08:05.399 you know, what a better thing to do than to sit 00:08:05.399 --> 00:08:06.959 down and start writing some books. So I wrote 00:08:06.959 --> 00:08:09.639 25, 30 children's books and started doing all 00:08:09.639 --> 00:08:13.399 the drawings and the poses for Sticky in the 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:15.620 books so that it would be easier for each page. 00:08:15.639 --> 00:08:17.199 I could bring her in and just post different, 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:19.459 you know, surprise looks and this and that. And 00:08:19.459 --> 00:08:21.920 it was just fun to do. I enjoyed doing it. So 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:26.439 anyway. So now no more construction. Yeah, no, 00:08:26.639 --> 00:08:29.420 please. Yeah, so you're the illustrator as well. 00:08:29.420 --> 00:08:31.600 That's awesome. One of the things that I love 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.320 about what you've done here is most of us realize 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:37.919 we need to get more younger people involved in 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:41.379 beekeeping. And what a way to start at a very 00:08:41.379 --> 00:08:45.360 young age. So thank you for that. I have now 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:47.679 children involved and grandchildren involved. 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:50.559 And I don't know that there is an age that's 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:53.519 too young to get. Kids involved in beekeeping. 00:08:53.639 --> 00:08:56.120 What do you think? I don't think so either. And, 00:08:56.480 --> 00:08:58.240 um, I've had a lot of people because I told them 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:01.620 at the range for kids, age -wise, even when I 00:09:01.620 --> 00:09:03.700 published them on Amazon, they even sent me a 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:06.100 thing back saying that the books were advanced, 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:09.220 too advanced for that age. And that, that there 00:09:09.220 --> 00:09:12.379 was a few words that I used that were more advanced 00:09:12.379 --> 00:09:15.539 for the age. My thought was, and they agreed 00:09:15.539 --> 00:09:18.580 with me actually, was that parents mostly read 00:09:18.580 --> 00:09:21.320 children the books. That's part of the book experience. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:24.019 is having the parent read the book to the child 00:09:24.019 --> 00:09:26.519 and the child starting to see the words and hear 00:09:26.519 --> 00:09:28.379 the words as they're watching them go across 00:09:28.379 --> 00:09:32.980 the page. So that's kind of what I think that 00:09:32.980 --> 00:09:37.620 being the younger kids, they learn the bigger 00:09:37.620 --> 00:09:39.639 words and start, because they're going to ask 00:09:39.639 --> 00:09:41.059 questions while you're reading it. They're going 00:09:41.059 --> 00:09:43.100 to say, Oh, what was that word nuisance? You 00:09:43.100 --> 00:09:45.600 know, what was this word? And so I think it's 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:47.600 a learning experience for younger kids. And I, 00:09:47.899 --> 00:09:50.320 I'm a firm believer in that kids. up to the age 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:52.419 of probably eight, nine years old, most of their 00:09:52.419 --> 00:09:54.159 parents are reading them in their books at night 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:57.019 before they go to bed or just during the day. 00:09:57.299 --> 00:09:59.700 I know when I've gone to visit some of my sister's 00:09:59.700 --> 00:10:02.120 grandchildren and you read them a book, it's 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:03.759 always that you read it, you read it, you read 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:05.460 it, and not that they're reading it. And then 00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:07.860 you kind of transition into them reading a little 00:10:07.860 --> 00:10:10.179 bit of it. Some of the best part of parenting 00:10:10.179 --> 00:10:13.200 too. Sure. I love it. Those are some great memories. 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:15.340 All right. I want to jump into some things that 00:10:15.340 --> 00:10:17.559 we can learn from your experience. They're in 00:10:17.559 --> 00:10:20.740 a pretty cold climate there. Now most of us, 00:10:20.740 --> 00:10:22.559 when this is going live, it's going to be in 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:26.980 the spring of 2026. So for those of us in the 00:10:26.980 --> 00:10:29.980 northern hemisphere, we're coming out of winter. 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:33.360 We're looking and seeing how many bee colonies 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:36.629 made it, how many didn't make it. our friends 00:10:36.629 --> 00:10:38.629 in the southern hemisphere that are listening. 00:10:39.090 --> 00:10:41.250 Of course they're the opposite. They're thinking 00:10:41.250 --> 00:10:43.610 about winter right now. What kinds of things 00:10:43.610 --> 00:10:47.169 have you done for your bees to help them get 00:10:47.169 --> 00:10:50.870 through winter and maybe preface with how many 00:10:50.870 --> 00:10:54.029 beehives did you run in the past before the injury 00:10:54.029 --> 00:10:56.909 and how many do you run now? Well I started out 00:10:56.909 --> 00:10:59.889 I just was gonna have two beehives. Of course 00:10:59.889 --> 00:11:03.320 within two months there was so much fun and so 00:11:03.320 --> 00:11:06.200 exciting. I started splitting hives and creating 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:08.460 more and more. And of course, being in the construction, 00:11:08.700 --> 00:11:11.320 I had plenty of extra wood to build more hives. 00:11:11.740 --> 00:11:14.460 And so I got up to, I think the most I've had 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:18.519 was 65 to 80, something like that. But I found 00:11:18.519 --> 00:11:20.620 that it was just too much work for my back being 00:11:20.620 --> 00:11:23.159 that bad. So I figured I'd have to back it down 00:11:23.159 --> 00:11:25.940 a little bit. But I had enough equipment for 00:11:25.940 --> 00:11:30.129 400 hives. I still do. It was my goal of Being 00:11:30.129 --> 00:11:33.029 that I was in construction, I had a semi already, 00:11:33.029 --> 00:11:36.409 and I've already got a semi trailer to haul bees 00:11:36.409 --> 00:11:39.289 to do pollination. And that was my ultimate goal. 00:11:39.330 --> 00:11:41.190 But of course, my back kind of held me back on 00:11:41.190 --> 00:11:43.450 that. Still to this day, I still kind of hope 00:11:43.450 --> 00:11:45.429 to be able to do that, to be able to haul, not 00:11:45.429 --> 00:11:47.769 so much to California, but, you know, to Wisconsin 00:11:47.769 --> 00:11:50.429 or Michigan, I think would be kind of fun to 00:11:50.429 --> 00:11:52.490 do it. Of course, I already had forklifts and 00:11:52.490 --> 00:11:54.610 skid loaders and all the equipment necessary 00:11:54.610 --> 00:11:56.950 to do it, but my back is what held me back. No 00:11:56.950 --> 00:12:01.320 pun intended. Currently, I have 40 to 45, something 00:12:01.320 --> 00:12:05.100 like that, hives. I treat my hives as best I 00:12:05.100 --> 00:12:07.960 can. Sometimes I miss the date because of pain 00:12:07.960 --> 00:12:10.159 issues or something like that, but I do try to 00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:12.419 treat them. And the worst part about being in 00:12:12.419 --> 00:12:14.179 Minnesota is that you get through the winter, 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:17.460 you think, oh, geez, I only lost 25%. It was 00:12:17.460 --> 00:12:20.139 a good year. You'll go through three weeks of 00:12:20.139 --> 00:12:21.980 good weather and then all of a sudden, boom, 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:25.139 you'll have another half die off. That's the 00:12:25.139 --> 00:12:27.019 weird part about Minnesota. But yeah, we always 00:12:27.019 --> 00:12:29.940 usually end up, I anyway, usually end up between 00:12:29.940 --> 00:12:33.639 25 and almost 60 % loss every winter. So you 00:12:33.639 --> 00:12:36.019 got to get busy splitting and cleaning out nukes 00:12:36.019 --> 00:12:38.340 and getting everything back ready again. So hopefully 00:12:38.340 --> 00:12:40.399 I can do it on a bigger scale here soon. That's 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:42.360 what I'm hoping anyway. And I know I'm kind of 00:12:42.360 --> 00:12:44.720 asking too many questions at one time. We're 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:47.059 going to come back in just a second to what to 00:12:47.059 --> 00:12:50.720 do to prepare for winter. But you mentioned you 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:55.299 have maybe 25 % loss. Three weeks later you find 00:12:55.299 --> 00:12:58.860 another bunch of loss. Why is that? What is the 00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:02.080 second round of loss from? I think it's what 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:04.980 they call colony collapse disorder I think it's 00:13:04.980 --> 00:13:07.600 just because in in Minnesota our weather is kind 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:10.340 of weird We get like a warm spell and then a 00:13:10.340 --> 00:13:13.480 cold spell and you know, and you kind of misjudge 00:13:13.480 --> 00:13:17.559 when That collapse is going to be because we'll 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:20.159 lose some over the winter I believe the disease 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:21.840 just finally gets to them. And in the spring, 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:23.440 just when they're starting to want to build up, 00:13:23.460 --> 00:13:26.259 they just don't build up and they just die out. 00:13:26.419 --> 00:13:28.980 But I honestly believe it's because we have a 00:13:28.980 --> 00:13:33.240 kind of a false spring. And so what we consider 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:37.080 spring here, like right now it's been 70 degrees 00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:40.340 for the last two, three days, but it's going 00:13:40.340 --> 00:13:43.639 to turn into 50, 45 as highs later in the week. 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:46.879 I think that these that are overwintered into 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:49.360 that. with the disease and stuff they get from 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:52.279 the mites, they just finally just, and it's weird 00:13:52.279 --> 00:13:54.860 because they all collapse at the same time. It's 00:13:54.860 --> 00:13:57.039 not that you just lose this one this day, another 00:13:57.039 --> 00:14:00.860 one this day. It's, you go down one week. I walk 00:14:00.860 --> 00:14:02.120 through and make sure they have enough food, 00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:04.220 you know, to keep them through the winter. And 00:14:04.220 --> 00:14:06.980 then you go back again a week later and you'll 00:14:06.980 --> 00:14:10.460 have 10, 15 hives that are, that are gone and 00:14:10.460 --> 00:14:12.419 that I have to clean out. Anyway, it's just amazing 00:14:12.419 --> 00:14:15.080 how quickly the mice move in afterwards as well. 00:14:15.309 --> 00:14:17.629 Well, and my first question was going to be, 00:14:17.870 --> 00:14:19.809 did they need food? Did they have plenty of food? 00:14:20.070 --> 00:14:22.450 Because that's often a cause for a spring collapse. 00:14:22.629 --> 00:14:25.230 It's just running out of food. I make sure they 00:14:25.230 --> 00:14:26.669 have enough honey to make it through the winter. 00:14:26.710 --> 00:14:28.929 So I leave them with enough honey. But a lot 00:14:28.929 --> 00:14:30.970 of times they can't, they don't move from one 00:14:30.970 --> 00:14:32.990 side of the frames to the other, you know, that 00:14:32.990 --> 00:14:34.870 they stay centered and then they would starve, 00:14:34.950 --> 00:14:38.429 so to speak. But I always in the closer to spring, 00:14:38.470 --> 00:14:41.210 I will go and open up to make sure. And I dumped 00:14:41.210 --> 00:14:43.590 sugar on the just plain sugar on the frames. 00:14:43.960 --> 00:14:47.100 so that they have food if they need it and there's 00:14:47.100 --> 00:14:48.899 always plenty of moisture of course in the hive 00:14:48.899 --> 00:14:51.159 so they don't have to worry too much about moisture 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:53.039 but usually they're not dead with their heads 00:14:53.039 --> 00:14:55.720 stuck into the cells they're usually just dead 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:59.639 like in a cluster or just fanned out on the what's 00:14:59.639 --> 00:15:02.120 left of them fanned out on a frame because usually 00:15:02.120 --> 00:15:03.620 when they when they starve out there they got 00:15:03.620 --> 00:15:06.059 their heads all stuck in you know in the in the 00:15:06.059 --> 00:15:08.799 cells that as far as i'm aware anyway yeah that's 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:11.940 kind of a good indication is heads in butts out 00:15:11.940 --> 00:15:14.740 they're probably hungry Right. Yeah. You might 00:15:14.740 --> 00:15:16.820 want to have it at the inspector or somebody 00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:19.740 take a look at some time at one of those dead 00:15:19.740 --> 00:15:22.679 outs and give you an idea. Was it deform wing 00:15:22.679 --> 00:15:26.200 virus was something else going on? Yeah. If I 00:15:26.200 --> 00:15:28.600 could catch it soon enough, like I say, because 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:30.480 of the temperature swings, they get a lot of 00:15:30.480 --> 00:15:32.639 mold on real fast. And, uh, otherwise I would 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:34.299 try to put them under a microscope and take a 00:15:34.299 --> 00:15:36.360 better look. Some of them that I've noticed didn't 00:15:36.360 --> 00:15:38.720 have queens. So the queen must've died sometime 00:15:38.720 --> 00:15:40.720 through the winter or something. There's all. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:43.620 kinds of different things that I see. But the 00:15:43.620 --> 00:15:46.480 thing that is alarming is that you don't see 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:49.460 too many mites on the bees themselves, but you 00:15:49.460 --> 00:15:51.820 do see them on the bottom board of the hive. 00:15:52.340 --> 00:15:55.159 I don't know if treating more or maybe a better 00:15:55.159 --> 00:15:57.379 treating, I would have better luck with that. 00:15:57.639 --> 00:16:00.600 A lot of that is a matter of where was the mite 00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:04.039 load in the fall? Correct. Did you test in the 00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:06.580 fall? Did you have a pretty good idea? Yes. But 00:16:06.580 --> 00:16:08.559 like I said, with the back injuries, I'm not 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:11.100 timely. Cause I always set myself to seven day 00:16:11.100 --> 00:16:15.779 time to do the exoc acid or to do formic pro, 00:16:16.019 --> 00:16:18.539 you know, things like that. Most of the people 00:16:18.539 --> 00:16:21.340 in this area that I, and almost everybody in 00:16:21.340 --> 00:16:23.799 our bee club, they lose almost a hundred percent 00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:25.980 of their hives. I actually thought I was doing 00:16:25.980 --> 00:16:29.080 fairly well. Like my neighbors and people around 00:16:29.080 --> 00:16:31.600 me, they just, they buy just buy new hives every 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:33.480 spring. They don't even treat, which is hard 00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:36.700 for me because then I get their mite load coming 00:16:36.700 --> 00:16:40.539 from their hives. And so it's just kind of a 00:16:40.539 --> 00:16:44.320 never ending struggle. I do believe that chemical 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:47.899 free beekeeping. I do believe in that. I haven't 00:16:47.899 --> 00:16:50.580 done it because it's, you have to be really timely 00:16:50.580 --> 00:16:53.360 with that and make sure that you can get out 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:55.840 and, uh, and do that at the correct time. I don't 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:58.059 know. It's just been a struggle, especially in 00:16:58.059 --> 00:17:01.399 colder weather. I hate to sound, well, I don't 00:17:01.399 --> 00:17:03.600 mean this to sound rude in any way, shape or 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:07.140 form, but it's like welcome to beekeeping. It 00:17:07.140 --> 00:17:10.119 is so much harder than people think it is. And 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:12.720 so many people get into it thinking, you know, 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:14.660 that it's like chickens. I just feed them and 00:17:14.660 --> 00:17:16.839 water them and they're going to be fine. And 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:20.200 beekeeping is not that easy, folks. Yeah, it's 00:17:20.200 --> 00:17:23.259 not. I do notice a lot of people, they make it 00:17:23.259 --> 00:17:26.039 easy and that's all they do is they just take 00:17:26.039 --> 00:17:28.440 all the honey in the fall and they just let the 00:17:28.440 --> 00:17:32.539 bees go and The next spring they right back buying 00:17:32.539 --> 00:17:35.640 packages again I mean, I think it's sad but that's 00:17:35.640 --> 00:17:37.420 what a lot of people do that I know of around 00:17:37.420 --> 00:17:40.559 here I admit a pet peeve of mine is that it seems 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:44.579 all beehives are white. Yeah boring old white 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:48.200 And just when I get a pet peeve, Man Lake comes 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:50.799 to the rescue with their new color collection. 00:17:51.420 --> 00:17:54.559 The vibrant new line of colorful beekeeping hive 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:58.420 kits designed to turn your backyard into a buzzing 00:17:58.420 --> 00:18:02.039 work of art. 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I try to 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:55.779 do the best I can to keep them going. It's nice 00:18:55.779 --> 00:18:58.339 to have those hives that that do make it through 00:18:58.339 --> 00:19:01.259 the winter and they just burst in the spring 00:19:01.259 --> 00:19:03.720 and you can split and you can do all kinds of 00:19:03.720 --> 00:19:06.789 just exciting. to do instead of starting from 00:19:06.789 --> 00:19:08.829 a package and then sitting back and waiting for 00:19:08.829 --> 00:19:11.730 them to You know takes two months for them here 00:19:11.730 --> 00:19:14.750 to start building up to even to you know to move 00:19:14.750 --> 00:19:18.069 on Especially if you don't have wax. I have probably 00:19:18.069 --> 00:19:21.769 a hundred and some hives worth of wax that's 00:19:21.769 --> 00:19:24.849 drawn out so that that helps considerably because 00:19:24.849 --> 00:19:26.910 then they don't have to draw wax out but if yeah, 00:19:26.990 --> 00:19:29.609 if you're if you're new and And you're starting 00:19:29.609 --> 00:19:31.630 to try to build up, and you're just buying packages 00:19:31.630 --> 00:19:33.630 every spring. You're waiting first two months 00:19:33.630 --> 00:19:36.130 just to get wax built. And the other exciting 00:19:36.130 --> 00:19:38.289 thing about those that make it through winter 00:19:38.289 --> 00:19:42.109 is we can kind of assume they probably have good 00:19:42.109 --> 00:19:46.109 genetics. So we want to split those. We really 00:19:46.109 --> 00:19:48.130 want to make sure that we're nurturing and taking 00:19:48.130 --> 00:19:50.589 care of those colonies. Yeah, those are the ones 00:19:50.589 --> 00:19:55.069 you paint gold before you leave. Yeah, absolutely. 00:19:55.589 --> 00:19:58.670 So a lot of people in cold climates will wrap 00:19:58.670 --> 00:20:01.369 their hives with tar paper, will put some kind 00:20:01.369 --> 00:20:04.329 of insulation around, even hay bales. What do 00:20:04.329 --> 00:20:07.609 you like to do there? I myself, I kind of do 00:20:07.609 --> 00:20:10.349 a, I like to get them out of the wind and you 00:20:10.349 --> 00:20:13.369 can put a windbreak up, but the wind usually 00:20:13.369 --> 00:20:15.349 comes from every different direction anyway. 00:20:15.750 --> 00:20:17.769 So you almost have to put a U -shaped windbreak 00:20:17.769 --> 00:20:20.730 around them. But I think that when you do the 00:20:20.730 --> 00:20:23.109 wind breaks, that you're still getting wind, 00:20:23.109 --> 00:20:25.910 you know, filling in and going up and over the 00:20:25.910 --> 00:20:28.210 wind breaks and stuff. So what I do is I actually 00:20:28.210 --> 00:20:30.269 wait till it's going to be consistently below 00:20:30.269 --> 00:20:33.890 56 degrees. And I put them inside of a pole shed 00:20:33.890 --> 00:20:37.289 that's out of the wind so that I think that's 00:20:37.289 --> 00:20:40.609 99 % of what helps to keep them warm is they 00:20:40.609 --> 00:20:43.019 don't have that. that wind when you put up a 00:20:43.019 --> 00:20:44.740 windbreak I believe that when you have wind blowing 00:20:44.740 --> 00:20:47.500 across the top you'll get a negative air pressure 00:20:47.500 --> 00:20:50.440 inside as well and I think that that helps to 00:20:50.440 --> 00:20:52.460 fluctuate and sucking air in and out of the hives 00:20:52.460 --> 00:20:56.240 and kind of like a sandblaster but where you're 00:20:56.240 --> 00:20:59.420 blowing air across the top of something and it 00:20:59.420 --> 00:21:02.140 sucks the sand out of the out of the bottle that 00:21:02.140 --> 00:21:05.740 you're you're sandblasting with so that's why 00:21:05.740 --> 00:21:07.859 I put mine in a building so they're out of the 00:21:07.859 --> 00:21:09.500 wind and then when the temperature gets looks 00:21:09.500 --> 00:21:11.950 like it's going to be 56 or above well actually 00:21:11.950 --> 00:21:14.150 lower than that, but because I've tried to be 00:21:14.150 --> 00:21:16.829 proactive, and then I'll set them back out again. 00:21:17.150 --> 00:21:19.990 I find that there's less condensation in the 00:21:19.990 --> 00:21:23.470 hives with that, and I don't wrap my hives. I 00:21:23.470 --> 00:21:27.109 use pallets for all my hives. I put a wood fiber 00:21:27.109 --> 00:21:29.690 board on top. It helps to not let the water, 00:21:30.190 --> 00:21:31.990 because you want some condensation in the hive 00:21:31.990 --> 00:21:34.849 for them to have water, but it doesn't drip like 00:21:34.849 --> 00:21:37.509 other products that are out in the market, like 00:21:37.509 --> 00:21:40.289 wood would drip. it actually absorbs most of 00:21:40.289 --> 00:21:42.109 the moisture but it doesn't literally get drops 00:21:42.109 --> 00:21:44.190 on it like you would see when you lift off like 00:21:44.190 --> 00:21:46.390 your styrofoam of people that use foam on the 00:21:46.390 --> 00:21:48.490 top if you lift the foam up you'll see the water 00:21:48.490 --> 00:21:51.569 run you know down the face of the foam the moisture 00:21:51.569 --> 00:21:54.450 that's why i use wood fiber it just doesn't seem 00:21:54.450 --> 00:21:56.650 to drip on the bees that way they can just go 00:21:56.650 --> 00:21:58.490 to the hive especially the edges and get the 00:21:58.490 --> 00:22:00.730 water and moisture that they need to to keep 00:22:00.730 --> 00:22:03.049 on going and there are a lot of good products 00:22:03.049 --> 00:22:06.210 out there yes if you go to a place like manlakes 00:22:06.210 --> 00:22:09.430 website There are things that wrap all the way 00:22:09.430 --> 00:22:12.349 around the hive that block the wind and have 00:22:12.349 --> 00:22:15.710 insulation. There's things that go on top. There's 00:22:15.710 --> 00:22:18.930 a hive heater, which is a solar thing, which 00:22:18.930 --> 00:22:21.130 I've had really good luck with. We'll have to 00:22:21.130 --> 00:22:23.529 try that. We'll have to look into that one. Definitely 00:22:23.529 --> 00:22:25.910 insulating definitely helps. I don't personally 00:22:25.910 --> 00:22:28.450 insulate mine. I guess I don't know why, just 00:22:28.450 --> 00:22:29.910 probably because I have so many of them, but 00:22:29.910 --> 00:22:31.990 it would take quite a while to insulate and a 00:22:31.990 --> 00:22:33.990 lot of material to insulate them all. I do have 00:22:33.990 --> 00:22:36.670 concrete blankets. There are big, huge blankets. 00:22:36.890 --> 00:22:39.150 They're like 40 foot by 60 foot. Uh, and they're 00:22:39.150 --> 00:22:41.230 insulated with plastic on the top and bottom, 00:22:41.430 --> 00:22:44.130 like a tarp, insulated tarp. And a lot of them 00:22:44.130 --> 00:22:46.190 are, you know, three, four inches thick. And 00:22:46.190 --> 00:22:48.130 I do it sometimes when it's going to get really 00:22:48.130 --> 00:22:50.049 cold, I'll literally roll that out over the top 00:22:50.049 --> 00:22:52.769 of all of them. And that I'm sure helps quite, 00:22:52.849 --> 00:22:55.410 quite a bit. So insulating does help. So if you 00:22:55.410 --> 00:22:58.450 have, or able to, you know, I would think that 00:22:58.450 --> 00:23:01.170 most folks with 30 highs, maybe at max would, 00:23:01.470 --> 00:23:03.170 I don't know, it must take a long time to wrap 00:23:03.170 --> 00:23:05.769 a hive. I would think. to do individual hives. 00:23:06.190 --> 00:23:08.210 That's why you don't see commercial beekeepers 00:23:08.210 --> 00:23:11.309 wrapping up 10 ,000 hives. It's easier to just 00:23:11.309 --> 00:23:14.789 put them someplace warmer. There are, yeah, lots 00:23:14.789 --> 00:23:16.730 of other products out there and I think it's 00:23:16.730 --> 00:23:19.609 great to just try them, see what works for use 00:23:19.609 --> 00:23:22.130 and the way that you bee keep and the way that 00:23:22.130 --> 00:23:25.849 your weather is. This last winter I also tried 00:23:25.849 --> 00:23:28.099 a Primal Beehive, and people have heard about 00:23:28.099 --> 00:23:31.299 this on this podcast, had super good luck with 00:23:31.299 --> 00:23:34.740 that, but it's really, really thick insulative 00:23:34.740 --> 00:23:36.740 kind of material that it's made out of, didn't 00:23:36.740 --> 00:23:39.180 need to be wrapped with anything. And by the 00:23:39.180 --> 00:23:42.220 way, I happen to know what a construction blanket 00:23:42.220 --> 00:23:46.160 is, but it's not, in case you don't know what 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:49.440 it is, I mean a concrete blanket. It's not a 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:52.799 blanket made out of concrete. Go ahead and mansplain 00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:55.730 that for us for just a second, Bob. Oh, it's 00:23:55.730 --> 00:23:57.869 a tarp that we use like when we pour concrete 00:23:57.869 --> 00:24:01.549 in the fall, when it's getting cold out and it 00:24:01.549 --> 00:24:04.190 helps to keep the concrete warm. So you roll 00:24:04.190 --> 00:24:06.829 out, we usually have plastic down after we spray 00:24:06.829 --> 00:24:09.569 our sealer on the concrete. Then we'll throw 00:24:09.569 --> 00:24:12.049 the blankets on top to help keep the concrete 00:24:12.049 --> 00:24:14.970 to stay warm. So it cures longer. You want it 00:24:14.970 --> 00:24:18.170 to cure up to 26, 28 days. I'm getting old, I 00:24:18.170 --> 00:24:20.369 can't remember. But the longer you can get it 00:24:20.369 --> 00:24:22.529 to cure up to 26, 28 days, the better as well. 00:24:22.569 --> 00:24:25.000 So sometimes even. If it's in direct sunlight, 00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:27.799 we will put blankets on it for the first few 00:24:27.799 --> 00:24:30.740 days or several days so that the sun doesn't 00:24:30.740 --> 00:24:33.039 just dry out the top surface right away and it 00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:35.059 cracks. Sometimes we use it to keep the concrete 00:24:35.059 --> 00:24:37.880 cool. Sometimes we use it to keep it warm. But 00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:40.200 most of the time it's in the winter or in the 00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:43.519 fall to keep it warm. We usually don't pour concrete 00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:45.279 in the winter because then the ground is froze. 00:24:46.019 --> 00:24:48.579 And then when you get shifting and movement from 00:24:48.579 --> 00:24:51.200 thawing in the spring, it's not a good deal. 00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:53.680 So usually it's mostly used in the fall. Yeah, 00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:56.200 it's just two pieces of tart with insulation 00:24:56.200 --> 00:24:59.220 in between and then they saw it like almost like 00:24:59.220 --> 00:25:01.759 a quilt bottom line It's a giant weatherproof 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:05.460 blanket. Yep has no concrete inside of it when 00:25:05.460 --> 00:25:07.920 you and I were chatting the other day you were 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:09.599 telling me about some of the things that you 00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:12.839 do at farmers markets and Other places and how 00:25:12.839 --> 00:25:15.319 you're growing that side of the business. I think 00:25:15.319 --> 00:25:18.289 this is great information because there's beekeepers, 00:25:18.809 --> 00:25:20.970 especially hobbyists and sideliners are always 00:25:20.970 --> 00:25:24.150 looking for, wow, I need to make a few bucks 00:25:24.150 --> 00:25:26.470 at this. It's a pretty expensive hobby. And if 00:25:26.470 --> 00:25:28.529 you're a sideliner, you want to do more than 00:25:28.529 --> 00:25:31.390 that. So fill us in on some of the things that 00:25:31.390 --> 00:25:33.809 you've done. Maybe it'll help spring some ideas 00:25:33.809 --> 00:25:37.329 and others. Well, what happened was is that we 00:25:37.329 --> 00:25:39.549 used to have honey. I'd have 900 jars of honey 00:25:39.549 --> 00:25:41.269 in my living room and we used to just give it 00:25:41.269 --> 00:25:43.269 away, believe it or not. So that's how much I 00:25:43.269 --> 00:25:45.230 enjoyed beekeeping. We just gave the honey away 00:25:45.230 --> 00:25:47.789 to every book. friends neighbors with a mailman 00:25:47.789 --> 00:25:49.869 the postman would stop by we just give them all 00:25:49.869 --> 00:25:52.430 honey anyway after a while you kind of look and 00:25:52.430 --> 00:25:55.349 go well I'm not gonna have a retirement if I 00:25:55.349 --> 00:25:57.150 keep just buying bees and giving the honey away 00:25:57.150 --> 00:26:00.710 so I thought you know I'll start going to some 00:26:00.710 --> 00:26:03.549 farmers markets so I made bound labels and branded 00:26:03.549 --> 00:26:06.109 it and with the sticky bee this is all before 00:26:06.109 --> 00:26:09.849 sticky the books but went to like a small town 00:26:09.849 --> 00:26:12.250 farmers markets the ones that we could get into 00:26:12.250 --> 00:26:14.529 a lot of them only allowed one honey person so 00:26:14.529 --> 00:26:17.559 they wouldn't allow two So I had to find other 00:26:17.559 --> 00:26:20.299 markets to go to. So I was traveling 30, 40 miles 00:26:20.299 --> 00:26:22.559 just to get to a farmer's market to where I could 00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:25.119 actually sell the honey. That was probably the 00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:28.319 biggest issue to overcome. Then when I did do 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:30.500 farmer's markets, I would sit there all day and 00:26:30.500 --> 00:26:32.160 you would sell like a hundred dollars worth of 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:34.279 honey. Well, number one, it's sad that most people 00:26:34.279 --> 00:26:36.779 don't go to their farmer's markets to buy a lot 00:26:36.779 --> 00:26:39.240 of their food and things like that. But I thought, 00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:42.880 well, the mayor that I talked to. In a couple 00:26:42.880 --> 00:26:45.099 of the places, counties and cities that I went 00:26:45.099 --> 00:26:47.759 to and there are townships. The mayors would 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:50.240 say, well, if you stay here longer, the longer 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:52.339 you're here, they get to know that you're here. 00:26:52.559 --> 00:26:55.200 And then, you know, it will build up, which is 00:26:55.200 --> 00:26:57.220 true. It was true for the first two or three 00:26:57.220 --> 00:27:00.599 times I went. I did get more people, but then 00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:04.059 after that third or fourth farmer's market, those 00:27:04.059 --> 00:27:06.619 were the customers that I had. It was 80 to a 00:27:06.619 --> 00:27:08.420 hundred dollars worth of honey from then on all 00:27:08.420 --> 00:27:10.990 the way through the whole summer. And so I stayed 00:27:10.990 --> 00:27:13.009 the whole summer because I dedicate myself to 00:27:13.009 --> 00:27:15.710 a farmer's market. I'm going to stay. So I thought, 00:27:15.710 --> 00:27:17.170 you know, there's gotta be a better way to make 00:27:17.170 --> 00:27:19.650 money with the honey than sitting at the farmer's 00:27:19.650 --> 00:27:21.609 markets doing that. And I thought, you know, 00:27:21.869 --> 00:27:24.049 honey straws, the honey sticks, the flavored 00:27:24.049 --> 00:27:26.250 honey straws that people sell. I thought, you 00:27:26.250 --> 00:27:28.529 know, those, they must sell like crazy, but the 00:27:28.529 --> 00:27:30.170 only thing is you're selling them at 50 cents 00:27:30.170 --> 00:27:33.630 a piece or less to folks. And it takes a lot 00:27:33.630 --> 00:27:35.630 of honey sticks to even get to a hundred bucks. 00:27:35.869 --> 00:27:38.089 But I thought it would draw more people in to 00:27:38.089 --> 00:27:40.859 buy the honey. So I started doing that. And of 00:27:40.859 --> 00:27:42.400 course, the people that have made them before 00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:45.440 know what a labor intensive thing that is to 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:49.200 make honey straws. So I actually bought a 3D 00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:52.500 printer designed on the software. It could be 00:27:52.500 --> 00:27:54.640 in a construction. I knew how to do AutoCAD and 00:27:54.640 --> 00:28:00.519 Fusion 360. So I designed a straw machine and 00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:05.129 I bought a pottery wheel for doing pottery. with 00:28:05.129 --> 00:28:07.789 the variable speed pedal. And then I 3D printed 00:28:07.789 --> 00:28:10.829 this circle on a piece of plexiglass, because 00:28:10.829 --> 00:28:13.150 my printer wasn't big enough to do a two -foot 00:28:13.150 --> 00:28:15.630 circle at one time. So I did it in pie shapes, 00:28:15.650 --> 00:28:18.450 like a pizza shape, so that you could have a 00:28:18.450 --> 00:28:21.069 pot in the middle. And then when it spun, the 00:28:21.069 --> 00:28:22.950 honey would go out into the straws, and the air 00:28:22.950 --> 00:28:25.990 would come out through the ends. So I made it 00:28:25.990 --> 00:28:29.049 so I could clip in 40 straws. And then I think 00:28:29.049 --> 00:28:31.269 it's 40. Yeah, 40 straws. And then I pour the 00:28:31.269 --> 00:28:33.319 honey in the middle. and then when it spins the 00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:35.500 honey goes in and then when you're done you just 00:28:35.500 --> 00:28:37.579 pinch the straw to get that last half inch of 00:28:37.579 --> 00:28:40.279 honey out of the end so you can reseal them so 00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:43.680 then i 3d printed these little holders that would 00:28:43.680 --> 00:28:46.119 hold the straws so i could have 16 of them in 00:28:46.119 --> 00:28:48.559 and then seal 16 of them at a time to make it 00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:51.799 go faster without buying a 20 000 machine i don't 00:28:51.799 --> 00:28:53.880 know the way that you could go much faster i 00:28:53.880 --> 00:28:58.220 i tried using a pressure cooker and i tried using 00:28:58.220 --> 00:29:00.500 air pressure and put the jar on the inside with 00:29:00.500 --> 00:29:02.220 the hose coming out of the center of the jar 00:29:02.220 --> 00:29:05.920 and then I had electric solenoid with the brass 00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:07.880 valve coming out of the end and I could stick 00:29:07.880 --> 00:29:09.799 that in the end of the straws and fill you know 00:29:09.799 --> 00:29:12.420 and just hit a pedal and it would squirt in to 00:29:12.420 --> 00:29:14.960 the straws so that works probably almost just 00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:17.839 as fast as the spinning one but it was messier 00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:20.039 so I took you had to clean straws and stuff when 00:29:20.039 --> 00:29:23.160 you were done but the only problem I had with 00:29:23.160 --> 00:29:26.670 this is a funny story with the spinner was that 00:29:26.670 --> 00:29:28.369 I had it set up in the middle of our kitchen. 00:29:28.609 --> 00:29:30.470 And when we moved into our house, I tore all 00:29:30.470 --> 00:29:33.130 the walls out in the whole main area here, so 00:29:33.130 --> 00:29:35.410 that we have open living room, dining room, kitchen 00:29:35.410 --> 00:29:36.750 area, which I'm sure you're probably knowing 00:29:36.750 --> 00:29:39.349 where this is going. But once one straw popped 00:29:39.349 --> 00:29:43.869 out of the hole. No, no, no. You had a line of 00:29:43.869 --> 00:29:46.289 honey all the way completely around the windows, 00:29:46.430 --> 00:29:48.849 the back of the chairs, all the way around the 00:29:48.849 --> 00:29:53.369 walls. So I actually took a hula hoop that kids 00:29:53.369 --> 00:29:56.700 use for playing. and I put it on at my stands. 00:29:56.839 --> 00:29:58.579 I used to play in a band, so I have these light 00:29:58.579 --> 00:30:01.559 stands. And so I put it on the two light stands, 00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:03.559 and I put a shower curtain all the way around 00:30:03.559 --> 00:30:06.099 it. So then whenever anybody visited us, I always 00:30:06.099 --> 00:30:08.519 tell them, yeah, we're getting down to the point 00:30:08.519 --> 00:30:09.579 where we have to take a shower in the middle 00:30:09.579 --> 00:30:13.099 of our kitchen. But the shower curtain definitely 00:30:13.099 --> 00:30:15.380 helps when I have a failure on the straw spinner. 00:30:16.319 --> 00:30:18.480 So I thought, you know, try the straws. We did 00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:21.420 the straws. That helped with getting kids involved 00:30:21.420 --> 00:30:23.059 and the parents come and then see if like the 00:30:23.059 --> 00:30:24.579 kids want straws and the parents then would take 00:30:24.579 --> 00:30:26.960 a honey home. And that's probably doubled our 00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:29.640 sales, but it still was a lot of time that you 00:30:29.640 --> 00:30:32.000 were spending. And I drive a one ton dually. 00:30:32.180 --> 00:30:34.039 So I had a lot of money and fuel just going to 00:30:34.039 --> 00:30:36.519 some places and back. So I decided, you know, 00:30:36.819 --> 00:30:39.460 I'm going to start a little food thing inside 00:30:39.460 --> 00:30:42.359 a tent. And so I went and I got licensed for 00:30:42.359 --> 00:30:45.559 the, with a food license to sell honey lemonade. 00:30:45.880 --> 00:30:48.759 And so we sold flavored honey lemonade. And of 00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:51.319 course that more than quadrupled our sales. People 00:30:51.319 --> 00:30:53.200 were just all excited and then they would actually 00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:55.039 buy honey and to make their own. And we'd always 00:30:55.039 --> 00:30:57.480 give them the recipe for, for the honey lemonade. 00:30:57.759 --> 00:31:00.400 So that worked out well till up to, I believe 00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:02.720 it was last year, the year before last year, 00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:06.099 we decided we'd get a food trailer and start 00:31:06.099 --> 00:31:08.819 doing that. So I built a food trailer to do the 00:31:08.819 --> 00:31:12.680 honey lemonade. And we also made honey kettle 00:31:12.680 --> 00:31:14.680 corn. So it's kettle corn, like they make at 00:31:14.680 --> 00:31:17.599 the fair. But we make it with honey instead of 00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:20.279 sugar. Boy, that was really good. And it took 00:31:20.279 --> 00:31:22.279 a while to get it so that, you know, things didn't 00:31:22.279 --> 00:31:24.819 burn or you didn't get, you know, there's a trick 00:31:24.819 --> 00:31:27.900 to it, to getting it right. But we started doing 00:31:27.900 --> 00:31:30.519 that honey kettle corn. And of course that just, 00:31:30.779 --> 00:31:32.619 you know, you're back to making a living now 00:31:32.619 --> 00:31:35.859 instead of just a side hustle. So that's kind 00:31:35.859 --> 00:31:38.460 of what I did to build it up. We've tried doing 00:31:38.460 --> 00:31:41.859 honey cotton candy. But that was really tricky. 00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:44.039 If there's any moisture in here at all, that 00:31:44.039 --> 00:31:47.660 turned to sticky too quick. Sticky as in the 00:31:47.660 --> 00:31:51.500 bee back there. Yeah. I've got to say, I have 00:31:51.500 --> 00:31:54.980 to interject something here. Beekeepers are the 00:31:54.980 --> 00:31:58.559 smartest. Entrepreneurialist, if that's a word. 00:32:00.160 --> 00:32:03.279 Inventors, they can come up with anything. to 00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:06.799 make stuff happen. And you're such a good example 00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:11.000 of that. How about you sent me a picture of your 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:15.059 3D printed mason jar honey dippers. Oh, yeah. 00:32:15.400 --> 00:32:17.660 We sell our honey in jars, in mason jars. So 00:32:17.660 --> 00:32:19.660 when we sold it in the mason jars, a lot of people 00:32:19.660 --> 00:32:22.359 wanted to know what they could use. A lot of 00:32:22.359 --> 00:32:23.940 people asked me the question about the spoon, 00:32:24.460 --> 00:32:26.599 that putting a metal spoon in your honey would 00:32:26.599 --> 00:32:29.619 kill enzymes in the honey. There's some truth 00:32:29.619 --> 00:32:31.420 to that and some not truth to that because a 00:32:31.420 --> 00:32:33.920 lot of your honey It starts out in a steel pot 00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:36.480 and you've stored in steel containers things 00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:38.339 like that. Anyway, it's a long story I won't 00:32:38.339 --> 00:32:40.579 get into that but so I thought you know How could 00:32:40.579 --> 00:32:42.160 you make it so that you didn't have to keep dipping 00:32:42.160 --> 00:32:44.700 a spoon in all the time? So I 3d printed these 00:32:44.700 --> 00:32:48.160 little Honey dippers with a handle on the top 00:32:48.160 --> 00:32:49.859 so that people could take and dip your honey 00:32:49.859 --> 00:32:51.519 out and then turn it your sideways and drizzle 00:32:51.519 --> 00:32:53.589 it on your toast Anyway, they worked out really 00:32:53.589 --> 00:32:56.210 well. I got my logo printed on the top and we 00:32:56.210 --> 00:32:57.809 make them for all the different sized jars that 00:32:57.809 --> 00:33:01.089 we have, even quart jars. Anyway, I just thought 00:33:01.089 --> 00:33:04.769 it was kind of a way to solve a problem. So I 00:33:04.769 --> 00:33:06.730 designed that a little bit, I guess. Can you 00:33:06.730 --> 00:33:09.789 make some of those with my logo on top? Oh, sure. 00:33:10.329 --> 00:33:13.309 OK, we'll talk after. Yeah, no, it's fun to do. 00:33:13.369 --> 00:33:16.829 I enjoy it. I actually have all four 3D printers, 00:33:17.109 --> 00:33:19.430 four of them now sitting here. I made them all 00:33:19.430 --> 00:33:21.049 so that they were the same so that I could actually 00:33:21.049 --> 00:33:24.609 make that. process easier instead of having different 00:33:24.609 --> 00:33:26.529 files and different things for each different 00:33:26.529 --> 00:33:28.549 one. If you're into 3D printing, you'll know 00:33:28.549 --> 00:33:31.250 why. But, but, uh, so now I have them all upgraded 00:33:31.250 --> 00:33:33.450 so that they're all exactly the same. So that'll 00:33:33.450 --> 00:33:36.369 help in the future as well. And hopefully I'll 00:33:36.369 --> 00:33:40.589 put them on Amazon handmade here soon. That's 00:33:40.589 --> 00:33:43.769 what I'm hoping for. Maybe Pinterest. Well, that's 00:33:43.769 --> 00:33:45.950 another one. Yes. Yeah. I got a, I'm not very 00:33:45.950 --> 00:33:49.119 computer savvy. I was just to be able to do construction 00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:51.759 work, but a lot of the social media and the stuff 00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:54.380 behind it, I just, I have a lot of, I struggle 00:33:54.380 --> 00:33:56.700 through it and I should just find somebody that 00:33:56.700 --> 00:33:59.200 knows all about it and hire somebody to do it. 00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:02.039 But I'm kind of the person that I want to, if, 00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:03.599 even if I have somebody doing it, I want to know 00:34:03.599 --> 00:34:05.619 how they're doing, you know, I got to know what 00:34:05.619 --> 00:34:07.000 they're doing. You know, I got to know the information 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:09.559 behind it anyway. So I just try to learn it myself. 00:34:10.039 --> 00:34:13.000 So find a 14 year old girl to handle your social 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:14.880 media for you. There you go. That's what I need. 00:34:15.179 --> 00:34:17.699 Think the computer stuff you can handle if you 00:34:17.699 --> 00:34:21.000 can design and print things with 3d printers 00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:25.219 It's not like you're not smart computer wise 00:34:25.219 --> 00:34:27.260 a long time though to learn how to do some of 00:34:27.260 --> 00:34:29.719 that stuff and then a lot of it to me gets to 00:34:29.719 --> 00:34:33.380 be steps and then you go from like I 3d printed 00:34:33.380 --> 00:34:37.599 a CNC machine and Most of it's all 3d printed 00:34:37.599 --> 00:34:40.360 except for the electrical of course, and I printed 00:34:40.360 --> 00:34:43.039 that and designed it and built it blah blah blah 00:34:43.710 --> 00:34:47.469 but then that's a whole other set of different 00:34:47.469 --> 00:34:50.090 knowledge it's a whole different set of knowledge 00:34:50.090 --> 00:34:53.289 to try to figure out that whole thing and try 00:34:53.289 --> 00:34:55.630 to remember by the time you get done doing that 00:34:55.630 --> 00:34:57.389 to go back to 3d printing and then you're back 00:34:57.389 --> 00:35:00.269 to rewiring yourself to okay now I got to have 00:35:00.269 --> 00:35:03.690 this as what kind of file? anyway so it just 00:35:03.690 --> 00:35:06.050 and I'm getting older too my memory fails me 00:35:06.050 --> 00:35:09.130 so it gets to be kind of a struggle sometimes 00:35:09.480 --> 00:35:11.920 I have trouble just remembering all the passwords 00:35:11.920 --> 00:35:14.500 to all these different sites and stuff that you 00:35:14.500 --> 00:35:16.739 have to get on. Just do one, two, three, four 00:35:16.739 --> 00:35:19.519 like everybody else. Yeah, there you go. Okay. 00:35:20.179 --> 00:35:22.659 We're not giving that kind of advice here on 00:35:22.659 --> 00:35:26.739 this show. Before I let you go. I would love 00:35:26.739 --> 00:35:29.659 to hear a wild and crazy beekeeping story that 00:35:29.659 --> 00:35:32.840 you've had. You already gave us a crazy story 00:35:32.840 --> 00:35:36.039 about putting honey in straws and the big mess 00:35:36.039 --> 00:35:38.860 that it made. Can you think of anything fun or 00:35:38.860 --> 00:35:41.400 unusual like that that you've had actually with 00:35:41.400 --> 00:35:45.239 bees? Oh my gosh, yes. It was actually this, 00:35:45.340 --> 00:35:48.840 well, this spring, last spring. I can't remember 00:35:48.840 --> 00:35:53.989 now, but anyway, I went to go. do mowing. I also 00:35:53.989 --> 00:35:56.590 have a bee farm down in Iowa. Anyway I went down 00:35:56.590 --> 00:36:00.329 there to go mow and when I went to go mow I was 00:36:00.329 --> 00:36:02.250 flying across the yard to go to the spot where 00:36:02.250 --> 00:36:04.250 I was going to start mowing and I actually hit 00:36:04.250 --> 00:36:07.829 a stump and it threw me off the lawnmower and 00:36:07.829 --> 00:36:09.909 I hit my head on another stump of course so now 00:36:09.909 --> 00:36:12.250 I have a pinched nerve in my neck so if I look 00:36:12.250 --> 00:36:15.489 funny that's kind of why. Anyways right after 00:36:15.489 --> 00:36:17.989 that happened of course I got the bees boxes 00:36:17.989 --> 00:36:22.000 ready for The new packages that were coming and 00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:25.260 I think I added 16. So so now I got like 45 But 00:36:25.260 --> 00:36:29.360 I added like 16 or 12 Hives and it must be 16 00:36:29.360 --> 00:36:31.760 because it was four pallets So I had the boxes 00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:33.659 and I went to go take out all this stuff from 00:36:33.659 --> 00:36:36.260 winter, you know out of the boxes They were semi 00:36:36.260 --> 00:36:37.739 cleaned one night when they die I try to clean 00:36:37.739 --> 00:36:39.139 them out right away So you don't end up with 00:36:39.139 --> 00:36:41.420 a bunch of mold and stuff in there, but mice 00:36:41.420 --> 00:36:45.940 there was mice flying everywhere when I was pulling 00:36:45.940 --> 00:36:48.869 frames out And it's just amazing how they can 00:36:48.869 --> 00:36:51.630 get in that little tiny slither under and so 00:36:51.630 --> 00:36:53.889 many of them get in. So anyway, after all the 00:36:53.889 --> 00:36:55.710 mice, I thought, you know, the bees are coming 00:36:55.710 --> 00:36:58.989 within two days. So I'm going to set the covers 00:36:58.989 --> 00:37:02.030 and instead of putting both covers on both on 00:37:02.030 --> 00:37:03.909 each, I didn't want the mice moving back in right 00:37:03.909 --> 00:37:06.650 away. And they will go back in right away. So 00:37:06.650 --> 00:37:09.670 I set the two covers halfway on each. So there 00:37:09.670 --> 00:37:11.349 was half of the hive showing on the left and 00:37:11.349 --> 00:37:13.909 half on the right on the pallet. So I did that. 00:37:14.059 --> 00:37:15.940 leaving them open so that the mice wouldn't move 00:37:15.940 --> 00:37:17.539 back in because the bees are only going to be 00:37:17.539 --> 00:37:19.599 another two days and then I'd have the hives 00:37:19.599 --> 00:37:22.519 to put or the packages to put in anyway so I 00:37:22.519 --> 00:37:24.679 went and I picked up the packages and I went 00:37:24.679 --> 00:37:28.460 to go put the packages in and not only did a 00:37:28.460 --> 00:37:31.099 mouse one moved in already and had a nest made 00:37:31.099 --> 00:37:34.019 with two little babies in it and anyway so I 00:37:34.019 --> 00:37:35.659 had to take the nest and set it by the tree where 00:37:35.659 --> 00:37:37.960 the mouse kind of went down a hole that hopefully 00:37:37.960 --> 00:37:41.059 could get the babies and move them or whatever 00:37:41.059 --> 00:37:43.500 the case may be. But a raccoon had evidently 00:37:43.500 --> 00:37:46.500 came and pulled every frame out and scratched 00:37:46.500 --> 00:37:49.260 the wax and chewed up some of the frames. So 00:37:49.260 --> 00:37:52.699 in beekeeping, you end up with a lot of grief. 00:37:53.130 --> 00:37:54.849 I'm trying to remember the rest of the stories, 00:37:54.989 --> 00:37:57.150 but there's like four items that just all happened 00:37:57.150 --> 00:37:59.869 all in a row. Five items that you just stop and 00:37:59.869 --> 00:38:01.989 you just go, why do I keep doing this? And then 00:38:01.989 --> 00:38:05.030 when it comes time to open up and put those bees 00:38:05.030 --> 00:38:07.690 in, it just makes it all worth it, I guess, in 00:38:07.690 --> 00:38:11.150 the end. But yeah, it was quite an eventful spring. 00:38:11.690 --> 00:38:14.429 And you just led up right to where I wanted to 00:38:14.429 --> 00:38:17.590 finish up, which is you obviously love the bees 00:38:17.590 --> 00:38:21.679 because You're not, I mean, you mentioned that 00:38:21.679 --> 00:38:23.880 you had done it even when you were going backwards 00:38:23.880 --> 00:38:25.880 because you were giving honey away and stuff. 00:38:26.400 --> 00:38:28.760 So just what is it about the bees that Bob loves? 00:38:29.320 --> 00:38:32.440 Well, I like the stories behind it. I like talking 00:38:32.440 --> 00:38:34.460 to people about them. That was the biggest thing. 00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:36.179 I think that that turned me was that so many 00:38:36.179 --> 00:38:38.199 people were interested that, oh, you have bees 00:38:38.199 --> 00:38:40.400 and the questions that they would ask when you 00:38:40.400 --> 00:38:43.000 go for coffee, even tables that were two tables 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:46.380 away. Oh, you have, you know, local honey and, 00:38:46.380 --> 00:38:48.699 uh, you know, Oh, they say the bees do this. 00:38:48.840 --> 00:38:50.960 They say the bees do that. I listened to a lot 00:38:50.960 --> 00:38:54.219 of podcasts, especially yours as well. And Jamie's 00:38:54.219 --> 00:38:57.219 I tried to learn everything I can from professional 00:38:57.219 --> 00:39:01.199 folks. And that way that the wives tales that 00:39:01.199 --> 00:39:04.760 you hear about beekeeping, a lot of those I found 00:39:04.760 --> 00:39:06.739 after two years of beekeeping that they weren't 00:39:06.739 --> 00:39:08.980 a lot of things I learned weren't true and things 00:39:08.980 --> 00:39:10.980 like that. And, uh, you kind of learn on your 00:39:10.980 --> 00:39:14.869 own and it. It's constantly evolving and constantly 00:39:14.869 --> 00:39:17.849 moving to a direction and you're not bored with 00:39:17.849 --> 00:39:20.170 it. And it's always a challenge too, as well. 00:39:20.250 --> 00:39:22.130 And that's what I think I like best about beekeeping 00:39:22.130 --> 00:39:25.889 is just the knowledge, the learning and the new 00:39:25.889 --> 00:39:28.510 things that come out and, uh, you know, adapting 00:39:28.510 --> 00:39:32.070 to issues. I can't adapt to falling off a lawnmower, 00:39:32.130 --> 00:39:35.190 but I could adapt to the raccoons, you know, 00:39:35.349 --> 00:39:37.570 tearing my frames out. I know next time I'm not 00:39:37.570 --> 00:39:40.019 going to do that. So. It's a learning curve. 00:39:40.219 --> 00:39:41.880 You never stop learning. That's one thing about 00:39:41.880 --> 00:39:43.679 beekeeping I found is that even I've been doing 00:39:43.679 --> 00:39:46.079 it for what, 10, 12 years now, and you just don't 00:39:46.079 --> 00:39:47.940 stop learning. You constantly are learning new 00:39:47.940 --> 00:39:51.219 things and new things happen as well. So, so 00:39:51.219 --> 00:39:53.960 true. All right. Appreciate your time, Bob. It's 00:39:53.960 --> 00:39:56.559 been fun. Let's meet up sometime. That sounds 00:39:56.559 --> 00:40:01.480 great. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks again 00:40:01.480 --> 00:40:04.019 for joining us on Be Love Beekeeping presented 00:40:04.019 --> 00:40:07.300 by Man Lake. Another big thank you goes to V2B 00:40:07.300 --> 00:40:10.389 Health for their support. Vita's Varroa Control 00:40:10.389 --> 00:40:13.989 Ranger products includes Epistan, Epigard, and 00:40:13.989 --> 00:40:18.170 now Varroxan Extended Release Oxalic Acids Trips. 00:40:18.389 --> 00:40:20.670 Hey, thanks a lot guys. And if you haven't yet, 00:40:20.969 --> 00:40:23.349 please subscribe to and follow the show, tell 00:40:23.349 --> 00:40:26.090 your friends about it, and click on over to BeLoveBeKeeping 00:40:26.090 --> 00:40:29.789 .com to sign up for our free newsletter. If you 00:40:29.789 --> 00:40:33.130 have a guest suggestion or topic you'd like discussed 00:40:33.130 --> 00:40:36.489 on the show, shoot me an email, eric at BeLoveBeKeeping 00:40:36.489 --> 00:40:39.829 .com and remember If you're not just in it for 00:40:39.829 --> 00:40:42.909 the honey or the money you're in it for the love. 00:40:43.050 --> 00:40:44.030 See you next week