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 --> 00:00:50.560 efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to 00:00:50.560 --> 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 --> 00:01:05.590 Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing 00:01:05.590 --> 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 --> 00:01:27.180 presented by Man Lake. By the way, if you haven't 00:01:27.180 --> 00:01:29.900 yet, please subscribe to and follow the show, 00:01:30.219 --> 00:01:32.099 tell your friends about it, and click on over 00:01:32.099 --> 00:01:35.219 to BeLoveBekeeping .com to sign up for our free 00:01:35.219 --> 00:01:38.150 newsletter. Today is gonna be a whole lot of 00:01:38.150 --> 00:01:41.189 fun. Our guest is a commercial beekeeper who's 00:01:41.189 --> 00:01:43.989 going to talk with us all about splitting hives 00:01:43.989 --> 00:01:46.909 and his two favorite methods for doing that. 00:01:47.129 --> 00:01:49.450 He also has a great wild and crazy beekeeping 00:01:49.450 --> 00:01:53.489 story. But first there have been some crazy things 00:01:53.489 --> 00:01:56.370 in the news recently and I wanted to share just 00:01:56.370 --> 00:01:58.489 one of them. Have you ever heard of a beekeeper 00:01:58.489 --> 00:02:01.450 going to jail for how they were keeping bees? 00:02:02.060 --> 00:02:04.659 Hey, I've been following this story for the last 00:02:04.659 --> 00:02:07.340 three years and it's finally come to a conclusion. 00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:12.159 Here's the headline. Beekeeper jailed after unleashing 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:15.879 swarm during eviction. So here's what happened. 00:02:16.460 --> 00:02:18.879 Law enforcement was trying to serve eviction 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:22.240 papers on the owner of a 1 .9 million dollar 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:25.819 home in Massachusetts. when a beekeeper arrived 00:02:25.819 --> 00:02:29.379 with a truckload of beehives and began opening 00:02:29.379 --> 00:02:32.680 them in the driveway. I know, sounds pretty awesome. 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:36.620 Ah, but not so quick. Deputies on the scene quickly 00:02:36.620 --> 00:02:39.360 realized what was happening. Quote, hey, hey, 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:42.319 hey, she has a truck full of bees, one deputy 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:45.620 said, according to video, prompting another to 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:50.659 respond. What the? In a court affidavit, it turns 00:02:50.659 --> 00:02:54.000 out the beekeeper said that she intended to let 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:57.419 the bees forage on the lovely flowering landscape. 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:01.520 Well, maybe protesting the eviction at the same 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:04.719 time. But as deputies attempted to intervene, 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:07.680 hives were knocked over, releasing hundreds, 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:11.539 thousands of bees that repeatedly stung officers 00:03:11.539 --> 00:03:15.240 and sheriff staff. One person was even hospitalized. 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:18.379 Others suffered stings to the face and head. 00:03:19.099 --> 00:03:21.599 Prosecutors said the bees were effectively used 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:25.349 as a weapon. A jury agreed, convicting the woman 00:03:25.349 --> 00:03:28.610 of multiple misdemeanor counts, including assault 00:03:28.610 --> 00:03:31.990 and reckless conduct, while acquitting her of 00:03:31.990 --> 00:03:35.710 some more serious felony charges. She was sentenced 00:03:35.710 --> 00:03:38.849 to six months in county jail, though her lawyer 00:03:38.849 --> 00:03:41.270 said she had already spent months in custody 00:03:41.270 --> 00:03:44.289 and would likely serve only a short remaining 00:03:44.289 --> 00:03:48.110 term. The sheriff said this is unlike anything 00:03:48.110 --> 00:03:51.889 our team has ever experienced. The woman's lawyer 00:03:51.889 --> 00:03:54.569 said, She had been trying to stop the eviction 00:03:54.569 --> 00:03:57.889 of a friend undergoing cancer treatment, describing 00:03:57.889 --> 00:04:01.129 her actions as driven by concern over quote, 00:04:01.669 --> 00:04:04.250 the humiliation and devastation of going through 00:04:04.250 --> 00:04:08.250 an eviction. During the confrontation, deputies 00:04:08.250 --> 00:04:11.590 ultimately tackled and arrested her as bees swarmed 00:04:11.590 --> 00:04:15.550 the property. officials said the incident endangered 00:04:15.550 --> 00:04:19.269 both law enforcement and nearby residents noting 00:04:19.269 --> 00:04:22.050 that thousands of bees had also died during the 00:04:22.050 --> 00:04:25.529 chaos. All right we're not here to condone or 00:04:25.529 --> 00:04:27.829 condemn what happened but you should know this 00:04:27.829 --> 00:04:31.350 your bees can be considered a weapon and you 00:04:31.350 --> 00:04:35.230 are responsible for them so be smart and be responsible. 00:04:39.899 --> 00:04:43.160 I'd like to welcome to the show today Seth Homer 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:47.000 who's coming to us from Utah and Good morning, 00:04:47.180 --> 00:04:50.040 Seth. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing wonderful. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:52.579 Thank you Have you ever been on one of these 00:04:52.579 --> 00:04:56.379 crazy podcasts before? You know, this is a first 00:04:56.379 --> 00:05:00.279 so I'm a little little nervous, you know, but 00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:04.910 a little excited same time so I'll tell you something 00:05:04.910 --> 00:05:07.189 that will help your nerves and that is you know 00:05:07.189 --> 00:05:09.509 ten times more about beekeeping than the host 00:05:09.509 --> 00:05:13.839 here does so Well, I don't know about that there's 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:16.199 things you probably know that I don't know as 00:05:16.199 --> 00:05:18.399 well. So we're just here to have a good chat 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:22.620 and you guys do some really great social media 00:05:22.620 --> 00:05:27.079 and email and stuff and had recently posted some 00:05:27.079 --> 00:05:30.800 step -by -step things about splitting hives and 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:33.339 it's that time of the year. We're recording here 00:05:33.339 --> 00:05:37.560 at the very end of April 2026. This will be coming 00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:40.620 out probably mid -May and so I thought You know, 00:05:40.620 --> 00:05:42.879 this is a topic we ought to just really jump 00:05:42.879 --> 00:05:46.500 into and take as deep a dive as we can. So you're 00:05:46.500 --> 00:05:48.360 going to be on the spot for a bunch of that, 00:05:48.579 --> 00:05:52.120 Seth. Before we do, I'd love to hear a little 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:55.360 bit about your family business and how you became 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:58.500 a part of it. Where did beekeeping start with? 00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:02.160 Because I don't think you're multi -generational, 00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:05.620 you know, like 100 year beekeepers. No, we're 00:06:05.620 --> 00:06:09.220 not. It all started with my dad. I want to say 00:06:09.220 --> 00:06:15.579 13 years ago or so. My dad was just a hobbyist. 00:06:15.699 --> 00:06:19.560 He just wanted to get into bees. He was in a 00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:23.300 gardening class and kind of overheard a conversation 00:06:23.300 --> 00:06:25.920 about bees and so it kind of piqued his interest 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:30.199 and he realized that he had some lack of... the 00:06:30.199 --> 00:06:32.980 buzz, you know, the sound in his cherry tree. 00:06:33.180 --> 00:06:36.279 And so that kind of piqued his radars, you know, 00:06:36.319 --> 00:06:39.360 the antennas turned off. And anyway, so he got 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:42.040 a hive and he kind of just kind of just learned 00:06:42.040 --> 00:06:45.180 like everybody else. Back then, you know, YouTube 00:06:45.180 --> 00:06:47.480 was just starting. And so there was a lot of 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:50.079 information, a lot of people he was watching 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:53.620 knew just about as much as he did. There were 00:06:53.620 --> 00:06:56.759 a few beekeepers like David Burns who kind of 00:06:56.810 --> 00:06:59.610 was his little mentor, I guess, if you will. 00:07:00.329 --> 00:07:03.389 Anyway, so he just kind of grew from one hive 00:07:03.389 --> 00:07:06.829 and split the next year and grew. And every year 00:07:06.829 --> 00:07:10.269 he just split and grew a little bit more. Got 00:07:10.269 --> 00:07:12.990 to a point where he had bees in other people's 00:07:12.990 --> 00:07:16.449 backyards and he paid some rent of honey for 00:07:16.449 --> 00:07:20.290 them to have them there. And so he kind of started 00:07:20.290 --> 00:07:22.449 selling honey at the farmer's markets and kind 00:07:22.449 --> 00:07:25.029 of made that a little business and got to a point 00:07:25.029 --> 00:07:28.680 where he sent some of his hives to California 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:32.720 with a commercial operation. And he joined them. 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:35.060 He went with them just to see how it all worked. 00:07:35.620 --> 00:07:39.560 And he kind of just caught the bug and thought, 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:42.699 hey, man, this is something I could probably 00:07:42.699 --> 00:07:45.920 do. But for his age, he's like, if I was 20 years 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:49.759 younger, I'd jump in and do this. But I'm not. 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:53.339 And so that's when he approached me with it. 00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:56.740 I honestly didn't really know a lot about bees. 00:07:56.939 --> 00:08:00.079 I didn't know about that world. It was totally 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:02.959 new, but it was something interesting. And so 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:06.819 I thought I'd give it a go. And so we went up 00:08:06.819 --> 00:08:10.300 and we spent a lot of time with this commercial 00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:13.019 operation just to kind of get my hands dirty 00:08:13.019 --> 00:08:17.180 and be in that environment and try to understand 00:08:17.180 --> 00:08:21.500 how things worked. So, and it was just super 00:08:21.500 --> 00:08:23.959 fascinating. I just fell in love with it. And, 00:08:23.959 --> 00:08:27.160 and from there, I just, you know, I wanted to, 00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:31.300 I wanted to do that and be a part of that, whatever 00:08:31.300 --> 00:08:34.700 that was. And so, bought a couple hundred hives 00:08:34.700 --> 00:08:36.840 together. You know, we made our first splits 00:08:36.840 --> 00:08:40.919 and we, we, there's a lot of trials, lots of 00:08:40.919 --> 00:08:44.340 failures and obviously lots of, there's a big 00:08:44.340 --> 00:08:46.399 learning curve, especially starting with that 00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:50.120 many hives to get, to get going. But it was lots 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:53.659 of fun and I wouldn't trade it for anything. 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:57.120 That's kind of how we started. My dad, he was 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:02.360 really big on teaching and kind of sharing his, 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:04.919 you know, he felt that there wasn't a lot of 00:09:04.919 --> 00:09:07.940 people around in the community that provided 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:10.960 that education. And so he kind of started doing 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:13.879 his own little education classes and from there 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:15.720 he kind of just took off. So we've always had 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:20.840 this. kind of this mission of just helping and 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:24.399 educating others based off of our failures and 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:27.620 our successes. We want everybody to have that 00:09:27.620 --> 00:09:32.240 success and we know that our way is not the only 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:36.059 way. We tell our beekeeping students all the 00:09:36.059 --> 00:09:40.100 time like what we're doing is not the only path. 00:09:40.580 --> 00:09:43.879 There's so many different ways to keep bees but 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:46.940 there's a handful of fundamentals and principles 00:09:46.940 --> 00:09:51.960 that are the same. How you complete and how you 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:57.379 attain those principles is up to you. And so 00:09:57.379 --> 00:09:59.460 probably give them some direction, some guidance. 00:09:59.960 --> 00:10:05.159 We've now grown, we're usually close to 950 colonies 00:10:05.159 --> 00:10:07.559 by the peak of the summer. We've grown to that 00:10:07.559 --> 00:10:10.860 point, but we still have that same mission and 00:10:10.860 --> 00:10:14.879 we really love sharing what we know and to help 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:18.039 somebody out. then awesome. It's actually been 00:10:18.039 --> 00:10:20.820 kind of a really cool because we have so many 00:10:20.820 --> 00:10:24.700 people that kind of come into your path as we 00:10:24.700 --> 00:10:27.980 were growing because of our challenges and the 00:10:27.980 --> 00:10:31.759 you know financially I mean we're scraping by. 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:35.879 My dad's really good at he's a baby groomer and 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:38.220 so wherever you can save money he's saving it. 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:40.360 Well that brings up a question that I had do 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:43.120 you guys build all your own boxes or do you buy 00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:46.759 them? When we first started, we would buy them 00:10:46.759 --> 00:10:50.679 pre -cut and I would sit in my garage during 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:54.740 the off season and I would just be up there, 00:10:55.259 --> 00:10:59.379 get my music going, pounding away, nailing and 00:10:59.379 --> 00:11:02.840 gluing the boxes and all the frames and my garage 00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:05.840 would just be stacked full of boxes and frames. 00:11:06.570 --> 00:11:09.970 And we would wait until we'd try to get orders 00:11:09.970 --> 00:11:13.169 from our customers and wait until the temperatures 00:11:13.169 --> 00:11:17.389 were right. And once we hit above 50 degrees, 00:11:17.470 --> 00:11:21.750 we'd go out and stack our boxes up in the driveway, 00:11:22.110 --> 00:11:26.269 and we'd paint the tower of boxes. It felt like 00:11:26.269 --> 00:11:29.769 we're always a step behind. We're always playing 00:11:29.769 --> 00:11:34.509 catch up. The weather sometimes made it challenging. 00:11:34.909 --> 00:11:37.970 but at the same time, it made it a fun journey. 00:11:38.129 --> 00:11:41.610 Something to look back on, that was crazy that 00:11:41.610 --> 00:11:45.350 we were able to do all that, but we did it. Yeah, 00:11:45.730 --> 00:11:48.730 that's awesome. And it seems like, and just from 00:11:48.730 --> 00:11:51.649 my kind of outside perspective, some commercial 00:11:51.649 --> 00:11:55.419 beekeepers, they've got like 10 ,000 hives. Okay, 00:11:55.700 --> 00:11:57.700 and so they're taking them out to pollination 00:11:57.700 --> 00:11:59.559 They're doing their splits or doing all that 00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:01.860 stuff and you guys are doing those things too 00:12:01.860 --> 00:12:04.879 But you also have a good online presence and 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:07.460 you have a store and you're making things like 00:12:07.460 --> 00:12:10.960 soap I just bought some the other day and salves 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:14.139 and all that kind of stuff and your sharing of 00:12:14.139 --> 00:12:16.720 knowledge you really do And that's one great 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:19.519 thing about beekeepers in general, but you guys 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:22.000 really live it. I noticed on your website I'm 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.220 looking at it on my other computer over here 00:12:24.139 --> 00:12:27.240 You've got a whole blog post about mite testing, 00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:32.639 and you've got a recipe for syrup, and for, what 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:34.779 is this other thing? Honey Bee Health recipe, 00:12:34.860 --> 00:12:37.879 what's that? Honey Bee Healthy, it's a feeding 00:12:37.879 --> 00:12:40.120 stimulant. Makes the syrup a little more palatable 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:43.679 for the bees, tracks them for spring buildup. 00:12:43.850 --> 00:12:45.990 So anyway you're sharing a lot of stuff and I 00:12:45.990 --> 00:12:48.309 appreciate it but I don't want to take any more 00:12:48.309 --> 00:12:50.690 time on that. I want to jump right into splits. 00:12:51.330 --> 00:12:54.110 For those in the world that are in swarming season 00:12:54.110 --> 00:12:58.509 right now or are coming into it soon, let's talk 00:12:58.509 --> 00:13:01.669 about first swarm management because there are 00:13:01.669 --> 00:13:05.049 some people that are just saying I'm a hobbyist. 00:13:05.090 --> 00:13:07.789 I've got my half dozen hives. I'm maxed out. 00:13:07.929 --> 00:13:10.090 I don't want more. I don't want to do splits. 00:13:10.450 --> 00:13:13.350 But I also don't want to lose a ton of bees to 00:13:13.350 --> 00:13:16.250 swarming. So what advice do you have for people 00:13:16.250 --> 00:13:19.590 in that situation first? Well, I think the first 00:13:19.590 --> 00:13:22.409 thing is they need to try to figure out what 00:13:22.409 --> 00:13:27.289 their goals are. Where do they want to be? And 00:13:27.289 --> 00:13:32.580 one of the things that we mention and teach Also 00:13:32.580 --> 00:13:36.059 in our classes is beekeeping is really expensive 00:13:36.059 --> 00:13:40.320 and it can be really an expensive hobby. And 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:43.379 so there's a few different things that you can 00:13:43.379 --> 00:13:49.659 do to help support and sustain your little apiary. 00:13:49.860 --> 00:13:51.960 One of those things is you could sell your own 00:13:51.960 --> 00:13:55.720 bees. So obviously when you get to a point, that 00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:57.559 point where you're just like, I'm done growing. 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:00.950 I want to stay where I'm at. Then you got to 00:14:00.950 --> 00:14:04.009 start making some choices. There's multiple things 00:14:04.009 --> 00:14:06.309 you can do. Like I said, you can pull splits, 00:14:06.789 --> 00:14:10.110 you can sell them. There's ways to manage your 00:14:10.110 --> 00:14:15.210 bees to keep them intact as far as giving them 00:14:15.210 --> 00:14:18.710 space to grow and build up into their colony. 00:14:19.250 --> 00:14:21.850 So you're not losing bees. That's a hard thing 00:14:21.850 --> 00:14:27.269 for me to take is people letting their bees just 00:14:27.269 --> 00:14:28.809 swarm because they don't know what to do and 00:14:28.809 --> 00:14:31.700 they don't know how to. how to manage that. I 00:14:31.700 --> 00:14:33.820 mean, they're freebies for somebody else, I guess, 00:14:33.820 --> 00:14:36.860 but it can cause problems for the neighbors. 00:14:37.139 --> 00:14:39.820 You know, we've had our own problems when we've, 00:14:40.059 --> 00:14:43.440 our first year anyway, we had to move on prematurely 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:47.919 and we lost some swarms and we got into some 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:50.559 neighboring homes and we had to deal with all 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:53.320 that. So it can be problematic, but there are 00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:55.480 things that you can do to mitigate those swarms 00:14:55.480 --> 00:15:03.309 and splitting them and Again, a hive is just 00:15:03.309 --> 00:15:07.009 under that state. When a hive gets congested, 00:15:07.230 --> 00:15:10.470 they want to swarm. And in general, it's a good 00:15:10.470 --> 00:15:14.029 thing. It's what bees do. You're not a bad beekeeper 00:15:14.029 --> 00:15:17.110 if your bees want to go swarm. Don't take it 00:15:17.110 --> 00:15:21.070 personally. They're not leaving you. They're 00:15:21.070 --> 00:15:24.169 doing what nature taught them to do, which is 00:15:24.169 --> 00:15:27.090 reproduce and make a whole other colony. And 00:15:27.090 --> 00:15:29.090 yes, and it can be healthy for them. The brew 00:15:29.090 --> 00:15:31.590 break can be good for them and things like that. 00:15:32.330 --> 00:15:34.809 So, all right. Let's talk about, I mean, there's 00:15:34.809 --> 00:15:36.710 a lot of different ways to do splits. What's 00:15:36.710 --> 00:15:39.850 your favorite way? My favorite way, honestly, 00:15:39.889 --> 00:15:43.909 with what we're doing, I love, it's kind of a 00:15:43.909 --> 00:15:46.710 walk away split before we move our B's. And obviously 00:15:46.710 --> 00:15:50.889 this doesn't totally apply to all the hobbyists. 00:15:50.970 --> 00:15:53.870 But for me, I like the method where I actually 00:15:53.870 --> 00:15:56.759 will take. take your top box or second brood 00:15:56.759 --> 00:16:02.340 box and I will put an empty box on the bottom 00:16:02.340 --> 00:16:05.500 and I'll go through and I'll take all those frames 00:16:05.500 --> 00:16:09.019 from that top brood box and I'll shake them down 00:16:09.019 --> 00:16:13.080 into the bottom box. I'll do that with the whole 00:16:13.080 --> 00:16:16.340 second brood box. I know the queen's in the bottom 00:16:16.340 --> 00:16:19.919 and I'll put a queen's scooter down and then 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:23.299 I'll put that second brood box back onto the 00:16:23.299 --> 00:16:26.659 hive. Now I can just go through, I know the queen's 00:16:26.659 --> 00:16:28.659 in the bottom, I can just go through and I can, 00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:31.220 the bees will come back up through the queen 00:16:31.220 --> 00:16:34.279 excluder, you know, populate that brood, second 00:16:34.279 --> 00:16:37.159 brood nest. And now I can just pull that box, 00:16:37.500 --> 00:16:40.100 move it to another spot. And usually when I'm 00:16:40.100 --> 00:16:43.039 doing this, we're actually doing it right before 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:47.360 we move our bees to a new yard. And so that way 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:50.139 they haven't oriented themselves to one location. 00:16:50.649 --> 00:16:55.029 So I can just set that hive down and I can just 00:16:55.029 --> 00:16:57.409 move it right across from each other. I know 00:16:57.409 --> 00:17:01.149 I can just put a queen in and they're good to 00:17:01.149 --> 00:17:04.190 go. I admit a pet peeve of mine is that it seems 00:17:04.190 --> 00:17:08.170 all bee hives are white. Yeah, boring old white. 00:17:08.619 --> 00:17:11.839 And just when I get a pet peeve, Man Lake comes 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:14.440 to the rescue with their new color collection. 00:17:14.980 --> 00:17:18.220 The vibrant new line of colorful beekeeping hive 00:17:18.220 --> 00:17:22.059 kits designed to turn your backyard into a buzzing 00:17:22.059 --> 00:17:25.660 work of art. 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For me, 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:19.460 that's a quick way. You don't really have to 00:18:19.460 --> 00:18:21.480 think about it. You don't have to know about 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:24.019 where the queen's at. Obviously, I like to divide 00:18:24.019 --> 00:18:26.980 up the resources as much as possible. Well, you 00:18:26.980 --> 00:18:29.160 said you know the queen is in the bottom box. 00:18:29.740 --> 00:18:32.339 So you've got to figure that part out at least. 00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:34.380 If I take everything and just shake them down 00:18:34.380 --> 00:18:38.279 to the bottom. Oh, OK. Every single bee, including 00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:41.470 the queen, so you know she's in the bottom. Do 00:18:41.470 --> 00:18:43.730 you care if there's queen cells in the top or 00:18:43.730 --> 00:18:46.990 the bottom? Absolutely. Yeah, that's something 00:18:46.990 --> 00:18:50.750 usually I like to do this before we get to that 00:18:50.750 --> 00:18:53.809 point as much as possible. Obviously, you know, 00:18:53.970 --> 00:18:56.349 some eyes are a little bit quicker in their spring 00:18:56.349 --> 00:18:59.630 buildup. And so if I can catch them soon enough 00:18:59.630 --> 00:19:02.069 where they don't have queen cells, then that's 00:19:02.069 --> 00:19:05.150 ideal time. But regardless, I usually will crack 00:19:05.150 --> 00:19:07.779 the hive open. look underneath you know smoke 00:19:07.779 --> 00:19:09.579 them so I can see if there's queen cells being 00:19:09.579 --> 00:19:12.720 built if there are then absolutely I'm going 00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:16.180 through every frame and making sure that I'm 00:19:16.180 --> 00:19:19.519 not splitting them with queen cells in the hive 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:22.279 because if they get to that point that they have 00:19:22.279 --> 00:19:25.140 queen cells sometimes you can't stop them they're 00:19:25.140 --> 00:19:28.460 in motion of swarming regardless and sometimes 00:19:28.460 --> 00:19:30.980 you still can lose them and so you just got to 00:19:30.980 --> 00:19:33.910 be really thorough if you do see queen cells. 00:19:33.970 --> 00:19:37.210 Unless you want them to raise a new queen, then 00:19:37.210 --> 00:19:40.609 that's an option too. And as a commercial beekeeper, 00:19:41.150 --> 00:19:42.769 you probably feel like you don't really have 00:19:42.769 --> 00:19:45.529 time for that. No. Because if they're raising 00:19:45.529 --> 00:19:48.789 their own queen, how long of a brood break is 00:19:48.789 --> 00:19:53.630 there going to be? Well, the month that she's 00:19:53.630 --> 00:19:59.410 gone, at least a month, five weeks, you're not 00:19:59.410 --> 00:20:02.490 going to have any new... that brood's capped 00:20:02.490 --> 00:20:06.170 from her egg to to laying you know it's about 00:20:06.170 --> 00:20:08.789 28 days and then you got another three weeks 00:20:08.789 --> 00:20:12.690 until her her new offspring her brood starts 00:20:12.690 --> 00:20:16.069 hatching out so you got a little while until 00:20:16.069 --> 00:20:19.730 you got some new things coming in. And I've done 00:20:19.730 --> 00:20:23.730 some of those true walk away splits where I will 00:20:23.730 --> 00:20:28.380 take the queen and half the bees Move them someplace 00:20:28.380 --> 00:20:31.900 make sure that the other half that are left behind 00:20:31.900 --> 00:20:34.400 Whether you were talking about a top box and 00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:38.819 a bottom box, but whichever one that is that's 00:20:38.819 --> 00:20:42.680 left behind make sure it has queen cells and 00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:45.960 They're they're gonna make a queen and hopefully 00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:49.680 she gets mated properly Yeah, but you have to 00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:53.650 realize if you do that versus taking a queen, 00:20:53.750 --> 00:20:56.569 buying a queen, however you get your queen, and 00:20:56.569 --> 00:20:59.869 put it in there and have them adopt her, you're 00:20:59.869 --> 00:21:05.430 losing six to eight weeks worth of creating honey 00:21:05.430 --> 00:21:07.589 and building up and doing everything that they 00:21:07.589 --> 00:21:11.589 do. So there's not a right way and a wrong way. 00:21:12.009 --> 00:21:14.549 There's different ways to do it, but realize 00:21:14.549 --> 00:21:17.990 what the consequences are and those aren't all 00:21:17.990 --> 00:21:20.369 negative. I don't mind it doing it that way because 00:21:20.369 --> 00:21:22.730 I'm not a commercial beekeeper. I'm not trying 00:21:22.730 --> 00:21:25.349 to make hundreds and hundreds of gallons of honey 00:21:25.349 --> 00:21:27.849 every year. And so if I feel like doing it that 00:21:27.849 --> 00:21:31.230 way, I can. And if I'm in a different situation, 00:21:31.230 --> 00:21:36.369 it doesn't make sense. So how far away does someone 00:21:36.369 --> 00:21:39.430 need to move that split? You know, I usually 00:21:39.430 --> 00:21:43.049 say at least a mile if possible. I've heard people 00:21:43.049 --> 00:21:45.950 saying you got to move it three miles. I don't 00:21:45.950 --> 00:21:49.130 think that's not that big of a deal as far as 00:21:49.130 --> 00:21:52.529 moving it around that far. But if you move it 00:21:52.529 --> 00:21:55.109 around a mile, you're usually okay. You might 00:21:55.109 --> 00:21:57.650 want to close them off, keep them in the hive. 00:21:58.049 --> 00:21:59.990 You can always put some obstruction in front 00:21:59.990 --> 00:22:01.890 of their hive. I mean, they're in a different 00:22:01.890 --> 00:22:04.589 environment anyway, so they should reorient. 00:22:05.869 --> 00:22:09.410 But with what we've done, a mile seems to work 00:22:09.410 --> 00:22:12.190 just fine. A lot of people don't have that luxury. 00:22:12.490 --> 00:22:15.829 And so I've asked that question of a lot of different 00:22:15.829 --> 00:22:17.809 people, and I get a lot of different answers. 00:22:18.529 --> 00:22:21.690 Personally, I've been okay doing it with a lot 00:22:21.690 --> 00:22:24.009 less distance than that, but I would move it 00:22:24.009 --> 00:22:28.029 further if I could. Yeah. Well, that's the distance. 00:22:29.269 --> 00:22:31.690 I mean, you can split your hive and put it right 00:22:31.690 --> 00:22:35.710 next to each other. You can make that work. There's 00:22:35.710 --> 00:22:37.609 some things I like to rotate the hive a little 00:22:37.609 --> 00:22:39.730 bit so the entrance is facing a different way. 00:22:40.210 --> 00:22:43.150 The hive that you move over to the new spot, 00:22:43.269 --> 00:22:45.650 you got to make sure that you have plenty of 00:22:45.650 --> 00:22:47.690 nurse bees in there. When you make your split, 00:22:48.349 --> 00:22:50.029 obviously all the foragers are going to fly back 00:22:50.029 --> 00:22:53.650 to the mother hive and so you got to have enough 00:22:53.650 --> 00:22:56.809 nurse bees that will stay put, take care of that 00:22:56.809 --> 00:23:00.930 brood so you don't get that off balance of bee 00:23:00.930 --> 00:23:04.490 population where one split might... kind of struggle 00:23:04.490 --> 00:23:07.930 or maybe be a lot slower because a lot of bees 00:23:07.930 --> 00:23:11.529 flew back so you definitely make a split and 00:23:11.529 --> 00:23:15.910 make that work without having to move them over 00:23:15.910 --> 00:23:19.950 a mile for sure. So let's say you make your split 00:23:19.950 --> 00:23:23.069 you've done everything right you know where the 00:23:23.069 --> 00:23:27.009 queen is you've put a new queen over here and 00:23:27.009 --> 00:23:29.289 you've done made sure there's enough nurse bees 00:23:29.289 --> 00:23:32.390 everywhere and all that kind of stuff. Now, when 00:23:32.390 --> 00:23:34.289 should you go back and check on them and make 00:23:34.289 --> 00:23:37.650 sure that you've had success here? I like to 00:23:37.650 --> 00:23:41.869 make sure within a week's time, I like to go 00:23:41.869 --> 00:23:44.349 back just to see how their bee population is 00:23:44.349 --> 00:23:47.329 doing. And you could probably go back even a 00:23:47.329 --> 00:23:49.470 little bit sooner and shake more bees over if 00:23:49.470 --> 00:23:52.289 you need to. I think a lot of that kind of sometimes 00:23:52.289 --> 00:23:56.130 depends on the weather. If it's cold, like right 00:23:56.130 --> 00:23:58.990 now, I mean, we've had this such a warm season 00:23:58.990 --> 00:24:01.099 and all of a sudden now we have got these cold 00:24:01.099 --> 00:24:04.440 spells coming in. And if you did a split before 00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:06.700 we hit our cold spell, well, I want to make sure 00:24:06.700 --> 00:24:09.319 that the brood is well taken care of and there's 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:12.500 enough population in there. And so I'd like to 00:24:12.500 --> 00:24:15.339 go in a little bit earlier, within a few days, 00:24:15.460 --> 00:24:18.720 probably just to see if a lot of the bees stayed 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:21.799 put. But as far as making sure, see if they're 00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:25.740 successful, that all entails whether or not you're 00:24:25.740 --> 00:24:28.180 letting them raise a new queen. If you just put 00:24:28.180 --> 00:24:31.519 in a new queen, a caged queen, well, I want to 00:24:31.519 --> 00:24:32.779 get in there a little bit earlier, make sure 00:24:32.779 --> 00:24:36.119 the queen was released. I want to make sure she's 00:24:36.119 --> 00:24:41.200 laying within a week's time. So there's not that 00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:44.460 loss of period. If something happens, and a lot 00:24:44.460 --> 00:24:48.380 of beekeepers tend to, like when you're doing 00:24:48.380 --> 00:24:51.359 something new like this, when you're doing a 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:54.160 split or anything in your hive, it's important 00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:58.650 to get back. and make sure things work out sooner 00:24:58.650 --> 00:25:02.069 than later. It's really hard to recover from, 00:25:02.269 --> 00:25:05.650 for example, a bee package. When people introduce 00:25:05.650 --> 00:25:09.309 a bee package, you know, they tend to, sometimes 00:25:09.309 --> 00:25:12.630 they wait a little too long to go in and check 00:25:12.630 --> 00:25:15.049 to see if their queen got out or she's laying. 00:25:15.390 --> 00:25:17.369 And then, you know, two weeks pass and nothing 00:25:17.369 --> 00:25:20.029 happened or something, your queen died or whatever 00:25:20.029 --> 00:25:23.609 it is. And you just lost all that time, that 00:25:23.609 --> 00:25:26.630 buildup. of, you know, in that hive. So same 00:25:26.630 --> 00:25:29.970 thing with the split. We want to make sure things 00:25:29.970 --> 00:25:33.309 are going right. If we're raising a queen, well 00:25:33.309 --> 00:25:36.470 then we need to make a little calendar of how 00:25:36.470 --> 00:25:38.990 much time it's going to take for that queen, 00:25:39.069 --> 00:25:42.390 you know, it's capped. And so I know from her 00:25:42.390 --> 00:25:46.369 being capped, I got eight days or so until she's 00:25:46.369 --> 00:25:49.289 hatching. And then I know two weeks, you know, 00:25:49.410 --> 00:25:52.859 within 14, 16 days after that. she's laying eggs, 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:55.880 and so you kind of have to keep track. I like 00:25:55.880 --> 00:25:59.460 to make sure you write things down. So if you 00:25:59.460 --> 00:26:03.680 do have questions, you can ask somebody, but 00:26:03.680 --> 00:26:06.500 you got to have some somewhere to fall back on 00:26:06.500 --> 00:26:08.660 and give them some information so you can make 00:26:08.660 --> 00:26:12.660 an educated guess on what's going on in the hive. 00:26:13.299 --> 00:26:15.660 That keeping track, I admit I'm not very good 00:26:15.660 --> 00:26:18.960 at it, but I know how important it is because 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:22.240 those things that you just described, of going 00:26:22.240 --> 00:26:27.819 from a capped queen cell to the timing of her 00:26:27.819 --> 00:26:30.960 hatching, getting mated, coming back and laying 00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:34.339 eggs. If you don't keep track of the day that 00:26:34.339 --> 00:26:36.400 you saw that, the day you made the split, the 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:39.759 day you saw the cap cell, et cetera, it's pretty 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:42.500 hard to know if your hive is on track or not. 00:26:43.279 --> 00:26:46.039 Yeah. Yeah. And so it could be too late and then 00:26:46.039 --> 00:26:50.799 you run into a laying worker. Yeah. Yeah, are 00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:54.839 you able to tell by looking at a queen in this 00:26:54.839 --> 00:26:57.980 split hive? Let's say it was a true walkaway 00:26:57.980 --> 00:27:00.119 split and like we've been talking about they're 00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:02.559 raising their own queen Are you able to tell 00:27:02.559 --> 00:27:06.859 if that queen is a virgin or a mated queen? I 00:27:06.859 --> 00:27:10.000 usually can tell have a pretty good guess whether 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.000 she's a virgin Mated queen. Yeah, I mean they 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:16.839 they're definitely the size of the body the way 00:27:16.839 --> 00:27:20.309 that they move is totally different. Virgin Queen, 00:27:20.609 --> 00:27:24.869 she kind of runs around with no purpose. She's 00:27:24.869 --> 00:27:28.490 a little faster and her body's a little smaller. 00:27:28.690 --> 00:27:32.609 Her abdomen has not grown and blown up. And so 00:27:32.609 --> 00:27:37.089 I can usually say I can tell between a Maided 00:27:37.089 --> 00:27:40.690 Queen and a Virgin Queen. So what does the Maided 00:27:40.690 --> 00:27:43.710 Queen look like and how does she move in contrast? 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:46.619 Well, a maiden queen, obviously, she's going 00:27:46.619 --> 00:27:49.000 to be plump and her abdomen is going to be swollen. 00:27:49.640 --> 00:27:53.000 She moves around with more purpose. She's looking 00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:57.740 for somewhere to lay. The bees are actually attending 00:27:57.740 --> 00:28:03.059 to her or a virgin queen. Again, she's just kind 00:28:03.059 --> 00:28:07.119 of running around. Or a maiden queen, they're 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:10.940 going to be feeding her, grooming her. She's 00:28:10.940 --> 00:28:15.279 a little slower moving. Again, she has purpose 00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:18.480 at that time. So definitely there's a distinction 00:28:18.480 --> 00:28:21.359 there. Are you familiar with some of the other 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:23.779 splitting techniques? Can you talk to any of 00:28:23.779 --> 00:28:27.839 them? Yeah, I mean we've done obviously pulling 00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:31.099 a nuke out, just making a small split. Can you 00:28:31.099 --> 00:28:34.200 go through that in more detail? Sure. So when 00:28:34.200 --> 00:28:37.079 we're pulling splits off, just a little five 00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:40.900 frame nuke, I'm looking for When I do the split 00:28:40.900 --> 00:28:42.839 I want some food frames that usually are a couple 00:28:42.839 --> 00:28:45.759 food frames Give them some honey and some pollen 00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:49.279 or a mix of both I'm giving them two brood frames 00:28:49.279 --> 00:28:51.000 and obviously when you're doing your own split 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:53.660 You can give them as many brood frames as you 00:28:53.660 --> 00:28:56.380 want at least I'd give them at least two two 00:28:56.380 --> 00:29:02.579 frames of brood preferably not have eggs So it's 00:29:02.579 --> 00:29:06.039 older larvae or capped brood if you give them 00:29:07.019 --> 00:29:10.819 capped brood, the hive has to do less to take 00:29:10.819 --> 00:29:14.599 care of that brood. So there's less energy, there's 00:29:14.599 --> 00:29:18.519 less food consumption, they don't have to work 00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:20.980 as hard as a small little colony to take care 00:29:20.980 --> 00:29:23.319 of that brood. So I like to try to get capped 00:29:23.319 --> 00:29:27.140 brood if possible, or if not, older brood, open 00:29:27.140 --> 00:29:29.960 brood. So two frames of brood, and then I usually 00:29:29.960 --> 00:29:32.359 give them an empty frame. This is when we're 00:29:32.359 --> 00:29:34.839 making our nukes up for our customers. This is 00:29:34.839 --> 00:29:38.579 what we like to do. And so I give them those 00:29:38.579 --> 00:29:40.740 frames and I'm pulling those bees out with them, 00:29:40.759 --> 00:29:42.319 making sure the queen's not there, making sure 00:29:42.319 --> 00:29:45.819 there's no queen cells unless you want to raise 00:29:45.819 --> 00:29:48.400 a queen. If you're wanting to raise a queen, 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:52.380 I would suggest making sure the queen cell is 00:29:52.380 --> 00:29:56.839 almost capped. Again, it's less work for the 00:29:56.839 --> 00:29:59.640 bees to have to produce that royal jelly and 00:29:59.640 --> 00:30:03.180 make a good queen. So a strong hive can obviously 00:30:03.180 --> 00:30:07.119 make better queens. And I shake, get some nurse 00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:10.579 bees, so frames of open brood. So I take those 00:30:10.579 --> 00:30:14.140 bees and I shake those extra bees into that nuc, 00:30:14.619 --> 00:30:17.359 into that split. So there's plenty of extra nurse 00:30:17.359 --> 00:30:20.599 bees in there. And then that's it. You either 00:30:20.599 --> 00:30:23.980 add a queen or you can let them finish off that 00:30:23.980 --> 00:30:26.539 nuc they're raising. That's kind of our method. 00:30:27.579 --> 00:30:29.839 And then when we're making our splits, we'll 00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:32.559 actually put them, place them in a yard where 00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:36.720 they can... fly and forge, and we actually let 00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:39.960 our queens, our caged queens get out. We make 00:30:39.960 --> 00:30:42.160 sure that they're proven, that they're laying. 00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:44.740 So it takes a couple extra two to three weeks 00:30:44.740 --> 00:30:47.140 until they're actually prepped and ready before 00:30:47.140 --> 00:30:48.940 we hand them out to our customers. But aside 00:30:48.940 --> 00:30:52.259 from that, yeah, pulling it, making a split yourself, 00:30:52.599 --> 00:30:56.859 and that's kind of how we make those nukes. You 00:30:56.859 --> 00:31:00.059 make it all sound really easy. It's a lot of 00:31:00.059 --> 00:31:02.799 work. Nothing is as easy as it sounds like, and 00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:05.519 it's a lot of work. How many nukes are you guys 00:31:05.519 --> 00:31:08.200 creating every year? Usually just a couple hundred. 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:12.000 Enough to satisfy me. We could probably make 00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:15.319 a lot more, but we want to make sure that we 00:31:15.319 --> 00:31:17.960 got enough for any losses that we have or any 00:31:17.960 --> 00:31:20.599 growth that we want to make. It's kind of interesting 00:31:20.599 --> 00:31:25.200 that it's way easier to make bees than it is 00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:28.910 to keep them alive. And you can make bees all 00:31:28.910 --> 00:31:32.150 day long, pulling splits. Bees are really resilient 00:31:32.150 --> 00:31:35.730 and they can grow, I mean, just off a frame of 00:31:35.730 --> 00:31:39.269 brood and a handful of bees. You know, give them 00:31:39.269 --> 00:31:41.569 a queen and they'll get going. And so you could 00:31:41.569 --> 00:31:44.710 do a lot with bees, but usually the trick is 00:31:44.710 --> 00:31:48.349 keeping them alive. That's where it's sometimes 00:31:48.349 --> 00:31:50.170 can be a little tricky. And we don't even have 00:31:50.170 --> 00:31:52.589 time to talk about Varroa and everything else 00:31:52.589 --> 00:31:56.710 today. We talk about that plenty here. Hey, last 00:31:56.710 --> 00:31:58.660 thing. And I'm sorry, I didn't warn you this 00:31:58.660 --> 00:32:01.299 ahead of time. But on this show, every guest 00:32:01.299 --> 00:32:04.759 has the opportunity to talk about a wild and 00:32:04.759 --> 00:32:07.640 crazy beekeeping story that they've had. And 00:32:07.640 --> 00:32:10.400 that can be anything just super out of the ordinary 00:32:10.400 --> 00:32:15.119 or painful or embarrassing or anything kind of 00:32:15.119 --> 00:32:17.559 crazy that makes this so fun. Can you think of 00:32:17.559 --> 00:32:24.890 something? My first year into this. I kind of 00:32:24.890 --> 00:32:27.829 volunteered to do the, you know, manning the 00:32:27.829 --> 00:32:32.529 forklift and to unload our truck of bees. At 00:32:32.529 --> 00:32:33.789 the end of our first year, we were getting them 00:32:33.789 --> 00:32:37.869 back in the spring, that's what it was. And I 00:32:37.869 --> 00:32:40.349 was unloading the hives and we're doing it at 00:32:40.349 --> 00:32:42.730 night. We're using the skid steer, so it's a 00:32:42.730 --> 00:32:45.069 little different than, you know, your standard 00:32:45.069 --> 00:32:47.630 forklifts that they had, but it's a little more 00:32:47.630 --> 00:32:53.430 bouncier. And as I was driving along and unloading, 00:32:53.839 --> 00:32:56.779 everything is so new and you're just trying to 00:32:56.779 --> 00:32:59.180 figure things out. And so, and when you're under 00:32:59.180 --> 00:33:01.740 pressure of trying to unload Bezo off of a truck, 00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:04.319 you know, your tents, your mouth, you know, I 00:33:04.319 --> 00:33:06.799 feel like I need to wear a mouth guard. And as 00:33:06.799 --> 00:33:09.660 I was driving around, the forks kind of tend 00:33:09.660 --> 00:33:12.660 to get a little closer together. And I wasn't 00:33:12.660 --> 00:33:15.220 really paying attention to that. And I went to 00:33:15.220 --> 00:33:17.140 go lift him up. And at the time I was only, I 00:33:17.140 --> 00:33:20.099 was taking all three. three pallets that are 00:33:20.099 --> 00:33:22.819 too deep high off of the truck at the same time. 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:25.200 Now you could do that if you have the right forklift 00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:28.519 and the, you know, the machine I was using, it 00:33:28.519 --> 00:33:31.339 was not good. I should have taken, you know, 00:33:31.500 --> 00:33:34.799 two off first and then one and it's a little 00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:37.359 more manageable that way. But I took all three 00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:39.859 off and that's coming back. And because my forks 00:33:39.859 --> 00:33:44.579 were in and not spread out, it was a little topsy 00:33:44.579 --> 00:33:50.119 turvy. And so I pulled out and Silly me. I started 00:33:50.119 --> 00:33:53.359 just going and I just hit just this the bump 00:33:53.359 --> 00:33:56.839 just just enough where that thing just toppled 00:33:56.839 --> 00:34:01.920 over and I just felt so like so bad embarrassed 00:34:01.920 --> 00:34:05.299 Just I didn't know I mean I was just and then 00:34:05.299 --> 00:34:08.380 I I wasn't prepared for it I mean, I wish I had 00:34:08.380 --> 00:34:10.960 a suit at the time, but I just had a jacket and 00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:13.179 my jeans on and so but we had to get in there 00:34:13.179 --> 00:34:16.139 and Take them all up. We're getting stung. We're 00:34:16.139 --> 00:34:20.869 just getting just hammered. That was kind of 00:34:20.869 --> 00:34:24.309 an eye -opening experience knowing what not to 00:34:24.309 --> 00:34:27.130 do the next time. You know, we went through all 00:34:27.130 --> 00:34:30.130 those hives and luckily enough we didn't kill 00:34:30.130 --> 00:34:32.730 any of those queens, which I was super surprised. 00:34:33.289 --> 00:34:36.349 But that was an eye -opening experience for me. 00:34:37.090 --> 00:34:39.789 I can tell you learned from it. That's the key. 00:34:40.690 --> 00:34:44.449 You learned. Hey, so if people want to find you, 00:34:44.610 --> 00:34:48.230 it's homershoneybee .com. Yeah, homershoneybee 00:34:48.230 --> 00:34:51.489 .com. Hey, you can find us. We also have our 00:34:51.489 --> 00:34:54.010 Instagram, where we just started putting on our 00:34:54.010 --> 00:34:58.829 YouTube channel. And we're also doing a bunch 00:34:58.829 --> 00:35:02.329 of series, like we're doing more of this swarm 00:35:02.329 --> 00:35:06.429 series that's coming up. And so more videos to 00:35:06.429 --> 00:35:08.730 come. Obviously, like I said before, we love 00:35:08.730 --> 00:35:11.889 educating, we love making this content. To help 00:35:11.889 --> 00:35:14.570 whoever, it might help. All right. Appreciate 00:35:14.570 --> 00:35:17.019 you being with me today, Seth. Yeah, thanks for 00:35:17.019 --> 00:35:22.280 having me on. Thanks, Eric. Thanks again for 00:35:22.280 --> 00:35:24.960 joining us on Be Love, Be Keeping presented by 00:35:24.960 --> 00:35:27.829 Manlike. Another big thank you goes to Vita B 00:35:27.829 --> 00:35:30.929 Health for their support. Vita's Varroa Control 00:35:30.929 --> 00:35:34.550 Ranger products includes Epistan, Epigard, and 00:35:34.550 --> 00:35:38.750 now Varroxan Extended Release Oxalic Acids Trips. 00:35:38.949 --> 00:35:41.269 Hey thanks a lot guys. And if you haven't yet, 00:35:41.570 --> 00:35:43.909 please subscribe to and follow the show, tell 00:35:43.909 --> 00:35:46.650 your friends about it, and click on over to BeLoveBeKeeping 00:35:46.650 --> 00:35:50.349 .com to sign up for our free newsletter. If you 00:35:50.349 --> 00:35:53.289 have a guest suggestion, or topic you'd like 00:35:53.289 --> 00:35:56.050 discussed on the show shoot me an email eric 00:35:56.050 --> 00:35:59.429 at be love beekeeping .com and remember if you're 00:35:59.429 --> 00:36:02.469 not just in it for the honey or the money you're 00:36:02.469 --> 00:36:04.630 in it for the love see you next week