in a world brimming with complexity few creatures
embody harmony like the honeybee with tireless
precision she dances from bloom to bloom each
motion guided by millennia upon millennia of
instinct each act in service to the whole and
then There are the beekeepers, watchful stewards
of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist,
part poet, they move along their hives with the
efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to
the bees' needs as best they can comprehend,
and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the
Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing
like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their
journey. Welcome, welcome to Be Love, Be Keeping
presented by our great friends over at Man Lake.
Today's show features Yappy Bee Man, so of course
we'll be talking all about bee removals and mixing
it up with some real controversy in the beekeeping
world and his most crazy removal of a colony
that's been in the wall of a house for over 75
years. But just quickly before we jump into that,
hey, we just received this year's numbers from
the US beekeeping survey. If you remember, last
year we saw record colony losses among commercial
beekeepers. The good news is that there's some
improvement this year with reported colony losses
of 39 .9%. So should we be excited or think the
problem is fixed? Here's a quote from Stephen
Coy, president of the American Honey Producers
Association. He says, while it's encouraging
to see colony loss rates come down from last
year's historic highs, losing nearly 40 % of
managed colonies in a single year is not a victory.
It's a crisis in slow motion. Our industry and
the crops that depend on it cannot sustain these
levels of losses year after year. We need real
action now before our industry reaches a point
of no return. We must continue to invest in research,
support, and solutions that get these numbers
down closer to the truly acceptable level of
15 to 20 percent. So I guess it's good news.
Maybe a better term is sobering news. But now
let's shift gears and forget about all that serious
stuff and have a fun fun conversation with one
of YouTube's biggest beekeeping stars I'm so
happy to welcome our guest today Yappy the bee
man. How are you Yappy? I'm doing great and I
appreciate you having me on Well, thank you for
being on I know how busy you are you were just
telling me you're a firefighter and you do all
kinds of be removals and you're Super like famous
dude on YouTube. How did that ever happen? By
the way, how'd you get started with that? Oh
man that that's that's a story in itself You
ain't got enough time to hear that entire what
I would call testimony I as a fireman. We always
have a secondary job something and I cut you
know on the side I cut grass did landscaping
for 14 years and then my wife wanted to start
kind of getting into the herbal medicine stuff
you know plants trees vines whatever turn it
into medicine they came where the class we were
talking about the you know the products of a
beehive that can be used you know for other things
other than just honey and uh as soon as they
started talking about that I kind of perked up
and went oh hey that's something I can mess with
and um Learned a little bit about it and I mean
I was already hooked pretty much real quick one
of the members in the class had a Bee colony
in the back of a barn wall and they said man
You can have them bees if you can get them out
talked to a couple local beekeepers They they
said yeah, we'll help you get them out and things
just kind of rolled from there Well, the day
came to go get the bees and one guy brought his
homemade shop not shop vac his homemade b vac
and bunch of buckets and man we were just going
at it well i didn't have a bee suit so i got
to just stand back and watch well they went through
and they cut and tore up and and did everything
and you know got to point where they had two
boxes full of bees and you know said okay well
you know uh we got about it as much as we can
get it looks good we got all the comb out and
they kind of left and they were framing comb
up in you know in in the frames as we were going
got home and put all that together and kind of
went from there. I fell in love with that aspect
of beekeeping because it was my first experience
and from that point it just kind of I pursued
it I wanted to learn more about it and I have
made this joke before they both know it so I'm
not really speaking ill of them but as I started
to learn and research more I come to find out
that well they taught me how to do everything
wrong. in the process so I started watching some
stuff on YouTube I kind of watched how people
did things and then I adapted to that and I went
and had another friend called me and says you
know I've got bees between the floor insurance
is coming out tomorrow the house got hit by lightning
I'm afraid they're gonna cancel our insurance
because we got bees can you come get them I'm
like well yeah so up on a ladder for six seven
hours getting bees out of this void space and
it just kind of went from there and then you
know it's just been a steady progression ever
since i've had doors that have opened for me
that i didn't even know to knock on when it came
to this how many years ago did you get started
right about 15 about 15 years ago and it's kind
of funny because the i had I had friended one
of the most well -known bee removers in the world
at that time. In my opinion, his name was JP
the Bee Man. JP does videos online. He's been
doing it for years. And he was one of the primary
people that I had watched how he did things.
You know, start to finish, open things up, how
he handled things. Ended up, I reached out to
him and we started communicating and got to be
really good friends. And he invited me to come
to a little bee gathering thing that they called
the bud gathering. Back. well before our normal
social media that we know now, you used to pretty
much get on the internet and go to a .com and
go into chat rooms. And it was just basically
threads. Somebody would ask a question, people
would answer. And the original group, one of
the original groups that were more well known
was the B Master Group. They had a lot of good
contributors that had really deep beekeeping
knowledge, and they would mentor people through
those chat boards. Well, once a year, they would
have a get together over in Mississippi, anybody
that wanted to come could come. That was the
invitation. JP invited me to come to one of those.
It was I think bud five is what the fifth one
is when I went to when I got there, I was just
full yappy fashion. Once you got there. It was
at Mr. Bud's house. Okay. Well once you got there
Bud was going to give you a nickname and it took
him all of about five minutes before he gave
me one. He said I'm gonna call you yap yap and
I said yap yap. He said yeah you won't show up
and I said well I accept it. So we went through
the whole weekend and you know had a great time.
Opportunities opened up from that but it was
a year later. You talk about fast -forwarding.
A year later I went to Bud's six. And when I
showed up and said hello to everybody Big Bud
walks up and he says, okay. Yep. Yep. He said
this year He said well you're gonna you're gonna
take this group of people and you're gonna go
do this and this group of people And they're
gonna go JP and they go go do that. So I went
for showing up to learn to the next year I had
groups of people that I was teaching and That
was pretty amazing and then things kind of went
from there um JP and I continued our friendship
and one day he said man You need to get a YouTube
channel you know let's get you up a channel going
and he said I'll help support it you know and
I had other people that did and it kept me going
because YouTube's really a hard platform to get
into anybody can post a video I mean you got
a cell phone you can make a video it's a matter
of learning how to make content that keeps people
watching if I go back and I look at some of my
earlier stuff a camera sitting on a tripod just
pretty much one angle of it that's all I knew
how to do I was imitating those that I saw we
kind of went from there to you know progress
in our how we made our content but it was just
put the videos out and continue to grow and it
gets real disheartening when you know you put
your stuff out there and you're getting you know
two or three thousand views and then all of a
sudden one year i just happened to hit just right
the video that put me on the map was one that
i got a phone call for a huge swarm monster -sized
swarm in a in a cedar tree And I get there and
was like, whoa, this is so cool. Backed my truck
up under, put out a tarp, put out 10 frame box
on it, climbed on top of my truck, and all I
had to record it was my cell phone. and I hit
record and started recording. It was a little
bit wobbly in there. It was my worst video. Seven
minutes later after all this went through I'm
not giving you all the details so that way people
look down in the description everything they
can go find it. But if they don't see it it's
just find me yappy beeman and the video is if
I hadn't caught it on camera you wouldn't believe
me. The reason why I titled that was because
I didn't even think about it. There was one particular
thing that happens in this swarm that never happens
and that is I had reached up there and had a
handful of bees and I was like oh yeah the bees
are great shook them down and when I looked back
right where my hand had just pulled those bees
out there was the queen and that quick reached
up grabbed a hold over had her in my hand and
I'm like now what do I do I'm holding the camera
I'm holding the bees can't put her in a cage
I have the cage right there you don't have that
many hands no so I totally because I wasn't stopping
the recording I just said you know hang out people
only got one hand well got the cage put her in
there and then I put it back up and I'm holding
the camera and I'm like this never happens it
actually had happened to me twice in 15 years
the first time it happened was similar but not
completely the same but the first time that happened
was five days earlier than that where I had a
small swarm in a in a bush and as I was looking
at it the Queen just comes walking right across
the top I mean as soon as I saw her reach down
grabbed her didn't have a cage on me or nothing
and Had to go take her go back to the truck get
that put her in there and you know, it's like
here we go this was five days later and Completely
different in sizes, but it was just like it blew
my mind But that's the one that actually just
my whole channel was blessed because that's the
one that blew up. Just kind of went from there.
So I went from four years of YouTube and 5 ,000
subscribers to a month later it started rolling.
And it rolled and rolled and when I was watching
it and it hit a million views. I was watching
the numbers and I thought man I'm gonna go to
bed. When I wake up in the morning I think this
is gonna have another million. because of how
it was rolling and I got up the next morning
and I'm watching because man it's ticking down
you know six o 'clock in the morning and then
all of a sudden boom there hit a million but
it was getting 50 ,000 views an hour at one point
in time I was I had over 125 ,000 views per hour
five six hours in a row and then it would drop
back down a little bit but then it would boost
and boom again so the the video has been seen
all over the world It just you know it put me
on the map and from there it's just been an awesome
ride. That's so cool. Well let's talk about swarm
removals a little bit. Okay. You mentioned to
me earlier you were out doing a regular job today.
You're in Alabama. Yes sir. Tell me what a typical
day is like and maybe today is a good example.
If I'm not at the fire hall and it's not a Sunday
family day and I generally try not to do on Saturdays
either but I'll schedule Monday through Friday
but the typical day is taking two or three calls
about bees and then from there it's you know
driving to one I could travel 10 minutes away
or I can travel an hour and a half away but once
I get there it's pretty much you know assess
the situation find out where they're at pick
the best route to go to get them that causes
the least amount of damage to a home and the
easiest to repair for the customer. Educating
the customers are probably the most important
thing that you can do when it comes to bee removals
because the general public you know doesn't understand
what we know. We are beekeepers, we understand
bees, but to try to explain that to people is
that You're in a good place. It's okay. They're
not gonna hurt your house. They're not out to
hurt you Don't do this don't do this But if anything
weird happens call me and I'll generally I spend
about 45 minutes on the phone with everybody
that calls me Assessing the situation I've done
this enough to where you can send me a picture
of the side of your house And I can tell you
where your bees are at I don't you know I already
know they get into just about everything they
can get into but you just given the customers
home respect educate them and Do the best job
that you can at a fair price and it will it will
continue to come back to you We could go off
on a whole tangent when it comes to how I feel
about some people and doing their b removals
I mean not that i'm some kind of an expert at
it. I just feel like I do a good job There are
a lot of good b removers out there. I just happen
to be one that's known in doing that I feel like
i'm getting to a point now where I'm going to
start going down a road where I start explaining
to people, you know, those different things,
the best practices as a remover, but also you
got to be real careful in how you share your
information. There's been a couple of people
that, you know, they want to, they want to post
their progress and, and I can't say whether they
understand what they're doing. Probably not,
but I'll give you an example. There's, there's
a guy that, um, has been doing really well this
year in his location we I see his social media
posts one of the posts that he showed was the
basement of a home and it was a block foundation
so the whole wall you know everything's all cinder
block had bees in it in that he literally went
in through there and starts busting concrete
blocks now if we you know to those that don't
understand the concrete block you have this square
piece of concrete but it's got a hollow here
a center support a hollow here and that's what
the bees get into the way they're laid they can
kind of it's almost like uh what was that what's
that little game where you put the little red
and black little circles down into it and it
falls down through the little thing and you got
to stack them connect four Yeah, something like
that, yeah. Where you're doing four in a row
vertically, horizontally, diagonally, something
like that. So, you know, it can kind of end up
looking like that in some weird way, you know
what I'm saying. We're showing pictures of this
job and all these holes that he had cut in that
cinder block. And this is what's probably going
to get me excommunicated from a B community.
But I'm going to tell you, I'll stand in front
of a thousand people and argue with every one
of them. One of my serious mottos is this cost
versus benefit. Here's the thought process. How
much does a normal package of bees cost in your
area? If you needed to start a beehive and you
ordered a package of bees, how much would it
cost? Yeah, they're gonna be around 150 to 180.
Okay. And a nuc is more like 200. Okay, and here
in Alabama the the state association some of
the clubs that's their fundraiser So they'll
sell they sell nukes for her. I mean packages
for 130 to 150. Okay, depending on how far they
got a drive to deliver them There's usually a
little bit more gas price added to it and you
know with the five frame nuke ready to go 2 to
225 250 depending on average price. So let me
ask you a question if a Three pound package of
bees on average is $150. How much is it worth
if it's in grandma's wall? How much are those
bees really worth? To get out? No, just once
they're out, they're in them. You got a queen,
you got some bees. How much are those bees really
worth? I'm not sure where you're going with that.
I guess the same amount. Okay, that's... it's
not a trick question. Three pound package of
bees and a queen is... 150 bucks. So please help
me understand why we're going to cost grandma
five to seven thousand dollars to take those
bees out of her cinder block foundation. What
are we saving? Here's another thought process
when you start busting and cutting all that concrete
up or you're you got a saw so you can cut brick
open. When you start spinning a blade on mortar
it turns to such rough it granulate powders it.
And when that powder gets on bees, they have
a difficult time getting it off. And you actually
will kill more bees than you save. Does it happen
all the time? No. We could argue that. It could
be argued that, you know, depending on the size
of the colony, some different things. But the
question comes down to how much is the cost versus
the benefit on removing bees in something that's
going to cost thousands of dollars to repair?
I see where you're going. So in my world, it
is the most difficult conversation to have. I
have that with each individual customer, but
there are times where you have to give advice
on a customer making a decision that they have
to weigh it and then make it for themselves.
That's just part of what I have to do with my
customers. I actually was having a conversation
with a very good friend of mine that's up in
Tennessee, and I posed that same question to
him just a few days ago, and here's this beautiful,
beautiful answer he gave me. When we got to it,
he said, I asked him the same thing. I said,
you know, where's the cost versus benefit if
you have to go and cut open a cinder block foundation
to get some bees out? And he said, well, we're
beekeepers. It's our job to save them all. Quick
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code MLBlove10. I said, okay. I said, well, I
can save bees a hundred different ways. I said,
but where the cost versus benefit, where do you
draw the line? I put that out there because I
want people to start thinking a little bit more
in depth about it. Well, we live in the real
world and people have to make real decisions
like that. When you're a homeowner, sure. 5 ,000
bucks or whatever that is. Grandma may not be
able to afford that. Right. she may not be able
to afford to save the bees even if she wants
to right it don't matter how good of a remover
you are there's something's got to get opened
up and something's got to come out there's beekeepers
probably screaming at me right now through the
screen or listening to the podcast saying there's
always a way to get the bees out no there's always
a way to reduce the footprint of the bees to
some degree if you have to go down a road that
nobody wants to really talk about. I don't even
want to talk about it but I'm getting them I
want people to be thinking more about more than
just about how much money they can make because
that's something that I've noticed for the last
probably five to seven years. There's a lot of
people out there that want to remove bees and
they want to do it for one or two reasons because
they love bees and they want more. which is what
got me into it. My first beehive I fell in love
with bees. I still am. I just I sit out there
in my yard you know and with a glass of tea on
a on a nice day just leave me alone because I
just love to watch bees. Then all of a sudden
it is every year you get the brand new beekeeper
comes along and they fall in you know oh I want
more bees people even some people pay me to take
their bees away from them. I would never tell
anybody not to get into it. I just hoped that
they would educate themselves about building
construction and how to find them. If you want
to put the investment in like, you know, a lot
of other people have on doing the job right,
go for it. But it takes a lot to get into it
and experience and common sense really need to
go along with that. Now you get to the point
where you're doing it, but you have to develop
that thought process was where I was going on.
What's best for the customer and the bees. There's
you got to figure that out and that's up to the
individual beekeeper and I'm gonna leave it at
that But when I was saying that you know, there's
beekeepers that are probably gonna be just dog
cussing me over this thought process There's
a guy that used to be up in Huntsville, Alabama
His program was that if he couldn't get he wouldn't
open up anything in the house. That's that was
his selling point He's gonna put a trap out coming
on there. He's gonna hang a box there. I'll come
back in two weeks. We're all good I've met the
man one time I can't tell you what his name is
and bless him I hope he's still alive I wouldn't
wish anything less but I can't tell you how many
times I've been in behind him in Huntsville because
of re -infestations. The common sense when I
talk about removal and thought processes. If
a queen lays an egg today in a cell how many
days does it take for that egg to hatch into
a bee walking around inside that colony? 21 days.
Mm -hmm. So if you go and put a trap out on the
side of anything and two weeks later, you're
not seeing any bees come out. So now I'm successful.
I'm done. Now I can pull my cone and I seal it
up and I go on down the road. What have you done?
Nothing. You've killed all those bees that are
gonna hatch in there. Yeah, here's the thing.
In two weeks, you've gotten all your foragers
out and you've gotten the two -week -old bees
to three -week -old bees out. because they're
the ones that came out to do orientation flights
but never weren't able to get back in so they
went into your box all right but there's still
a couple of pounds give or take of bees that
have not yet aged to the point of doing an orientation
flight that are still walking around in there
taking care of the queen uh working honey taking
care of the rest of the bees that are about to
hatch out You still got three -fourths of your
colony still in the void. And the queen. And
the queen. So I'll say that's a whole colony.
Yeah, still in there. Still got plenty of resources.
They still got plenty of pollen. They still got
plenty of honey. Alright, that they can work
with. And all you've done is you've locked them
in there. Now whether or not, and I make no even
thought that whether the person who has done
this in the past or others who have done this
in the past. I've always heard two weeks is your
window to do a trap out and and I still beat
my head up against the wall on the thought process
of that because it takes three weeks just to
get what she laid today the day you put the cone
on. Three weeks from now they're just hatching
and then there's another two weeks before they're
gonna orient do orientation flights and come
out. That's five weeks. So how long do you keep
on doing a trap out? How many times, how many
trips back and forth? Now, let me get you on
this one. Most people say they can, you know,
debatably can get a queen out. Most of them say
no, you never will. Well, you never will because
you never left it in there long enough. Where
you can successfully get a queen out of a trap
out is when the bees, the number of bees in that
void weaken and they start getting overrun by
hive beetles. anytime a colony gets weak they're
going to do their last ditch effort to survive
but they're gonna abandon where they're at so
they push the queen out and the last ditch effort
of and then next thing you know they're coming
out there and then everybody's going hey man
that smells like home over there so they end
up going to your box and there's a real high
potential that you can catch your queen, which
would be the hope and joy of what we would do.
But how long would it take? How long do you need
to leave it there? But let's go back to another
thought process in regards to doing a trap out.
How long does it take? And there's a lot of different
ways that they're set up. And there's a hope
that the bees in your box will somehow smell
the queen and everything that's in the original
hive. It's like they they don't want to lose
that connection they just realize they're in
a different box. Well if you're not careful because
some people can't just set a beehive entrance
right next to the hole in the base of that cone.
So they they've got their trap cone, they got
their box sitting over here. Once this becomes
its own entity of the trap out catch box then
that becomes a colony on its own which with no
queen does what? They start creating laying workers.
So now what have you saved? If you don't do this
part right, if you're gonna do a trap out, then
you need to be over here about every seven to
ten days putting a brand new frame of capped
brood in that box. And you better make sure that
you didn't give him a queen cell. I mean you
better make, I mean an egg to make a queen with.
You see this is the in -depth think about what
you're doing before you get into it How much
are you really gonna have to put into it now?
Grandma called you and said I want you I want
these bees out of here All you're gonna do is
remove bees if you do a trap out You're still
leaving the mess and what could happen in behind
there because you just can't open something up.
So that's the process I will do that process
and it's within limitation, but you know, it's
also I'm having to show up at Grandma's house
every ten days to check the bees and to add brood
so that they don't create a new queen, I mean,
laying workers. And what if she's an hour drive
away? You're running up a big bill at this point.
Exactly. So... The person who's doing the job
just needs to make whatever decision that they
need to I'm just putting a thought process I'm
kind of I'm kind of starting to snowball going
down the hill Okay, you all just need to pick
it up You just pick it up and make a snowman
with it. However, you feel you need to All right,
and that's it. That's where I'm gonna leave that
Well, there's a lot of controversial things that
we could talk about on this topic I have read
about and actually heard of people who have seen
videos on YouTube and I'm not naming any specific
people but someone with a female with their hair
done perfectly and they look like they're going
to you know, whatever they're done up to the
nines and they're opening up the floor of a shed
or something and taking all these bees out and
saving the bees and people that don't know what
they're doing unfortunately See that without
some kind of a warning and think they can do
the same thing and end up in the emergency room
So I can't tell you how many times that people
have seen me without a bee suit on I rarely wear
a bee suit and it's because by the time I put
them you know the hood on and the black on that
and It makes it very difficult to see anything
in there. So I have learned How to treat my bees
like ladies colony of bees depending on the time
of the year just work with me on this is 97 %
female in the wintertime it's probably about
99 .9 % female and there's always that one drone
that you know snuck in there and and they just
they liked him so they let him stay but you understand
the basics of the math the point is it don't
matter what the percentage is At the end of all
this if you treat them like ladies Then you're
gonna be able to get a little farther to the
sweet stuff to get them removed, but they asked
me well What's the deal? Well, you know, you're
not wearing a suit. How do you do that? Blah
blah blah. I Don't do it to impress anybody on
my end back years ago You know, I told you about
my first colony came from the back of a barn
wall. Okay? Well, I had a suit I had the smoker
I had it sitting up there next to the house and
I had been watching JP's videos and JP never
hardly wore a suit man sitting there on a bucket.
He's cutting a piece of comb He's putting it
in the frame bees are on it Rubber bands it in
just ever so gentle takes it puts it in a box
And I said I told my wife I said hey babies come
here Said I want you to put this suit on I said
come out here in the bee yard with me She looked
at me like I was on drugs. She said oh hell no.
I'm no no no no I said I need you to be out there
with me. She's like why I said because if I die
somebody needs to call 9 -1 -1 My point was that
I was going to do what I saw him do I was putting
skin in the game and when I say skin I mean Literally,
yeah. Yeah. All right Mr. And Mrs. Beekeeper
spend a lot of money on a really beautiful suit
and you should be as protected as you can but
Start leaving one of your gloves off. All right
If you're right -handed make it your left hand
and make sure you take a wedding ring off because
you're gonna swell if you don't do it Right,
okay in what they did was they would get in there
and I saw a guy do this He calls me. He says
me and my bees are just horribly aggressive.
I don't know why You know, the guy came out,
he helped us put him here. He wasn't even wearing
a bee suit. Now I go in them and they're eating
me up. What am I doing wrong? I said, put me
on a video chat. He puts me on video chat and
I said, do your normal thing. Just have your
wife sit there and hold the phone. So she puts
him up on phone. He takes the lid off. Smoke,
smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke. Sets the lid down,
gets in there and loosens up that first frame.
And he goes, he said, can you see that? And he
goes right back in. Smacks it right down. then
he goes to the next frame and pulls that one
and does the same thing i said stop took two
frames that's all i need stop give him a little
puff of smoke put the lid on it i'll see you
tomorrow so i get over there and i said let me
ask you a question i said if i come we're we're
standing out in the bee yard i said if i look
at you right now i said i just reach back to
kansas and slap you upside the face what are
you going to do It's a big old boy. He said I
probably don't you know do things that I can't
speak on the podcast and I said Exactly. I said
do you treat your wife like you do that beehive
and it kind of took him for a minute He said
what do you mean? I? Said you pop the lid you
pulled this up you did this you put it back down
in there I said and you rolled these bees you
have squash bees. I said you you pissed them
off So my question is do you want to treat your
bees like your wife? Or do you want to treat
your bees like you want to treat me after I slapped
a dog out of you because you're treating your
bees mean And it kind of looked at me. I said
now watch what I do. I Popped the lid. I took
the first frame out Nice and slow. We looked
at it. I said always gonna be a feed frame blah
blah blah, then I set it down 99 .9 % chance.
There's not gonna be a queen on a honey frame
So I set it down then I moved the next one give
it a little room pull it up look at it put it
in the spot of the first one because now i've
got a gap now i can do the second all the way
to the other end found the queen put it back
in there and i didn't have a suit on and i didn't
get stung one time and and he was like oh my
god that's the craziest thing in the world but
you got to treat them like ladies it's there's
so much to so many things that we learn in this
hobby there's so many things that we need to
learn that aren't put in the books People just
go out there and they they get this, you know
a box and some bees and I got people that will
call me all the time You know, you see it on
social media and I respect it. I Don't mean to
speak ill of it But if you show a picture of
a drone and you're wanting to know if it's your
queen You have not taken the time to learn yet
the basics of stuff and my only point earlier
with this topic was Sometimes we need to just
let people know that may be watching. If you
don't have experience, don't try to do this.
I agree, and I know who you're talking about.
Because we get people who have never been in
a beehive before, never been close to bees before.
They try to do this. They don't know how to be
as gentle. They don't know how to read the temperament
of the bees ahead of time. They may have a lot
of fear going on, which bees can smell. they
can get themselves in trouble so that that was
my only point but I totally agree with you on
so much of this I think one of the best things
I ever did when I was a relatively new beekeeper
after a year or so was quit wearing those great
big leather gloves because I couldn't pull out
of frame without squishing bees I couldn't put
it back in without it kind of clumping down hard
Mm -hmm, and if you have the dexterity even if
you're using some nitrile gloves or something
you have more dexterity and you can just very
calmly Right do this calm slow deliberate Those
are some of the words right there is is what
you're talking about and I couldn't agree more
Yeah, now I know who your example is and watching
some of those examples It kind of gets fresh
at first. I really got frustrated at it and I'm
sorry, but you know 15 years ago. I was you know,
I was I was okay looking I mean, I've gotten
a few years on me and a few more pounds I'm and
and I'm telling you I'm I'm I'm wore out but
the point there is so much that actually can
be good in some of the things that we Look at
and we scratch our head going. This is somebody
that's just using a pretty face and a nice voice
to sell a video. It doesn't matter what the topic
is. I've seen a few of those. There's a few of
them out there that when I see them running around
in a pair of shorts and an athletic top, I'm
thinking just go start an OnlyFans page. I mean,
you're that close to it because that's not representing
beekeeping. What I would wish for, it ain't ever
going to happen. But if you want to educate people,
Then make it about the bees. Okay. This is what
we're here to love and protect and to learn and
grow It's about the bees Not if my hair is up
in the nice and you know when I'm wearing the
right outfit and I can you know But you throw
a little monetization on a video Well, the more
views you get the more money you make so to each
their own. There's gonna be an audience out there
for it I have an audience of people that enjoy
my content because I make it fun. I don't get
real technical when I give in my videos. I call
them my girls. Okay, I call the queen mama and
I keep it simple because I want somebody that
when they see my videos they don't feel like
they're getting a classroom lesson from a scientist
or a professor that's speaking over their head
in something that they didn't teach in school.
One of the other things about some of the people
who make those videos that appear just way too
easy. They are educating people. They are bringing
to the forefront that there are people out there
that can actually come and save, remove, and
re -home your bees. And for that, I absolutely
adore some of them. I might scratch my head and
be mad because they got more views than I did.
But what they're doing is and no correlation
to anything, but Erica from Texas Bee Works.
They'll record their whole video and then she
goes back, she edits the video and does voiceovers
on it. Got a very calm demeanor about herself.
She shares a story and people want to watch that.
Kudos to Erica for doing that. And for letting
people know that we can save the bees, not just
exterminate the bees when we have some kind of
an infestation. right so yes absolutely that's
a great message hey i don't want to keep you
too much longer i want to ask you one last thing
i want you to think over the years of one of
your most crazy bee removals that you've done
can you think of one to tell us about one or
two all right so we're going to circle back to
where we started and we'll start to work towards
our end i was invited over to mississippi to
the bud gathering okay actually I think you've
had one of your guests was Emily Mueller up from
Ohio. She was great. She was on recently. Yes.
So Emily and I met each other and met her husband
and all that at the Bud gatherings. What's so
beautiful about her is the one thing that with
Emily, we were in a yard that had a huge swarm
up in the tree. Everybody was ready to go to
lunch man. It was like just. Time was not on
our side, but this one particular swarm I caught
and we shook it down to a box and the question
came up about Catching a swarm with unmated Queens.
I said every swarm you catch is potentially got
unmated Queens in it We got to looking at this
one. It was the example of that Conversation
we'd had that conversation previously now we
get here and shook him in there and we start
going through and I caught you know what I would
call an unmated queen based on her size or shape
and everything else once I caught her and we
put her in a cage I said there'll be another
one in here but watch the bees because the bees
are going to start running to where she goes
but the thing is is she's gonna bounce back and
forth and you watch him I mean they'll just do
it everybody's going this way and all of a sudden
nope that queen ran up underneath them frames
and she's going over there and man it was like
watching a nascar race all right but with about
10 ,000 bees and I think I know we caught two
for sure may have been three You know little
virgin queens in there. It's just the observation
of but I Can't remember if it was our first year
together. I think it was the the craziest beehive
That we removed there was an old farmhouse out,
you know in the middle of nowhere If I remember
right the house was probably about 150 years
old. Been in the family generation after generation
and they they were redoing this entire house.
I mean it was just a it was a top -to -bottom
complete redo. They had in one of the walls they
had a bee colony in it that they had known to
be there for over 75 years. Now this house was
made out of four by fours. It wasn't just two
by fours. They made them out of four by fours
back then. Rough cut lumber four by fours. I
want to say the the void between the studs was
roughly about two feet. It wasn't the 16 inches
we do because we go by two by fours and it was
12 feet tall. With the help of a lot of people
that was the educational thing that we did that
year but that thing was monster size and by the
time it was all said and done with the group
we caught the queen we spent two days removing
this thing. I have never in my life seen so much
bees and comb until we got the one the next year
upstairs that they had known to be in that wall
for every bit of 45 years. There was a bedroom
wall full of bees and comb. Come to find out
when they put the wall up to divide the bedrooms
it wasn't on a stud so the bees were coming in
and then they were they were getting past that
the wall actually in part of the next room and
it was probably six to eight feet wide in the
studs and had if that thing didn't have a hundred
gallon of honey in it it didn't have the first
drop and it had been there 45 years up in that
bedroom. Man have I done some crazy removals
oh yeah I've had a lot of fun doing it but I
will always remember those two removals in that
one house because of how old and insane they
were. Huge. By the way bless you for what you're
doing because it is hard work. How hot does it
get there in Alabama in the summer? Well, plenty
hot, right? Yeah, I mean the humidity is what's
going to kill you. Now granted, half of my removals,
three quarters of my removals are inside of a
house, you know, going between the floors or
something like that. So, you know, I do I do
really well with that. But like today, today
was not a good day. I mean, just because of the
tropical storm coming up, it was raining, had
some good wind and the bees. you know no one
bees they don't like weather changes atmospheric
changes and they let me know it so it was a rough
it was a rough one today but so far my eyes ain't
too bad there's a little bit of swelling there
there's still a little bit there but i generally
by the time i you know get home take a hot shower
by the time i go to bed i i look as normally
ugly as i do without bee stings All right, yeah,
P, it's been a lot of fun. Thank you very much
and please keep in touch. Well, I appreciate
you have me on and thanks for the opportunity.
Thanks again for joining us on Be Love, Be Keeping
presented by Man Lake. Another big thank you
goes to Vita B Health for their support. Vita's
Varroa Control Ranger products includes Epistan,
Epigard, and now Varroxan Extended Release Oxalic
Acids Trips. Hey thanks a lot guys. And if you
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