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 we're headed to the land down under to
get an update on Varroa in Australia plus some
other crazy things about beekeeping there. In
fact have you ever heard of the bee eating cane
toad? Well we're going to learn about that but
first let's catch up on some beekeeping news
from around the globe. According to a study led
by researchers at Penn State, diets rich in polyunsaturated
fatty acids may help protect honey bees against
the toxic effect of pesticides. The study, published
in the Journal of Insect Physiology, described
the effects of diets rich in various fats, saturated,
monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated fatty acids.
on bee survival after exposure to a popular pesticide.
The team found that bees fed a diet high in polyunsaturated
fatty acids had a 90 percent survival rate after
exposure to the pesticide, whereas fewer than
50 percent of bees fed diets high in saturated
or monounsaturated fats survived. So get your
bees eating the right kinds of fats. Next, dieticians
have been studying what is the healthiest kind
of honey. Here's what they've come up with so
far. Dark, unfiltered honey, which gets its color
from the type of nectar used to make it, may
have more health benefits than other types. The
differences though are likely modest, the experts
say. Dark honey varieties tend to contain higher
levels of antioxidants. These include honeys
like buckwheat and manuka, among others. And
when honey is not filtered, it also means it's
going to have more pollen, enzymes, and antioxidants.
Lastly, from Japan, they have just found a fossil
that fills the two million year gap in honeybee
history. Archaeologists recently found a fossil
dating back between 2 .8 and 2 .2 million years
ago. Preserved in siltstone the specimen shows
a worker bee roughly 10 millimeters long with
wings hind legs and body segments clear enough
to allow detailed comparison with living honeybee
species. Based on wing vein patterns and leg
structure, researchers argue that the fossil
bears a strong resemblance to a honeybee species
found today only in the Philippines and Indonesia.
So there you go, you're caught up on a little
bit of honeybee news from around the world. Now
let's go down to Australia. I'd like to welcome
back to the show Cedar Anderson coming to us
down from Australia. How are you today Cedar?
Great thank you and thanks for having me again.
Tell us exactly where you live because we're
going to be talking a little bit about beekeeping
in Australia today among many other things. So
we're in a small town called Byron Bay, which
is on the east coast of Australia. In fact, it's
the most easterly point and it's a very green
wet area usually, although we can get severe
drought as well. But normally we have a lot of
rain, a lot of things flowering actually all
through the winter time. So it's a subtropical
region. We never have to feed the bees here because
their flowers tend to go quite well actually
even through the winter. Sounds a little bit
like paradise. Look it certainly is and I think
that the bees think so too at least they did
till Varroa came to the shores a couple of years
ago. We're going to be talking about all kinds
of things today but as long as you brought it
up let's talk about Varroa in Australia because
for those that aren't familiar there was no Varroa
on your whole continent until what, three years
ago? So that's it. Yeah, it came into a place
called Newcastle, which is in New South Wales,
the state that we are in, and it's slowly been
spreading out. I mean, having said that, it travels
as fast as a truckload of bees do, but there
was a big effort to actually contain it. But
unfortunately the detection was far too late
and it was already off and racing and it was
too hard to control the movement of hives. So
there was a big effort by primary industry and
they burnt 10 ,000 hives, then decided that it
was a loss. So Varroa is now part of this continent,
just like it is for yours. And it's slowly spreading
out. We had that come to our region a year and
a half ago, specifically to where we are. The
buildup phase was quite a thing. I don't know
if you were beekeeping when Varroa hit your area,
but basically what happens is a whole lot of
hives start getting weak and dying out from Varroa.
And then your hives, even though you're trying
to manage them well, go. and collect the remaining
resources, the honey, and bring back the mites.
Then we have those small hive beetles in our
area which then decimate those wheat colonies
and you get thousands and thousands of hive beetle
larvae crawling out into the ground and then
you get a hive beetle boom. So what was happening
for us is it was the hive beetles that were taking
out the hives, not the varroa, even though the
varroa was the catalyst and is what weakened
the hives. It sounds a lot, obviously, like what
happens here. We often say, oh, winter killed
my bees. But it probably wasn't winter. It was
probably the fact that they were very weak from
a varroa load in the fall. And that weakness
meant that they weren't as resilient against
the winter weather as they normally are. That
all just sounds too familiar. You mentioned about
10 ,000 hives were burned. I read some things
that made it sound even worse than that, like
100 ,000 plus hives. Was that just hyperbole
by our journalists or something? right, you could
be right, there was big effort actually to contain
it and unfortunately it didn't work out. There
is a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel
for us and we're seeing that now where all of
a sudden the hives are looking good again, the
Varroa numbers are stable, there's hives we haven't
done anything to for three, four months now.
And they're getting a wash count of like two
or four mites, you know, and that is really different
to a year ago when you turn your back and there's
a count of 200 mites in the hive. So the buildup
phase, hopefully, is mostly over for our particular
area. But if we travel just further north, even
just three hours drive, they're right in the
thick of it now because of the way Varroa has
been spreading out. Eventually, and I hope it's
this coming season, we join the rest of the world
with more normal beekeeping, with Varroa being
a part of it, but not necessarily the big scary
monster that has been in the build -up phase
here. It'd be interesting to know what it's like
for you where you are in terms of is it something
you're managing often or is it something you
need to manage Varroa twice a year or what's
kind of normal? Not just here. I'm in the state
of Utah, but over most of North America The idea
is you have to be on top of it all the time And
that doesn't mean that you're treating all the
time But it means you've got to do your might
counts and you've got to know what's going on
So when our bees come out of winter, we need
to know where they're at in the middle of summer
We need to know where they're at. I'm a believer
in treat if they need to be treated and don't
treat if they don't need to be treated. Now there's
people on every end of the spectrum that never
treat or that have some kind of an IPM that they
have in place that just doesn't include any kinds
of chemicals. There are other beekeepers bless
their hearts that feel like hey there are always
mites so I'm just always going to treat. So there's
every end of the spectrum here but there isn't
a particular like hey we have to deal with it
once or twice a year. If you're in a cold climate
especially and you wait till fall and you do
a mite test and it's high it's probably too late.
It's time you can okay let's let's get those
honey supers off let's get some treatment on
and let's see if we can knock this stuff down
but it may be too late. So make sure by mid -summer
the varroa load is in a good place and just keep
it that way going into fall. That's kind of where
we're at. Tell me what kinds of treatments that
you're using there in Australia. So for me personally,
I want to keep things organic, so I was using
the organic acids, formic acid and oxalic acid
and really experimenting and learning and finding
that the formic acid really does knock the mites
down extremely well. Even under the caffeine,
we were digging out the pupa and counting how
many mites died and so on and getting scientific
about it. We're really finding the formic acid
does a great job. of knocking down the mite load
from potentially, you know, it could be at 30,
it could be 100 in a wash, and it'll be right
down to two or none after a couple of weeks.
That said, there's seemed to be like a 10 % chance
of losing your queen in that process. So that's
the complication with formic acid. Another thing
we've found with formic is a lot of flow hive
customers would just put it in the tray in the
bottom, which means they don't even have to open
the hive to apply it. They put the formic pad
or two down in the tray and the next day it's
literally raining mites into the tray. So it
works very well from that area, which means it's
just quite a user -friendly way to apply that
treatment. And other people were experimenting
with, well, okay, if it rains down just overnight,
how about we just use it overnight? And that
seemed to be an effective way. Even though this
is all off -label treatments, it's quite interesting
to see how people are using that formic acid.
With the idea being perhaps if there was less
exposure, there's less likelihood of losing the
queen, but it did a good job of knocking down
the mite load. And then there's oxalic acid,
which in the form of strips, which seems to be
good for just holding the mite load low once
it is low. And then the fogging seemed to be
useful as well. If you're prepared to buy one
of those fogging machines, you've got to get
the gas mask and all of that. But once you invest
in that, then it's really quite quick. You can
just go along and it's 30 seconds or so each
hive. So if you've got a number of hives, that
seemed to be a useful way. Of course, you're
only getting the phoretic mites, the ones on
the bees, you're not touching them under the
capping. So you've got to come back in a week
and do it again and perhaps in another week.
And that seemed to work well. There's also a
drizzle available which I didn't really use.
I'm glad that you guys have been able to learn
a lot from us, just the things that we've learned
over time. And I will tell you watch out for
resistance, whether it's formic or something
else. The mites can develop a resistance. There's
a lot of people that have been like, hey, for
the last five years, I've used the same treatment.
It worked every year. I know it works. So I'm
going to keep using it. And then all of a sudden,
one year, it doesn't. So keep an open mind to
all of that and keep experimenting because we
do not have it 100 % figured out. That's for
sure. Or it wouldn't be a problem. Absolutely,
yes. We're experimenting around the clock here,
trying to work out the best ways to approach
it and trying to work out the best information
to put forward to those that are just getting
the varroa now. It's been quite an interesting
journey. Of course, we wish it hadn't come to
the shores, but we've certainly learnt a lot
more about beekeeping. having to really get intimate
with pulling out larvae, pulling out pupa, checking
it all out, seeing what's going on and actually
having to do a lot more intervention in the hives.
Hopefully that will subside now that we're over
that buildup phase and yes, forever we join you
guys managing those mites, but hopefully it's
not too onerous. in terms of the season and what
we need to do. Of course, we've got a different
season here where there's not much of a winter,
so there's not that brood break that you guys
get, which changes the dynamics a bit. In terms
of resistance, well, we're already seeing resistance
to the synthetics, bave roll, and amatras, where
commercial beekeepers are already concerned about
the next... next season, our spring coming, because
they've already seen resistance to those. So
that's, you know, only in a season or two that
that resistance has built up. All right. Let's
talk about some other fun things that you've
been involved with. Last time we had you on,
we talked a little bit about the Superlifter
and I'll put a link in the show notes if people
want to go back and see that because it is just
the coolest thing, especially for those of us
that are getting a little bit older and the back
gets a little sore lifting those heavy frames.
The super lifter is just a really cool thing.
But you've got a new book out and I've got a
copy of it. I have to tell you, it's pretty cool.
When I first jumped into it, I thought, oh, this
is just a beginner book. And so I kind of was
going through it kind of fast. Tell us about
the book in general. You and your dad wrote it.
What was the purpose? Who is it for? Okay, for
many years there's been pressure to write a book
and I guess we've been busy. We've been amazingly
busy with the launch and the success of the flow
hives and delivering all of those crowdfunding
hives and then keeping it going. So each year
actually the publisher would come and say, hey,
we need to write this book. And then no, no thanks,
no thanks. A decade in, and we finally went,
yeah, okay, okay, let's write the book. It would
be appreciated for our customers, for those that
really like to read. an overwhelming amount of
video training content, both on the beekeeper
.org and on our channels and all of that. And
that's been amazing. But for those that like
to read, that's what this book is for. The aim
of it is it's an inspiring read wherever you
open up to. There's amazing things about bees
that have that curiosity angle and that inspiration.
And we want people that after reading it. almost
have more questions than answers and that curiosity
to just keep learning about bees, which is what
it's all about, right? Not only that, we also
want it to be a very useful manual, practical
manual on how to look after your hives and specifically
flow hives. which there hasn't really been in
the world. There are some differences, of course,
it's a beehive, there's bees, the brood nest
is the same, but we've got a whole lot of information
specifically to do with the way the flow hives
set up and all the things were built into that.
We've also got the story. of the Flow Hive upfront,
explaining the whole crowdfunding boom and how
we raised $12 million in eight weeks of pre -orders
of our Flow Hive and started with that crazy
boom where we had to deliver 25 ,000 hives before
Christmas and that story that you probably already
know. It's one that you have to just take a great
big breath. So many people are absolutely jealous.
I mean, millions that have tried crowdfunding.
and not had that kind of success. And then on
the other side, it's like, here's a great problem
to have. How do we deliver all of this merchandise
this fast? And then it is a fun story and a good
read. By the way, we haven't even mentioned the
name. It's called Flow Hive's book of bees and
beekeeping. And I'm just going to say it's not
just for Flow Hive users. there's lots of good
information about beekeeping in here. And one
of the things that I liked besides pretty pictures
is the fact that in the back there's an index
and so you can look up Varroa, you can look up
feeding, you can look up whatever and it'll take
you to something. So that sounds a little bit
like a college textbook but it's much more of
an enjoyable read than that. So off the Varroa
topic. Are there any other kinds of pests that
are unique to Australia that I don't have to
worry about here in North America or in England
or Scotland or wherever that you have to deal
with that we don't? Yeah, absolutely. We've got
all sorts of bee eating pests around and one
of them is an introduced species called a cane
toad. Quick break to discuss what just might
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.com. Discount code MLBLove10. And one of them
is an introduced species called a cane toad,
which has been spreading out from Queensland.
They are quite a large toad and they love eating
bees. In fact, if your hives are just set up
on the ground like bee hives often are, the toads
will knock on the hive in the night. The bees
will come out to see what's going on and they'll
gobble them up and they'll do that all night.
And I was around here two months ago and I happened
to be at the hives at night and I took photos
of there'll be 20 cane toads piled up at the
entrance of the hive. I don't know how they don't
get stung in their mouths or maybe they do and
don't care, but they love eating bees. In fact,
one hive wasn't doing so well. This is going
back 20 years and I wondered why it wasn't. I
lifted the box up. And inside was a cane toad
that had gotten in the entrance when it was small.
It was living inside the hive, like this big
scary monster. The bees had got to come through
the entrance and they get gobbled up as they
go. Normally the toads stay on the outside, right?
And that's why we've built our hive stand basically
sort of into the form of the hive. So we came
along and went, hang on. rather than just a base
that goes on a stand, let's build the stand into
the hive. So that's what you see in our flow
hives now and each corner has an adjustable leg
and we've got levels in the side just to set
it up nicely for honey harvesting and if you're
drawing naturally drawn comb then having it level
side to side is useful as well. But more importantly
the hive is off the ground so those toads can't
directly gobble those bees at the entrance. So
what they do is they sit underneath and it's
only when the bees are really building up and
hanging down at night. So when they're bearding
they'll actually come and start gobbling up that
beard? Yeah, absolutely. So it's a little bit
of annoying and it's useful as a beekeeper to
go around and collect up those toads from time
to time and lessen them. So that means walking
around with a garbage bag and at night If they've
got a torch shining on them, then they don't
actually move. They stay still. So you can simply
just pick them up by the back legs. You've got
to avoid the poison glands, which are just behind
their eyes. They do have a toxin. And you pick
up their legs and you chuck them in the garbage
bag. And I've been walking around and my arms
sore from the weight of the bag. That's how many
totes you're getting. And then typically, I mean,
there's all different ways. People say put them
in the fridge to sedate them, then put them in
the freezer is the most humane way, and then
they die, right? Up in Queensland, there's certainly
a lot of people who prefer to run around with
golf clubs and things like that. This introduced
species that does have quite an impact on local
species that eat them. certain types of snakes,
there's goannas, there's all sorts of animals
that suffer from trying to eat those toads. So
you find that they're decimating a lot of native
species because they have that toxin and that
poison. However, some are starting to work it
out. And just yesterday I found one of these
toads flipped upside down, their heart pecked
out. So something And I think it's a native type
of rat is actually working out how to flip the
toad over, make an incision and eat the organs
that it wants to. So over time balance will form
again. We also have the rainbow bee eaters, which
I'm actually looking at about 20 of them in a
tree. They're beautiful rainbow bird and they
like to catch the bees on the wing. Now, they
come and go. They're seasonal. I don't usually
worry about them. It's not something you need
to do anything about. I figure fair's fair. We've
brought in Apis mellifera, the European honeybee.
And if some of the native species want to eat
some, then, you know, you're doing a little bit
of a service there for those rainbow bee eaters.
Wow. You mentioned snakes a minute ago. I see
so many documentaries about poisonous snakes
in Australia. It's like, you should be afraid
to get off the plane or something when you get
there because it's just, it's just crazy how
many poisonous things there are. I had not heard
about those toads. Do you have skunks there?
No skunks. So I've heard they can eat a few bees.
They do a similar thing. They come at night.
They scratch on the entrance. They don't knock
like you were mentioning with the toads, but
they scratch. Bees come out and somehow they
can eat them up. And we do not grab them by the
back legs and throw them in a bag. That'd be
a horribly bad idea. You can imagine that with
the skunks. Anyway. It doesn't matter where you
are in the world, there's going to be predators.
There's going to be mites or some other thing
infesting. Gee, we hear about these tropy mites
all the time now. We're keeping them at bay as
long as we possibly can. There's the Asian hornets
or also known as yellow -legged hornets, which
we now have in the states, a couple of the southern
states, and they're trying to keep them from
spreading. The Asian giant hornets, also known
as murder hornets, have hit our doorstep and
have been kept at bay and hopefully that will
keep there for a long time. But we do have something
that I'm sure that you don't and that we have
to deal with in most of the southern states here,
and that is Africanized bees. You don't have
those in Australia, do you? We don't. Give us
a little rundown on the Africanized bees. So
these were developed in a lab. I believe it was
in Brazil many many years ago like 50 60 years
ago and the idea was You had a beekeeper slash
scientist that was trying to do a hybrid with
some bees from Africa mixed with Apis mellifera
and Hey, we're gonna have something better that
creates more honey and is still friendly problem
was they weren't friendly They were really mean
they escaped the lab and they have gradually
made their way through Central America Mexico
and now up here in some of our southern states,
California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, and they're
pretty good bees as far as honeymakers and as
far as reproducing and even have some good Varroa
resistance to their genes, but they're mean buggers.
And that's the problem. And they've been known
to, in some areas, actually, you know, do great
harm to people and kill some people because they
get really upset. And instead of five guard bees
coming out and knocking you in the head or something,
you'll have hundreds of them pour out of a hive
and chase you quite a long ways. I'm glad I've
not had that experience yet, but I've talked
to people that have. The good news about that,
we're going to have here in the next couple of
weeks, some scientists on the show from University
of California, Riverside, who are studying the
genetics of some bees have hybridized on their
own. So they're Apis mellifera with some of these,
what are known as Africanized bees. And they've
gone down many, many generations and they're
finding that the temperament is getting better.
And the Varroa resistance is really, really good.
Now what becomes of that over the long term?
I don't know. If some longer term studies find
this really is a thing and it's really worth
it, are they going to start breeding them widely?
And then we can buy these just like we can buy
Russian bees or we can buy Buckfast bees or something
else. So we'll see where all that goes. The genetics
side is quite an interesting space and it's something
we're interested in here. We've actually put
funding a couple of years ago towards helping
that space kick off here in Australia. And we
actually have been purchasing in some queens
that have been specifically bred for the Varroa
resistant traits and now we're going through
observations on those hives to see whether they're
doing the uncapping behavior and recapping and
so on in order to disrupt the breeding cycle
of the mite. Australia is quite an interesting
test case in genetics as well because the percentage
of wild hives is so much higher. than a lot of
other countries because we've got so much wild
space. So we're going to get this natural genetic
selection as well happening out there in the
wild, which will then feed into the managed colonies
as well. So there is high hopes in Australia
that the genetics side of things will play a
good role in getting Baroa to a naturally resistant
strain of bees, I guess. We're finding it can
come from a couple of different ways. One is
they can have hygienic traits. Another one is
they can just be bees where Varroa doesn't bother
them that much. I'm not using any scientific
terms here forgive me people, but there are different
ways that bees are dealing on their own with
Varroa. All right, hey Cedar. Co -inventor of
Flow Hive and all kinds of other things, Hive
Lifter, Fun Book, any other inventions that you
have coming out? Yeah, absolutely. Watch this
space where we're working hard. We're working
around the clock on non -chemical Varroa treatments.
So hopefully you'll see in this next year something
very useful and easy for people to use. I've
met with a couple of people that also have some.
I'm not going to name names right now. When we're
done talking here you and I'll chat a little
bit about that because I'm curious where you're
going and maybe a year from now we'll be able
to talk about that. Before I let you go, we get
to have a little bit of fun. Tell us about some
kind of a wild and crazy beekeeping story that
you've had. We want to remind everybody it is
all about the love of bees and it's okay to have
fun beekeeping. My memory fails me, but I think
last time I was on your podcast, I might've talked
about using the Superlifter, but I'll tell you
about another story and that in the middle of
the crowdfunding, because we had that insane
success, we had attracted the media of the world.
We had like something like 10 new US publications
every day were featuring us. And that meant from
dawn to dusk. We were fielding media. Inquiries
and only taking the good ones. You can't just
be in the media all day. There's a company to
run the staff issues. We've got to set up a supply
chain to deliver 25 ,000 hives that we've never
made before Christmas and all of that. Right.
One of the ones we said, yeah, come on down was,
was, uh, New York times. We said, yeah, yeah,
you can come to our place and, and, and do an
article. So they're all setting up. And I'm going
to get one of the big honey jars, which is resting
on a hive just down the way. And we don't have
the Africanized bees here, but certainly the
hives I used to keep were quiet, aggressive.
So I went to get this jar that was just sitting
on top of another hive. What happened is I went
to get the jar, bees got aggressive and started
stinging me. And at that point, and I know these
hives well, that the only way to get away from
those hives is you've actually got to run through
some foliage, right, and you lose the bees that
are after you. Quite different to the lovely
hives we keep now where you can almost be in
that bee suit, right, and do your inspections.
These were wild hives. straight away I dropped
this jar, it was a big jar like this and it's
smashed and I took off into the bushes and I'm
running around trying to lose these bees and
I get back up to where New York Times is setting
up and they were looking the other way, they
didn't see any of it. They could have made a
great story about Cedar, this floe -hiving bender
runs from his wild bees, but that was just kind
of... illustrating what a crazy time it was where
it was just one media thing after the other and
that's one little memory that's stuck squarely
in my head. And how did they not catch it? That's
crazy. And it may have been embarrassing. You
should be grateful for that, I guess. All right,
a couple more questions here before we finish
up. And one is, and you and I talked about this
a little bit last time. One of the things that
fascinates me about the Flow Hive is the fact
that I'm not just waiting till the end of the
season, or at least I don't need to, to do one
great big harvest, which is going to be a very
multi -floral kind of thing. But when there is
a flow on that is just one particular thing near
me, as soon as that's over, I can drain those
frames, right? And so it makes it easier to say,
let's say from April 15th until April 30th, I've
got this blooming. And then in June, I have something
else blooming. Doesn't it make it easier for
me to have, okay, let's get some of this honey
and then let's get some of that honey? Absolutely.
And it's not something we set out to invent in
a way. It happened by accident. The way you can
use the Flow Hive, and a lot of people do, is
you can harvest single frames to either a single
big jar or to multiple little ones. But in doing
so, you tend to isolate the flavors. And that's
become an amazing bonus and a real joy with Flow
Hives. You know, once upon a time, I used to
mix the honey from 40 hives all together. I had
a nine -frame radial extractor. I'd go through
the hives, I'd spin them all out, and you'd get
good honey. But to me, it's much more interesting.
It has become an amazing thing to be able to
isolate not only the honey from a single hive,
but from a single frame. One will have these
beautiful dark licorice tones. The one next to
it, because the bees have been foraging on something
different, might be a bright, light, very floral,
blow your taste buds off honey. And to me, That
is a real joy because you can bring all of those
flavors back to the table and it tells a story
of what's been flowering directly in your area.
And in traditional beekeeping, for most of us,
that's just not practical. I'm not going to pull
a couple of frames here and a couple there and
spin them down and do all that. There's too much
cleanup involved for me to do that. So I thought
that was pretty fun. To me bees are incredibly
fascinating and one of the really interesting
things that I think we've still got a lot to
learn about is the way bees are able to navigate
so precisely and we all know about the waggle
dance and the way they do their figure of eight
and that axis to the Sun is the angle and that's
all incredible, right? But what I've witnessed
in my life being around bees so much is the level
of accuracy of their information they can transmit
to each other is a lot more accurate than what
we understand. They do their waggle and a second
of waggle is about 750 meters of distance. So
we've got distance and now we've got direction.
But what I've noticed and through lots of examples,
but One is, let's say you're in the shed, you're
making a sticky mess, working with honey and
a bee comes. A bee flies back to the hive, does
a dance, tells the other hives, hey, there's
easy honey to get in the shed. And they come
and then you close the door and open the window,
which might be just a couple of meters around
the corner. What happens is you get a cloud of
bees coming to exactly where they were coming
in the door. And going, hang on a second, there's
no honey here. So a bee goes back to the hive,
does another dance and says, there's no honey.
Or more accurately, the bees find the bee in
there that's giving the directions. They jump
on it, hold it down so it can no longer tell
the hive where to go. Another bee has in the
meantime, a few hours later, found that just
around the corner, there's a window. And that's
the way in. Goes back to the hive, tells some
more information. That tells me that the accuracy
of information isn't only distance and direction.
It's exactly where the window is in the building
to fly in. To me, there's a lot going on that
we haven't studied yet. And that is throughout.
bees in general. We've got a lot to learn about
their brain, their capacity, their landmarks.
There's new studies really showing how they are
able to take in visual landmarks in a way that
we didn't believe their brains were capable of.
So to me, that's fascinating. They're so cool.
And that communication, if we talk about swarm
behavior, great. book on that is The Honey Bee
Democracy, if you haven't read it. And it sounds
like they're coming back from the scout bees
or coming back from someplace they have found
as a potential new home. And not just saying
where it is, but saying either what's good about
it or it's really good or something. We don't
know exactly what they're saying through their
dance, but they're explaining more than just
where it is. Absolutely. Cedar, it's always fun
talking. We'll check back in a while and thanks
for being on the show. Thank you for having me.
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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