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Speaker 3: (01:47)
Well yeah, that’s actually the audience says it. No are a little inside joke here, but they’ll get it here in shortly.

Speaker 2: (01:52)
Neil, and you and I both have had the experience of raising a boy and a girl and a many ranger commanders and dad’s experiences, same thing. But one of the things is a very common between, uh, among both of those. And that is you really have to, to look for those things that you can dig into as a dad and a daughter or a dad and a son. And today we’re going to bring you a really interesting project that to may sound a little scary at first or may have some, you know, it definitely is a thorny side to it, but that way

Speaker 3: (02:48)
sure. You know, but you know, like you said, there’s, there’s definitely some, you know, fun things you can do with your kids and some very interesting ones. And, and going to share tonight, one that has become very interesting to us and our families and to our neighbors and, uh, really diminish the others as, as especially as I’ve grown in this particular area over the years.

Speaker 2: (03:13)
Yeah. And when we’re talking about is some backyard beekeeping. And, uh, so Neil and I’ve really gotten involved in this in the last couple of years and really had a lot of fun and it’s super rewarding to the family. It really can draw you together. And even though, uh, you know, Carla and Kelly, our two wives frequently don’t stand in front of the beehive much or dig into the frames and all the things that we’re going to get into tonight, but they do get involved with extracting the honey and bottling it up and, and doing all kinds of fun things for Christmas and birthdays and things and it becomes a really rewarding thing at the end.

Speaker 3: (03:55)
Yeah, exactly. And you know, it might be interesting to your listeners know how I got started in beekeeping and especially what we call backyard beekeeping. And I’ll kind of, we’ll talk a little bit about that too, but I, I really got interested in just kind of the idea. And so I bought a book called the backyard beekeeper. It’s in its fourth edition and we can put that in the show notes, um, by um, Kim flawed. Um, I think that how you say his name and he’s a well known national beekeeper and writer, but I read the book and it was just so fascinating, um, to learn about these. And yeah, everybody’s got some knowledge of them, you know, to some degree. Um, but one year a friend of mine bought me a bee hive suit. One of these, you know, weird looking suit you put on look like an alien. And um, and then it was really amazing. I set that book aside. I put that bee hives are beekeeper suit in my basement. Never looked at it again until about three years later. Um, when Kelly bought me a disassembled beehive one, um, one Christmas and on Mother’s Day that year, she and I drove and picked up our very first beehive.

Speaker 2: (05:18)
Yeah. And you know, for the, for the sake of the listeners, Neil, uh, when you get started with this, and by the way, there is a mountain of information that’s out there, but I think you’ll find in today’s episode will cover all the basics and it doesn’t have to be a very expensive hobby. Um, and although you can, you can kind of take this any direction you want. And first I would like to just talk a little bit, Neil, about the idea of where you would even keep a B. How I think some of us would be intimidated by the fact that, wow, you know, I live in a small neighborhood or, uh, you know, our,

Speaker 3: (05:58)
our yard isn’t very big and w where in the world can I keep a beehive that’s not going to just swarm us and the neighbors and be a constant nuisance to us. And yet that’s a little bit of a myth, isn’t it? It is. And you know, an interesting fact in Pennsylvania, and of course it is helpful if you get interested in beekeeping, you listen to this episode and start learning. You do want to check with your local municipalities and find out what ordinances and might be in place. But it’s interesting to find out, and I’ve learned this, that across the country, you know, bees are welcome in most neighborhoods and an interesting fact in Pennsylvania, uh, according to the beekeepers associations here, there are about 3000 beekeepers in Pennsylvania. And the listeners might be surprised to know that this, that 98% of them are backyard beekeepers.

Speaker 3: (06:55)
People just like us who keep a hive or two in their backyard. Yeah. 98%. Wow. And, and you’d also be surprised at the number of beekeepers, and we’ll get into this too, but that are welcome in the event that you begin to grow, your hobby grows and you need a place to put a home for some, some bees that you uh, you know, new hives and new colonies that you begin to propagate. And uh, there’s lots of places around locally. I guarantee you’ll find them that are happy to take those bees off of your hands if you need to. Sure. And, and you know, to describe, just to describe to your listener as what my backyard beekeeping scene looks like because you know, we’re talking about where, where would you keep these and my beehives, I have five of them currently and they sit in my backyard next to my shed and I have neighbors on all sides.

Speaker 3: (07:52)
I have a neighbor in the back, I have two neighbors on the side. And of course our house sits in the middle. And what would probably be amazing too, to what’s surprising to most people who visit our home. It could be in the middle of spring, we’re out on the deck, I’m having a barbecue. And even though there are literally hundreds of thousands of bees in those hives, you’ll never see a B in our backyard. Yeah. And how many hives do you have now? I have five of them. Yeah. And an average hive can have easily 30,000 bees. Oh, easily. That, you know, Neil says hundreds of thousands. That’s exaggeration by any stretch. Right. And it’s amazing to know, you know, that, that you’ll, if you have a backyard beehive, you’ll probably, and obviously you’ll see the bees when you get into your hive and Oh, you know, work with them. But, but on a casual basis around your home, you’ll never see them. And the reason for that is these are very protective of home and they always forage about two or four miles away from their hive so that predators can’t find where they are storing this honey. So that’s kind of their defense mechanism,

Speaker 2: (09:07)
right? Matter of fact, uh, that’s kind of where the term making a beeline come from, right?

Speaker 3: (09:16)
It absolutely does because bees leave their high, they kind of wander around and find the nectar and pollen, but when they come back to their hive, they always make a straight line from wherever they are because they navigate by the, by the sun, they solar navigate and they will, they will make a straight line three or four miles away. Exactly. To back to their home.

Speaker 2: (09:40)
That’s awesome. So there’s a couple ways to get started in this. And again, you know, w we did and the same thing you guys did is we really shopped around a little bit for the hive themselves and they don’t have to be complicated. I actually bought my first couple of highs from a local AP, airy and just as typical as you would see if you were driving in some country side and you saw the boxes sitting in some field somewhere, that’s what mine looks like. So you have the initial Brood Chamber, uh, which is the bigger, deeper box. And that can be anywhere from eight to 10 frames. Juicy, right?

Speaker 3: (10:19)
That’s right. Yeah. So if you don’t like lifting heavier box, you get the smaller, what they call an eight frame.

Speaker 2: (10:26)
Yeah. Which is when I’ve gone to, and the reason I did is because we, because we started kind of falling in love with this hobby. Um, Neil live so close to Lancaster area and a lot of the Amish country and man, they’ve got, they do a beautiful job of putting these hives together. And a, and there’s a couple ways to go here, but the most common, and this might be something that you want to go to the show [email protected] and look up, but the most common type of hive is the lengths drum I’ve correct Neil.

Speaker 3: (10:58)
That’s right. And the, it’s the easiest to maintain. It’s the least expensive to get into. And there are a lot of other kinds of, you know, fancy hives, top bar hives and, and um, some newer hives called the flow hive, but very expensive. But you’re right, the lecture of hive is the, it’s been around a couple of hundred years and it’s very easy to use.

Speaker 2: (11:24)
That’s the box. That’s the box that we’re talking about. And by the way, you know, some of these, um, backyard beekeepers, there’s also a garden hives that are only five frames. And we’re talking about frames when you, when you take the lid off of one of these square boxes and we’ll put some pictures of ours in there, uh, in the show notes. But it’s the typical just line of small frames that are lined up in there. And, and, and as we’re, we’ve been talking, there’s either five, eight or 10, and each one of those can, uh, the bees themselves are living there along with the queen there. And those are also the type of frames that they’ll be using to put honey. And so you want to do a little bit of homework, but the, but the one, the, the things that you’ll need to get started or simply a bottom board, the actual Brood Chamber, the single box that the five, eight or 10 frames that go in that.

Speaker 2: (12:17)
And then a, a cover and a lid. And that’s it. That’s your, that’s your basic hive star. Correct. It’s, and usually, and you can really find these on Amazon, it might be, that might not be the cheapest way to go, but click on Amazon, type in beehive, and you’ll see all these parts that you’re talking about ready. And it’s just that simple as a little wooden box and it’s super easy to set up. Yep. And then, um, also you’ll, you’ll want to pick the frames and there’s an, uh, an assortment of types of frames that you can use and we’ll put some show notes. And there we don’t want to get too heavily involved in this cause we like to keep the show, uh, and that 30 minute timeframe so people can listen to and from work and really get a lot of nuggets that get him started and, and excited about this.

Speaker 2: (13:08)
But frames can have either plastic foundations or wax foundations or even know foundation. And these are what the starting blocks for the bees to build out. Um, and then as far as time of the year to start a hive, Neil, it’s always the spring. It is. That’s right. Usually, you know, depending on what area you live in the country, um, that can vary, you know. Yeah. So for a few hours to a couple of months, but yeah, you’re right. The spring is the best time for Florida. That’s march. Yeah. Wow. So up here it’s mother’s Day, Mother’s Day weekend, and my, the way, that doesn’t mean that you can’t start a hive throughout the summer and even the fall, uh, it just can be a little more difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for, um, depending on what you’re shopping for and uh, because yeah, some of the, the beekeepers, they just, you know, they’ve got a season themselves and, uh, they’re working in different areas.

Speaker 2: (14:09)
So, uh, it might be possible to some, somebody local has those available all throughout the year. Fortunately in Florida there’s several different nectar flows, about four of them throughout the year. So we have the advantage of that. And in a lot of times you can get bs at various times of the year. But I would say this right in and just because you make a good point is one of the reasons we’re doing this show right now in March is because it is the prime season to get started. And if you don’t get started soon, um, no big deal. But you might have to wait, you know, another eight or 10 months before you can get ramped up again. And just a cute curiosity, you know, uh, what is, uh, just a s a small setup for the a hive boxes that you get

Speaker 3: (15:01)
if you wanted to, if you really, I tell people this, if you want to get a full set up, so you have the, the hive body where you’re going to keep all the bees where they’re going to live and you want to have some, you know, uh, boxes for honey, probably right around a hundred dollars is going to be, you’re completely first time investment to get everything you need set up a for that first time.

Speaker 2: (15:26)
Okay. And then there’s two ways to get bs. And you can either get packaged bees or you can get a nuke and packaged bees are interesting. Eventually. The first way that Chandler and I started our first two hives and packaged bees is literally a package of bees. Usually you get about 10,000 of them and then you get a queen. And that queen is in a little tiny box of her own. And I literally drove my SUV, uh, to write right here in Florida just to maybe about 60 miles from here and bought two sets of package bees. And I drove up into this field. I mean, I had never done this before, didn’t, I mean I knew what to expect by virtue of I’d seen it online and I get into this and this area where this guy, I mean there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hives and there’s bees everywhere. And I’m a little nervous just even get out of the car because it’s like you’re, I mean, you can see him

Speaker 3: (16:30)
[inaudible] and these guys very same scene

Speaker 2: (16:34)
are just, they could care less. I mean, they have no fear of what’s going on. And so he kind of urges me out of the car, but I’m telling you. So he, he, he gives me these packages and it’s literally like a small cage, you know, just a wire mesh box and we put them in the back of my car and man, the whole drive home, all you hear is the, this dull roar buzzing and, and the decibel level would rise and low and based on something I was doing in the car. And a matter of fact, I rode with the windows down just thinking that, you know, is this smart to have 20,000 bees in the back of my car. But uh, but anyway, we got home and, and uh, so then you have to transfer these bees. He’s 10,000 bees into your box. And then you situate the queen in there and there’s a little piece of hard candy at the end of this. And the bees will, will begin to eat their way into where the queen is and the time it takes some to, to eat through that piece of candy is the time it takes them to acclimate to her and then make them make her their queen.

Speaker 3: (17:44)
Yeah. And you know, like you said, that’s a package set of these, a big giant box of bees. And the other way to go is called a nucleus hive. And there they’re more expensive. Um, however, there is a big advantage to them. Is it because they are a complete working colony. So you get five frames, they’re in a small little box. Um, but it’s a colony that has a queen that’s established there already have comb drawn. They have young that they’re rearing. They have honey that they’ve collected a nectar. And so, you know, I always say for a new beekeeper, um, a nuke is the best way to go. And, but the caveat to that is you might not be able to get a nuke in your area. So keep this in mind of package bees can be shipped through the United States postal service. And that it sounds crazy, but it is the, uh, but a nucleus cannot be shipped through the mail.

Speaker 3: (18:49)
You have to go pick it up exactly as Mr. Better way to go. And so if you can find a local beekeeper in your area who can put a nuke together for you or they sell them, that’s way better. But if not, if not, no worries. You can order right now online a package set. Yeah. And I will say that I can’t agree with you more that the nukes and the way to go. Yeah. I’ve been a lot more successful with nukes and, um, and just a lot easier to set up and from a price standpoint, not significantly more money to get a nuke. No, not, not a lie. It’s probably about $50 more. And here’s something to keep in mind about that too. Um, and you and I’ve had years of experience, but you know, a lot of people will say when you get B’s for the first season, um, you got to wait until next year to get honey.

Speaker 3: (19:45)
And I’ve never had that experience. I’ve gotten honey every year when I have brand new bees, but you have to have a nuke to do that. It’s very hard to get honey the first season with a package set of bees because they haven’t even drawn it and he come, they don’t have anything to start with. They got to start from absolutely nothing. Whereas a nuke you can have honey your first season. Yeah, absolutely. We, we actually bought a new hive, um, back in, uh, August and in November we were collecting honey. Yeah, it is. I mean, you think of different reasons to keep bees and believe it or not, there’s more than than just people who want to make honey, I guess a lot of fun to keep them. And you may learn how to grow hives and that’s this a lot of fun too. But you know what, it’s like that first time you pull a full frame of honey out that they’ve just kept off. It’s never touched by human hands. It’s just there is no greater feeling.

Speaker 2: (20:52)
Yeah. And it’s fun to watch it and we’ve done all kinds of things. We’ve taken put, set tripods up and taken slow motion video of bees coming and going off through the entrance and, and a timelapse and all those kinds of things. And it’s really fascinating to watch them. Uh, you know, it’s funny, one of the thing that you’ll, you’ll be doing as a new beekeeper is you’ll be feeding your bs and it’s based, you’re just feeding them sugar water. And there’s a little feeder with a typical feeder is a mason jar about a quart jar and it slides in the entrance. And I remember my bees are set up at my business, so I have a small business. And so I thought it would be fun to have them there just because it made it easy. Uh, at the time Chandler would come by their afterschool sometimes.

Speaker 2: (21:35)
So we, we, we wrote a spend a lot more time going out there and I could kind of watch him throughout the day if I need to. But what was funny is we have raccoons out there and as I would put these feeders out there, well in the morning, I would have to go hunt for these feeders because the, they would have been pulled off the hive and the jars will be scattered, you know, maybe 20, 30 feet away from the hive. And so I’d collect them, refill them, put them back. Well, as the weeks progressed and the hive got increased in numbers and got stronger and stronger, that jar would be closer to the hive until finally there was just literally the, the jar was just nudged because I guarantee you that raccoon, uh, he, he was chased off, put it out.

Speaker 3: (22:21)
Yeah. They get big enough to where the, nothing’s going to mess with them. And you know, in my, you know, I don’t keep mine in the same location like you, I have, like I said, mine is right in the middle of a very, you know, suburban neighborhood. And you know, every once in a while I’ll get a stray dog, you know, that comes off the street and wanders back there because they love the smell, the honey and the nectar and all that. They could smell it, but it only takes one visit to the front of that hive and they’re gone there. I tail on it for sure, but I want to say this, you know, um, as you, as you kind of get in, if you get started in beekeeping and it, it’s, it’s so much fun. What I have done is, you know, when I first put my beehive in, I told all my neighbors about it so they knew I was putting it in. And every time, every year, every season that I pull honey off, they get the first free jars.

Speaker 2: (23:18)
Exactly. Yeah. And tell you there’s two in their products we have to mention that you want to get a hold of. And one is a smoker and a smoker and you, you may have seen it, you can go online, check youtube videos out. But, but a smoker is really what calms the bees down when you act too to work on the hives. And then of course you’ll want a bee suit and we’ll put some links to the ones that we use cause I have some very lightweight bee suits. Very effective. It’s all I ever use and simple to slip on. Um, put pair of beekeeping gloves that go on and I’ll be keeping tool to pop open the frames and get them out. Very, very simple setup and we’ll add the links to that. And then, you know, the fun of it is, like you said, pony size, these frames out full of honey and bring them in. And a lot of people would be surprised at one hive with just one box on top, which is called a super. That kid keeps your honey, that box full is about 20 pounds. So imagine 20 pounds of honey off of one simple backyard hive. That’s a lot of honey.

Speaker 3: (24:28)
It is. And what’s amazing is when they, when there’s a nectar flow on and the flowers are blooming, they can fill that box in a week or two weeks. Oh yeah,

Speaker 2: (24:38)
yeah. When the nectar flows come, you have to be ready to just put the frames in there and let them go after it. And a, and then there’s some, you know, you might see all kinds of extraction techniques to get the honey out and you might even be surprised. There’s actually, uh, in our area, um, you know, we do something very simple. We cut the wax, the cap tawny out of the frame. We put in cheese cloth and we literally squeeze it and strain it and hang it up in the kitchen and let it drain into a big stainless bowl. Um, other people have extruders and there’s even places usually, uh, some of the guilds and clubs and things that you can be part of, they’ll let you borrow and there’s a little bit of a, you you can pay by honey and how to even use some of their, the extruder. So there’s a lot of opportunity there to do her for things. And then again, you know, exactly like you said, when I go to the outpost and they know that honey is coming, you know, I usually get a bunch of jars together and I give it out at the outpost and they love it. And uh, you know, it’s also fun just to see what different seasons of the honey tastes like and very, very good for you. So,

Speaker 3: (25:52)
yeah, and I want to say this a couple of things. I would like to just make sure that listeners here in and one is, you know, as Randy mentioned, you, you want to get, get, you want to be protected when you’re getting in the hive. You’ll see a lot of youtube videos out there of, you know, men and women who are beekeepers who don’t wear any suit, any gloves, you know, nothing. And you got to remember they’re, they’re very experienced, had been around bees a long time. Um, and I’ve been around these long time, but I don’t do that. I always wear a suit and I will say this, if you, you know, cause people, that’s, that’s one of the fears is what if I get stung. And of course if you have allergies, you can do that. Have to be extremely careful. But I will say this, if you get a good bee suit and you always, you know, suit up before go into a hive and you use your smoker, you can, you can easily get in and out of the hive and never get stung.

Speaker 3: (26:50)
Um, it’s, it’s when you forget to do that or you’re a little careless and I’m so remember to do that. That’s all I, that’s really important to have that because you’ll enjoy it a lot more. You know, my kid’s biggest joke is, you know, there there’ve been a few times where I, I, we’re out there just getting in the hive and I tell them, I don’t worry about it. You’ll never get stung. And then that’s the time we’re all, you know, running through the yard, running from a B, trying to get at us. And, uh, we’ve had a few funny stories about that. And it’s, and usually it is just a, a funny story, but, um, but, you know, and the other question I get asked more really, it’s interesting, it more than about, hey, well I get stung. Um, and that is how much time does it take to keep a beehive?

Speaker 3: (27:34)
And really, you know, that’s the great thing. Bees can take care of themselves for the most part, but it really, you can spend as much time as you want. You can have a lot of fun and get into the hives regularly and keep learning and growing. Um, or you can leave, you know, yeah. Leave him alone and watch him once a month and make sure they have what they need and, and they’ll give you back, you know, hundred fold of what you put into it. And it’s just been such a fun, Eh, my kids love it. All my friends and neighbors know that I keep bees because I’d bring them honey. That’s really my reason for keeping them is I love to give the, you know, really, really great raw, pure local honey.

Speaker 2: (28:19)
Yeah. And you know, I actually bought my father in law, uh, uh, a beehive and helped him get set up and he loves it. And matter of fact, I’ll tell you, I didn’t tell you this, but I was over there last weekend and we were extracting honey and got, oh, I think we got a gallon and a half when it was all said and done. But um, and Carla was over there and Miranda was over there and they were all kind of hanging out by the pool while we were out there working on the bees. Well, I brought the top part of my bee suit, a pair of blue jeans, which by the way, they don’t really like dark dark colors. They attracted to which, so it’s not the best. This is a what not to do story and flip flops. And I thought to myself, you know, what’s the odds here?

Speaker 2: (29:06)
I’m just going to go out there, help him, it’ll be fine. And uh, you know, I’m well covered except for my feet. And you know, of course Carla said, listen, don’t, don’t get stung in the feet. You know, just find a pair of shoes, old shoes of a poppies and you’ll be fine. And I was, again, it’s good. And I took a towel out there and I just threw him over my feet just thinking, well, that would be enough. Well, sure enough, I got bit on the big toe, stung in the big toe. I mean, let me just tell you that they made fun of my foot, uh, that evening because of the, uh, how big my toe was for, for about a day and half.

Speaker 3: (29:45)
Hmm. Yeah. Well, you know, one thing I wanna mention is that not only is bee keeping one of the funnest hobbies you can have. And, and like I said, it’s, it’s one of the simplest, it’s very inexpensive and we never buy honey, by the way, because there’s no better honey than we get out of our, our backyard hives. But, you know, I’ve learned so much about God and how great his creation is. You know, one thing that’s amazing about bees is it’s the only insect on the planet that human beings have a relationship with. And that you can actually, you know, cultivate, I mean it’s, you know, you cultivate, uh, the beehive just like you would keep any other kind of, you know, a critter creature.

Speaker 2: (30:38)
Yeah, exactly. And you know, the fun thing too about something like that he had and, and I think a garden is similar. Um, but it’s such a great time and great experience and you’re going to be looking for those things as a dad that you can connect with your kids with and you can help them be responsible with. And you look for those, those things that they can take ownership of and you can, you can learn together through that experience. And they love that doing what they love, doing that with dad. They love learning and understanding things with them and showing off what they’ve learned on their own and maybe even teaching you a thing or two and that’s happened numerous times and you just can’t, uh, get that kind of experience without engaging in some of these types of things. And beekeeping is one of those that you can do it and you can do it right at home and everybody can be involved in some level or another and really have a great family bonding experience over it.

Speaker 3: (31:38)
Um, and it’s one of those unique things, you know, I, I like, like you said, there’s, there’s so many activities to be involved in and you know, there’s a lot of things you can do together. We do lots of other things as a family and hiking and, and go to the movies and, but you’ll, it, beekeeping is one of those very unique hobbies. You’ll, you’ll meet very few people in your life, but you can pass it on your kids. And I guarantee you that my kids, when they get married and have kids beekeeping’s going to be in as something that they’re going to want their kids to experience.

Speaker 2: (32:14)
And they love being able to say something unique about themselves. Everybody likes to have a unique story and you can help them have one of those unique stories. Um, and, and like you said, we’re involved in all kinds of stuff too. And soccer and basketball. And all the other good fun things you can do, but then when they bring up beekeeping, all of a sudden everybody’s very interested in it. And there’s something neat about that for your kids to be able to experience that and share that. Hmm.

Speaker 3: (32:40)
Yeah. Well, and you know, like you said, as the listeners, you know, uh, get a chance to, they can go out to the, the website, check out the show notes and check out some of the resources. There are tons and tons of resources at, like I said, we’ll put the link for the backyard beekeeper by, uh, Kim flawed, um, which is a great book, its subtitle and an absolute beginners guide to keeping bees in your yard. And, uh, it’ll be, it’ll be a great read for you if you really want to want to get into it.

Speaker 2: (33:12)
And we’ll put some pictures of our own hives and actually have a time lapse video of Chandler putting together the, the, the, uh, hives. Um, cause it was a father’s day gift last year for poppy.