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Bees and Beekeeping in Kentucky
104 Plays2 years ago
In this episode, we have a special guest, Mercer County Extension Horticulture Agent Jessica Bessin, who joins us to talk about bees and beekeeping. Jessica shares her passion and expertise on how to start and maintain a healthy hive, what are the benefits of keeping bees for pollination and honey production, and what are some of the challenges and solutions for beekeepers in our region. Tune in to learn more about these amazing insects and how you can help them thrive in your backyard or on your farm.
Kentucky State Beekeeping Association
Beginning Beekeeping For Kentuckians
The Kentucky Beekeeper's Calendar
Kentucky Beekeeper Associations by County
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Horticulture, where a group of extension professionals and plant people talk about the business, production, and joy of planting seeds and helping them grow. Join us as we explore the culture of horticulture.
Meet Jessica Betson
00:00:17
Speaker
What is up? We are back and we are back with a guest with a temporary, uh, transplant, uh, known as Jessica Betson. And I'm so pumped to have her here because we are brunette gals and I am no longer competing with the bald boys. So, uh, what Jessica? Thank you, brunette power, right? It doesn't have to match my office. I'm the only like brunette in my entire office. So that works.
00:00:46
Speaker
I love it how it's like, you and I are the opposite of Brett and Josh, who Brett, you will not hear his sultry voice on today, but he will be with us soon. But he, Josh and Brett are bald boys and we are long-haired brunette girls, so polar opposite of that. And I'm over here, I must be the so long, the lost boy. I'm the only lost boy over here.
00:01:08
Speaker
Well, you are, as we know, Peter Pan, right? Yeah, there you go. There you go. I'm the blonde boy. So we got to have titles and marketing taglines. It's all about marketing, baby. Communication and marketing. It is. And promoting the brand. I haven't heard from any
Podcast Content and Personal Passions
00:01:24
Speaker
of you guys. I saw some of you guys. I saw actually all of you guys that are on the podcast today at Fruit and Veggie Conference and got to catch up with you guys a little bit. But it seems like I've not been with you guys in this setting in a while. It's been a little while.
00:01:38
Speaker
It has. I hope you all enjoyed our little mini episodes that we had over the break. Josh talked about Japan and Ray talked about non-forest products.
Toddlers and Pokémon Analogy
00:01:50
Speaker
So we'll have a few more of those for you guys of just like our weird, maybe not weird, mind's weird passion, like weirdness that we don't necessarily need a whole big episode on because with the rabbit holes we would go down.
00:02:04
Speaker
The minis are fun. So, you know, check that out. I have from my fountain of weirdness, as Ray likes to call it, I learned about this really random and I'm not going to say it correctly. And I found it on a particular social media app that, oh my God, I wish, you know, I wish Netflix would have more of the Pokemon episodes on.
00:02:28
Speaker
Hashtag millennial because i don't have all of the pokemon on netflix they have like one season and it's not fair and i want the rest of them gotta watch them all i recently saw a post where they compare like if you have a toddler that's like the closest you're ever gonna get to like having your actual pokemon because like
00:02:46
Speaker
You can't find them, you're looking for them. You can't like understand them, right? And it was like this whole comparison of like, yeah, it's like they love you, but at the same time, like they could destroy things if you want to do that. You've got your very own take up. It was like a whole comparison to them. And I was like, I have two Pokemons right now. How cool is that? I never thought of it like that. But yeah, yeah. Having a previous toddler that's now 10 years old, but when he was a toddler, he was totally a Pokemon.
00:03:15
Speaker
I love this way of flipping the script on WayWeThink. I saw a funny video where this girl was like, don't think of it as dusting or cleaning. Think of it as you removing bad
Jessica's Entomology and Beekeeping Journey
00:03:28
Speaker
intentions from around, and you could use your moon water, and she was getting all witchy with it. It was just like...
00:03:34
Speaker
She was like, and you can clean that off. You're just going to clean away those bad intentions. You're going to put down some good ascension oils. What are you feeling? I just felt really in my witch era in that moment. It's like, heck yeah, I'm going to go clean now.
00:03:51
Speaker
I'm not feeling the same motivation. I'm not feeling it. I imbibe my house with good intentions. I see it as removing potential soil that might be soil in the future, so I feel a little guilty by removing all that dust layers. Eventually, that would make soil given enough time.
00:04:08
Speaker
See, it's dirt when it's in your house. Okay. That's the difference here. Dirt, we sweep under the rug, soil is what your plants go in, right? So don't confuse it. How do we get from Pokemon to dusting? One's a fun topic and one's painful. I mean, how do we do this? Well, I don't know, but we are talking about a fun topic today. We are. Yeah. And so if you read the show title, you already know what it's about, but our good friend Jessica is here to talk about
00:04:31
Speaker
beekeeping with us. Just very basic level. If any of you are out there and you're expert beekeepers, we're going to give you a little bit of side eye because as we know, beekeeping, you learn something new every year, but we've got Jessica on. Jessica, tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, why you like bees, and we already know you have Pokemon. What else? Yes. Two Pokemon. I work in Mercer County in Harrisburg. That's close right next door to where Alexis is at.
00:05:01
Speaker
in Boyle County. Also, another horticulture agent. I've been giving bees myself for 10 years. I have a degree in entomology, so got really into insects. A master's degree, people. Don't let her put that down. It's a master's degree in entomology.
00:05:25
Speaker
Yes and then stumbled into beekeeping also mostly because my husband and his family do beekeeping because I had never been around it before and then I was like oh my gosh this is amazing like this is so cool. Did that seal the deal with your husband? I mean did that just Jessica totally sealed the deal when you found out they had bees?
00:05:42
Speaker
So with that and the fact that he's a little younger than me, and he could still get me UK basketball tickets, and I would go to the games as a student, even though I wasn't a student. That's a nice person. Yeah, so I got to see the 2012 championship. Bees and basketball. Oh my gosh, you didn't see the championship. Wow. That's still the deal. I didn't go to that, but I got to watch them play all season with student tickets. Amazing. Amazing. Jessica, we could have stayed next to each other and never knew.
00:06:11
Speaker
Never knew. Look at that. Part of the hive. Cross paths multiple times to finally get here, where we are. But bees are awesome. They do so
Understanding Beehive Structure
00:06:23
Speaker
much for us. How many hives do you have, Jessica? We have 16 hives right now. It fluctuates based on how many swarms we'll get in the spring, because that's one of the big things. We look forward to swarms.
00:06:39
Speaker
Yeah, it fluctuates that way. And depending on how the winter goes as well, see how many we have coming out of the winter. And like a question to clarify, like what constitute a hive? Is that like you have 16 queens with like their own hives? What's happening?
00:06:55
Speaker
Yeah, so each hive will have a queen in it, and it'll also have full of worker bees. I mentioned earlier when we were talking about this in advance, you guys could do a whole almost year of podcasts. A whole podcast, yeah. Beekeeping alone because within your hive, you have your queen bee who rules everything with
00:07:15
Speaker
Fair moans and all different things. That's really cool. And then all the worker bees that come out which are all female Because they're you know, the females are getting the work done This podcast
00:07:32
Speaker
As you know, they emerge out and as different, they age differently. They like have different jobs. Like when they first come out, they're like cleaning bees. And then after that, they're like nurse bees and they do all like, there's undertaker bees who like remove all the dead bodies out. And it's like, they have all. Throw away their dead sisters. Yeah.
00:07:52
Speaker
I was imagining WWE, like wrestling, the Undertaker bees like finishing moves and stuff. And then they have drones too, which are the males. And they're just kind of there to chill. Try to meet with the queen and then get booted out by the group of nuns. I've heard beekeepers refer to them. Like they
Challenges in Beekeeping
00:08:19
Speaker
have a, you know,
00:08:19
Speaker
It's a group of nuns that they have in their beehive. That's all in a hive. All the different workers, their little system trying to think the right word to say. Beecheaping is a lot of work. You personally, Jessica, I know that that's your background and even your formal degrees.
00:08:39
Speaker
But it's a lot of work, takes a lot of time to be involved in beekeeping. What brings you personally into beekeeping? Do you have crops that they need to pollinate there locally or honey that comes off of those? What's your biggest motivator other than the fact that bees are really awesome?
00:08:54
Speaker
For us, it's the honey production, right? So getting to enjoy just honey and or using the other products or using honey and making cream honey or using the beeswax to make soap and different things like that.
00:09:11
Speaker
having, like they said, the pollination, growing produce, having them there to help pollinate things is great, but mostly the honey production. And I think that's a lot of people, you know, they want them, they want them so they can get some honey. There is a lot that goes into bees. So expensive. And it's so expensive. That's, that's a good example, right? Yeah. That's like one of the number one things. We're very expensive, but I think a lot of people think like, I'm going to get myself some bees. I'm going to put them out there and then I'm going to get some honey.
00:09:41
Speaker
And that'll be it. There's nothing in between. Have you ever watched Winnie the Pooh? That's exactly how it happens. Yeah. And there's so, so much more. Cause I feel like I'm always learning something and I have failed miserably over the years, but if anyone's listening out there and they think like, I want to do B's, but I keep failing, it's okay. Cause most of us lose hives a lot in the beginning. And sometimes you can do everything correct. And then you go out and you lose hives. Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:09
Speaker
But then once you get that hands-on experience and know what to look for, it suddenly clicks and then you're able to like, you're like, oh my gosh, I kept this hive alive and now I got 10 gallons of honey, right?
00:10:25
Speaker
I find that beekeepers, once you get started, they'll start with, which I think it's great that when I've worked with local beekeepers, I always encourage them to get a few hives. If you only have one hive and you lose that one hive, then you have to start all over. You can't do a nuke and then requeen and all this. But I find that beekeepers, once they get into it, it's kind of like what you just mentioned, it's awesome. Once you see a few cycles, they'll start out with eight, 10 hives. And we have some beekeepers here that started with eight or 10 hives.
00:10:50
Speaker
Every time they divide, they get a chance to divide. They'll make a nuke or they will start a new hive body and now they're 20, 30 instead of eight or 10 like they said they were going to cut themselves off at. Yeah, they love it. It's people that are beekeepers and they've been beekeepers for a while. I find that they're pretty passionate about it.
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah, and Alexis and I just did a really cool beekeeping program between our two counties. And we had our state apiarist Tammy Horn-Potter come and talk with classes. She's awesome, yeah. Yeah, she's so awesome. That was one thing she suggested. She's like, new beekeeper should never start out with one hive. You should at least start out with three. She's like, because you're going to lose one.
00:11:34
Speaker
And that was her first thing, you know, everybody shocked faces of like, I don't want to lose a high, but she's like, I learned that the hard way. Yeah. I was one of those that started out with one. I was like, Ooh, that's too expensive. Have at least three, preferably four. So if you lose a couple, no big deal.
00:11:47
Speaker
Yeah. She's like, you'll lose one. One will probably be struggling or weak and one will survive. And then hopefully you'll learn, you know, these different skills from different beekeepers or bee clubs of like, okay, I have a weak hive. What do I do with it? Do I combine it with a strong hive? Do I requeen it? Do I, you know, what, what can I do to help, um, help this hive get strong again? So she always recommends people starting out with at least three. And that is.
00:12:12
Speaker
you know, if you can afford the equipment because the equipment is quite expensive. And then if you are going to purchase bees, if you're going to purchase packaged bees or if you're going to purchase a nuc of bees and a nuc of bees is like we're going to get on where they have the queen and some brood and bees already with them. Or are you going to try to catch swarms? Because that's a huge thing. And especially in my county, we have a very large beekeeping group and we will always have a full lesson
00:12:42
Speaker
on catching swarms and swarm traps and we'll have guys come back to our meeting in May or so and they'll be like, how many swarms do you get? And like, I've had the guys say that they've caught like 20 something swarms in a spring or even higher with these swarm traps that they put out to catch bees that way.
00:13:06
Speaker
I noticed that as the price of sworn... Years ago, I remember when a three pound package of bees was $50, and now what's the average price? Just curious of like a package of bees. It's much more. We just talked about this the other day because of our bee class that we did. One of our local beekeepers here is doing a nuke of bees for $165, and I think that's on the lower end.
00:13:29
Speaker
Cause there's other ones that are expensive and just to be some sales, but I'm kind of getting us off topic a little bit here. I know Jessica, you have, um, you have a lot of experience with your local beekeeping club and you guys have what monthly meetings, uh, with your local group there. Yeah. So you, you, you.
00:13:47
Speaker
see and talk to and field a lot of questions from your local beekeepers. But it's now January and one of the most common questions I know we get from our local beekeepers, people start to get interested for whatever reason this time of year. I think it's all the catalogs coming into people's homes. It's like must be laced with something.
00:14:04
Speaker
that just makes them addicted to saying I'm going to be a beekeeper this year. It's something about seeds and bees. But we get people that want to start this time of year. You get those types of questions, you know, people wanting to get started and kind of how do you feel those questions and how do you start people off on the right track getting started with bees and becoming beekeepers?
Starting in Beekeeping
00:14:28
Speaker
Yeah. So normally like, if someone calls the office and they're like, Hey, I want to keep bees. I don't know where to begin. I usually recommend first thing I'm like, come to our bee club. Oh, perfect. Yeah. Wherever you are. Is there a close bee club? Because what you're going to find there are people who have experience from never being around a beehive at all to people who I, we have a guy here in a County who has well over a hundred hives and has been keeping bees because he was a kid.
00:14:54
Speaker
And I have said there are several of them. I have been keeping these since they were children. And you know, that is so valuable, that experience and the things that they have seen because as we already mentioned, they don't follow the rules, right? They don't, you know, they're not following things in the book, weather changes, all of that can affect things. But that's usually what I get to start with. Go to a B club, go to a B school because
00:15:20
Speaker
that's gonna, and depending on the time of year when they're asking, like if they're asking now, kind of go over like what we've already talked about, like, okay, things are expensive, right? Like, you know, you have to have a place to put the bees. But really, you probably want to have protective clothing. I mean, my father-
00:15:40
Speaker
he does not wear he does not wear any bee suits or anything for a while when I first started beekeeping there was a lot of pressure to be like oh no they're not wearing stuff yeah yeah he says they know his sense his smell which apparently is a thing um but
00:15:58
Speaker
You know what, I have dark colored hair and you think about what to be a bear or a mama bear. They would attack my head all the time, which is not fun. Or if you have a watch on or anything dark, they're going to go after. Yeah. So I, at least I wear gloves and a beat coat.
00:16:18
Speaker
And it's usually just jeans with mine when I go work bees. I'm a baby. When I had a man, I had the Rob Mount African beekeeping special bee suit that had zip and Velcro. Like it was, it was stinging proof, but I was never stung in that suit. I was doing hive inspections in the county at the time. And I had like the, the Cadillac, I did not want to be stung. I was not one of those that enjoyed the feel of a stinger going to my flesh from time to time.
00:16:45
Speaker
Yes, that's the way my brain translated it. And you will get stung if you keep bees. And if you get the Cadillac, you are going to get stung. It'll happen. Is this a good time to talk about EpiPens while we're driving here? Because I don't know what the state of that is. And that was a random question. But I usually encourage my folks. I mean, you might not be allergic today, but is it possible? I mean, it's good practice just to have a pen, I guess, on hand. Is that the case? I think so. I think you have to.
00:17:13
Speaker
You have to get it prescribed. Yeah, I'm not for sure how that works. I was thinking the same thing, Jessica, that now it has to be a prescription. Maybe if you have them in a high traffic area.
00:17:26
Speaker
But that's, you know, that's something to consider too. Like if you're thinking about getting bees, are you allergic to bees? And if you've never been allergic before, it doesn't mean you're not allergic now. My brother was highly, my older brother was highly allergic. And when he would come over, I just, and my bees were off the back deck of my home. I always just kept one. It's always on the, at the top of my mind with beekeepers, just because he was one of those that would go into shock within like 30 seconds, you know?
00:17:50
Speaker
So we always had to keep a pin around. But yeah, so it's January. You just encouraged people to, which I think is awesome advice to join a local beekeeping club. Or if you don't have a local and you can call around and find out. I know
00:18:05
Speaker
Even if you don't have one in the county, is there some regional based ones, Jessica, that we have in central? I mean, right now we're talking mainly about the central part of the state, but there's other regional associations on other parts of the state. The Kentucky State Beekeepers. That's kind of still near where we're at in Frankfort, but I know they're in Western Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky as well. And just the Bee Schools are so important too, because a lot of those Bee Schools will give you like
00:18:30
Speaker
I mean, it'll be like an all day thing, but it's just a brief overview, but then that can give you an idea of like, do I really want to do this? You know, or like, if people are on the fence about it, I like tell them like, you know, wait another year. I know that may sound terrible. Like, cause you're like really excited about it. Like come to a B club for a year and see, you know, what they're talking about. See, cause like we haven't even mentioned about like,
00:18:54
Speaker
You know, you need the equipment, right? And if you actually want to extract honey, how are you going to get that honey out? So there's equipment for that. And like, how much do you want to invest? Or like our bee club here, if you become a member, we have equipment you can borrow, right? But then we also get into treatment for mice, other pests, because that's going back to like, I'm just going to get bees and put them out. And then they're like, well, I got honey one year, and then they all died.
00:19:24
Speaker
Like what, why are they, you know, well, did you treat them for mites? Cause basically you're going to have to treat for mites, whether it be, you know, a traditional treatment, organic treatment, something you're going to have to do something. That's a super common past. Yeah. The first to say like, I saw a major difference. And I was like, if it was just me and I was, you know, gaining skills, but also at the same time it correlated when I started being like, I need to be more aggressive about treating for mites. That's when my hives that I just had, um,
00:19:54
Speaker
in my backyard started surviving and booming. And I think, I know Alexis, I think saw the picture of me staying next to my hive that I had to stand on the stepladder to get to the top of it. But those things, you know, thinking about like, oh, I got a treat. And what else, you know, other things you're going to invest in. There was something else on the tip of my tongue that I was going to say with bees as well that you got to think about.
00:20:20
Speaker
Well, I know that when you join a bee club, you can meet beekeepers in whatever form or fashion. A lot of the time they'll let you shadow them and you can come over and work bees with them and they'll point out, hey, this is what brood looks like. Or, oh no, this isn't good. The queen is up in the honey cells. There's so much to it that is hands-on experience. If you wait that year to do that, you can
00:20:48
Speaker
Most, most beekeepers I have met and Jessica knows way more than I do, but the ones that I know are always more than happy for like you to come out because they need the help. It's always easier to work beehives when you have another person. And so you also get to learn and experience that so that you will have successful year when you're spending, you know, I mean, 400 or $500 just to get your bees.
00:21:10
Speaker
Like your very first beehives and it's recommended, right? Tammy sends three to five for your first year. Like it's recommended to have more than one. So, you know, it can get really expensive and then you can borrow gear from them and trade back and forth. They can help you with your hives. So, um, I've had a lot of new beekeepers and I send them all to Jessica's bee group because they're so wonderful and I'm like, go, they will help you. I do not know that many things, but they, they know it all.
00:21:36
Speaker
It's so important for them to be with other people that can kind of give, I mean, it's one thing to read books and there's lots of awesome YouTube videos by other extension universities out there on, you know, beekeeping series, but it seems to be so much more helpful for people to actually sit down with an existing beekeeper or if they're really, really lucky to go out to the bee yard and kind of get into hives and suit up, wear all the awesome protective gear. I'm gonna give that another plug.
00:22:02
Speaker
but it's actually go out and experience that. Another thing that when people give me a call, sometimes in March or in April, they're like, well, we want to get our package of bees. Jessica, are they going to have good luck if they wait? I mean, that's another issue. When are people having to order bees? I'm finding out that it's kind of important to plan ahead in that aspect too. If you have everything else ready, but you have not yet ordered your bees, how does that work?
00:22:26
Speaker
Yeah, so right now is the time people are placing orders for bees. We always usually, I mean, you can buy the package bees, like you said, and that's like, you're depending on them to create their own queen and everything, which is a little slower start. They cost less, right? Versus a nuke of bees they're going to get. That's going to give you those frames with brood on there and everything. And that established that queen.
00:22:50
Speaker
But a lot of them are placing orders right now to get them in either late April going into May. And right now we're talking January. Sorry. If you're listening to this at a different time, January is when you want to order your bees. Yes. Thanks Alexis. Yeah. So a lot of times I tell people if they've already.
00:23:08
Speaker
You know, if they're not a hundred percent sure on the system they want to use because, um, which system they're going to use or what they're doing, you know, maybe just wait. Um, or they might have already passed that like deadline to order at that point, but then there's still the opportunity of catching a swarm and whether that be like.
00:23:26
Speaker
As I mentioned before, like I have some guys in our group that catch like 20 plus swarms every year. And some of them will end up selling swarms a lot of times because they're just always wonderful, nice people that have like, they're like the best.
00:23:40
Speaker
the beekeepers are. And a lot of times if they know it's somebody new who is starting off and you have been like working with them, like as a mentor, they will often not say everybody will do this, but oh, I have more than enough bees, right? And would you like this swarm? Or they could catch extra swarms and give them to people that way? Or if they've split a hive because a hive is, you know, you can tell when a beehive is getting ready to swarm. So that's another like,
00:24:05
Speaker
you know, tool to use, like when you get that hands on experience, you're able to go in your hive and see like, Oh my gosh, there's queen cells forming. Okay. Like they're, they're bumping up really quickly. I need to split this hive or do something or they're going to get ready to swarm. And, um, they'll, they'll take off and you're usually your weaker, your weaker hive will be left behind and you're stronger, you know, queen.
00:24:29
Speaker
will leave with majority of the bees. But when they do swarm, and if you're able to catch one, they're actually super docile to get them. That is a few times when I have not had bee equipment on and have assisted with, here, hold this box while I knock a few bees in it.
00:24:48
Speaker
And you rarely ever get stung because their bellies are full of honey and they're just trying to find, they're trying to protect their queen. They're very chill. Yeah. And they're just trying to get to their new location. They're like Josh after he's had a big lunch. They're just trying to find where they're supposed to be. One point in my career, I used to just carry a box around in my truck. I had a screen wire, a box, and then I carried a staple gun. Cause I was convenient to her. If I was lucky driving along, I would find a low hanging lamb. I'd go and had low.
00:25:17
Speaker
you know, clipper and I would clip it and drop it in the box and stable and go home with it. So I used to just carry a box in the truck at certain times of the year. So yeah, that's, we're talking about ordering bees, you know, of course you need to know what you're doing, have everything set up, all of your gear, wood and wear, protective clothing, all of that stuff.
00:25:34
Speaker
having talked to local beekeepers and you're ready to get these. Some sources, Jessica, is there only national sources or local sources here in the state? Because I think that's a big benefit if you're lucky and live close to a supply house, you can go and actually look around. That's super helpful. I know that the internet's a great place to order things, but if you're lucky and live close enough, I guess there's some benefit to that. But how about like sources? I know local folks, maybe even some sources there for nukes and things.
00:26:04
Speaker
Yeah. So we have, there's a couple of different bee companies in the States. Um, one that's really popular is Daydant and they are based out of Frankfurt. Uh, one of them, another one that's in Moorhead is Honey Bee Connection. Uh, and I don't know if Kelly's Ease is still, that was out for Western Kentucky. Um, they're still in business or not, but there are some of like the larger suppliers that are kind of spread out across the state that you have, but then.
00:26:32
Speaker
connecting with a lot of these local beekeepers. So a lot of those guys, not only are they raising bees just for honey production, they're raising them to actually sell nukes of bees. Or they're raising queens to sell because there are some people that just raise bees so they can raise queens and sell queens to people. And a queen
00:26:56
Speaker
will run you a couple hundred dollars now as well, depending on what you're getting, where you're getting. And you'll also hear, you know, for supplies with bees, bees wise, a lot of times in our bee club,
00:27:09
Speaker
you know, some of these orders of bees that you'll place with some of these companies, the bees are actually coming from like Georgia. They're coming from further south, you know, because they're, you know, they're able to get them ready sooner. But it is showing that there's a little more hardiness in bees if you can get them local, right? Because they're acclimated to our environment. And that makes sense. But yeah, there's definitely lots of beekeepers out there who end up selling nukes locally for purchase.
00:27:38
Speaker
So there's a lot of places that both nationally and locally and it's good. That's another good reason to attend your local beekeeping meetings. If you have a local association is to find out who has supplies that you could purchase. And although another good source is you can
00:27:53
Speaker
purchase like woodenware and things like that but there's some things to watch out there if you get into not not now we're not talking about bees per se but we're talking about the supplies to support them like the woodenware do you have anybody selling stuff like that like used Jessica I know you kind of have to be careful there you have to watch for some things because that stuff's so expensive there's a big market for the used woodenware but there's just some things to watch out for in there occasionally we'll have people who are like what I can't be keep anymore because yeah
00:28:22
Speaker
It's, it's also, you know, it's really heavy to move that stuff around and you know, I don't have the help anymore or, um, or they bought a farm and all this beekeeping supplies was left behind, you know, kind of thing. Um, you know, most of the time it's okay, but there's a few times like you want to be careful with, there are certain diseases that can get
00:28:45
Speaker
And you can see signs on some of the bee equipment. There'll be certain droppings or markings on it that might be a red flag to use that bee equipment. But most of the time, it's good once cleaned up. I know some beekeepers will make their own frames. We had a demo by one of our beekeepers who he makes this entire
00:29:11
Speaker
all of his frames, which has saved him a lot of money in the long run. And it goes on and shows about how to install the foundation, which is kind of low.
00:29:24
Speaker
It's the foundation for the bees to build their beeswax out on. So the bees don't have to work as hard to create a complete beeswax to fill with honey. This foundation is already there and they can just build off of it. So it cuts down on their work. So they're not putting all their time and energy just to building wax.
00:29:44
Speaker
to focus more on honey. Which is another benefit of waiting that year. You can gain experience and if you're crafty or trying to save on some funds, you can spend a year building your hives if you wanted to do that. I've had some people who kind of are on restricted income and that's what they've done. They dedicate 10% of their social security check or something and they buy supplies and so in a year they have
00:30:12
Speaker
enough to go through. And I mean, that always sucks. Like Jessica said, like when you're really excited, but in this case, when you're dealing with like a live animal that has taken a lot.
00:30:22
Speaker
money and there's a lot that goes into that, it almost behooves you to spend that year finding places and then you make friends, maybe you get a free swarm or you join a beekeeper association, you can rent out and borrow a lot of those things that you don't have to spend money on by spending five, 10, 20 bucks to join the beekeeper club. The extraction equipment is awesome that local clubs have, yeah.
00:30:49
Speaker
Yeah. And so I'll have swarm list, right? So like,
00:30:53
Speaker
You get calls all the time. I'm like, Hey, there's a swarm of bees on this or that. And we have a list and like people sign up for it. And we had to start going to the list. Do you want the swarm? Yes or no. Okay. And then move on to the next person and tell the location of it. And then that's how a lot of people get bees in the spring as well. But that hands-on experience is so important. Like you can read and read and read. So you like do it, you know, it suddenly like click and make sense about what people are talking about that they're looking at or you look for in certain hives.
00:31:23
Speaker
Let's say they've been through a couple of years, a beekeeper has, they've done a good job. They've met with their local producers or beekeepers and they've gotten their, their, their hive bodies are really heavy. They've got some honey in there and they're going to extract that. It's another common question that I get Jessica because people that are interested in selling honey, do you, do you know the, like the basic process, like people are always worried about labeling and stuff where they can go for more information on how to label and, and sell honey.
00:31:54
Speaker
Yeah. So a good place to look for all that is the farmer's market manual that KDA puts out.
00:32:02
Speaker
They have the exact example of what all the labels should look like and it has like down so it's like it needs to be intend font and it has to say Like raw strain honey or just like raw honey because once you get over I just looked at this yesterday So makes me feel like I'm you know on top of numbers and stuff. It's like over a hundred and fifty gallons of honey, which is like close to 1800 pounds I want to think it says
00:32:28
Speaker
Um, that's when you have to you get bumped up into like that commercial. Oh, gotcha. And that's more requirements. I imagine. Yes, that's when the honey has to be like processed in a certain like facility and things like that. But as far otherwise,
00:32:44
Speaker
It's uncapping it, making sure that it's labeled your ingredient honey is on there, your address where you're getting it from. Things get weird sometimes with people labeling saying like, this is clover honey, this is this honey, this is that honey. These bees travel over two miles away from their hives.
00:33:08
Speaker
Kentucky State Beekeepers Association has the Kentucky Honey Program, like the Kentucky Proud Program, and certifying that this honey is from Kentucky, that if they were to pull that honey off the shelf and test the pollen in it, they can do that. They can see that it's actually coming from plants in our area.
00:33:30
Speaker
But all that information about labeling and bottling can all be found in the Kentucky farmer's market manual that KDA puts out here, which I think they're coming up with an updated one.
00:33:43
Speaker
They should be releasing an updated one this year. OK, I didn't know if we were on the release cycle for that, which I love that manual for, of course, farmers markets. But it's got all this other great information, like what the information that you just now mentioned. And it is always surprising. I mean, it's just super simple to really put a label on there. And I encourage beekeepers, even if you're just keeping that for home, it's great if you want to get in the habit of putting that label on there for home. Even if you happen to sell that, it's ready to go. Just go ahead and do that.
00:34:13
Speaker
But the extractor, we have one of those at the house, it's used a lot. So that's always a popular question, you know, and people are always surprised that if they're smaller beekeepers, how simple and straightforward, once they read those few pages in the farmer's market manual, that they can quickly come up with a label and have a legal for sale product if they're especially if they're a smaller beekeeper under that level that you mentioned, Jessica. So yeah, yeah, really good question.
Honey Production Process
00:34:39
Speaker
But is there like a seasonality to the harvest window of
00:34:42
Speaker
when you can get honey? Is there certain times of the year that you can't or shouldn't? Yeah, that's a great question. Depending on how warm our spring gets and what's flowering, you can get some really early. I had a beekeeper when you get some honey that was almost clear looking. He was able to harvest really early.
00:35:02
Speaker
It was all the maples and stuff that were blooming, like the trees they were producing. Most of the time you see spring honey, it's going to be a little bit lighter, and that's going to be a lot of our white clover, our locust honey that we have. Locust honey, I love that. You'll see fall honey, and I have quotations like, when I fall honey, and that's really late summer honey.
00:35:24
Speaker
It's darker because you gotta be cautious with going in and harvesting anything later like when they're working goldenrod or asters and stuff actually in the fall because you don't want to deplete them. So a lot of the beekeepers I know rarely harvest anything after August.
00:35:44
Speaker
Because that's also when it starts the time of mite treating, treating for mites. And once you get some of those mite treatments on, you can't use that honey off of there. And then you also come August, you want to start already, it seems crazy, but you're already preparing for winter. You need to leave enough food back for them and you need to start feeding them. Because I don't think I mentioned that either, that you need to start feeding bees somewhat in the fall to get them through the winter. You leave enough for them.
00:36:11
Speaker
About check their hives, they lift the back of them to check the weight of the hives to see how much is in those brood boxes, and then we'll start feeding them. And then we're actually, with Ray talking about January and stuff, people purchasing bees, but for the already established beekeeper, what's happening now is the hive is still active all winter.
00:36:35
Speaker
Technically, I've seen my bees out on some of these warmer days. They come out, they use the bathroom. You might see little yellow droplets on your car vehicle or something, and that's when they're waiting to get out of the hive. But they'll already start with the temperature fluctuation, the queen will start laying again. And so it gets really
00:36:55
Speaker
And I've lost bees before because of this too. You think we're in the clear come like March or so. A wild temperature swing. Yeah. And the bees get active, they eat all their food and then they don't, and then we'll get cold again and they won't have any food. So it's another really important time to start feeding again. So you have to like find those timelines to feed again and then know when to stop
00:37:18
Speaker
Because then you don't want to have bees who when we do have stuff flowering be like, eh, I ain't going out today because she's going to bring me some sugar water or she's going to bring me, you know, some treat. And I'm just going to eat that. Yeah. And not leave the hive. So, um,
00:37:34
Speaker
Yeah, I don't even know where I started with that. One of the things people love about beekeeping, it seems like, is it's the seasonality. And if you look online, I think, I forget who put out the Kentucky beekeeping calendar. We have two pieces of basic information that are pretty good through the extension service. One is the, has it been updated, Jessica, the Kentucky beekeeping calendar? I believe that comes out through Kentucky state.
00:37:57
Speaker
I forget. I don't think it has been. I don't think it has been. But it's a good starting point to see. Yeah, it is. To mark on your own calendar of like, okay, I should be looking for this right now with my beehives. And then we have the other, I forget the number of the publication, but it's the beginning beekeeping
00:38:16
Speaker
Manual for Kentucky and it's something that you can pick up at your local extension office. It's it has pretty good basic information That's two good local extension references, but Jessica to put you on the spot a little bit Are there some other good references online that you know of?
00:38:32
Speaker
Uh, it seems like a local beekeepers, they use like the American be that there's all these references, but like, what are some of your favorite? Um, like the honeybee health coalition. Yes. That's the one I was trying to think of. Yeah. And they have print materials. Yeah. That's the one Tammy showed us. That's what I was going to say. That's a good one.
00:38:54
Speaker
She showed us they have a really cool interactive, when should I treat my hives or mites? Because that's always a big question and everybody's system is a little different, right? And everybody like, I want to use chemicals. I don't want to use chemicals. I want, you know,
00:39:10
Speaker
And it's a cool interactive tool that you just like answer the questions and it's like, this is your time. It's like the work biz quiz, but yeah. Um, but that one, I know the university of Georgia has like B lab has a lot of information. I assume they have some stuff on YouTube maybe as well. Um, I can't remember. I've not looked at it in a while. There's, there's several good extension based series that are on YouTube, but I forget the specifics of those.
00:39:38
Speaker
And to plug the Kentucky State Beekeepers again, like on their website, they have a variety of links to different publications and other, you know, UK, but then other universities as well that have good resources. They have a good resource section on getting started with beekeeping. I've noticed that's pretty comprehensive. It's a really good collection of links to different, to different sources, but they're all pretty good sources. So. Jessica, where's the weirdest place you've ever been stung?
00:40:07
Speaker
Um, bring in the heat. I'm not even a warning shot across the bow. Full disclosure. I think I know the answer and it's funny. So I want to hear it. This is, this is a warning for new beekeepers. I, you know, do it, do it as I say, not as I do or whatever. Yes. Basically that, um,
00:40:29
Speaker
When they say like bees get, like my mother-in-law, I'm sure she'll appreciate me saying this, but when like a hive is hot or something, she'll always be like, those bees are pissy. And bees, bees get pissy when weather fronts move in.
00:40:45
Speaker
Don't ever get in a beehive, even though you're like, it's sunny now when you know storms and stuff are approaching. I did that one day, one day before work. I was like, I'm going to get in my beehives real quick and check because I feel like I need to add a super. And I was like, because I'll be working late, right? So I get in there, the weather is bad. And I'm like, I'm just going to peek in there real quick. And I didn't like suit up or anything.
00:41:09
Speaker
And they were not happy and they came out after me and one got me directly under the nose. And I did get to experience so that they have an alarm pheromone that's supposed to smell like banana. And I can tell you, it smells like banana. Really? I never experienced that. That's cool. I mean, I say it's cool at your expense, obviously. That was not a pleasant experience for you. I'm sure it was not.
00:41:33
Speaker
The other worst thing I ever had was between my eyes. They're really zeroing in on your face, Jessica. Yeah, face is bad. Yeah, so now I always wear my hood and my jacket. See? African bee suit. I mean, I don't know if they still make that thing, but it was designed for African beekeepers, which by the way, they do apparently when Rob Mountain was, I guess, State Ebbers a long time ago.
00:41:57
Speaker
and worked here in the state with some beekeeping stuff. They came up with that suit, but he was an African beekeeper, and those bees are very aggressive, and they designed very good gear, and that was my personal favorite. It was, to my experience, pretty much bee-proof, so I was checking my zippers, double, triple checking, but I was with Phil Kraft. He was a former state aparist several years ago. He was, you know, he was in that post. In the 1800s.
00:42:24
Speaker
Yes many many many moons ago when the bee was when i was with what actually this is not far off from that you guys this is a recent this was a repeat inspection this guy didn't have a road to his home and so we had to drive up because you did in the early eighteen no wagon wheel road we did they didn't even have that.
00:42:47
Speaker
Yes, it was many moons ago. But the guy had the most docile, beautiful yellow bees up this hollow at the head of the hollow. We loved going up here and making visits because he had a couple of beehives that were in hollow sycamore lofts. We loved visiting this guy and he was an amazing beekeeper. But just as demonstration purposes, he had these gentle bees and he had a couple of hives in hollow, he called them his old bee gums. But they were always so gentle, but you mentioned bees
00:43:13
Speaker
can have an attitude, well, Phil Kraft didn't suit up. Of course I did. I've got my arm around. I look like a knife from the 1800s, truly, from King Arthur's court. Well, Phil goes up there, and he's so used to these bees, and they're used to him, and they just ate him up. He got stings all over. Well, it turns out there was a bear in there two days ago, and the guy forgot to mention that, and the bees were still very upset. That was in the Eastern Mountains.
00:43:35
Speaker
And their bear had just destroyed a couple of his hives. And the bees apparently had not settled down. So you just never know when you go into the hives. And Bea was, or Phil was like, did you re-queen these? These are the same yellow looking bees, the real gentle bees. He said, but they're really angry today. And he started questioning the guy. And the guy's like, oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys. The bees are really angry right now, still. So yeah, when you go in without a suit on, you might get stung on the nose and smell bananas. So.
00:44:03
Speaker
Yes, my worst nightmare happened at my office this past year, because we've had bees at our office for like six years. And they suddenly, as again,
00:44:15
Speaker
They got pissy and were like going after people in our park, in our back, like where we park, an employee. So the bee club like came in the cover of darkness. They removed them and they were like, okay, they're queenless, right? They don't have a queen. So they get like real mad because they're like, we don't have a leader, right? So they took them away and then they moved them to a different location.
00:44:37
Speaker
out in the front of our building, but way down the driveway, not close to the door at all. The beekeepers got in them one day, and little did we know that there was also going to be a 4-H event, that after that. Way not even close to the door.
00:44:55
Speaker
All of a sudden these children are just yelling and screaming and parents are yelling and people are running and bees are coming in the building. And it was just one of those moments where you just did that. You stand there and you're just like, no, nothing can be done. You're like, I can't go shake the feed bucket and be like, come on.
00:45:19
Speaker
Once they get in, once they get in, they get riled up. I guess it takes a hot minute for them to become unriled. I feel like I'm a bee. That's how I am. I'm mad at that. You may be a bee. You guys may be the bee brunettes, the bee nets. I don't know what you guys are, but yeah. Bee nets. You stay riled up for a little while, but bees are just so fascinating to me. There's all this mystery and kind of folklore surrounding beekeeping. That's part of the fun for me is
00:45:45
Speaker
You know, and it is always something new with bees and it's a cyclical seasonal sort of thing. And not only that, but you get this kind of ancient shelf stable sort of awesome food product out of it too. Never goes bad. Yeah, it's amazing. They found like honey and tombs and you can still eat it. It's still decent. You know, they've done run tests on it and they're like, wow, you could eat this stuff now and it's fine.
00:46:06
Speaker
I just don't understand. Like it's the coolest thing. I don't scientifically understand. It's with enzymes and you know, make it sound so romantic.
00:46:20
Speaker
It's so cool. I should also say that everyone in my office is fine with bees coming back, even with our traumatic experience, just FYI. The bee apocalypse. Because most of the time, you know, not trying to scare people away from bees. Most of the time, they're very nice, friendly, friendly little bees.
00:46:37
Speaker
Well, if they're, if they're, what is it? Cause you can get different, um, like Italian bees and Russian bees. And, uh, for the little dark bees, they've got an attitude. The, uh, um, beekeeper that I was helping, she got a new, uh, a new nuke, uh, one year and I got stung more that year than I ever have. And I was like, what is with this time? And she's like, Oh, don't mind them. Those are those Russian bees. They're mean.
00:47:07
Speaker
Yeah, they're supposed to be more aggressive. That's not picking on Russia. That's just like they are of, that's where they're from. Yeah, that's their strain. And so more like aggressive to Varroa mites. More hygienic. Yeah, more hygienic and can fight off Varroa mites. It's interesting that they have their own, they do. Each hive has its own personality, but you got to watch banking on that because once they've re-queen, I guess the personality can change.
00:47:33
Speaker
It's a new administration. That's a good way to put it, Josh. That's perfect. But I've made some assumptions about like that. I had weaver bees in the past and I had coronavian crosses and, you know, pretty gentle bees that I was used to, but I learned very quickly that if they re-queen and I didn't realize they re-queen from a random queen that came in or whatever, the genetics get switched up very quickly and they can have a different attitude towards me. They're going to be cranky bees. Yeah, they could be the cranky.
00:47:59
Speaker
All right, so just to kind of sum some of this up and help me out because if I've missed anything.
Beekeeping Essentials Summary
00:48:05
Speaker
So one thing would be if you are wanting to produce honey to sell, look to your state Department of Agriculture for guidelines. I think most of our listeners are in Kentucky. So go to the farmer's market guidebook from KDA. But if you're out of Kentucky, you can likely find your requirements through your Department of Agriculture. Yes.
00:48:28
Speaker
Next would be if you are confident you're ready for bees this year, you need to be ordering them already if you haven't. And if not, if you're not confident or if you're listening to this and it's, you know, March and you're past that point, join a local beekeeper association or find some local beekeepers to shadow and learn from and maybe borrow equipment and then spend the year learning, maybe go to a bee school. Like we have a Kentucky state, we have a couple of bee schools, right, that happen throughout the year.
00:48:57
Speaker
This kind of year. Yeah. Okay, cool. So, you know, find a B school that you can go to or join a local beekeeper association where get equipment, get the appropriate equipment.
00:49:12
Speaker
unless you want to smell you know bananas. Maybe maybe be checking on that and what else I know we talked about a lot but I'm trying to get kind of those. That's the number one thing to me get with a be buddy.
00:49:28
Speaker
Learn from them and learn if this endeavor is for you because it's not the cheapest thing you could ever do. I think it's one of the most rewarding things you could do and it's just great all the way around but kind of shadow someone if you can. A plug for another extension office. I've heard really good things about the Elizabethtown B-School.
00:49:51
Speaker
Um, I know a few of my beekeepers who have gone through it and it's like the full school, but then you get your bees and they like are actually like there with you to teach you how to install those bees. And that's pretty cool. Yeah, that is cool. So Kentucky is rocking the beekeeping.
00:50:10
Speaker
thing. I don't know what other states are doing. I just assume we're doing it better. Shout out to Kentucky. But anyways, thank you all for joining us today.
Podcast Social Media and Engagement
00:50:20
Speaker
If you don't follow us, if you're on social media, if you're on Instagram specifically, you can follow us at Hort Culture podcast and stay up to date on sort of what episodes are out there, see some of those past ones. We're going to put some links in the show notes to
00:50:33
Speaker
things like the Bee Calendar, Honey Bee Health Coalition, just some of those things that could be helpful, whether you're new or, you know, been in the game a while. Maybe you haven't heard about some of those cool things Jessica mentioned. And you can always contact us in email. Again, that's in the show notes. If you've got any ideas for upcoming episodes, we were coming up with some cool ideas yesterday. And so we've got some, some things down the line. But if you've got any you want to hear, you know, early, let us know, give us a shout.
00:51:03
Speaker
But we are grateful that you were here today with us and we hope you go out and make good plant decisions and stay warm because it is January after all. So everybody have a great one. Thanks for being here.