1.1 Million Honey Bee Colonies Dead, Worst in Decades

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Welcome, welcome to Be Love Beekeeping presented by our good friends at Man Lake.

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In this episode, we're skipping some of the fun stuff up front and jumping right into

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a really important topic.

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Last week I touched on the scary news about massive bee die-offs, especially with commercial

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beekeepers.

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And I promised to report back with new info as soon as it was made available.

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Today we're presenting a discussion with Chris Hyatt, the recent past president of the AHA

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American Honey Producers Association.

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He will give his personal take on what's going on.

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Then just a couple of hours ago, the Honey Bee Health Coalition emailed some new updated

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numbers of colony losses and the associated economic impact.

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So after we hear from Chris, we'll wrap up with that information, which is even more

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fresh than what we had when we spoke with Chris a couple of days ago.

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So let's get right to it.

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I'd like to welcome our very special guest today, Chris Hyatt from California.

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How are you, Chris?

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I'm good, I'm good.

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Good.

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I want to jump right into the big excitement, fear, everything that's going on that's been

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in the news with huge amounts of honey bee losses.

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And you're in a good position to talk about it because you are the recent past president

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of the American Honey Producers Association.

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Did I get that right?

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Yep, correct.

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And a lifelong beekeeper going back generations and you're a commercial beekeeper.

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You have bees in the almonds right now.

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So before we get into everything that you can teach us, what do you know about the

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quote crisis that's going on with honey bees right now?

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Well, it does look like it might be the worst year since, you know, CCD 2007, 2008.

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There's a lot of operations that have lost 60, 70, 80 percent and it's not one location.

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I've heard guys from North Dakota, Texas, Washington state, it's all over the map.

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So unfortunately for us, we didn't have big losses this winter.

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We get one of our best winters last five years.

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But the previous two were pretty bad for us.

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So to me, it seems like it's Varroa mites with the viruses in the middle of the winter,

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the mites, you'll get them under control in the fall, but the virus is already there.

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And it's a ticking time bomb.

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When the cold weather comes, you try to overwinter them, then you lose.

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And I've even some beards that I overwinter here in California.

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And there's some that just lost two, three frames of bees between Christmas and just

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after New Year's for no reason.

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And there's other yards that gained two, three frames of bees for no reason.

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So it's just kind of random.

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So do you have any idea what the, I mean, you mentioned viruses, but why would it be

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worse this year than last year or the year before?

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Well, you know, the price of honey is coming down after our dumping suit.

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And so some guys skimped on input cost and then even I was ahead of below honey, I was

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below average this year for our honey crops.

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So some people were maybe skimped a little bit and didn't get the mite treatments on

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in time and they got hurt by it.

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And there's all, well, there's all sorts of factors, but I mean, in every operations

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different and every geographic area is different.

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And there could be some pesticide mixed into that doesn't help.

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There's so many variables.

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But from what I'm hearing, there's a pretty good commonality that there was viruses built

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up and maybe they didn't get some of these guys didn't get the broa under control soon.

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They got them under control, but it might have been too late.

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What is soon enough, September?

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Yeah, or August.

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We start in August, but one of the former bee informed partnership, you know, inspectors

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who went on his own, we still have him continuing to inspect our bees.

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And he mentioned in North Dakota, he was surprised how high the mite counts were mid-September.

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And luckily we have a lot of zeros and ones and twos.

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When you do a, you know, 300 bees, you do the alcohol wash, we had low counts, but there's

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a lot of guys that had, he said five, seven, nine, 10s, 15s.

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In my mind, that's too late.

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Yeah, you could get them under control, but the virus is the deformed wing virus, like

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cyanide is really B for Alice's virus.

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They're there and they're waiting to take the hive, the bees out when the cool weather

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hits and you got no, no, no floral activity and nothing.

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So I know the USDA and others are studying this right now and it's going to be quite

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a while before they have enough data to really come out with what's going on and specific

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numbers.

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But just from what you're observing, are you finding that the worst cases are from Florida,

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from North Dakota, from where?

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It's, there's definitely some from South Dakota.

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The buddy runs a big operation in South Dakota, North Dakota, Texas.

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I know some Washington state beekeepers that have lost a ton, 60, 70% of their operation.

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But then there's other guys that in that same area, Washington state, he said, just like

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I did, one of his best winners last 10 years.

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So I mean, that to me, that does point more to viruses, Boromite, because if it was a

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widespread pesticide issue, it wouldn't be across all these geographical areas.

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If you could talk to hobby and sidelineers beekeepers for a minute, give them an idea

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of what they should be doing to get on top of Varroa and when.

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And I know that's a huge, huge topic.

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Yeah.

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But you just talked about timing, which I don't hear talked about a lot.

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So get into that.

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Well I was on, I'm on the steering committee for the Honey Bee Health Coalition and their

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Varroa mite guide is the number one guide, literally in the world, I think most down

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go to most red and it's very accurate.

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I mean, you have to do spring treatments before your honey float treatments, as soon as you

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can post honey harvest treatments and then you got to follow up and follow up and follow

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up.

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And I think that's my biggest advice, probably for hobbyists and sidelineers, you got to

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follow up to make sure that my treatment worked and what your mite levels are.

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You might have to do repeated and rotate, for mac acid to amatraz, to oxalic acid glycerin

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to, and you got to keep changing it up and stay on top of it.

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I mean, that's the biggest advice I'd give.

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And by follow up, you mean testing.

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Yeah, doing your mite counts.

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That's the most common thing that I hear from people asking me questions.

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Why didn't my bees make it over winter?

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And if I ask, well, what was your mite load in the fall?

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Oh, yeah, that's usually they don't know.

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That's got to be number one now.

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I mean, people don't realize it, but that's your room on 30 years almost, the borough

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might hear.

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Yeah, you got to know your mite levels.

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Got to know it.

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Okay.

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So should we be panicked about what's going on with bee losses right now?

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Well, I want to be sensitive.

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I don't want to say panic, but it was hard for me and my brothers to rebuild the last

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two years and expensive.

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And it will be expensive and hard for some of these guys that have lost a lot of bees

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this year.

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And there's some that I've heard maybe don't even have enough money to rebuild.

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So we'll come through it just like we have had in the past.

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There'll be, you know, the, I'm seeing on Facebook, there's hives already for sale here

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for next month when the almonds are done.

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The prices aren't astronomical, but we'll recover.

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But I do feel for the operations that lost so much because I think Trump had froze some

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of the ELAP payments and they might have to wait for them.

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So it's just a lot of uncertainty right now.

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So yeah, it's definitely newsworthy.

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And we want the news.

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We want the attention.

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We're, you know, we're so important to commercial beekeepers for the national food supply, pollinating

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all these crops.

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Besides the honey we make, I mean, it's keeping all this food domestically here, not having

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to import food.

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So we need to stay in business.

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And that's a good message to get across to all media across, you know, across the country.

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All right.

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Well, you got the biggest one here.

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There we go.

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Just kidding.

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One of these days.

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Hey, tell us what it's like to be a commercial beekeeper.

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We've had a lot of hobbyists on this show, but what's an average day and year and calendar

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like for you and your family?

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Well, almost all days are different to be honest, like sometimes I'm meeting farmers,

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sometimes I'm moving bees, sometimes I'm feeding bees, sometimes I'm doing yard rent

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to farmers, sometimes I'm doing bills and paperwork.

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But calendar year, let's, we start right here.

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I'm in California, which I live, you know, eight months of the year, we're putting bees

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into almonds.

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We got them ready the last month of January feeding in one last time, one more pollen

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patty.

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We move them into almonds.

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We also do a little bit of plums and blueberries and cherries, but after this big pollination

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event, we start rebuilding all those deadouts, making nooks off of our good surviving hives.

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And we get queens from Hawaii and start building three, four or 5,000 nooks.

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And we put those into oranges to build up here in the central valley.

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And we sent about 9,000 hives to Washington state, to two brothers that I have up there.

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And they pollinate apples in Washington state.

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And then meanwhile, we'll be making a little bit of orange honey and the nooks will top

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box them and they'll be full blown hives ready to go to North Dakota for the summer.

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So we'll continue, you know, April, May, my treatment, serve where needed.

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And then we start stockpiling and moving bees to North Dakota.

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And we've done that for 70 something.

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My dad used to go to Alberta, Canada in the late 60s, early 70s.

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And then so everybody go, the families go and we start harvesting honey.

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And then, you know, the kids go back to school.

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And so I'm a bachelor or month or two of the year in North Dakota.

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And it's just a lot of hard work.

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Luckily we have forklifts and pallets, but I mean, it's my hands are sore, back sore,

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shoulder, lifting all this honey, putting them on pallets.

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I love pulling honey.

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That's the fun, rewarding being outdoor, turn a podcast on or radio station on and you're

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outdoor working all day.

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And then you bring now that honey back to the shop.

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And I have a brother that runs the extract crew.

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We extracts and spins all the honey out.

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And then we start with the my treatments again in August and feeding again, pollen patties.

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We probably do buy pollen patties between September 1st, January 15th, because you just

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don't want any of the, you just don't, you try not to get these bees any chance to go

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downhill to lose population.

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It doesn't always work.

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Then we start shipping back here to California.

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So all the bees come back here to California over winter here in October, November, December,

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we're feeding, pulling off deadouts, even replacing Queens.

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Man, we get Queens probably 10 months of the year, almost 11 months of the year.

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We always have Queens in our side boxes or in our cabs of our trucks, replacing Queens.

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Cause you know, the only last year, year and a half, I mean, we were more than a quarter

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million weight beyond that actually on Queens spent every year.

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So you got to have it because you got to have those viable hives and the queen, anything

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suspect you want to kill her because you don't want to lose that $200 or high for almonds

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that I've dying during the winter.

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And that's pretty much a typical year.

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Wow.

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You have a good way of summarizing that.

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I've done it a few times.

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A few times.

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How many hives is your family running?

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We're running about 17,000.

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We used to be 20.

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We've kind of downsized just a little bit.

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Some of that is just because of not getting back up to the number we want from how many

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last two winners, not this one, but the two before, but yeah, 17 to 19,000 usually.

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And my dad started it like 58 years ago and he freighter Washington bought out a commercial

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bee guy.

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He, he was teaching school, grew, you know, born raised on a farm, going back, not making

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any money.

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He's working with his brother on the farm and decided to work for a beekeeper a couple

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of summers, Don Greg, it used to, it doesn't exist anymore, Silverville Honey Company,

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they closed up.

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We used to have all the Safeway contracts in the specific Northwest and he loved it.

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And then he bought out a small beekeeper and kind of the rest is history.

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He took the big chance.

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I didn't take much.

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He took the big loan out and then all my brothers, we just kind of all went into it.

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So.

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Well, hopefully y'all get along well.

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For the most part.

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We have family business.

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I've seen a million of them over the years.

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It's not an easy thing.

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It is not.

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And then we're right now on the third generation.

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There's a nephew that wants to join in.

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And so it's, yep, it's, yeah, for the, it's rewarding for the most part because we can

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step in if someone has, you know, death in the family or something like that, where we

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all help and we all do it the way my dad taught us.

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So we're all, you know, running bees the same way and there's, we have a lot of oversight.

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I guess we were with our crews.

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Some of us, we divide up all summer and spring.

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So there's usually a brother on every crew, not all the time, but most of the time.

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So it was good oversight versus just sending higher guys out.

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233
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235
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236
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237
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239
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00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:28,000
I'm feeling better already.

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00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:34,800
Now, back to the guest.

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00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:36,560
So how many employees does it take?

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00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:41,720
Oh boy, in the summer, we're probably 25, you know, right there.

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And then in the winter, we're heavy, just like a lot of commercial bee guys, we're heavily

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dependent on H2A visa program.

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So we have beekeepers from Mexico and Mexico that come up and help us.

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And then we have some full-time guys here in California that stay all winter.

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I also have almonds, so some of them stay and run the almonds while I go North Dakota.

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And then a few guys go to tomato harvest and stuff and then they come back and help us

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after the summer.

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So we do have some full-time guys here locally, but a lot of it is H2A visa program.

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On a whole other subject, you mentioned when we were speaking earlier about beekeepers

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00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:19,960
generationally in your family going back.

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00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:23,760
Can you trace how far back you had beekeepers in your family?

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00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:28,040
Yeah, I could be fourth generation beekeeper, but my grandfather just farmed.

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00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:35,880
He didn't have any bees, but my great grandfather, Isaac Samuel Hyatt had bees in late 1870s

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in Pace in Utah.

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He's one of the first beekeepers in Utah.

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So there, I know there was some before the Cox family had some before we were there,

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but pretty one of the earliest ones.

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But it's just too bad my grandfather just didn't have a couple of highest way I can

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say them before generation.

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00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:52,200
Yeah.

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Well, you skip a generation.

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You'll get a couple more in now.

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Yeah, skip.

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00:15:56,360 --> 00:15:57,680
All right.

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This is your opportunity, Chris.

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We're going to get into a wild and crazy story in just a minute, but I want to ask you something

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else first.

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This is going to be, I asked a lot of hobbyists this, what brings you joy about beekeeping?

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And for you, it's such a business and your whole life.

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Give me some ideas.

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Why do you like it?

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You could be out doing some other job.

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00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:23,960
Yeah.

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00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:26,920
I really enjoy being self-employed.

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00:16:26,920 --> 00:16:30,800
Like I've coached baseball for my son, softball for my girls.

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I'm currently helping coach the varsity wrestling team.

281
00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:38,320
I love having time to do what I want to do.

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And beekeeping, a lot of what you put into it, you get out of it.

283
00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:45,440
You take care of those bees for the most part, they'll take care of you.

284
00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:48,480
It was way more so in the 70s, 80s and 90s with my dad.

285
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I mean, we had 5% loss usually every winter.

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But I love having time to do what I want to do, like helping and coaching, helping with

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my church and scouts over the years and going backpacking and stuff.

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I can't take much time off in the summer.

289
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Because we're just so busy, but when I can in the winter, I take more time off.

290
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I do love being self-employed.

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I love being outdoors and having things being different.

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I mean, sometimes it's office work.

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Sometimes it's talking to farmers.

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I mean, I like that it's something different every day.

295
00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:22,960
And then it's been really enjoyable the last 10 years being more little politically active,

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I guess, being part of the honey producers going to Washington, DC,

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00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:31,560
meeting a lot of senators and congressmen and talking about the bee issues

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and representing the bee industry.

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00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:39,040
I mean, I've spoken at Appamondia and Chile and Montreal.

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00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,160
And I've spoken at the Australian beekeeping.

301
00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:46,680
I've spoken via Zoom to the Peruvians, Croatians, and probably a dozen different states.

302
00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:48,200
And so I've met so many people.

303
00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:51,320
I love talking to beekeepers and hearing their backstory.

304
00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:53,880
That's been enjoyable and fun for me over the years.

305
00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:56,160
So that's the business side.

306
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:57,760
What about the bees themselves?

307
00:17:57,760 --> 00:17:59,640
Do you enjoy working with them?

308
00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:00,240
Oh, I do.

309
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:00,600
Yeah.

310
00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:06,320
No, I love seeing and it's kind of like a math problem, right?

311
00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:07,520
Like, is this be yard?

312
00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:09,000
Is it should I make it smaller or higher?

313
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:11,120
Should we go 48 hives at 64 this summer?

314
00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:12,240
Should I not use it?

315
00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:12,560
Should I?

316
00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:14,400
I mean, it's kind of like a baseball team.

317
00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:16,920
You're managing and moving pieces here and there.

318
00:18:16,920 --> 00:18:18,760
And I do enjoy that part.

319
00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:22,880
And I do enjoy talking to the farmers that every time they always light up,

320
00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:26,680
I bring them a box of almonds and a box of honey that's made by us.

321
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:29,640
And you talk to them and their issues and problem.

322
00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:30,480
That's always fun.

323
00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:32,120
I do enjoy that.

324
00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:37,280
So as far as the honey producers, what kinds of issues are you working with Washington on?

325
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:40,360
Some of our biggest things that we do is the ELAP program.

326
00:18:40,360 --> 00:18:44,560
We got that going some years ago and got the program on cap.

327
00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:48,720
And that's the emergency livestock assistance program that beyond whatever,

328
00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:51,320
24% in the number fluctuates.

329
00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:56,360
If you lose highs beyond the percentage, the high mortality, you get payments.

330
00:18:56,360 --> 00:19:00,360
So I mean, we really don't have like crop insurance like other row crop farmers.

331
00:19:00,360 --> 00:19:04,360
So this is the one thing that we've I think it's really help keep the business

332
00:19:04,360 --> 00:19:07,960
of many of our members and the industry as a whole afloat.

333
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:10,040
And that's taken it takes maintenance.

334
00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:14,200
I mean, it takes work on Capitol Hill and have champions, Senator Tester, Senator

335
00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:18,720
Hogan, Senator Thune, another congressman to keep this funded.

336
00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:22,240
Our other big success was the dumping suit we won recently.

337
00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:28,040
The honey producers 20, 25 years ago, in 2001, won the China dumping suit.

338
00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:30,480
And that got doubled the price of honey.

339
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:35,760
Same thing just four years ago when we won this latest dumping suit against Vietnam,

340
00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:39,000
India, Brazil and Argentina, the price of honey doubled.

341
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:43,240
It's softened now, which we know the dumping suits are expensive band-aids,

342
00:19:43,240 --> 00:19:47,720
but we're working on some legislation or something known as the high back to

343
00:19:47,720 --> 00:19:52,760
we're probably going to re submit it here soon with Senator,

344
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:55,000
I mean, Congressman Stubey out of Florida.

345
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:57,840
So we just want a level playing field for us.

346
00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:00,000
We want the legitimate honey.

347
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:01,640
We want some testing.

348
00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:04,440
We do know there's a lot of fake honey coming in and

349
00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:08,560
being mixed with our honey and calling it any kind of sticky stuff.

350
00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:12,160
I mean, it's coming in at 70, 80 cents from Vietnam, India.

351
00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:14,600
I mean, such a low price.

352
00:20:14,600 --> 00:20:15,920
I mean, how can you compete that level?

353
00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:17,200
And is it legitimate honey?

354
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:19,360
And some of it isn't legitimate honey.

355
00:20:19,360 --> 00:20:24,720
So we're trying to help the consumer and plus keep ourselves in business.

356
00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:28,480
Cuz I mean, we only produce about a quarter of what the domestic

357
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:30,520
production consumption is.

358
00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:32,120
We used to be way higher.

359
00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:35,040
But with all the bee loss and all the habitat loss,

360
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:41,240
the CRP acres going away or corn and soy, our honey production just keeps going down.

361
00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:45,320
So we, the honey producers, yeah, we're trying to get more habitat.

362
00:20:45,320 --> 00:20:50,600
We're access like in Utah was an epicenter of the Xerces society trying to

363
00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,920
prevent beekeepers going on national forest service land.

364
00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,080
We've been very involved with that.

365
00:20:56,080 --> 00:21:00,600
But yeah, the honey price is really our focus as of now and

366
00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:04,480
what we're gonna do to try to keep beekeepers in business get a fair price.

367
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:07,240
But there's always a problem going on, it seems like it.

368
00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:10,520
But yeah, we have a pretty good presence in DC.

369
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:13,320
Well, we appreciate all the work you're doing there.

370
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:15,400
Tell me about the Honey Bee Health Coalition.

371
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:18,800
I think I have a pretty good idea, but why should people get to know it?

372
00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:26,000
Well, it's a good group of trade groups like corn, soy, canola guys.

373
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:31,640
And then there's the registrants, Bear and Sagenta along with beekeepers and

374
00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:35,560
researchers and we're trying to solve problems of bee health.

375
00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:41,280
And it's a good coalition that when we write letters and visit and

376
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:45,120
talk to people on Capitol Hill about our problems, it has a lot more weight than

377
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:46,880
it's just one beekeeping group.

378
00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:51,760
We have agribusinesses and researchers and other people behind us and trade groups.

379
00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:55,040
So this group has been valuable over the last whatever, 10 years.

380
00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:57,640
And like I mentioned, the Borough and Might Guide is good.

381
00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:04,440
They have best management practices for many crops, from corn to soy to blueberries and

382
00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:08,760
now apples for farmers to know what to do and when not to spray.

383
00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:14,160
So they're not killing bees when the hives are near their crops.

384
00:22:14,160 --> 00:22:17,560
So it's been a valuable group.

385
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:19,480
Explain the Borough and Might Guide.

386
00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:23,520
The Borough and Might Guide, there was many different experts you could say and

387
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:29,160
some commercial beekeepers that we all had our input on just the basic,

388
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:34,440
this is a guide of what you win and when and what you should treat with in

389
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:36,440
different regions of the country.

390
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:40,920
And it's just a good blueprint for any new beekeeper to know how to keep your

391
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:42,640
mites down.

392
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:47,360
And it is the most downloaded guide, I think, in the world for Borough and

393
00:22:47,360 --> 00:22:48,360
Mites.

394
00:22:48,360 --> 00:22:52,280
So it's been a valuable resource especially for new beekeepers.

395
00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:56,200
Well, one thing I like about it is it doesn't just say, here's what you do.

396
00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:57,200
Yeah.

397
00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,720
It asks questions like, how organic do you want to be?

398
00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:03,680
What kind of temperatures are you having?

399
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:06,680
Where are your colonies at at this point right now?

400
00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:10,880
And then it gives you a handful of options on treatments from there.

401
00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:17,520
And I find that very, very helpful for to help me make good decisions for my beekeeping.

402
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:18,880
It gives you multiple.

403
00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:23,360
Some guys are a little more or muc acids, some are more oxalic acids.

404
00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:27,120
And yeah, it gives you different options and different ideas.

405
00:23:27,120 --> 00:23:31,840
And it must be pretty good for how many, when we see how many downloads it has.

406
00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:36,520
And something along those lines that you touched on just a little bit earlier was

407
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:41,200
that one treatment may work this year and may not work next year.

408
00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:45,560
Can you explain why that is and where people go after that?

409
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:48,240
Well, amitrized resistance is a real thing.

410
00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:51,320
And just like with Roundup, there's resistance.

411
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:55,320
If you keep using the same product year after year, the same thing with amitrized,

412
00:23:55,320 --> 00:24:00,160
same thing that happened with cumafose years ago, we use cumafose like it's a pyrethroid.

413
00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:01,760
We use it like twice.

414
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:08,000
And the third year, it's just like we had big, 60% loss because the miticide didn't kill the mites.

415
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:09,760
It had already gotten resistance.

416
00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:14,640
But we're finding finally after all these years amitrized, there's amitrized resistance.

417
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,360
And so that's why rotating is so important.

418
00:24:17,360 --> 00:24:21,840
So you just can't put in those strips every year and just say, hey, I think I'm good,

419
00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:28,280
but you need to rotate and keep up with the latest science and the latest products

420
00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,840
because you got to rotate between three, four different chemicals probably.

421
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:34,320
I think that is super good advice.

422
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:39,560
All right, give us a wild and crazy beekeeping story that you have had, Chris.

423
00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:44,080
Let's see. 20 years ago, we used to run bees kind of near Fargo, North Dakota,

424
00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:47,360
Valley Cities, the name of the town, Eastern North Dakota.

425
00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:49,360
And it was like end of October.

426
00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:55,760
And I was there over a weekend to get to wherever three loads, I think, 1500 livestock piled and shipped.

427
00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:58,600
And the snow, we had this crazy blizzard.

428
00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:05,720
And I remember the chains on my semi, my 24 foot bed freight liner, I did not take them off all weekend.

429
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:06,720
Didn't matter where you went.

430
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:11,440
You just left the chains on perky lots, side roads, main highways, freeway.

431
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:12,760
It was just nuts.

432
00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:15,480
Freezing our rear ends off.

433
00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:20,000
And I can remember there was even one yard I came and did the turn.

434
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:24,760
I did it probably at 25 miles an hour because if I knew if I stopped, I would have been stuck in the deep snow.

435
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:28,080
So it's just crazy that I've had that experience.

436
00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:32,200
And then I can remember one farmer, we couldn't get to the bee yard.

437
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:32,920
It was that bad.

438
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:34,040
His name was Robert E. Lee.

439
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:35,920
Kind of crazy that that was his name.

440
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:38,800
And I called him and he said, I'll clean it out for you.

441
00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:43,520
And he, with his big John Deere scraped the whole path, like almost like a freeway around the B.R.

442
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:44,400
I could get in and get out.

443
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,080
I sent him a check and he never cashed it.

444
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:48,400
He was a really cool guy, really cool guy.

445
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:53,120
But that was a crazy weekend of getting bees out of the snow miserable.

446
00:25:53,120 --> 00:25:57,040
But we ended up getting stuck two, three times getting farmers to pull us out.

447
00:25:57,040 --> 00:25:58,920
But boy, that was just like a crazy adventure.

448
00:25:58,920 --> 00:25:59,920
I won't forget.

449
00:25:59,920 --> 00:26:00,440
Yeah.

450
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,800
And something that only a commercial beekeeper is going to run into.

451
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:04,640
Yeah.

452
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,960
What other kinds of issues are commercial beekeepers dealing with?

453
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:15,000
Kind of like I mentioned, the access to public lands is becoming a big issue.

454
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:22,560
The Xerces is this nonprofit that has become like the lone consultant for NRCS on habitat issues.

455
00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:26,360
And they do some good work, but they've chosen to kind of go after us.

456
00:26:26,360 --> 00:26:32,400
The low hanging fruit, even though like livestock on the forest service is way harder on native bees

457
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:34,720
with the ground dwelling bees than we are.

458
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:40,120
And Diana Cox Foster at the Logan lab, she's about ready to publish her paper.

459
00:26:40,120 --> 00:26:45,600
She did three years study in the Wasatch Mountains and didn't really see the competition or native impact.

460
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:50,040
But that is a big talking point they are using and they're hitting us over the head on it.

461
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:55,480
And we've had numbers of lost permits to run bee yards in Washington state, Arizona.

462
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:58,480
And now California looks like it's also.

463
00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:06,120
So it's disappointing because I think it's like 55 million acres of forest service ground.

464
00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:09,720
Beekeepers have like 0.01%.

465
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:13,960
What kind of damage could that actually happen to so little honeybees?

466
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,120
But they just want to keep going to this.

467
00:27:17,120 --> 00:27:22,520
And it just kind of seems like it's a fundraising environmental group that wants to use it.

468
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:27,200
But we just want to make people, they're aware of it because we hear it all the time.

469
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:32,240
Like there's teachers in elementary school now saying, honeybees bad for native bees.

470
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:33,080
Keep them away.

471
00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:35,080
And it's just, it's terrible.

472
00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:37,480
But that's one issue that we've kind of confronted.

473
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,360
They've been good about getting a lot of news coverage.

474
00:27:40,360 --> 00:27:41,560
Yeah, they have been.

475
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:42,440
Yes, they're funded.

476
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:43,520
They're well funded.

477
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:45,640
Yeah, we've seen it all over the place.

478
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:47,520
And I get asked about it all the time.

479
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:49,040
You probably do too.

480
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:53,560
Because European honeybees technically are not native here.

481
00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:55,080
When do we get naturalized?

482
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:55,440
Right?

483
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:58,920
I mean, they've been here three, what, 300 years for?

484
00:27:58,920 --> 00:27:59,400
Yeah.

485
00:27:59,400 --> 00:27:59,680
Yeah.

486
00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:01,440
But there's fossil records.

487
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:07,160
They found some apis mellifora in like the desert of Arizona and it had some, they think,

488
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:11,240
DNA proving that no honeybees have been here the whole time.

489
00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:12,600
So, yeah.

490
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:14,440
That wouldn't surprise me one bit.

491
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:20,280
The other thing that my logical mind goes to is whatever is good for honeybees is also

492
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:21,600
good for the native bees.

493
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:27,760
In other words, if we're figuring out how to not use too many pesticides, that's good

494
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:29,280
for the native bees.

495
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:34,400
If we have clean water and good forage and things like that.

496
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:40,040
I mean, even on my property here, I'm on a five acre lot and we plant so many things

497
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:41,440
for the honeybees.

498
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:48,000
But a lot of times I can go out and look at something closely and I'm going, wow, it is

499
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:54,240
covered with all of these pollinators, these little bees that look kind of like flies that

500
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,000
I know are a native bee here.

501
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,560
And my honeybees aren't even on these plants right now.

502
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:05,480
And in a couple of weeks that may shift a little bit or I see them working together

503
00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:06,960
on the same plants.

504
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:13,880
And so I know that, for example, just in my particular situation, things that we do for

505
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:16,960
the honeybees helps the other bees.

506
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:18,880
It's not running them out of town.

507
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:19,880
Yeah.

508
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:25,480
A really good guy that I know from the pollinator partnership used to always say, rising tide

509
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:26,720
raises all boats.

510
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:28,960
We need habitat across the board.

511
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:29,960
We're working on it.

512
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:35,320
But yeah, just more concern and try to combat this would help, I think.

513
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:36,320
Any other issues?

514
00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:41,000
Well, the last thing I would say is with President Trump, there's a lot of good things going

515
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:42,000
on.

516
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:44,840
We always think there's been a lot of waste, fraud and abuse in the government.

517
00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:49,120
But unfortunately, when he's cut some of the researchers, like Friday night, I talked

518
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:54,280
to one of the researchers at the Baton Rouge ARS lab and he was very down and sad that

519
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:57,760
some of his colleagues have already got axed or took the buyout.

520
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:02,080
And we're just like, no, we're needed for national food supply and we're having these

521
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:03,560
record losses.

522
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:09,400
There's no other livestock group even close to the losses that we are suffering from.

523
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:11,960
So even with the bird flu, it's not even close.

524
00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:13,960
So it's like, we need this money.

525
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:16,000
We need this research.

526
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:17,560
We hope they can be restored.

527
00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:19,560
That's probably my other take, I guess.

528
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:22,240
Well, Chris, I appreciate it so very much.

529
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:24,160
Thank you for being a friend of the show.

530
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:26,600
We need to have you back on from time to time.

531
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:27,600
No problem.

532
00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:28,600
We'll do.

533
00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:30,600
Thanks, Eric.

534
00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:39,000
Now, as promised, the headline from the Honey Bee Health Coalition reads, Survey Reveals

535
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:47,440
Over 1.1 Million Honey Bee Colonies Lost, Raising Alarm for Pollination and Agriculture.

536
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:53,120
To summarize a few key points from the survey, and this is for the number of colonies lost

537
00:30:53,120 --> 00:31:02,800
between June of 2024 and February 2025, hobby beekeepers lost an average of 50% of their

538
00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:10,600
colonies, side liners, an average of 54%, and commercial operations, which usually have

539
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:15,760
significantly fewer losses than hobbyists and side liners.

540
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:17,480
Here's the alarming thing.

541
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:24,080
Right now, their number is actually 62% colony losses this year.

542
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:26,540
So here's the predicted impact.

543
00:31:26,540 --> 00:31:35,360
The colony losses at $200 per colony equals $224.8 million.

544
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:41,600
Total economic impact to beekeepers, including pollination contracts, colonies not accounted

545
00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:49,000
for in the survey, et cetera, totals $634.7 million.

546
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:54,600
And that's not even taking into account lost honey sales from those colonies.

547
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:59,720
And the thing that I find almost mind-boggling is no one yet has even started adding up the

548
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:06,720
total economic impact that will be felt when all men's and so many other crops have lower

549
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:10,520
yields due to insufficient pollination.

550
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:16,200
I'll conclude with this quote from Zach Browning, a fourth generation commercial beekeeper and

551
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:18,680
board chair of Project APIS-M.

552
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:25,320
Quote, the scale of these losses is completely unsustainable.

553
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:30,920
Honeybees are the backbone of our food system, pollinating the crops that feed our nation.

554
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:36,520
If we continue to see losses at this rate, we simply won't be able to sustain current

555
00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:38,680
food production levels.

556
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:46,320
The industry must look inward and outward for solutions to chronic bee health failure.

557
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:53,120
Project APIS-M will be holding a free public webinar on February 28th, and you can find

558
00:32:53,120 --> 00:33:00,960
the link to that in today's show notes.

559
00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:06,600
Thanks again for joining us here on Bee Love Beekeeping, presented by Man Lake.

560
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:12,040
Another great place for more information on everything related to this podcast is in our

561
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:13,640
email newsletter.

562
00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:17,680
You can sign up for it for free at belovebekeeping.com.

563
00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:21,640
And remember, if you're not just in it for the honey or the money, you're in it for the

564
00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:22,640
love.

565
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:44,600
See you next week.