SoCal Fires, Bee Swarm Safety, Disaster Preparedness

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,000
May I have your attention please?

2
00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:07,000
The following is not the real Jeff Vox really.

3
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:17,000
If you have more pictures of bees on your phone than pictures of your kids,

4
00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:22,000
you might be a beekeeper.

5
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:30,000
If once a year your kitchen becomes sticky from floor to ceiling,

6
00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:34,000
you might be a beekeeper.

7
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:44,000
If when you get stung by a bee, you apologize because you did something wrong,

8
00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:51,000
you might be a beekeeper.

9
00:00:52,000 --> 00:01:01,000
Welcome to Bee Love Beekeeping Podcast presented by our friends over at Man Lake.

10
00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:06,000
At Bee Love we're all about the honey bees and of course the beekeepers.

11
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:16,000
Before we jump into our interview today with Patrick Hardy, an emergency and disaster professional and master beekeeper from California,

12
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,000
we have a brand new segment we're just calling Did You Know?

13
00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:23,000
We know that honey bees are amazing.

14
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:29,000
On today's Did You Know segment we're going to throw out seven fun facts about these beautiful creatures.

15
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,000
Keep track of how many you already know.

16
00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:40,000
Alright, here we go. Did you know that ancient Romans used to throw hives of bees into enemy camps?

17
00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:45,000
Or that the words bomb and bee both have the same Latin origin?

18
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:54,000
Did you know that a honey bee can fly up to 15 miles per hour and beat their wings 200 times per second?

19
00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:00,000
Did you know that one ounce of honey would fuel a bee's flight all the way around the world?

20
00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:05,000
Did you know that a pound of honey is made by two million flower visits?

21
00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:14,000
Did you know that honey bees have super senses of smell because they have 170 odorant receptors?

22
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:16,000
Whatever those are.

23
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:21,000
Did you know that honey bees can do basic math and understand the concept of zero?

24
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,000
They can even recognize odd and even numbers.

25
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:36,000
And did you know that a strong colony of around 60,000 bees flies the equivalent distance from the Earth to the Moon every day?

26
00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:38,000
Alright, how did you do?

27
00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,000
Now let's go out to California and our interview with Patrick Hardy.

28
00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:54,000
I would like to welcome to the show today Patrick Hardy coming to us from California, Northern California. How are you Patrick?

29
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,000
I'm good. Thank you very much for having me today.

30
00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,000
By the way, did I say Harding? I meant to say Hardy.

31
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:10,000
Yeah, happens all the time. Yes, it's HRDY. When I was growing up, my mom was a big mystery fan and my mother's name is Nancy.

32
00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:17,000
And she used to read the Nancy Drew mysteries when she was young and then she married a man with the last name of Hardy.

33
00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:20,000
And so now she's like, it's like we have Emma and it's my brother and I.

34
00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:23,000
So it's like we're the Hardy boys and she's like Nancy Drew.

35
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:25,000
So that's how we tell people to remember it.

36
00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:27,000
Or Laurel and Hardy or something.

37
00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:29,000
But anyway, apologies for that.

38
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,000
Not at all.

39
00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:33,000
Patrick Hardy, we're going to cover a couple of things today.

40
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:36,000
But the first one is what's really timely right now.

41
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:42,000
And that is we've had these horrible fires going on in Southern California.

42
00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:46,000
And the human tragedy and everything else is terrible.

43
00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:51,000
But we want to talk about the beekeeping side of it because there is a beekeeping side of it.

44
00:03:52,000 --> 00:04:00,000
And being in California, I know you're not in that area, but tell us what you know about it and how we can all help.

45
00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:11,000
Yeah, what I know about it is so far and I can give an update as of today is that there are a number of beekeepers.

46
00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:18,000
I would provide an exact number for today, but I don't want to do that until probably we're in the disaster recovery phase.

47
00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,000
But right now we have a number of beekeepers who have essentially lost everything.

48
00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:25,000
They've had obviously hives destroyed.

49
00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:27,000
They've lost tools.

50
00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,000
They've lost suits. They've lost foliage. They've lost everything.

51
00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:41,000
And if you look at the pictures, it gives you a good idea because it looks like a bomb's gone off and that their entire areas that are just been clear cut as a result of the wildfire.

52
00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:43,000
So that's what we know so far.

53
00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:54,000
We're looking into future weeks that there, well, I should say, first of all, this weekend, we are looking at more Santa Ana winds, high winds,

54
00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:57,000
unprodictively moving into different directions.

55
00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:11,000
But we're hoping that within a couple of weeks or so we should start to see a basic decline in the spread of the fire so the containment levels should go up.

56
00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:18,000
I've been an emergency and disaster professional for 20 plus years and I actually worked in this area and I actually currently have clients there as well.

57
00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:23,000
So I will be traveling there in just a few days to talk with clients.

58
00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:32,000
One of the things that I sort of discovered is that because there's been so and so much clear cutting as a result of the wildfire, we know that there are still going to be evacuations.

59
00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:39,000
There's still going to be red flag warnings even in even pushing into Southern California down past Los Angeles.

60
00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:41,000
So that's one of that.

61
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:43,000
That's really where we're at right now.

62
00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:46,000
At some point I would think within the next couple of weeks we're looking at a disaster recovery phase.

63
00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,000
Okay. Tell me about B-platoon.

64
00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:50,000
What is that?

65
00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:52,000
I created a B-platoon.

66
00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:54,000
I founded it.

67
00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,000
I was matriculating through the California Master Beekeeper program and you have to do a capstone project.

68
00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:00,000
And they said, what would your capstone project be on?

69
00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:10,000
And I said, I want to create a disaster team that is specifically devoted to helping both beekeepers as well as first responders.

70
00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:15,000
So actually having a team that is familiar with disaster protocols that can be deployed.

71
00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,000
And so we're doing it in a few phases.

72
00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:22,000
We have the capability to do preparedness.

73
00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:28,000
And that's really one of the things that we're really interested in, which is doing education, doing training.

74
00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:30,000
We're actually going to be training first responders.

75
00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:38,000
I've contacted, I've been in contact with some folks up north in a few states who have asked if I would actually come up and train EMS professionals.

76
00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,000
I used to be one myself in Southern California.

77
00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:45,000
And in fact, I worked in many of the areas that actually are currently affected by the wildfires.

78
00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:50,000
So I'm very familiar with it and I still have a home in Southern California as well.

79
00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:52,000
Thankfully that is untouched.

80
00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:54,000
But we do preparedness around the country.

81
00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:56,000
So we plan on doing training.

82
00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:58,000
That's something we're doing in the spring.

83
00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:00,000
I'm going out to Missouri to do a training with first responders.

84
00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:02,000
I'm going to the East Coast.

85
00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:07,000
I'll be presenting in Connecticut and working with and just developing the basic groundwork.

86
00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:10,000
So, and then the second plank of what we do is response.

87
00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:19,000
So we're literally going to be, I anticipate within the next year, we should be able to acquire a truck so that we can assist in evacuations.

88
00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:26,000
We can actually assist in moving hives and moving and being able to transport them when a disaster occurs.

89
00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:34,000
Also in the response phase, we also deal with times when there's not a disaster where a truck overturns and then there's bees all over the road.

90
00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:37,000
I remember being a first responder.

91
00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:42,000
Matter of fact, I used to be a paramedic instructor, actually taught paramedics and EMTs on how to respond.

92
00:07:43,000 --> 00:07:45,000
And honeybees were never covered.

93
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:47,000
We never talked about that.

94
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:50,000
We never talked about how to deal with an unusual emergency like this.

95
00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:55,000
I was even a hazardous materials guy and we never talked about dealing with insects on the road.

96
00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:02,000
So these policies are so important in the response phase and that's the capability we plan to be able to provide with team members.

97
00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:06,000
So we have people who have volunteered all over the country right now.

98
00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:08,000
We have volunteers in about 24 states.

99
00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:10,000
So we're really excited.

100
00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:12,000
So almost half.

101
00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:14,000
And I anticipate by the end of the year that we will have almost every state.

102
00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:24,000
So I'm really excited about the capabilities because then we will have people there who first responders can access if there is a response emergency or if there is an anticipated disaster.

103
00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:26,000
So we have a hurricane.

104
00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:38,000
People have to evacuate and we have people going out who can assist those who otherwise can't help themselves because we have to remember these are not just, you know, we're not talking about all these organizations, not, you know, massive conglomerates.

105
00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:40,000
These are small businesses.

106
00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:47,000
These are people who have these in their backyards and so we have to try to help them and give them those resources that they need to be successful.

107
00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:53,000
And then the third phase in which is what we're really talking about here at the California wildfires is disaster recovery.

108
00:08:54,000 --> 00:09:00,000
So afterward being able to help replace high boxes and tools and suits and doing all those things.

109
00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:04,000
And that's really one of the things that I have been planning and working on.

110
00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:06,000
And that's the thing we're going to do in late February.

111
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:13,000
It's going to depend on conditions, so I don't want to provide a precise date, but based on that we do plan on going down there.

112
00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:18,000
I will actually be picking up the keeping supplies from up and down California.

113
00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,000
I have a couple of you halls myself and a colleague of mine.

114
00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:27,000
And we're going to fill it up and we're going to take it down to Los Angeles and then we're going to be able to deliver it to beekeepers who need them.

115
00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:29,000
That's really going to be the most important thing.

116
00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:42,000
And so today people who are listening to this, if you want to help support this, what we're looking for are people throughout California who are interested in donating supplies of any kind to help us to be able to replace those.

117
00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:51,000
Because I was talking to the Los Angeles beekeepers, Los Angeles County Beekeepers Association, and they're going to provide me with a spreadsheet of needs.

118
00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:53,000
This will be in the coming weeks.

119
00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:55,000
It's not going to be immediate.

120
00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:59,000
We don't have that list for maybe two, three weeks, maybe even as much as a month.

121
00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:11,000
And then once we get that, then I'm going to, with a colleague, we'll be going up and down California to grab supplies and then deliver them to Los Angeles and do one big disaster recovery day.

122
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:13,000
And that's going to be really exciting.

123
00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:26,000
We also have a GoFundMe page because we want to be able to provide some supplies that otherwise you can't get donated so we can assist in recovering the foliage that is also destroyed and it's so necessary to keep our pollinators healthy.

124
00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:29,000
I love seeing somebody actually doing something.

125
00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:31,000
We're all watching the news.

126
00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:34,000
And by the way, this is being recorded January 15th, 2025.

127
00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:41,000
For those that are listening weeks or months later, there's going to be a whole lot of hindsight going on.

128
00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:42,000
Yeah.

129
00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:44,000
At that point.

130
00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:46,000
But right now it's so fresh and so early.

131
00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:50,000
And we all sit around going, oh man, I wish I could help those people.

132
00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:55,000
And it's so good, Patrick, to see somebody that's actually doing something about it.

133
00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:04,000
And I know it's very early on and we're going to circle back with you in a month or so and learn more about how it went and all of that kind of thing.

134
00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:10,000
One thing that stuck out to me that you mentioned a minute ago is preparedness.

135
00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:14,000
And I wonder if that also includes some prevention.

136
00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:16,000
And let me just throw something out.

137
00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,000
And this may be, if it's off topic, just tell me to shut up.

138
00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:21,000
That's okay.

139
00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:23,000
But I'm in Utah.

140
00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,000
It's super dry here and come July, August, September.

141
00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:30,000
I mean, we have wildfire season here also.

142
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:39,000
And I often get thinking, okay, I've let this tall grass grow up around my hives and kind of a rural area.

143
00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:41,000
It's dry.

144
00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:43,000
It's brown.

145
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:45,000
I've got a smoker that's lit.

146
00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:51,000
If that thing tips over off the hive stand, it's going to light a fire so fast.

147
00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:53,000
I'm not going to be able to do anything about it.

148
00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,000
So those things have always been in the back of my mind.

149
00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:58,000
I need to do better at clearing that area.

150
00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:03,000
There are times that I simply don't use a smoker because I just don't feel like it's safe.

151
00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:08,000
Any other thoughts on prevention or other kinds of preparedness?

152
00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:10,000
Absolutely.

153
00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:17,000
And I'm glad you mentioned that because I do advise people on what we call mitigation and prevention.

154
00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:20,000
So we do things to mitigate the disaster as well.

155
00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:27,000
And that really assists and helps people in understanding how we can prevent these things from spreading.

156
00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:35,000
In addition, I also look at hives stands and hives boxes and I say, are these placed in ideal locations?

157
00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:37,000
Can we move them?

158
00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:40,000
Because they can be very heavy, especially with a honey super, right?

159
00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:42,000
These things can be very, very heavy.

160
00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:49,000
But sometimes I say, sometimes we have to move them because there are particularized hazards and it could make things worse because you're absolutely right.

161
00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:55,000
I knocked over, as a matter of fact, I was working, I work a lot in the wine industry.

162
00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:59,000
So I work with a lot of vineyards in my capacity as a disaster consultant.

163
00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:08,000
And in agriculture, one thing I was kind of joking around with one of the ventures and he was telling me, he was saying, you know, I want you to look out that window.

164
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,000
And we looked out the window and there was a passive vineyard. It was all dry brush.

165
00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:20,000
And he said, you know, if I took a match and I lit a match out there, no one would know that a wildfire had started until about five acres had burned.

166
00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:22,000
Not one person would see it.

167
00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:25,000
Not one, because we don't have, we don't have a fire watch there.

168
00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:27,000
There's no fire.

169
00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:29,000
I know that you see that on TV.

170
00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:31,000
That's not the case in most counties that I've ever heard of.

171
00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:37,000
And so what will end up happening is literally five, six, seven, eight, nine acres will burn before anyone sees it.

172
00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:41,000
And then all of a sudden, if you have the winds, it starts to pick it up more and more.

173
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:43,000
So you're absolutely right.

174
00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:48,000
It's the mitigation portion of it that ensures that we actually can prevent these things from occurring.

175
00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:50,000
But there's also basic preparedness steps.

176
00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:53,000
One of the things I tell people is you've got to have fire extinguisher, right?

177
00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:56,000
So these are things that these are basic prevention measures as well.

178
00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:59,000
It's actually places where I say, actually have a bucket of water out.

179
00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:03,000
If you start a small fire, because then that helps to immediately, um,

180
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:06,000
Sanctuinated and then, and then you're at a place where it's extant,

181
00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:09,000
Extinguished and it doesn't create any additional threats or hazards.

182
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:12,000
When you get a scare, you really think about it.

183
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:18,000
Three summers ago, we had a wildfire that came right across the street from the end of my driveway.

184
00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:23,000
So it's about a hundred yards or so from my house, 150 yards.

185
00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:31,000
And I'll tell you what, it really gets you thinking, okay, we got evacuated, all that sort of stuff.

186
00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:35,000
I have some beehives here on my home property, my five acres.

187
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:37,000
And there was nothing I could do.

188
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,000
I did not have time to load them up, move them.

189
00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:51,000
You know, we were just looking at, okay, let's throw some photographs and computer hard drives and things in the car and the dog and get out of here.

190
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:56,000
And so, so you leave going, I hope they're okay when I get back.

191
00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:00,000
I hope they're, you know, those boxes aren't burned up and stuff.

192
00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:02,000
And that is not a pleasant feeling.

193
00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:06,000
So we want to prevent that as much as we can, obviously.

194
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:09,000
All right, enough about the depressing stuff.

195
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:11,000
Let's talk about some fun beekeeping.

196
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:15,000
Okay, you're a master beekeeper in Sacramento, correct?

197
00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:18,000
What is it like keeping bees there?

198
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:23,000
Well, I actually can't keep bees directly on my property.

199
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:32,000
So I actually had a mentor who I went through, who helped me through the program as I was matriculating through the master beekeeper program and he keeps my hives for me.

200
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:34,000
It's really a great experience.

201
00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:37,000
I actually, actually lived in a place called Lompoc, California.

202
00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:40,000
You ever been, you ever been down to the two Santa Barbara, Eric?

203
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:47,000
Okay, so like Lompoc's a little farther north because I worked near the Air Force Base.

204
00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,000
There it's right by Vandenberg Air Force Base.

205
00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:55,000
And so I was doing a lot of swarm work because where I lived, once again, you couldn't actually keep bees.

206
00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:08,000
There was a local ordinance and weirdly enough, even though Lompoc is called the Valley of Flowers, you'd think you'd be able to keep bees, but literally in the subdivision I lived in, in the village, you couldn't keep them.

207
00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:11,000
So one of the things I would do is I did a lot of swarm work.

208
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,000
And as a result, because I am a consultant, I travel so often.

209
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:21,000
It's a little bit of a different experience than with other people because I have a great person who helps, you know, maintain the health of the bees.

210
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:29,000
And I come by a couple of times a week, he gave me a key and I can actually get into his backyard area and I can actually manage the bees.

211
00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:42,000
But it's really fun because I actually get to maintain them myself versus just handling swarms because the way I used to do it was I'd get a swarm, I put them in a bee box and I'd be calling beekeepers and saying, you know, would you like a swarm?

212
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:44,000
And that's what I would do.

213
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:48,000
I would take them there because that's really the genesis of all this was as a swarm responder.

214
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,000
So how does the weather affect your beekeeping?

215
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:56,000
With the bees that you do keep, I mean, winters are pretty mild, summers are really hot, right?

216
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,000
Really hot. Yeah, over 100 degrees.

217
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,000
Yes, you have to be really careful so you have to put them in certain kinds of overhangs.

218
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:04,000
You can't just leave them out where we are.

219
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:10,000
So maintaining the temperature is important, ensuring obviously Varroa is an issue.

220
00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:14,000
So, you know, making sure we're, you know, we're watching for that as well.

221
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:17,000
So those are all the kinds of hazards I'm always concerned about.

222
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:23,000
Actually, this winter we've had, I don't know if you've known that, but in this part of the winter, it's actually gotten rather cold.

223
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,000
It's gotten much colder than it has in previous years.

224
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:27,000
So that's actually a consideration as well.

225
00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:30,000
And it doesn't help that I've been doing so much traveling.

226
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:32,000
So I've been calling my mentor saying, you know, hey, can you do this?

227
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:34,000
And he goes, oh, don't worry, I'm watching him.

228
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:39,000
And so it really helps because, you know, when I'm able to go back, he's able to give me a report.

229
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:41,000
Here's what's been going on. Here's the health of the bees.

230
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:49,000
So in the winter, is it most of the time warm enough though that they can get out in forage, but is there any forage?

231
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:51,000
They can.

232
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:53,000
Where he lives, there actually is a lot of forage.

233
00:17:54,000 --> 00:18:01,000
Luckily, one of the things that I have done when I've been working with beekeepers north of Sacramento is that sometimes there's not a lot of forage.

234
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:05,000
If you remember, we had the campfire up north and there were a series of different fires.

235
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:09,000
There was the August complex fire.

236
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:12,000
We had, you know, as I said, we had the campfire up there. We had other fires.

237
00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,000
And so as a result, you have entire clear cut areas.

238
00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:18,000
Now, luckily, there's not a lot of people who live out there.

239
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:22,000
So it's a little bit of a difference. You have to buy pollen patties. You have to do those kinds of things.

240
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:25,000
Otherwise, you just, I mean, it just isn't anything.

241
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:31,000
Now, where he is, there actually are a number of gardens in the area and he actually has a, and he, of course, he has his own hives.

242
00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:33,000
And so he has a pretty active garden.

243
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:37,000
So we make sure that there are flowers out and you make sure that there's, and I, and I ask him about it.

244
00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:41,000
I say, you know, if I need to provide something artificially, I will do that.

245
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,000
So that's, that's pretty much how I want to handle it as much.

246
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:55,000
It's, it's a little bit different for me, as I said, but I'm always really careful about ensuring that, you know, when I go out there, I'm, you know, that we're trying to ensure that good health to be as much as we can, especially even if you have a busy lifestyle.

247
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:57,000
I get it.

248
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:04,000
Let me just take a minute here to thank our presenting sponsor, Man Lake.

249
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:09,000
I've been asked, does Man Lake provide equipment for commercial beekeepers? Yes.

250
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:11,000
Do they provide equipment for side liners? Yes.

251
00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:20,000
How about beginners? Of course. Protective gear? Yes. Queens, nukes and packages? Yes. Processing equipment? Yes. Yes. And yes.

252
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:26,000
There is a reason that Man Lake is the number one supplier for thousands and thousands of beekeepers.

253
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:31,000
In fact, I could give you a hundred reasons to try them, but let's start with just 10.

254
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:39,000
As in $10 off your first $100 purchase with the discount code MLBLOV10.

255
00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:44,000
Don't worry, it's all in the show notes. Seriously, you'll be happy you gave Man Lake a try.

256
00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:46,000
And now back to the guest.

257
00:19:51,000 --> 00:20:01,000
So I've seen videos of a beekeeper in Texas that does swarm removals and it all looks so beautiful and lovely.

258
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:06,000
And the bees are always well behaved and you don't need protective gear or anything.

259
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:08,000
Is that what you do, Patrick?

260
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:13,000
You mean like going out without a uniform on or without a suit on? No, no, no, no, no.

261
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:19,000
And I will tell you this, I see this all the time on TikTok. I see this on YouTube far, far too much.

262
00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:25,000
Way too many people who are responding to swarms and they're not trained and they go out there and they're not wearing anything.

263
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:29,000
You know, they're not even wearing or they're barely wearing a veil.

264
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:40,000
I saw a guy on YouTube and I actually ended up contacting him because he was cutting into someone's home and he was actually cutting a hole out of the side of the house.

265
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:47,000
And he didn't even have a veil on. And when he was talking to the camera, he was saying things like, you know, I know how bees behave.

266
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:52,000
I've been doing this for four generations. I know how how bees are going to do things.

267
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:56,000
And I said, and I think to myself, that is an invitation for problems.

268
00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:02,000
When I supervised swarm responders, I ended up at my at my peak, I was supervising about 20 to 25 swarm responders.

269
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:09,000
And they were people who went all over the central coast because the central coast is a bread basket for California.

270
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:14,000
We have almonds, we have avocados, we have, you know, broccoli, we have all kinds of stuff.

271
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:19,000
We have obviously I mentioned flowers earlier, you know, we have obviously there's wineries.

272
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:21,000
There's a ton of agriculture there.

273
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:26,000
So when we would go out there, I would tell my responders, you've got to wear a B suit at a minimum.

274
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:38,000
And I'll tell you why I came into that, Eric, because when I was a when I was a hazardous materials guy, we learned very, very early that until you what we call characterize the chemical,

275
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:42,000
you need to assume that it is going to be much worse than you think.

276
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:45,000
So you should always over protect than under protect.

277
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:50,000
So when I go and I approach a swarm, I assume I don't want this to be doom and gloom and blood and guts.

278
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:55,000
But I always think to myself, there's a swarm that could kill me.

279
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,000
I think that all the time that is the assumption I make.

280
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:00,000
And that's what I tell beekeepers all the time.

281
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:02,000
I say, because it only takes once.

282
00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:04,000
It only takes one time to make a mistake.

283
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:06,000
And then something's going to happen.

284
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:14,000
When I was a medic, I can't say the number of times I dealt with people who were beekeepers, who they got overwhelmed by bees or what also happens.

285
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:22,000
I tell this to swarm responders, people I see online, they're doing swarm response and they're not blocking the area off.

286
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:24,000
There's people walking by.

287
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:26,000
There's kids walking by.

288
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:28,000
Kids get interested in this stuff.

289
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,000
I've had a swarm response where I was near an elementary school and some of the kids were walking close.

290
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:37,000
And I literally learned after that I'm going to block these areas off so nobody gets close because I don't want the bees stinging them.

291
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,000
I don't want it because then that creates a bigger problem.

292
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:46,000
So one of the things I say to people is I say, you need to treat the bees like they're hazardous material because they are.

293
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:48,000
I mean, they're hazardous material.

294
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,000
You just have to treat them in a way that you're going to assume they're going to injure you more, not less.

295
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:57,000
And then you will never, ever, ever be in a position where you are overwhelmed.

296
00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:08,000
I actually saw a really, really great video from, it was a guy from the New Jersey Beekeepers Association and he was handling a highly, highly defensive swarm.

297
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:15,000
I have never seen a swarm that defensive than the one that he showed and it had 6 million views, something like that.

298
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,000
So I may, maybe even 7 or 8 at this point, but it was a couple of years I saw this thing.

299
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:24,000
And it was incredible because he took unbelievable steps to protect himself.

300
00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:34,000
But one of the things I noticed is he still got stung multiple times because he didn't do something that actually I do.

301
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:37,000
And I know that some people think it's overkill, but I don't.

302
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:46,000
I actually tape my glove over my suit so that there's no way that a bee can actually slip into the sleeve because that's actually what was happening to him.

303
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:51,000
I have actually responded to swarms that were highly defensive before in Orange County, California.

304
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:58,000
When I happened to be out there, I went home in a place called Mission Viejo and there are big swarms and they are very defensive.

305
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,000
There's a lot of defensive genetics there, a lot.

306
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:09,000
And so I was dealing with a swarm as a favor to a colleague, a place called Irvine, which is just a little north of there.

307
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,000
And when I went there, that was a very, very defensive swarm.

308
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,000
They had covered the side of a house.

309
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:17,000
So you have to be really careful.

310
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:22,000
So Eric, when I see a lot of these videos online, what I tell people is, as I say, I was as a zero-global thing for a long time.

311
00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:24,000
Even then, I'm always careful.

312
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:29,000
I'm always assuming that it's worse than it's going to be because then I can back down.

313
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:35,000
It's easier to go down and take a step downward than to try to go upward.

314
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,000
And plus, besides the fact is that you get hurt by something, you may not be able to get back.

315
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:44,000
Now, it's different with bees, but you don't want to walk onto a defensive swarm without protection.

316
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:53,000
And I also, I get very, very sensitive when I see people who are doing theatrics with swarms, they do things that they think are funny or they think are interesting.

317
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:58,000
And I tell people, these are serious business and these are insects that we need to protect.

318
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:03,000
And so we need to make sure we're using the right tools and equipment and things, and those are the things that are important.

319
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:06,000
It doesn't mean yet that professional bee boxes every time.

320
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:12,000
If you can have a cardboard box, that's fine, but you do need to take the necessary protections for yourself and for the people around you.

321
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,000
I appreciate that message. I think it needs to get out there.

322
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:24,000
You're also in an area, especially Southern California where there's a lot of Africanized genetics, so there's going to be a lot of defensive behavior going on.

323
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:35,000
And the thing that people that don't know beekeeping don't see about those videos is that those people that go in there completely unprotected,

324
00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:51,000
they probably first off camera went in like what you're talking about, fully suited up, got an idea, okay, oh, this particular swarm, they are just lovely little girls and they're in a good mood today.

325
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,000
So I can go ahead and do this stuff. People don't see that.

326
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:59,000
And then they end up in the ER and that just worries me so much that there's too much of that.

327
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:01,000
It worries me too, Eric, and I'll tell you why.

328
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:08,000
It's not even the experienced beekeepers I worry about. I mean, sometimes I do because sometimes I think they get a little overconfident and then they walk into a scene.

329
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:17,000
But the smart ones know, I put on a suit, I'm going to check it out because that's really what professional swarm responding is really about because you're not an entomologist for the most part.

330
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:23,000
And even then, there is no way to look at them and say, okay, automatically I know they're going to behave like this.

331
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:32,000
I know they're going to behave like that because I've seen swarms that seemed really docile and then something will happen and they get agitated by something and they will swarm just like that.

332
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:44,000
So it's as well what I also worry about and I have seen this, this happens a lot is that people who are younger who are, you know, they're inexperienced beekeepers.

333
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,000
They've not been around bees. They don't understand their behavioral characteristics.

334
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:59,000
They don't understand the idiosyncrasies and you and I know when I say idiosyncrasies, what I mean by that because bees have a, there is a very specific way that they can respond to swarm responders because, you know, they don't know you ultimately, right?

335
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:05,000
They don't understand what you're trying to do even though they don't realize it, but you're trying to help them in reality. They don't know those things.

336
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:13,000
But one of the things I do is I see people who are not experienced. They go, that person in Texas, he did it and he didn't have anything on.

337
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:18,000
He was just wearing a t-shirt and jeans and a pair of boots. That's all I need.

338
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:29,000
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to buy a bee brush. I'm going to go pull out an old cardboard box and I'm going to go and take care of swarms in the area and they go on next door or when these apps have seen that before.

339
00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:34,000
They'll go on these apps and say, listen, I'll go ahead and do this because they mean well, right?

340
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:43,000
They want to either collect bees so that they can have them for themselves or they want to create a really great video on their own and then people get hurt that way.

341
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:51,000
I've actually seen this in Riverside, California, which is also a very active area for swarms, very, very, very active.

342
00:27:52,000 --> 00:28:00,000
After the fires, our first deployment as Beepletoom, we actually went out and assisted some first responders because they ran across a massive swarm of bees on a tree and they literally couldn't get past it.

343
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:05,000
The hand crew actually couldn't get past the tree because the swarm was that defensive.

344
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:13,000
We went out there, I was wearing my full suit and it took a while because they were battling me. They did not want to go.

345
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:21,000
That was why when I see some of these things online and with some beekeepers, I turn to them and go, you understand this is just not responsible behavior.

346
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:29,000
Not because you don't know, just like I think actually, Eric, I like your theory because I have a feeling you're probably right.

347
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:39,000
I think that probably is what they're doing, which is they go in, they know what these bees, they're either characterized or they're a split from one of their own colonies, they know, and then they know how they're going to behave.

348
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:47,000
Instead, you have people who have no idea about bee physiology, no idea about bee behavior or idiosyncratic characteristics of bees, and then they get stung.

349
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:55,000
When I was a medic, I can't tell you the number of times I saw kids who were fooling around with swarms and they got stung and it was their very, very first time of getting stung.

350
00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:07,000
I think you know where I'm going with this. Sometimes it meant anaphylaxis. Sometimes it meant that they would get a moderate reaction, they would get high, excuse the pun, but they would get hives.

351
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:21,000
Or what would happen is that they would get stung 10 or 15 or 20 times and it doesn't matter whether you ran anaphylactic or not, when you're a 10-year-old and you get stung 10, 15, 20 times, that can be a serious emergency.

352
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:27,000
Yeah, and kids get stung on the face and then they got stung on the face a few times and then they'll freak out.

353
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,000
You know how it is, it's also psychological, right? Because then they'll get nervous.

354
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:41,000
Yeah. They're, they're hard, we'll start pumping, they're already pumping, their heart's already pumping faster than most adults and now it's even more because they're afraid and then there's more venom coursing through their veins and the impact is much higher.

355
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:50,000
So that's one of the things I tell people when you look at these swarm videos, remember, my mom used to say this when I was a little kid and you know what, it's true today.

356
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:54,000
Don't believe everything you see on television.

357
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:59,000
Well, and that reaction you're talking about, as you know, it also gets the bees more excited.

358
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:01,000
Absolutely.

359
00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,000
And more aggravated and more in attack mode.

360
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:08,000
Do you recommend that every beekeeper has an epipan around?

361
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:22,000
I do. I believe that even if you are someone who is that, that you're characterized, in other words, you've been stung before and you know what that, you're not going to have an immediate anaphylactic reaction.

362
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:28,000
That means nothing because years later you get stung again and you could have an anaphylactic reaction.

363
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:30,000
I mean, I've seen this before too.

364
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:37,000
As I said, there are people who will have those, though, they'll get some kind of cardiac condition or they'll get some kind of other condition.

365
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:42,000
And for one reason or another, there's something about the body's physiology that has now changed.

366
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:45,000
And now if you get stung, something could absolutely happen.

367
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:54,000
And in addition, you could be, I mean, for example, I've been on bee yards before where I saw 10, 20, 30 people there.

368
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,000
And that's not even counting admin workers. This is a commercial operation.

369
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,000
And then you have people who are admin people, you have people walking around.

370
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:05,000
These are things where, and we were in rural areas.

371
00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:12,000
I don't know where you are in Utah, but I've been in California in areas where an EMS truck was 15, 20 minutes away, easy.

372
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:16,000
Not even like, and that's assuming here, because here's the other thing.

373
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,000
That's assuming the ambulance can get right up to you.

374
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:31,000
That is assuming they're able to drive in a straight line in a sense, in sort of a metaphorical sense, and get right to you and jump out and immediately assess you.

375
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,000
Because whenever an EMS professional shows up on scene, the first thing they got to do, they got to assess the scene because they're not going to get stung.

376
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,000
I've actually seen this before where they were demanding EMS professionals to go out in the bee yard.

377
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:44,000
EMS professionals would refuse. They would say, no, they're not going out there.

378
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:48,000
And they'd say, you have to, we cannot move this person. He's 285 pounds.

379
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:52,000
And the EMS professionals goes, well, we're not going out there until all the bees are done.

380
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:55,000
They go, we have 50, 60 high boxes here. We can't move them.

381
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:59,000
And then now that becomes a problem because now you have to drag the person out.

382
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:01,000
And that creates a huge problem.

383
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,000
So that's another tech talk timing.

384
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:08,000
So these are the things that can sometimes be hurried and sometimes others.

385
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:14,000
So one of the things I also say to people is I say, listen, if you have a big bee yard, if you are out in the middle of nowhere,

386
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,000
do yourself a favor and do whatever you can.

387
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:23,000
If it's safe, if it's safe, and if the 911 operator says so, move the victim as close as you can.

388
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:29,000
If you can't do that, you need to make room so that the EMS professionals can go right in and you have to move bees away.

389
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:33,000
You can't have active bees flying around. They're going to look for swarm activity.

390
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:38,000
When I train EMTs, I tell them there are certain cloud characteristics in bees forms you need to look for.

391
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:43,000
Because I've seen this before where the little show up and there's like a cloud of bees.

392
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:45,000
And I'll say, you know, there's things you need to look for.

393
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:52,000
And that means you need to stay back. You need to stay away until you have characterized it because there's no point to you getting stung too.

394
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,000
There's no point to that because you and I both know, I mean, everybody's beekeeper knows, you get stung once,

395
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:02,000
that ceremony is now released. You know what I mean? And then you're going to get stung more and more.

396
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,000
And then you can smell that banana oil in sort of extreme situations.

397
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:13,000
Like I've seen that before where someone got their bee suit stung like, you know, 500, I'm sorry, not 550 to 200 times by a defensive swarm.

398
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:19,000
And you could smell the banana oil. I mean, it smelled like someone had dumped banana oil on them.

399
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:21,000
I mean, that's how bad it was.

400
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:29,000
So that's the reason why I think an EpiPen is a wonderful idea. I believe that every apiary should absolutely have one and you do have to replace them.

401
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,000
Soon as they become cloudy or when the expiration date occurs, you need to replace them.

402
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,000
But I believe that that is a necessary cost of doing business.

403
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,000
So I'm glad you mentioned that because I completely agree with you.

404
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:45,000
And I think that when you don't have that, you're putting yourself in a position for something to get much worse than it otherwise would.

405
00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,000
All right, we've talked about all the scary stuff. Time to get away from that.

406
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,000
What do you find that you just love about bees?

407
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:55,000
In college, I was a political scientist.

408
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:03,000
And one of the things that I did was I really enjoyed the study of human organization and governance.

409
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,000
So and I really wanted to be an international relations specialist.

410
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:09,000
I ultimately wanted to be a professor.

411
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:16,000
That's really what I wanted to do before I became an emergency manager and then an entrepreneur and all that because I love the way that people organize each other.

412
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:20,000
How they organize their governments, how they organize their cultures and societies.

413
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:28,000
And so and I wanted to examine better ways of doing that.

414
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:50,000
And one of the things that fascinates me about bees is their organization, how they do diffusion of labor, how they are able to within a new social environment determine who's going to do what and ensure that there is this sort of machination of ensuring that everything runs smoothly year after year after year.

415
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:52,000
And there's so much and I'm going to use the human word.

416
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:54,000
There's so much turnover.

417
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,000
And by turnover, we mean, you know, the bees die, right?

418
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:07,000
And even when the new bees come out, you have to have a kind of continuity of ensuring that there is an adequate diffusion of flavors that they know these bees are doing this.

419
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:15,000
And then you have the scout bees and then you have the guard bees and then you've got the bees that are the crypting bees, the ones that sort of take the dead bees out.

420
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:21,000
So, you know, these are all things that they do and they maintain that incredible organizational pattern.

421
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:35,000
And I actually read a great book that was written by an entomologist and he was talking about how bees and the way that bees organize themselves can instruct and improve the way the humans do it because they have a certain way of behaving.

422
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:37,000
That's very different.

423
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:43,000
So that's really that that's something that fascinates me and something that I really enjoy and I buy a lot of books.

424
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:55,000
I look online all the time for books about how bees and their use and their use social behaviors are unique because because there's so much research being done in the area and certain universities and certain scholars.

425
00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:02,000
And so I always like to read that stuff because I find that just so interesting is how they're able to organize themselves into a single cohesive unit.

426
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:04,000
You can name that one book if you want to.

427
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:12,000
Absolutely. It's called Honey Bee Democracy and it's written by Thomas Sealy.

428
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:14,000
It's on Amazon.

429
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:16,000
I highly recommend it.

430
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:23,000
It is very, very interesting and talks a lot about how they have created this sort of democratic structure.

431
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:26,000
And by democratic, I don't mean Democrat versus Republican.

432
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:28,000
I mean Democratic as in a democracy.

433
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:35,000
How they determine who is going to be doing what, how they ensure that they have the right balance.

434
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:41,000
And so those are things that are all very, very important in that in the end he was talking about how bees ultimately make decisions collectively.

435
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:45,000
It's not one bee making all these decisions.

436
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:48,000
They do that collectively and he said how do they do that?

437
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:50,000
How do they communicate?

438
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:52,000
How do they make these decisions?

439
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:54,000
And he creates a very clever answer.

440
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:56,000
And so it's a it's a wonderful book.

441
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:57,000
I'd recommend it to anybody.

442
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,000
Oh, you've read it. Oh, yeah, I've read it.

443
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:03,000
It's definitely worth reading.

444
00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:12,000
And I think he refers to the word democracy because as the scout bees go out looking for a new place to live, they come back.

445
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,000
They pitch their place and then everybody sort of votes on it.

446
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:26,000
And the cool thing is, and if we could only do this in our society, once they have voted, they all agree.

447
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:29,000
Okay, we will all jump on board.

448
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:33,000
We will accept that person's decision and we will all go there.

449
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:44,000
And it is that decision making calculus that ensures that they've all considered everyone's quote unquote opinions or their perspectives, right?

450
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,000
Because every every bee because of what they do is very different.

451
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:49,000
They each have their own perspective.

452
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:51,000
This is best for us versus this is best for us.

453
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:56,000
And then in the end, that choice still has to be made and there has to be an ultimate decision.

454
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,000
Just like there has to be an ultimate finality in any democratic choice.

455
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:03,000
So I'm glad you've read that book.

456
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:09,000
I have the other one here to the lives of bees, which is also a wonderful book.

457
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:16,000
But hey, Tom, you're going to owe us something for this big plug in your books.

458
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:18,000
I'll ask him for a royalty.

459
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:20,000
But no, he's very well respected.

460
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:22,000
Everybody knows who Tom Sealy is in.

461
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:31,000
And anyway, okay, before we wrap up, I'm going to give you a chance to tell us some kind of wild and crazy beekeeping story you've had.

462
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:34,000
And doing swarm removal, you probably have a thousand of them.

463
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:36,000
But tell me one or two that stand out to you.

464
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:44,000
I was living in Lompo, California, which is near Vandenberg Air Force Base, and I got a call and they said, you know, we have a swarm.

465
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:46,000
Will you go ahead and help us out?

466
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:48,000
And I said, sure, I'd be happy to come out.

467
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:50,000
And they gave me the address.

468
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:54,000
So I showed up, I knocked at the door and I did the usual thing.

469
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:57,000
And I said, you know, is it, I assume it's in the backyard, right?

470
00:38:58,000 --> 00:38:59,000
Or it's somewhere in the yard here somewhere.

471
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:01,000
I don't see them, but I assume there's some is on where.

472
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:03,000
And she said, no.

473
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,000
And she opened the garage door.

474
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:10,000
And there they were inside a Mercedes Benz on the back seat.

475
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:14,000
The bees had covered the entire back seat of the car.

476
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:20,000
And literally this, this Mercedes was, I mean, this had to be an $80,000 Mercedes.

477
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:25,000
It isn't just like, like one of the, you know, the line once it was like a really nice car and they'd maintained it.

478
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:27,000
And it was obviously waxed and everything.

479
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:29,000
And the thing had had bees all over it.

480
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:33,000
I'd never seen that many bees before get into the inside of a car.

481
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:40,000
And just at the end of it, after I had collected all the bees, I asked the owners, I said, can you think of anything that would have happened?

482
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:42,000
And they had no idea.

483
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:51,000
And then we finally determined after I sort of asked them some questions that one of them was using a perfume that was very attractive to bees.

484
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:53,000
And so what, and so that's a theory.

485
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:57,000
I mean, we have no idea for sure, but that it was all over the seats because you could actually smell it.

486
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:03,000
So I have a feeling they somehow got in through there and it just covered the back seat of this incredibly expensive car.

487
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:05,000
So that was one.

488
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:11,000
The other one was I was, I was doing a swarm removal and I got a call out to go to a gun range.

489
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:21,000
The gun range had had a swarm and one of the, one of the people who was paying to be on the range accidentally shot the hive,

490
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:26,000
shot the hive that was there and there was an immediate swarm.

491
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:34,000
And so you have all these guys well armed, ran into the building, close themselves off and you could see the bees banging into the window.

492
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:36,000
That's how much they wanted to get at them.

493
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:40,000
Yeah, their guns aren't going to do them any good whatsoever.

494
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:48,000
And I just thought it was so funny to see all these guys who were heavily armed, some of these men men men were carrying 45s and they were carrying these different guns and stuff.

495
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:56,000
And they all like ran inside and they had closed all the doors and everything and they thrown like a towel at the bottom of the door because the bees were trying to get from underneath the doorway.

496
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,000
It was just, it's just funny to see all these guys going, keep these bees out.

497
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:02,000
And so, so we had to go out there.

498
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:06,000
Yeah, like a bunch of bunch of screaming little girls.

499
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:11,000
Yeah, because, you know, just like you said, a gun's not going to do anything about anything.

500
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:21,000
So it was just kind of a funny juxtaposition to see all these tough guys and guys were shooting guns, like doing everything they could to keep these little bees from going inside the building.

501
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:23,000
So that was definitely an interesting day.

502
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:29,000
And those bees are obviously very defensive and it was a very difficult day, but it was a fun call out.

503
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:32,000
I got to have a few of those ones where those were interesting.

504
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:39,000
So those are kind of two, I have other ones also, but those are the two that definitely stand out of my time as a swarm responder.

505
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:47,000
I will tell you this, Eric, being a swarm responder on the central coast is fascinating because you have agriculture and traditional ways people do things.

506
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:49,000
And then you have this high tech stuff.

507
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:54,000
You have SpaceX, you have Van and Berger forest base and you have the military and you also have the oceans.

508
00:41:56,000 --> 00:42:03,000
So it is a very, very interesting place to be a swarm responder because you get to see so many things and people have lived there for generations and generations.

509
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:06,000
So those are just two of the stories.

510
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:08,000
As I said, it's just a really interesting thing.

511
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:20,000
And so that's one of the reasons why when you and I were talking earlier, I get very protective about that because I want people to respond to swarm safely and effectively for both themselves as well as for the bees.

512
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:22,000
Hey Patrick, it's been a ton of fun.

513
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:24,000
Thank you for joining me today.

514
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:31,000
And we're going to circle back in a month or so and learn a little bit more about the recovery efforts down there in Southern Cal.

515
00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:33,000
Eric, thank you so much for having me.

516
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:38,000
We are at B Platoon, so it's B E E platoon normal spelling dot com.

517
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:40,000
We'd love to have you join the team.

518
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:48,000
All you've got to do is there's a simple sign up on there and come and join us, but we're going to be having a lot of conversations over the next month.

519
00:42:49,000 --> 00:43:01,000
So Eric, I would I would love to come back because there's going to be so many great things to talk about because we are going to be organizing the largest disaster recovery in beekeeping history.

520
00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:09,000
So we are really going to do everything possible to help get people back into place so that these pollinators have a way of thriving.

521
00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:11,000
Once again, this is an important ecosystem.

522
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:14,000
We can't throw away our pollinators.

523
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:18,000
I know this isn't sheltering people and it's not housing the homeless.

524
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:20,000
It's not doing any of that during a disaster.

525
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:24,000
Those are things that are going to continue on and saving lives and fire suppression.

526
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:31,000
But once that ends and we're at the recovery phase, we need to put people in a position to be successful.

527
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:37,000
Once again, this is such an important industry and the bees are so important to what we do as human beings.

528
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:41,000
It's that symbiosis that we have with them and I'm glad to be part of it.

529
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:44,000
And I welcome any of you who hear this to join the adventure.

530
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:46,000
It is going to be so much fun.

531
00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:52,000
We're learning so much and I would love to hear your input and the way that we can improve those interactions.

532
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:54,000
Thank you, Eric.

533
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:56,000
I appreciate it and I look forward to speaking to you all once again.

534
00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:03,000
Thank you so much for joining us here on Be Love Beekeeping presented by Man Lake.

535
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:10,000
Please right now before you forget, hit that follow or subscribe button, rate and comment on the show.

536
00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:12,000
Then be sure to share it with a friend.

537
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:15,000
We're building a community here and we want to hear from you.

538
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:26,000
Send your crazy stories, guest recommendations, new gadgets or anything else that you'd like to hear about on the show to Eric at BeLoveBeKeeping.com.

539
00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:32,000
And remember, if you're not just in it for the honey or the money, you're in it for the love.

540
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:44,000
See you next week.