here is where the magic happens. some of it.
finding the chair here somewhere
everything is all pine upright because she cranky right now expecting plumber to
come here put a toilet in yeah they actually worked for that figure everything out there
we could work anything come in two weeks oh yes I'm light okay
foreign
yeah it's I get mad at it I locked my keys I locked my keys in here oh no
okay I couldn't go anywhere I couldn't use my truck I couldn't do anything
so I opened it and of course went well yeah well when I can afford a door I'll get another door
Mariah Carey Still thinking about 50 years 50 years doing that that's I think about it too
that's a that's an achievement itself yeah I know I can't believe it yeah 50 years wow 50
years in every oh he's 24. every year something new yeah every year and you survived I did
and you know and I have some really nice ears oh my gosh I had some good ears I used to pollinate
apples that worked out well until it didn't you know it's it beats up the bees and it beats up
the workers and it beats up the equipment and you wind up moving your your bees into the Orchard
and back again and it's not very far some of the Arts were only 10 miles I lost a super of honey
every time I moved a box of these I lost a super production that year
um and it was obvious because some moved and some didn't you know so it's pretty obvious
the uh the the average crop from the pollinators and the non-pollinators and um and they wouldn't
even pay me enough to replace the honey I started out it was 22 dollars a high for apples
try to get somebody to do that nowadays then it was 35 and they made them move them
but finally I said hey you got to give me at least 50. I'm losing a I'm losing a a super honey
I'm losing 40 pounds of honey here and at the Timeline might have been 95 or a dollar you know
like I'm losing 40 pounds on you and you're not you're only paying me 35. you got to give me 50.
well he couldn't give you 50 all right well then find somebody else yeah you know what are they
paying now I can't imagine what they're paying now must be 75 80 or more I would say that yep
yep and what about almonds I mean 200. if you're getting there now some places I don't think we've
even reached that is that right but then you got to get them there and then you got to get them
back and then you hope they don't get sprayed and then you hope that they don't get stolen and then
you hope that the truck doesn't tip over and and all the diseases in one single place right
and I think that's part of the problem you know I hate to say it I I love my
commercial beekeeping friends I hate to say it the migratory guys except for a few you know but
um it's got to be affecting the bees oh yes I have so they bring they come back here
and then and they're they're spread out around us is that why the mites are more virulent or
the viruses are more virulent is that why all of a sudden no I don't buy bees all of a sudden
European is showing up where's that coming from you know I know when this when they come back
because all of a sudden my hives are full of beetles
is that right I couldn't bring something in here you can't bring cows in here that are
full of parasites and diseases and brucellosis and all this noise or even Nursery stock you
can't bring Nursery stock in here you couldn't bring a hemlocks in here with Willie adeljet
but you can bring bees in here with varroa mites and beetles and who knows what else
my experience now Mike visiting commercial guys for almost four years now
there is the people that are successful and we need to Define successful here and successful
for me is have a sustainable uh operation that provide you
a profit every year and you have more control of the bees in your life you're healthier too right
the guys that I see success on there are the the guys that are avoiding going to California
and have more local and more organized operation they have more control they make less money I
would say that maybe up front up front yeah but their lifestyle their health their health
of their kids I I see a big Improvement like when I look at them right yeah it's true I
believe that and so I think it takes some people a long time to figure it out that just because
they make they get a bigger paycheck doesn't mean that they're getting farther ahead they're
hurting themselves and they're greater bees the bees they're going after the money and they're
thirsty some of those need and they're desperate I I understand that part some of those are just
going for because of the greed right and and they don't really need that and we look at them like
I look at you you're 74 and you're still sharp as hell and you're active and you're good I see some
guys with 40 years old that I think they have 65 right there is overweight and they're overstressed
poorly yes I agree they're destroyed and I I don't know how to help yeah because they are poisoned
by right that greed you know if I had to take care of myself at home I I'd probably be in tough shape
because I just don't like to cook I you know I I would eat I would eat this the quickest stuff
I could but my wife Leslie she just make sure that we have good food to eat and that was really
helpful years very important that's what I want to learn from you because I was talking with my
wife right now that's I want to be like that guy I want to be like Mike I want to be like Mike yeah
yes and you know I really agree with that so you know I mean I get plenty of friends that
are commercial migratories and and I don't want to slam them no no yes I'm just observations
over over the years it's just like you're not any farther ahead and you're going to be dead you're
going to be dead when you're 55 because you're going to have a stroke yeah you know I I clearly
see that and I don't know how to touch the subject without piss them off or right well so I don't
bother you know yeah it's hard I don't come out publicly about things like that you know and call
anybody out all I do is talk you know say my own observations but it's my observation too and and I
visit dozens now I spent three years at Universal Florida my work was research dedicated to
commercial beekeepers so I was visiting everybody in Florida see all kinds of different Management
Systems approach lifestyle and it after a while it could be it start to become a pattern this
the people are more greedy and they're destroyed they're destroyed they are they're affecting their
families relationships and I don't know how to help on that I sent bees to Florida once I
send 400 eyes they came back stinky rotten with chalk brood that's when we first got
resistant for all mice you know to apostan and they were 15 hopelessly coinless and on
and on and on you know I mean why would I ever do that again I don't get it I'll
figure out how to Winter my bees here and I'll leave them here you know one of the greatest
um uh the best one of the best helpers to the to the queen breeder to The Beekeeper is winter
because winter is the great selector for a good breeding stock yeah so if you can make if it can
make it here it'd be a thriving Colony there you go there's a possible breeder right there
you know what do you got if you go to Florida or Georgia or wherever what have you got well
you're keeping bees in the Northeast and look at this climate but yet you're going to keep your
bees and you're going to raise your bees and all that stuff in Queens and all in Florida or Georgia
what was that telling I can't keep my bees alive up north because you don't keep your bees up north
you know different managements I see successful guys in Florida but it is different style it says
and I'm I'm the guy that always preach local bees are always better yeah but but might be
going to Florida might not be so great no no if it feels breathing here for so long adapted very
well here I said I send Queens from Ice and Queens from Florida to Alaska and everywhere in between
and people really like my Queens um Florida I had some reasonable um you know success with
they have with my Queens but I sent a bunch to well like send them to El Paso Texas and they
somehow they made it to Mexico and and they said and the consensus was your Queens are too slow
mogia and because they want Italian stock that builds up these huge colonies of course they
do and quick and they might wait until the resources are right and then they build up
well that's exactly what I want to be okay so of course it makes sense to me
you breathe for the things you want that is important for you in in your
local environment right what's the most one of the most maybe the most important thing here
the ability to Winter because if they don't winter you got nothing anyway
true so you got no breeding stock if they don't winter you know so yeah it's Mike I
want to take your views on the increase raw crops in Vermont yep so what's going on with them well
farmers are getting greedy they're up against the wall with their with their um with cost and
uh you know expenses and income um so you gotta have more and more and more and more cows all
the time and you got to feed them so you get the maximum production out of every single cow even if
it's only for a few years and then they're down the road because you burned them out with all
the corn you feed them this is what Farmers tell me I don't know I'm not a Dairy Farmer
but you know when I started 50 years ago and even gosh into the 90s I would say
um I tried to figure out when they started using clothing in corn um and I would say that's
approximately the big explosion of corn growing in Vermont and I think that was around 2004.
there could have been a few years before but um before that there were uh pastures
for the cows to go out and eat and poop and there's it was full of white clover
you know and then they had hay fields that works you know Alfalfa and and forage crops you know
and white clover if the Alfalfa started to go by white clover came up white clover is so awesome
the first thing that comes up in a white clover and a white Dutch is the flowers
yeah and they work it again a lot of stuff either they cut it once and that's doesn't yield anymore
blood I know I'll Psych the gray flower but but you get one crop
white Dutch just keeps coming and coming and coming and coming and it's and it's it's perennial
it spreads by right and the rhizomes and it gets bigger and it's great so first they plotted up all
the hay Fields they don't and and uh to grow more corn and they got rid of all the pastures they
they plowed up the pastures took out the rocks and tiled it and and they don't need pastures because
the cows stay in the bar in 12 months of the year they never go out to farage it's just stupid you
bring your feed to the barn and the poop to the field wait a minute what's a pasture the
cows go out and they eat and they poop boom done okay so and then well now we've got um all these
fields in but there's hedgerows along the side in their shading part of the part of the field
so we'll cut down all the hedgerows oh what's in the hedgerows of course these Basswood trees but
there's berries and there's sumac sumac is one of the most awesome uh honey crops we have here
it's a delicious vanilla flavored honey and when you get a sumac here I mean it's
everywhere yeah it's a weed here oh no they're saying it's an invasive we have to cut it down
you know like everything else oh wonderful so that's the difference now between back then you
know 30 years ago and now it's just everything is being turned into corn there's some yes there's
some maybe some alfalfa a little bit of soy but it's predominantly corn I would solve this
problem you know every industry wants to survive but some Industries I think it's more about greed
than survivorship at all right right I see some industry is in pretty good shape it's not like
the beekeeping into this it's going down it's if you don't do anything about it it's going down and
because they're more bigger more powerful and very likely have more people in the right places
they can influence policies in different ways so how how can how can we do something about it I
know I don't know how we're going to influence the uh the agriculture agency here in Vermont
I mean they're so tied to protecting uh traditional agriculture which we aren't part of
um well I don't know what there is to do I I really don't
I mean they lie to us about the pesticides in the corn
the B lab found um clothyanidin in the tissues of goldenrod plants in August
well wait a minute well if the antidency to treated seed was was a was planted in May
June July out of three months later or more they're finding an engulfing Rod
yeah caldermont is one of my one of my biggest main crops for winter you know honey and pollen
and they store all that away and then they feed it to their babies in the spring come on don't
tell me it doesn't migrate the uh over God never got treated with with clothing so why is there
clothiana didn't and it goes everywhere so it does exactly people need to know those things they're
they're probably floating in in chemicals they don't even know they're in contact with absolutely