Beekeeping in New Zealand • Beekeeping Headlines


In this episode of Bee Love Beekeeping we have the pleasure of going all the way to New Zealand to have a discussion with a beekeeper who doesn't like honey! What?!
Sarah Cross lives and takes care of her honey bees in Ngaruawahia, New Zealand. She actually started her career managing 250 hives, but now is more into education, hive management, consulting, and writing about bees.
We discuss Manuka honey, varroa, IPM, and Sarah's favorite wild & crazy beekeeping moments. Above all else, she recommends the Three C's of beekeeping: Stay COOL, CALM & COLLECTED.
In beekeeping headlines we learn about beekeepers in Spain demonstrating by pouring honey on themselves, Africanized bees killing chickens in Texas, and the EPA approving new varroa treatments.
It's all about having fun while we learn about beekeeping and sharing the love of honey bees!
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Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mann Lake! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
Mann Lake discount code: MLBEELOVE10 for $10 off a $100 order.
https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/
Sarah Cross: https://www.sarahcsbees.co.nz/
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May I have your attention, please? The following
00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:10.839
is not the real Jeff Fox review. If you create
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more splints than a divorce lawyer, you might
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be a beekeeper. If you go to the car wash and
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the attendant there says, I can't get rid of
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these orange spots on your vehicle. You might
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be a Vkeeper. If you refer to your very large
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family as a swarm, you might be a Vkeeper. Welcome,
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welcome to Be Love Beekeeping presented by our
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good buds over at Man Lake. We are so happy you're
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here today as we're headed down to the southern
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hemisphere for a really fun discussion with a
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passionate beekeeper who, of all things, doesn't
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like honey? What? One of the most fun things
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about doing this show is getting to know beekeepers
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from all over the world. It's amazing how much
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we have in common when it's all centered around
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the love of bees. But first, let's go to some
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headlines. Last month we had a story about Africanized
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bees killing three horses at a farm in Texas.
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Now more recently another family in Texas had
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all nine of their chickens killed by bees. The
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Stavanoja family in Bryan, Texas was left in
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shock after a swarm of bees turned aggressive
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in their backyard. Here's a quote from Jennifer
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Stavanoja. I get a text from my husband and he
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says, I think bees are killing our chickens.
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So I put the baby down and I ran outside and
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most of the chickens were already dead. And there
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was just a swarm of bees stinging all of our
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chickens. So the poor family lost their entire
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flock in minutes and now they're wondering what
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kind of bees would have caused this type of destruction.
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She said, European honey bees don't normally
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attack. You want them in your yard. But the idea
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of this Africanized colony or bad genetics or
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whatever it was, is that they get aggressive
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and they go after you. Normal honey bees don't
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do these things. So local beekeeper and professional
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bee remover Chris Barnes was called in. He said
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this type of behavior most likely has to do with
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territorial behaviors in bees. The chickens were
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likely caught in the crossfire of two colonies
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fighting for hive space. His advice? The first
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thing is to just leave them alone if bees are
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attacking or attacking like in this case Distance
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is your friend. They're not going to be aggressive
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as a general rule and the benefit of having the
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bees around far outweighs the fear that people
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have now. Even though the beehive is not on their
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property, the Stavanoha family said that they're
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taking steps to remove the hive. They also plan
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to rebuild their chicken flock. Good for them.
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Now let's go across the pond in Euro news. Spanish
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beekeepers staged an eye -catching protest in
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Valencia to plead for financial aid. Okay, this
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one you got to see the picture. It just looks
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a little nuts. And I'm quoting again from the
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article. Spanish beekeepers are taking to the
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streets this weekend to demand urgent help for
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their quote dying sector. Led by farmers union
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COAG Honey sector workers are demanding aid to
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help with the unaffordable rise in production
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costs. They're also protesting against import
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of low quality honey from countries such as China,
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which they say is flooding the market and causing
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a price crisis. In recent years, a record amount
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of honey has been imported to Spain. So here's
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what they did. 300 beekeepers got together in
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a rally in front of the Valencia Courthouse holding
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signs that read, S .O .S. Beekeeping in Danger
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of Extinction. Now here's the best part, protesters
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then drenched themselves in honey from head to
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toe to draw attention to their cause. So why
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are the beekeepers protesting in Spain? They
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say that recent high temperatures and varroa
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mites have reduced Spain's honey harvest by half.
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And like other industries beekeeping has suffered
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surging costs due to the war in Ukraine. The
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amount of aid currently allocated for beekeepers
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does not cover even one kilo of food per hive
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they say. and their colonies require about 18
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kilograms of honey or sugar syrup to survive
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the winter. Protesters are demanding increased
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quantity and quality controls on honey imports
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and more transparent labeling on the origin of
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honey sold in Spain. Go for it guys. And lastly
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here in the U .S. a headline EPA proposes to
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register new pesticide for varroa mite control.
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The U .S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA,
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has proposed to register one technical and two
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end -use products containing the new active ingredient,
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vadascana, hope I said that right, a double -stranded
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RNA for control against varroa mites and honeybee
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hives. The EPA is prioritizing pesticide applications
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that target varroa mites to provide beekeepers
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with a variety of tools to combat the pest. According
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to them, no risks of concern to human health
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or the environment were identified. When used
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according to the label, risks to bees are not
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expected because vadascona is highly specific
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to the targeted gene within varroa mites. Additionally,
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in March of 2025, the EPA registered a new varroa
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side product containing iglutamic acid, an active
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ingredient that has not previously been included
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in registered products for use in beehives. The
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agency also intends to register another product
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containing oxalic acid, a slow release varroa
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side within beehives, by July of 2025. Together,
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these four end -use products are expected to
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provide new tools, including novel active ingredients,
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for control of Varroa mites and beehives. Now,
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hey, just a quick favor. If you haven't yet followed
00:07:07.740 --> 00:07:10.980
or subscribed to the show, please do so now and
00:07:10.980 --> 00:07:13.899
be sure to share it with a friend. Also, if you
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want to be part of the show, be sure to reach
00:07:16.339 --> 00:07:19.300
out to Eric at Be Love Beekeeping dot com with
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your ideas for guests, your wild and crazy beekeeping
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stories, and your suggestions for the not real
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Jeff Foxworthy on why you might be a beekeeper.
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Thank you, thank you for all that. Now let's
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head south for today's interview. Hey, welcome,
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welcome to the show today, Sarah Cross. And Sarah,
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I'm going to ask you to answer something that
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I'm going to have people try to guess where you're
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from. Oh, OK. I want to know how you got started
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in beekeeping. All right. Keep it short because
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then we're going to ask the quiz. No problem.
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So my start is quite different. So most people
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in any level of beekeeping, most start as hobbyists,
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you know, with a couple of hives in the backyard.
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I started, so I have a bachelor of science degree
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from university and I started in insects in general.
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So not actually the bees. And then I worked at
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lots of very cool places around my country. And
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then I came back to my general sort of home area
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and picked up a job at an apiculture science
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organization. I had never opened a bee hive in
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my life. The very first time that I put on a
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bee suit and did that amazing thing where you
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open the hive and seal the bees for the first
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time was in my job interview. Wow. Yeah, those
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silly people gave me that job. Good thing you
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didn't panic and scream and run away. Yeah, yeah.
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100%. They said, congratulations, here's 250
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beehives to look after. Oh, no. I literally,
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yeah, my start in beekeeping was literally thrown
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in the deep end. So I started big. Okay. And
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now I'm all the way back down to having five
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hives in the backyard. All right, quiz time.
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Everybody can answer to whoever's next to them.
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Where is Sarah from? Yes, New Zealand. And I'm
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not going to embarrass myself. Tell us what part
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of New Zealand. Oh, okay. the language of New
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Zealand, which is MÄori. And so I am from New
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Zealand, which natively is called Aotearoa. I'm
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from a region called the Waikato, and my hometown
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is called NgÄruawahia. That was the part I wanted
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to say and then didn't dare. I embarrassed myself
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enough on this show already. I don't need to
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start off that way today. Anyway, it's really
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fun to have you on. You are our first guest from
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New Zealand, so congratulations on that. That's
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exciting. And one of the reasons I was interested
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in New Zealand is because somebody recently was
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asking about manuka honey. I want to talk about
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that first and then we're going to jump into
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a little bit more of your beekeeping journey
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and what in the world it's like keeping bees
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there. Oh, I had one other question, geography.
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quiz question. Where are you from Auckland? Yeah,
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half far away from Auckland, only like an hour's
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drive south. So if you know a little bit, there's
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the big old what we call the North Island, and
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Auckland's quite near the top. We are literally
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kind of smack in the middle. Alrighty. What do
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you know about Manuka honey? I do not know a
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lot about the those cool little chemical jargony
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acronyms we hear about NGOs and GM or whatever
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they're called, UMFs, only because my apiculture
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science background was working on the bees. So
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it's a fun little thing to get your head around,
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but my job has never, in all the years of me
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doing this, has never been to make honey. Which
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sounds weird, because I just say, oh, I'm a beekeeper.
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But my job has always been about the bees themselves.
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But I will tell you one of the reasons why manuka
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is hard. to get, hard to make, hard for your
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bees to get. So little old New Zealand is quite
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a long country. So our temperature gradient goes
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sort of down the country like that. And manuka
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flowers only when the temperature gets warm enough.
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So we have, in New Zealand here, we have what
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we call manuka chasers. And they will move their
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hives in at the top of the country when the manuka
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is first flowering. And they will have to move
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those every couple of weeks. And like, but like
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migratory beekeeping, and then they go all the
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way down the country. It's not common to do that
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because New Zealand is a teeny little country.
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It's not a common thing to do. And so it's a
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lot of money and outreach to get all that time,
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all the effort, all the manpower. Some of them
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even helicopter them in, the fancy ones. So that's
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one of the reasons why manuka costs so much.
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And also the bees themselves don't particularly
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like it. It's not actually a favorite. So they
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must drop them in where there's nothing else
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for them to forage on. That's what they really
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try to do. Wow. And I'll tell you another weird
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little fact. But back in the days, manuka was
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literally the pest plant. It was the scrub. It
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was when you bought a block of land, you automatically
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cut and burned all of the manuka because it was
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an absolute waste. We used to use it as firewood.
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And now there are people out there selling little
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manuka plants for thousands of dollars because
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people want their whole property planted in it.
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So it's that complete... supply and demand thing
00:12:30.929 --> 00:12:33.330
where suddenly they found this magical honey
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that comes from Manuka and it's completely flipped.
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Completely. It's quite odd to think about. Yeah.
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We used to slash and burn it and now we plant
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it. That's funny. Yeah. Now, just so we can get
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an idea of what it's like beekeeping in your
00:12:46.029 --> 00:12:50.149
area, because as we all know, beekeeping is local.
00:12:51.149 --> 00:12:54.230
It's if I live 25 miles from here, it would be
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different than where it is where I live So give
00:12:56.889 --> 00:13:00.470
us an idea of what the climate is like all year
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round So just like you mentioned local New Zealand
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itself is classed as a temperate climate So we're
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not having any massive minus 25s kind of you
00:13:10.549 --> 00:13:13.009
know, Alaska types up and again We don't have
00:13:13.009 --> 00:13:16.149
highs like Australia. So Here where I am in the
00:13:16.149 --> 00:13:19.769
Waikato our summertime I'm going to say I'm probably
00:13:19.769 --> 00:13:21.289
going to have to convert this to Fahrenheit because
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I don't know. But in the summertime here, we
00:13:25.529 --> 00:13:27.830
would be absolutely gasping and dying if it got
00:13:27.830 --> 00:13:31.190
to 30 degrees Celsius. 30 degrees Celsius is
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86 Fahrenheit. So it's always below 86 Fahrenheit.
00:13:35.210 --> 00:13:38.970
Okay. We would and we are sweating. Okay. And
00:13:38.970 --> 00:13:42.470
then here where I am in the Waikato would only,
00:13:42.470 --> 00:13:46.210
gosh, minus two is probably the worst winter
00:13:46.210 --> 00:13:48.580
day. we would have, sorry, winter night that
00:13:48.580 --> 00:13:51.879
we would have. That's 28 degrees for us. Wow,
00:13:51.879 --> 00:13:54.919
that is very mild. Yeah, it's exactly temperate.
00:13:55.179 --> 00:13:57.179
It's not very, and even between the days and
00:13:57.179 --> 00:13:59.080
the nights, it's not a big change as well. And
00:13:59.080 --> 00:14:01.039
again, that's here in the Waikato. If you go
00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:03.419
much further down south in New Zealand, they
00:14:03.419 --> 00:14:05.259
definitely get the big snows and things like
00:14:05.259 --> 00:14:07.240
that, but it doesn't snow here. It's not ever
00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:10.340
that cold. So very temperate. So yeah, very different.
00:14:10.419 --> 00:14:13.480
So I see amazing people overseas wrapping their
00:14:13.480 --> 00:14:15.500
hives and getting covered in snow. And I'm like...
00:14:16.069 --> 00:14:19.409
Don't have to do that. But do you have pests?
00:14:20.110 --> 00:14:23.210
Warm climate type of pests. We have a lot less
00:14:23.210 --> 00:14:25.350
than most countries. We do not have small hive
00:14:25.350 --> 00:14:27.909
beetle, which I know I see in Australia, which
00:14:27.909 --> 00:14:30.070
is quite a... If that comes over here, we're
00:14:30.070 --> 00:14:33.850
in big trouble. We have had Varroa, Varroa destructus
00:14:33.850 --> 00:14:36.690
since the year 2000. So we've had 25 years of
00:14:36.690 --> 00:14:40.070
dealing with that. We have AFB, so American foul
00:14:40.070 --> 00:14:43.490
brood, but we do not have European foul brood.
00:14:43.610 --> 00:14:46.539
So we've got a few less than some people. Yeah.
00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:50.399
And other things like deform wing virus? Yes.
00:14:50.779 --> 00:14:53.539
Any of those viruses? Yeah. 100 % deform wings.
00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:56.440
Deform wings is the main one. We do have acute
00:14:56.440 --> 00:15:00.240
paralysis, but none of those are rampant sort
00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:03.279
of anywhere. Chalk brood, because we are a temperate,
00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:06.720
quite damp, we will sometimes get a bit of that
00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:08.879
coming through. But again, nothing that's massively
00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:10.779
damaging. Of course, like most of the word, varroa
00:15:10.779 --> 00:15:13.299
is of course our number one vein of our existence.
00:15:13.830 --> 00:15:16.110
Yeah, how do you deal with it there? Maybe we
00:15:16.110 --> 00:15:20.149
can learn something from you. We definitely have
00:15:20.149 --> 00:15:23.210
moved into the realm of integrated pest management,
00:15:23.710 --> 00:15:26.110
because again, like most of the country, just
00:15:26.110 --> 00:15:28.970
throwing in the strips and, you know, taking
00:15:28.970 --> 00:15:31.009
them out and however many weeks is not working
00:15:31.009 --> 00:15:35.049
like it used to. So yeah, a lot of all the other,
00:15:35.850 --> 00:15:37.350
you might have heard New Zealand, we have this
00:15:37.350 --> 00:15:40.110
number eight wire is called, it's like a, we
00:15:40.110 --> 00:15:42.379
like to make things, we like to... figure stuff
00:15:42.379 --> 00:15:44.899
out. And there's lots of people here in New Zealand
00:15:44.899 --> 00:15:47.379
who have made their own little bits and pieces
00:15:47.379 --> 00:15:49.320
to do with, a lot of it's to do with oxalic acid
00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:51.899
and different ways that we treat with those.
00:15:52.279 --> 00:15:54.240
There's also a lot of physical, very cool little
00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:57.179
physical things that a lot of New Zealand engineer
00:15:57.179 --> 00:16:00.139
beekeeper fellas are doing. One of them is sort
00:16:00.139 --> 00:16:02.399
of quite specific sort of queen trapping system
00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.840
to make the hive broodless for a little bit so
00:16:04.840 --> 00:16:07.360
then you can treat and get all the phoretic mites
00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:09.639
and things like that. Definitely lots of, and
00:16:09.639 --> 00:16:11.820
even in the science industry, we've got quite
00:16:11.820 --> 00:16:16.419
a few people doing insane stuff with like mRNA
00:16:16.419 --> 00:16:18.559
and things like that of the actual Varroa itself
00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:20.659
to try and stop its breeding cycle and things
00:16:20.659 --> 00:16:23.179
like that. But these are very much years and
00:16:23.179 --> 00:16:26.159
years sort of to come through, but we definitely
00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:28.159
know as beekeepers that we cannot do what we
00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:30.320
used to do because it's not working. And that's
00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:32.200
a big thing that we're learning here. Again,
00:16:32.200 --> 00:16:34.840
we should already know it, but you've probably
00:16:34.840 --> 00:16:37.320
heard about the big bee die off this year in
00:16:37.320 --> 00:16:39.960
the States. Have you heard about it? Oh, hundred
00:16:39.960 --> 00:16:43.220
percent. It's very scary. Yeah, it's bad. Yeah.
00:16:43.639 --> 00:16:46.960
And just a few days ago, well, depending on the
00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:49.679
date that this podcast comes out, but from when
00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:52.320
we're recording, it was just a week or so ago,
00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:55.919
we got some results from some of the first research
00:16:55.919 --> 00:17:00.179
that's being done. And what they're finding is
00:17:00.179 --> 00:17:03.860
two things. Some of the viruses that are passed
00:17:03.860 --> 00:17:07.039
by Varroa, those are what's killing the hives.
00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:10.500
But some of the treatment that has been used
00:17:10.500 --> 00:17:13.660
for a long time is just not very effective anymore.
00:17:14.299 --> 00:17:17.279
It's been used over and over and over so much
00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:20.079
and, oh, it's not working so good, we better
00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:23.039
give a higher dose and then a higher dose. Well,
00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:25.440
now it's not working anymore. So the IPM that
00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:28.119
you're talking about, which everybody knows the
00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:32.400
term, we all have to do a better job of putting
00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:35.400
that into, you know, just part of how we bee
00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:39.390
keep. And you mentioned brood breaks. Yeah. But
00:17:39.390 --> 00:17:42.470
what is this wire you were talking about? It's
00:17:42.470 --> 00:17:46.069
just one of the amazing beekeeping outfits is
00:17:46.069 --> 00:17:48.809
just, I can't remember who calls it, sorry, but
00:17:48.809 --> 00:17:52.430
it's basically just securing the queen into one
00:17:52.430 --> 00:17:54.730
specific area. So not a tiny little queen cage
00:17:54.730 --> 00:17:57.410
like we do for introductions, but just sort of
00:17:57.410 --> 00:18:01.309
a sort of a trap to hold her in there. So just
00:18:01.309 --> 00:18:04.569
on that one frame so that then which can basically
00:18:04.569 --> 00:18:07.210
cause a brood break and be able to treat the
00:18:07.210 --> 00:18:12.130
hives as well. Quick break to thank our presenting
00:18:12.130 --> 00:18:15.829
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00:18:18.829 --> 00:18:21.470
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MLBlove. 10, it's in the show notes, for $10
00:18:45.819 --> 00:18:51.799
off your first $100 purchase. Can I just ask,
00:18:51.799 --> 00:18:53.160
sorry, I'm just going to put in and ask you a
00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:55.099
question here. In terms of the chemicals that
00:18:55.099 --> 00:18:57.059
you use in the US, is there really only sort
00:18:57.059 --> 00:19:00.579
of one chemical class that you use for the Varroa
00:19:00.579 --> 00:19:03.579
treatments? What do you mean by class? Well,
00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:05.619
so, okay, here in New Zealand we have, we're
00:19:05.619 --> 00:19:08.259
very, very stressful to say that people, so we
00:19:08.259 --> 00:19:11.700
treat in the spring and the autumn. And we always
00:19:11.700 --> 00:19:15.380
tell our new beekeepers to rotate those treatments.
00:19:15.700 --> 00:19:19.720
So we have two different chemical classes, I
00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:21.500
think, and I'm going to blow myself in trouble
00:19:21.500 --> 00:19:23.440
because I haven't done this role, like fluvalinate
00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:26.059
and flumethrin, and there's a third one, which
00:19:26.059 --> 00:19:28.119
I can't remember, amitrase or apitrase, something.
00:19:28.579 --> 00:19:30.440
And they are in chemical, two different chemical
00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:32.640
classes. And so we always tell our beekeepers
00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:34.980
to swap those around. So they're not always getting,
00:19:35.180 --> 00:19:36.980
like you mentioned, always getting the same chemical
00:19:36.980 --> 00:19:39.079
throw in that. Is that not something that you
00:19:39.079 --> 00:19:42.750
do or? Oh, yeah, absolutely. So for example,
00:19:43.029 --> 00:19:45.049
formic acid can come in a couple of different
00:19:45.049 --> 00:19:48.390
ways. So you've got to use that one time and
00:19:48.390 --> 00:19:51.029
not the other kind of formic another time, but
00:19:51.029 --> 00:19:53.369
something completely different. Exactly. Yeah.
00:19:53.630 --> 00:19:57.049
So yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Again, we just need
00:19:57.049 --> 00:20:00.140
to do a better job of Oh, yeah, because as you
00:20:00.140 --> 00:20:01.799
know, some things when we treat are easier than
00:20:01.799 --> 00:20:03.559
others. And sometimes if you're a bit like me
00:20:03.559 --> 00:20:05.920
and you're a bit lazy, you sometimes just go,
00:20:06.019 --> 00:20:08.240
I'll just do the easy, which is not obviously
00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:10.700
the best way to be, but I fully understand that.
00:20:11.099 --> 00:20:14.160
So, yeah. So you mentioned oxalic acid, which
00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:17.140
is very popular here. In what ways do you use
00:20:17.140 --> 00:20:19.960
it? The least common way is the dribble, as in
00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:21.960
physically mixed in with sugar syrup, and you
00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:24.180
just dribble it over the seams on top of the
00:20:24.180 --> 00:20:26.730
bees. Very common is what we call the staples,
00:20:27.150 --> 00:20:30.970
which are soaked in like a cardboard strip, which
00:20:30.970 --> 00:20:33.250
you then put down over the top of the frames
00:20:33.250 --> 00:20:35.710
like that. So down in like a staple form. Another
00:20:35.710 --> 00:20:38.150
one that's gaining a lot of traction now is the
00:20:38.150 --> 00:20:41.890
fogging. So having a little vaporizer and blasting
00:20:41.890 --> 00:20:43.890
the fog through there. Those are the three that
00:20:43.890 --> 00:20:45.890
I can think of right now. But the staples are
00:20:45.890 --> 00:20:47.470
really, really common now. And people just leave
00:20:47.470 --> 00:20:50.650
them in all the time while still doing the other
00:20:50.650 --> 00:20:53.509
sort of synthetic chemical ones at the same time.
00:20:53.829 --> 00:20:56.579
So yeah. In fact, one of the sponsors of the
00:20:56.579 --> 00:20:59.940
show, one of their products is Veroxan, which
00:20:59.940 --> 00:21:02.599
is exactly what you're talking about. None of
00:21:02.599 --> 00:21:06.240
ours have brand names. It's quite new. Yeah,
00:21:06.259 --> 00:21:08.299
it's quite new and the results are sounding very,
00:21:08.299 --> 00:21:10.880
very positive. And it's just like, say, IPM,
00:21:10.940 --> 00:21:12.839
you've got to kind of do them all together. Yeah,
00:21:13.059 --> 00:21:16.319
absolutely. And the whole brew break thing, I'm
00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:18.940
a big fan of. That's one reason I love splits.
00:21:19.849 --> 00:21:22.730
As I try to think about positive things of the
00:21:22.730 --> 00:21:27.009
very cold winters where I specifically am, that's
00:21:27.009 --> 00:21:29.309
one of the things that we get a positive out
00:21:29.309 --> 00:21:31.910
of that winter. If the bees make it through,
00:21:31.970 --> 00:21:34.029
they've had a brood break. But have you talked
00:21:34.029 --> 00:21:36.650
to anyone from Australia lately? I have, but
00:21:36.650 --> 00:21:38.930
it's been a little while. I only say that because
00:21:38.930 --> 00:21:41.690
Australia has only just got Varroa. Yeah, just
00:21:41.690 --> 00:21:43.650
in the last couple of years. Yeah, only just.
00:21:43.769 --> 00:21:45.869
And that's exactly what I'm really worried about
00:21:45.869 --> 00:21:48.150
because they, I don't know if you've ever been
00:21:48.150 --> 00:21:51.380
to Australia in winter. It's not winter. There
00:21:51.380 --> 00:21:55.279
winter is like my spring day, like it's not cold
00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:57.819
at all. There is no way that those bees would
00:21:57.819 --> 00:22:00.880
ever have any kind of food break in terms of
00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:03.740
being cold. So it really worries me how the Varroa
00:22:03.740 --> 00:22:05.720
is going to get through Australia. It's actually
00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:08.640
quite scary. So that's just a little worrying
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:11.019
thing that we... They sure went crazy trying
00:22:11.019 --> 00:22:14.319
to kill it all off at first. That was unsuccessful.
00:22:15.420 --> 00:22:17.619
Now they just need to buckle down like the rest
00:22:17.619 --> 00:22:21.099
of us. But I feel bad for them. I don't wish
00:22:21.099 --> 00:22:24.039
for on anybody. No, exactly. And they held it
00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:26.059
off for so long. It was so fantastic. But yeah,
00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:27.779
it's really quite scary to watch over the ditch.
00:22:28.200 --> 00:22:30.880
OK, I'm going to backtrack now. What is it like
00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:35.960
getting a job where you have 250 hives to manage
00:22:35.960 --> 00:22:38.759
and you've just met bees for the very first time?
00:22:38.859 --> 00:22:41.099
Hello, ladies. It's just one of those such a
00:22:41.099 --> 00:22:42.839
cool memory. And I'm sure lots of people can
00:22:42.839 --> 00:22:44.180
say that the very first time they might have
00:22:44.180 --> 00:22:46.460
gone out with a beekeeper and done that big opening
00:22:46.460 --> 00:22:48.119
up the hive. And I still can't believe that was
00:22:48.119 --> 00:22:52.059
in my job interview. Yeah, just so getting thrown
00:22:52.059 --> 00:22:53.920
in the deep end. And it's cool because, I mean,
00:22:53.940 --> 00:22:56.019
this was my job. So I was opening bee huts every
00:22:56.019 --> 00:22:59.430
single day. But I was taught by an amazing gentleman
00:22:59.430 --> 00:23:02.789
here in New Zealand, Dr Mark Goodwin, who was
00:23:02.789 --> 00:23:06.029
the head of our apiculture and pollination team
00:23:06.029 --> 00:23:08.130
for many, many years. And he's amazing. He is
00:23:08.130 --> 00:23:10.829
my mentor. We still hang out together. We've
00:23:10.829 --> 00:23:12.250
written some books together about beekeeping
00:23:12.250 --> 00:23:15.130
and stuff, and he's amazing. And I very much
00:23:15.130 --> 00:23:19.349
learned from him how to get the science sort
00:23:19.349 --> 00:23:21.460
of across. So it was very cool, like don't get
00:23:21.460 --> 00:23:23.220
me wrong, it was very, very, very cool, high
00:23:23.220 --> 00:23:26.339
level testing for oral treatments and like toxicology
00:23:26.339 --> 00:23:28.859
testing, very cool science. But I found that
00:23:28.859 --> 00:23:31.400
I liked people and stuff more. So that's how
00:23:31.400 --> 00:23:33.900
I've kind of turned around. And can I say something
00:23:33.900 --> 00:23:37.140
funny that I didn't realize? So if you see any
00:23:37.140 --> 00:23:40.099
of my social media stuff now, I barely wear suits,
00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:42.759
no gloves, things like that. But because I started
00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:45.279
in commercial, I didn't know people did that.
00:23:45.900 --> 00:23:48.359
That had been my only view. I'd only seen commercial
00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:51.339
beekeepers. fully suited. I shouldn't say making
00:23:51.339 --> 00:23:53.599
the best crazy, but a lot of times we had a time
00:23:53.599 --> 00:23:55.420
limit. This was, you know, I've got to get this
00:23:55.420 --> 00:23:57.480
done. And so it was a little bit more chaotic.
00:23:58.099 --> 00:24:00.299
And only years and years later did I see the
00:24:00.299 --> 00:24:03.440
other side and that lovely, calm, hobby side
00:24:03.440 --> 00:24:06.859
of BKB. So yeah, like I say, my intro to BKB
00:24:06.859 --> 00:24:10.420
was a little bit different. So yeah. It's a big,
00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:12.970
big difference. And I don't blame the commercial
00:24:12.970 --> 00:24:15.130
beekeepers. It's their business. They have to
00:24:15.130 --> 00:24:17.309
do what they have to do. Those of us that have
00:24:17.309 --> 00:24:20.309
the luxury of being able to go slow and take
00:24:20.309 --> 00:24:24.150
our time. Yes. It's such an enjoyable and different
00:24:24.150 --> 00:24:26.930
kind of experience. I love it. I absolutely love
00:24:26.930 --> 00:24:28.329
it. But it's funny to me that I'd never seen
00:24:28.329 --> 00:24:31.029
it. I'd never seen anyone open beehives with
00:24:31.029 --> 00:24:34.029
no gloves on. Like it was this mind -boggling
00:24:34.029 --> 00:24:37.769
thing when I first saw it. So yeah. So what made
00:24:37.769 --> 00:24:39.609
you think you should all of a sudden do this?
00:24:39.930 --> 00:24:43.690
Do the no gloves. Oh, that took years, years
00:24:43.690 --> 00:24:45.630
and years. And I tell you, this is funny. It
00:24:45.630 --> 00:24:48.130
was one of our, we got a new scientist and she
00:24:48.130 --> 00:24:52.269
was from America. And her, she was also doing
00:24:52.269 --> 00:24:55.190
apiculture. The scale of her beekeeping was a
00:24:55.190 --> 00:24:58.670
lot smaller. So she was, I would just say a large
00:24:58.670 --> 00:25:00.890
hobbyist. And yeah, and she was, she wore a lot
00:25:00.890 --> 00:25:04.259
less gear, barely wore gloves. And it was just
00:25:04.259 --> 00:25:06.279
this eye opening like, wow, I didn't realize
00:25:06.279 --> 00:25:08.559
I could do this. And so it was just a very slow
00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:11.099
process to from big gloves to slightly smaller
00:25:11.099 --> 00:25:14.880
to garden gloves to step by step. Yeah. And now
00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:17.200
I couldn't think to wear gloves ever again. Yeah.
00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:19.319
It's such a different thing. Yeah. But it's seeing
00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:21.519
it. You don't know unless you see it. You can
00:25:21.519 --> 00:25:25.279
gently pull out a frame without squishing anything
00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:28.579
or anybody. And it makes a big, big difference
00:25:28.579 --> 00:25:31.900
in how they react to that dexterity that you
00:25:31.900 --> 00:25:34.859
can have. And it takes a little bit of getting
00:25:34.859 --> 00:25:38.240
used to when you feel a bee walking around on
00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:41.299
your hand and you look and realize she's probably
00:25:41.299 --> 00:25:43.319
not even going to sting me. She's just looking
00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:46.019
around. And if she does, it's not the end of
00:25:46.019 --> 00:25:48.460
the world. It's OK. That's such a learned behavior.
00:25:48.660 --> 00:25:51.339
So you don't do the 250 hives anymore, right?
00:25:51.539 --> 00:25:55.859
No. No, I haven't done that for a while. Sometimes
00:25:55.859 --> 00:25:57.980
I contract to big commercial places, but I haven't
00:25:57.980 --> 00:25:59.319
done that for a couple of years now. But I did
00:25:59.319 --> 00:26:02.539
look at your website, Sarah Sees Bees. Did I
00:26:02.539 --> 00:26:04.400
get that right? Yeah, Sarah Sees Bees, yeah.
00:26:04.680 --> 00:26:06.799
Okay. Well, tell us a little bit about what you
00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:09.920
do for business, a little bit about your business
00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:13.039
model. I do a lot. I didn't mean to do a lot.
00:26:13.319 --> 00:26:14.980
Like I say, when I worked in apiculture science,
00:26:15.059 --> 00:26:17.220
I really did think that was going to be my whole
00:26:17.220 --> 00:26:19.079
career. You know, that was it. I was going to
00:26:19.079 --> 00:26:20.660
like lots of scientists in the world. They stay
00:26:20.660 --> 00:26:23.619
in the same job for 40, 50 years. But then my
00:26:23.619 --> 00:26:26.039
wonderful boss, Mark Goodwin, he said he had
00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:29.680
to retire for medical reasons. And I found out
00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:31.799
that, I shouldn't say I found out, I kind of
00:26:31.799 --> 00:26:33.779
already knew, but he really was my reason for
00:26:33.779 --> 00:26:36.440
going to work. I love that man. And I loved our
00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:39.079
working relationship. And I just found that it
00:26:39.079 --> 00:26:42.200
just wasn't as fun without him. So when I used
00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:44.420
to explain our relationship, he had the big ideas
00:26:44.420 --> 00:26:47.180
and I would get things done. And so I left there
00:26:47.180 --> 00:26:49.140
and I was a bit sort of floating around for a
00:26:49.140 --> 00:26:51.539
little bit. And a lot of the clients from where
00:26:51.539 --> 00:26:53.480
I used to work contacted me personally and said,
00:26:53.539 --> 00:26:55.700
hey, would you run this for us? So I sort of
00:26:55.700 --> 00:26:59.400
delved into that. But then I realized that I
00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:00.920
really like to teach beekeeping. I really like
00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:03.599
to help people and talk to people about what
00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:05.960
they're doing it and how they're doing it. And
00:27:05.960 --> 00:27:08.339
it turned out that I started to help a lot of
00:27:08.339 --> 00:27:11.039
people with things like disease checks because
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:12.599
back where I used to work, we used to breed.
00:27:13.300 --> 00:27:15.259
AFB, American Fowl Brood, so I know a lot about
00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:17.339
it, and how they're with disease checking and
00:27:17.339 --> 00:27:20.059
just general hive maintenance and stuff as well.
00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:22.539
And it just kind of snowballed from there. So
00:27:22.539 --> 00:27:27.559
I now have a lot of clients that I assist either
00:27:27.559 --> 00:27:29.440
on a subscription as in every single month, I
00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:30.980
pop out to their hive with them and have a little
00:27:30.980 --> 00:27:32.819
look or just sort of ad hoc when they ring me
00:27:32.819 --> 00:27:36.079
when something's gone awry. I also hire hives
00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:37.420
out to people. There are a lot of people that
00:27:37.420 --> 00:27:40.240
love the idea of bees. but either don't particularly
00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:42.059
want to get in there or don't have the time,
00:27:42.119 --> 00:27:44.000
and so I'll manage them for them. But one of
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.599
the very cool things I do is I take bees in a
00:27:47.599 --> 00:27:50.839
little observation hive out to schools. I dress
00:27:50.839 --> 00:27:53.980
up like a bee, like literally with the stripes
00:27:53.980 --> 00:27:56.480
and the wings of the antennae. I saw your pants
00:27:56.480 --> 00:27:59.299
a minute ago. Yeah, we shot. I don't know if
00:27:59.299 --> 00:28:00.680
the rest of the world needs to see these pants,
00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:03.200
but they're very straby. And I dress up completely
00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:05.640
like a bee, and I will go and take my little
00:28:05.640 --> 00:28:09.759
bee talk to anything from kindergartens all the
00:28:09.759 --> 00:28:11.700
way up to retirement villages and everything
00:28:11.700 --> 00:28:15.259
in between. And we talk about bees and I explain
00:28:15.259 --> 00:28:18.900
the life cycle and what they do. And yeah, it's
00:28:18.900 --> 00:28:21.720
just a very cool way to get, even though I'd
00:28:21.720 --> 00:28:23.779
like to say did all this massive high level science
00:28:23.779 --> 00:28:26.559
and I've come all the way back down because I'm
00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:29.000
sure you know this Eric, but it amazes me that
00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:32.319
the majority of the world doesn't even know that
00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:35.779
our beautiful honeybees are females. Do you know
00:28:35.779 --> 00:28:37.240
what I mean? Like it's this, I was doing this
00:28:37.240 --> 00:28:40.240
massive high level staff and yet the general
00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:43.039
public didn't even know like the bare basics
00:28:43.039 --> 00:28:46.240
of all the worker bees are females. So I've kind
00:28:46.240 --> 00:28:48.799
of turned it around and I do some very cool outreach
00:28:48.799 --> 00:28:51.740
stuff all around the Waikato. So yeah, fun stuff
00:28:51.740 --> 00:28:54.339
that I get to do. So a lot of education. Yeah.
00:28:54.579 --> 00:28:57.839
That is awesome. Are your bees down there very
00:28:57.839 --> 00:29:02.140
different than ours? Our races, we have Italians
00:29:02.140 --> 00:29:05.539
and we have Carniolans, et cetera. Yep. There's
00:29:05.539 --> 00:29:07.140
one that I hear you guys talk about that I've
00:29:07.140 --> 00:29:09.440
never heard is the buckfast. And I assume that's
00:29:09.440 --> 00:29:11.579
just like a subspecies because I'd never heard
00:29:11.579 --> 00:29:15.059
of that. I think, oh, don't quote me on this.
00:29:15.140 --> 00:29:18.059
I'm not an expert or a scientist. I believe they're
00:29:18.059 --> 00:29:22.000
from England and they're not that easy to get
00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:25.740
here. They're not very well known here. Okay.
00:29:25.740 --> 00:29:27.359
It's just, like I said, something I saw on social
00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:28.940
media and I'd never heard of that. But you're
00:29:28.940 --> 00:29:32.059
right. We have Apis mellipera, mainly the Italian
00:29:32.059 --> 00:29:36.150
and the Carniola. Okay. So very similar to here.
00:29:36.609 --> 00:29:39.009
Yeah. Russians are getting a little bit more
00:29:39.009 --> 00:29:43.049
popular. Do you have Russians? I don't think
00:29:43.049 --> 00:29:45.710
so, no. And then even though we don't like it,
00:29:45.710 --> 00:29:48.910
there are a lot of Africanized bees in the southern
00:29:48.910 --> 00:29:52.029
United States in the real warm climates. And
00:29:52.029 --> 00:29:54.490
they have bred with a lot of the local bees.
00:29:55.269 --> 00:29:58.450
And so there's a lot of hybrids and they're not
00:29:58.450 --> 00:30:01.950
friendly bees. As you know, the Italians are
00:30:01.950 --> 00:30:04.990
little sweethearts. I definitely breed my bees
00:30:04.990 --> 00:30:07.309
for calmness. So that's the thing when people
00:30:07.309 --> 00:30:09.089
talk about being a beekeeper and making honey.
00:30:09.490 --> 00:30:11.990
I don't care if my bees make honey or not. I
00:30:11.990 --> 00:30:13.990
use my bees for education. I have to go in there
00:30:13.990 --> 00:30:16.089
all the time, take them out, put them in an observation
00:30:16.089 --> 00:30:20.150
hive, or I have people over to my apiaries to
00:30:20.150 --> 00:30:22.490
show them bees as like an introductory. I will
00:30:22.490 --> 00:30:25.430
literally breed them for calm niceness. I do
00:30:25.430 --> 00:30:27.710
not care if they make honey, like not my thing.
00:30:27.910 --> 00:30:30.960
So I don't like honey. I love honey, but I agree
00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:34.380
with you. I have seen the best beekeepers are
00:30:34.380 --> 00:30:36.599
the ones that just do it for the bees. I don't
00:30:36.599 --> 00:30:39.740
even like honey. I don't know if you have, but
00:30:39.740 --> 00:30:42.740
I have seen people that are like, Oh, I want
00:30:42.740 --> 00:30:46.599
to try beekeeping. And, you know, the first or
00:30:46.599 --> 00:30:49.319
second year all their bees die and they go, I
00:30:49.319 --> 00:30:51.819
didn't even get any honey. What good is that?
00:30:53.259 --> 00:30:57.000
Yeah. Fully concur. But they were nice enough
00:30:57.000 --> 00:30:59.400
to share their varroa with all the rest of us
00:30:59.400 --> 00:31:03.559
in the meantime. Touche. Correct. Oh, I've, and
00:31:03.559 --> 00:31:07.339
that happens everywhere. I mean, we, I still
00:31:07.339 --> 00:31:09.900
can't believe we had, we have an apiculture conference
00:31:09.900 --> 00:31:12.779
every year in Little Old New Zealand and all
00:31:12.779 --> 00:31:16.079
the beekeepers come together. And this is only
00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:17.779
a couple of years ago. And I remember being there
00:31:17.779 --> 00:31:19.599
and a lady came up, I don't know, we were talking
00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:23.039
something about varroa. and the lady at the conference
00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:25.299
who paid money and came all the way here for
00:31:25.299 --> 00:31:27.460
this lovely conference stood there and said,
00:31:27.599 --> 00:31:31.519
what's for Roa? And I just, yeah. So you're right.
00:31:31.759 --> 00:31:34.740
We subject to a different level of beekeeping.
00:31:35.299 --> 00:31:37.299
Did you say, I hope you don't have bees yet.
00:31:37.539 --> 00:31:40.359
You're just honest in your educational phase.
00:31:41.440 --> 00:31:43.160
I just, I just walked away. I'm not gonna lie.
00:31:43.259 --> 00:31:44.980
It was like, it was like too much that I had
00:31:44.980 --> 00:31:46.779
to give this woman in terms of information. So
00:31:46.779 --> 00:31:49.819
I just did. Or do I? The alternative would have
00:31:49.819 --> 00:31:52.680
been too rude. No, yeah, I just. All right. Sarah,
00:31:52.799 --> 00:31:55.000
can you give me one of your favorite wild and
00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:58.099
crazy beekeeping stories? I've had many crazy
00:31:58.099 --> 00:32:02.460
stories. Oh, gosh. It's probably not a fun one,
00:32:02.460 --> 00:32:04.759
but I can tell you the worst. I've been stung
00:32:04.759 --> 00:32:08.079
on nearly every place imaginable, including on
00:32:08.079 --> 00:32:10.119
the island twice. You'd think I would learn my
00:32:10.119 --> 00:32:13.220
lesson, but I didn't. That's not ideal. But the
00:32:13.220 --> 00:32:15.180
worst I ever had. So we're talking about nice,
00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:18.119
calm bees. So when I was doing apiculture science,
00:32:18.180 --> 00:32:20.339
we had to go to a lot of big commercial outfits.
00:32:20.539 --> 00:32:22.539
Not our bees, obviously, someone else's commercial
00:32:22.539 --> 00:32:26.359
apiaries to do these trials, testing different
00:32:26.359 --> 00:32:30.200
things. And we went out to a big, big New Zealand
00:32:30.200 --> 00:32:34.000
commercial beekeepers apiary. Super angry bees.
00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:37.380
My gosh, this was just, everyone was completely
00:32:37.380 --> 00:32:40.420
suited up, very, very scary. And at this point
00:32:40.420 --> 00:32:42.319
in time, everyone was in the behinds and I was
00:32:42.319 --> 00:32:46.319
actually being the... the scribe I was writing.
00:32:46.880 --> 00:32:48.799
I was not even standing that close to the hives.
00:32:48.859 --> 00:32:50.640
I wasn't even in the hives, but still fully suited.
00:32:50.859 --> 00:32:53.920
And I was writing with a black pen. And the bees
00:32:53.920 --> 00:32:58.240
were attacking this moving black pen like their
00:32:58.240 --> 00:33:00.319
lives depended on it. They really did. But it's
00:33:00.319 --> 00:33:03.200
one of those things that I tell to my hobby beekeepers
00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:06.559
about how wearing dark clothes and moving fast
00:33:06.559 --> 00:33:08.660
attracts the bees. But I still could not understand
00:33:08.660 --> 00:33:12.480
how insane that they were going for that black
00:33:12.480 --> 00:33:15.599
moving pen. and those same bees are the ones
00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:18.380
that got me when I someone called me over to
00:33:18.380 --> 00:33:19.980
have a look on the hive and I'm fully suited
00:33:19.980 --> 00:33:21.859
you know full veil and everything and I bent
00:33:21.859 --> 00:33:23.720
down to have a look at something and I've been
00:33:23.720 --> 00:33:27.200
too far and my little schnoz my nose touched
00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:31.339
the very edge of the veil just for like you know
00:33:31.339 --> 00:33:33.839
a second and a bee got me instantly on the tip
00:33:33.839 --> 00:33:37.500
of the nose so I'm fully in my veil instant snot
00:33:38.049 --> 00:33:41.089
bogeys running down my face, instant crying and
00:33:41.089 --> 00:33:43.349
I'm trapped inside and I'm like, I don't know
00:33:43.349 --> 00:33:46.009
what to do. And I couldn't even get far enough
00:33:46.009 --> 00:33:48.069
away for the bees to leave me alone. Well, I
00:33:48.069 --> 00:33:51.609
just was, yeah, it was not a fun day. Wouldn't
00:33:51.609 --> 00:33:54.029
recommend. What was it like when you got stung
00:33:54.029 --> 00:33:56.710
on the eyelid? Wasn't even that bad. Didn't swell
00:33:56.710 --> 00:33:59.390
up too much? No, I never swell. And the embarrassing
00:33:59.390 --> 00:34:02.130
thing was I had my students and it was literally
00:34:02.130 --> 00:34:04.470
either their first or second class of meeting
00:34:04.470 --> 00:34:07.230
me. because I teach beekeeping as well. We walked
00:34:07.230 --> 00:34:09.250
into the apiary. We were far away from the bees
00:34:09.250 --> 00:34:11.150
because none of us had suits on. And I was explaining
00:34:11.150 --> 00:34:12.650
how we shouldn't, you know, we don't go near
00:34:12.650 --> 00:34:15.909
the bees without a suit and at least the veil.
00:34:16.409 --> 00:34:19.769
Do as I say, not as I do. And we walked around
00:34:19.769 --> 00:34:21.969
and I kid you not, a bee just must have just
00:34:21.969 --> 00:34:24.369
been on its flight path and just went straight
00:34:24.369 --> 00:34:26.530
and stung me straight on the eye. And they all
00:34:26.530 --> 00:34:29.469
freaked out. And I was like, it'll be fine. This
00:34:29.469 --> 00:34:31.110
is their first foray into beekeeping and their
00:34:31.110 --> 00:34:33.659
teacher gets stung on the eye. I was like. I
00:34:33.659 --> 00:34:36.380
like to do as I say, not as I do. Oh, that's
00:34:36.380 --> 00:34:38.099
smart, that's smart. Did the one on the nose
00:34:38.099 --> 00:34:40.940
hurt a lot? The funny thing is I don't particularly
00:34:40.940 --> 00:34:44.420
remember the pain. I just remember that instant,
00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:48.519
you know, when it just throws your whole nasal,
00:34:48.579 --> 00:34:51.619
you know, just the snot in them. Yeah, that's
00:34:51.619 --> 00:34:55.139
funny. Yeah. You don't swell, but everything
00:34:55.139 --> 00:34:56.960
just... It was just anything to do with the nose
00:34:56.960 --> 00:35:00.099
and having, yeah. Yeah, it affected your sinuses
00:35:00.099 --> 00:35:03.260
just like that. Yeah. It was, and I was trapped
00:35:03.260 --> 00:35:05.019
in there, you know, that feeling of, you know,
00:35:05.019 --> 00:35:07.199
you can't do anything. And I'm like, inside the
00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:09.699
veil. Oh, it was so bad. Yeah. It's not a good
00:35:09.699 --> 00:35:12.099
thing. All right. Before I let you go, is there
00:35:12.099 --> 00:35:14.360
any other words of wisdom that you would love
00:35:14.360 --> 00:35:16.860
to leave with our listeners? I feel like they
00:35:16.860 --> 00:35:18.260
probably already know the things. But the one
00:35:18.260 --> 00:35:19.800
thing that I always teach all my hobby beekeepers
00:35:19.800 --> 00:35:22.420
is cool, calm, and collected. And it's very much
00:35:22.420 --> 00:35:24.880
a learned behavior. Like you sort of talked a
00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:26.719
little bit about before about bees walking on
00:35:26.719 --> 00:35:30.420
us. And it's, it's that getting over that. I
00:35:30.420 --> 00:35:31.960
shouldn't say fear. I mean, you learn to be afraid
00:35:31.960 --> 00:35:34.579
of them, but it's that what's it called? Maybe
00:35:34.579 --> 00:35:37.980
desensitization might be the word. Like the more
00:35:37.980 --> 00:35:41.139
you go into your hives calmly and slowly, the
00:35:41.139 --> 00:35:42.639
more you realize, like you say, they're not out
00:35:42.639 --> 00:35:45.460
to get you. They don't want to sting you. It's
00:35:45.460 --> 00:35:49.199
sort of learning with them rather than sort of
00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:51.380
do as I say kind of thing. Yeah. Cool, calm and
00:35:51.380 --> 00:35:53.780
collected is what I teach my beekeeping students.
00:35:54.139 --> 00:35:57.570
Yeah. Three C's. I like it. Yeah, yeah. Sarah
00:35:57.570 --> 00:36:00.269
Cross. Hey, thanks. It's been a lot of fun. Thank
00:36:00.269 --> 00:36:05.849
you for inviting me. Very cool. Thanks again
00:36:05.849 --> 00:36:08.630
for joining us here on Be Love Beekeeping presented
00:36:08.630 --> 00:36:12.530
by Man Lake. Remember right now to follow or
00:36:12.530 --> 00:36:16.150
subscribe and share this podcast. Also, a quick
00:36:16.150 --> 00:36:18.530
shout out to Vita Bee Health for their support.
00:36:19.289 --> 00:36:22.250
Vita's Varroa Control range of products includes
00:36:22.250 --> 00:36:26.110
Apistan, Apigard, and now Varroxan, Extended
00:36:26.110 --> 00:36:29.889
Release Oxalic Acid Strips. Thanks guys. And
00:36:29.889 --> 00:36:32.289
remember, if you're not just in it for the honey
00:36:32.289 --> 00:36:35.210
or the money, you're in it for the love. See
00:36:35.210 --> 00:36:35.909
you next week.