Beekeeping in Southern California & Newfoundland

0:00 May I have your attention please? The following is not the real Jeff Vox really. If the influencer beekeepers on YouTube are celebrities to you, you might be a beekeeper. If you have more pictures of bees on your phone than pictures of your kids, you might be a beekeeper. If when somebody asks you about your bees and your mouth doesn't stop flapping for 20 minutes, you might love bees.

0:49 Welcome, welcome to Bee Love Beekeeping Podcast presented by our good friends over at Man Lake. At Bee Love, we're all about honeybees and of course the beekeepers. And if you're on the beekeeping adventure, we would love to hear from you. If you're just thinking about it, this is a great place to learn from real life beekeepers. Bees beekeepers and fun beekeeping stories, it's all about the love. On today's episode, you are getting your money's worth because we're going to have two interviews. One from each end of the North American continent. So let's jump right into it. All right, I'm happy to welcome Eli Barkanoff with me today.

1:32 All the way from Southern California. How are you, Eli? Doing great. This is going to be hopefully a fun podcast here. Most of us, when we hear Southern California, we don't associate it with beekeeping. You know, that's kind of surprising because the majority of the beekeepers across all the states, they'll actually bring their bees in for pollination to California because California is a huge exporter. Yeah, but that's a few hours north of you. That's right. I mean, Southern Cal, I think of Hollywood Walk of Fame and you know, that kind of stuff. Right. Yeah, well, I mean, there's plenty of stuff down here as well. I guess citrus would be more Southern California kind of a thing versus almonds and cherries.

2:16 A little colder would be up north, which is why Northern California does all the pollination. Yeah. You have avocados down South too, don't you? That's right. That's right. Lots of them. Okay, your journey is kind of unusual because you got, I mean, first of all, you're young to be in the beekeeping business professionally, but you got started even younger. Tell us how young and why. Well, I was about 15 years old when I started. The way I tell the story is, you know, as teenagers, we like doing crazy stuff, particularly boys. Not all of this crazy stuff is accepted by our parents, but beekeeping happened to be the thing my parents were happy with.

2:57 I had a friend, a pretty close friend. He was a beekeeper and he one time just told me about, hey, I keep bees, you know, unfortunately for me, he kept Africanized bees, which are known to be the killer bees, super aggressive. I was like, you know, that's crazy. Let me go check it out. And he's like, yeah, I got an extra suit. I clearly remember that that suit wasn't long enough at the pants. So my legs got stung up pretty bad that day, but I thought it was the coolest thing. I thought it was so different. You're out there with nature by yourself, it was just this hum of bees, even though they were aggressive, but still was a lot of fun nonetheless. And ever since then, I just stuck with it.

3:37 So you said you were 15. 15, yeah. You turned it into a business young though, didn't you? What were you doing? Well, you know, originally it wasn't really so much of a business as a hobby. My parents just happened to be supportive of it. They're like, okay, we don't mind some honey. You know, we'll get you some new beehives. My parents bought me some from up north, actually Northern California. A lot of the European people keep bees up there, particularly the Italian breed. And that's what I was like, okay, let me go try with that. And it didn't go too well because the Italian bees are very weak in terms of diseases and just hardiness overall.

4:19 They're high maintenance. That didn't go too well as a starter. So eventually I went to the Africanized bees because Africanized bees are completely low maintenance. You don't even have to look into the beehive to wonder if they're doing well. They're always doing well. I started off with 20 hives and started splitting those off and eventually ended up with 100. Whereas became a commercial beekeeper. I guess it's a starter number. 100 hives is considered a commercial beekeeper over here. Yeah, but mostly they were Africanized bees, believe it or not. The brokers that would broker our hives out to pollination, they were a little bit wary of that because who knows if the orchard growers would get attacked or whatnot.

5:00 But they were quite horny, which is why I chose to go with them. That is interesting. And you say starting, well commercially with 100, but you started with 20 and... 20. Most people want to start with one and we recommend, no, I'll get two. Right. And there's a good reason why you should really get two, not just one. Yeah. You just jumped in with both feet and it sounds like parents help. That's awesome. Yeah. My parents were a little bit, what's the word? They were just happy for the idea, I guess. They were too excited. Yeah. And we're a little bit over supported when it came to that. I kind of thinking back, I wish I started with one.

5:41 I think I would have been a little bit quicker in terms of learning the ins and outs of beekeeping. But once you're dealing with 20 hives, your feet hands in trying to keep these hives alive, not to mention there's 20 of them. Did you have a hard time finding someplace to put them? Actually, no, not very much. What I did, I kind of went the radical route. I went to City Hall in a city nearby where we lived at Bradbury Estates, completely gated community that I happened to find one time just biking. And I was like, okay, rich neighborhood, lots of massive properties. I jumped a fence, got in, did a ride around the city. I was like, oh, I wish I could keep bees here.

6:22 The next day I realized that they actually had a town hall meeting. And I prepared a whole speech in terms of what it is I want to do and supporting, you know, eco-friendly, environmental kind of a thing. And gave that speech right there in town hall. And the first person to offer a place was the mayor's assistant right there in town hall. And then from then on, the people that were there from the city also started offering other properties and ended up having like four different properties, each property being like 10 plus acres. So plenty of places to keep bees. You were an unusual teenager.

7:04 Seriously. Yeah. Overachiever and all kinds of things going on. So have you done it full time since then because I know you're more into the cutouts and swarm captures and all that kind of stuff now or, right, or like you like to put it to be rescuer. Right. How did that transition happen? Well, you know, when I was started keeping bees, my goal wasn't really money. It was the fact that all this is something fun to do than sitting at home playing video games per se. And when I started keeping, you know, I got more and more into it and then eventually realized, okay, I have 100 hives now this is too much.

7:46 And then also as I progressed, I started realizing it isn't really much of a moneymaker in terms of business beekeeping, you know, to make it in the beekeeping world, I mean, you need to have 1000 plus hives. And at that point we're talking you need a forklift to move a pallet of hives and then all this other equipment trailers, you know, a truck and that became became a little too much. I was spending more than I was making. And it's still hard to make money. Oh, it's even when you jump up to that level. Right. Yeah. So you had a business mind as well at that age. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was already in construction at 13. I've been in construction for a couple of years already before that.

8:28 So I just, you know, just trying different things and, you know, go on exploring seeing as what I what it is I like to do. If I actually also became a firefighter and still didn't pursue that all the way to actually be employed as one I'm a certified firefighter but something about bees just kept holding me back. I was pursuing other things for the sake of job security, not realizing I'm going to I'm about to give up something I love. So went back to bees essentially progressed into removals themselves. That same friend actually his name is Jonathan. Same friend was also doing removals and I was like, oh, let me see what that's all about.

9:08 Maybe there's some kind of money in it. At the time it wasn't that much money in it. It wasn't a fad yet of like saving bees. You know, a few years ago only last year to California passed a law where it's illegal now to exterminate bees. So that obviously helps my business a lot more. Also, the fact that extermination companies are not even allowed to touch bees. So they'll just refer the work over to me anyway. So that essentially became the moneymaker removing bees. And then what I do is I essentially remove a hive and relocated to a beekeeper and they are more than happy to take more bees. So do you still keep any bees yourself or just do the removals?

9:49 Just the removals. It's a full time thing. Removals keeps me very busy. Is a lot of it cutouts or some of them easier to get to? Yeah, there are easier jobs. I'm more chasing the complex issues. We're talking a second story roof cutouts. I mean, my highest was eight stories tall and scaffolding jobs, boom lift jobs. Very, very hardcore. A lot of the local bee rescuers or bee ringlers is what they like to be called. They do more of the basic stuff where it's like a water meter box in the ground, swarm on a bush, things that are very ground level. Whereas I am going after that, you know, the commercial grade service.

10:34 Well, and your firefighter training must help a lot with that. Your construction background helps a lot with that. So you're not ruining somebody's house or business when you're chopping into it. Exactly. That's really cool. Yeah. So. All right. I want to hear a crazy story. What's one of the craziest things that's ever happened on one of these removals? I mean, that's a can of worms right there because this is like my entire business is crazy. One of my, my favorites, I guess my favorite stories are the cowboys are actually a client of mine. And they come out here to California to train the Texas cowboys. And before they come to train, the hotel will go and service the entire property, make sure something going on happens to be that hotel properties are huge attractive to bees.

11:23 And they tend to get a lot of hives. I decided to take my wife with me on this little excursion. If you will. And she got to see from the ground what it is I do. I mean, we're talking about, you know, 10 out of 12 pitch roof where you can barely walk that roof that's slipping off and I'm over there walking, you know, we're moving a 200 pound hive. You know, my biggest hive was 400 pounds. That's, that's a gang of honey. While being stung. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, people sometimes inquire about doing this kind of work to like, well, you were a bee, so you don't get stung, right? I'm like, it's not bee proof. It's resistant. Yeah. The majority get blocked out, but you still get stung.

12:03 So yeah, heights sweating out in the sun when it's 100 degrees outside up to your, up to your, you know, arms and honey. Just, you know, it's an all danger encompassing kind of a job. Well, those are do removals can really relate to a lot of that. I actually started filming everything I do. Yeah. Why don't you talk about that? You've got a YouTube channel so people can see some of this stuff. Pretty much everywhere. I mean, you can just Google Eli the bee guy. I pop up everywhere. I'm on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, interest, even some, I'm everywhere. Mostly I started recording just because clients started asking like, oh, what happened to like, what was going on up there?

12:47 And I'm like, well, I have nothing to show for it. Why don't instead of pictures, I just record the entire video, give them a whole picture of what was actually going on. And just because customers, you know, kind of asked for videos or pictures, I started. I was like, yeah, I'm as well just recorded. It'll be content, something interesting. Do you have someone that helps you film or do you do it all yourself? Do it all myself. I did have a videographer with me at one point, just my little brother. He just came along and would record. It's like a third person, if you, but it was just, it was beginning taking a little too much time. So I just do mostly myself. I just keep a phone in my pocket, pop it out, whether my gloves are covered in honey. I just take my phone out, record.

13:28 I watched the phone after, thanks to Samsung because now these phones are waterproof. So it's not a, not a big deal. Yeah, that's awesome. All right. Here's the big question. Is this podcast is all about loving bees? You know, people that are not beekeepers that love bees. Those of us that are hobby beekeepers and do it for the love. Why does Eli love bees? At first, I didn't even know that I love bees until I started thinking about going into another work venture and seeking job security. And then I realized, why am I going to be doing something for somebody else doing a job I don't really like?

14:09 It's not my hobby. But here I am as a 15 year old keeping bees as a hobby. Why don't I just do that for work? It's just a feeling, the euphoria of sitting on a roof with amazing views all the way around horizons, just surrounded by bees, a nice calm home, you know, on the key of sea of bees and then unlimited amounts of honey as much as you want. I mean, I remove up to a thousand pounds of honey a week. So there is, it's just, it's a lot, it's nice. You don't have to really deal with people. You're just there with nature. No, I don't like that. You don't have to deal with people. Yeah. Bees are much nicer. Oh, yeah. Well, there must be some kind of a love because you could get a job anywhere.

14:52 Right. No, I love it. Like I said, it's just, you're kind of in tune. It's like a zen. It's almost like a therapy. Absolutely. I mean, there's been a lot of research about the, you know, the tone that the bees, the hum that they create, it helps with stress, reduces stress significantly. I mean, getting stung by bees also helps even treat arthritis and amounts of other things. Honey by itself, I mean, propolis, the smell that the hive creates. I mean, there's a lot of therapeutic things that come from bees and just having, being able to be in all that, I guess, in all the goodness. It's nice.

15:32 And it's, it's not really work for me. It's like, I get to, I get to enjoy nature. Love it. Well said, Eli. All right. Before we sign off, is there anything else that you want to mention that you want to maybe teach our listeners or just share with everybody out there? Definitely. You know, if you're thinking of getting into beekeeping, see if you can find a local beekeeping club. That's actually what I did as well as well as reading as many books as I can. Went to library. They didn't have that many books. I think they had like 10 or 15 books. I checked them all out, read all of them, studied them as much as I can in terms of theory. And then don't do what I did, which is get 20 hives, get one.

16:15 Sometimes a local rescue, you know, rescue company will be more than happy to set you up with the hive. I have plenty of customers like, Hey, we like, we want to keep bees. Is that something you can arrange? And they had actually like a bee hive. And I was like, yeah, if you guys can get a box set up, I'll set you up with the hive, get it, you know, set up properly. So it thrives. And that's it. And they start beekeeping. And my youngest that wanted to keep bees is his client's child, nine years old, was saving all of his life, essentially all his birthday money to buy a flow hive. If you don't know what flow hive is, it's one of those fancy hives where you can just shift a lever. Oh yeah. It's like $700. And this nine year old saved all of his money to keep bees.

16:56 And he was so happy when he finally was able to fill it up with some bees. Like I said, start off with some books, read as much as you can, learn the theory, get one hive and join the local beekeeping club. And there's no limit to what you can learn. And I had one quick thing to your recommendation there. And that is don't start with Africanized bees. I do not recommend that. In a lot of places, they're not even legal to keep. Yes. So anyway, now it's not that much of a problem. Now they're kind of called feral bees because they've interbred with all the other bees. So they've kind of become docile. They don't have that many problems and disease and stuff.

17:38 So a feral swarm, that might help. That might be the thing. That's interesting. Up where I am in the mountains of Utah, we don't have Africanized bees. So I just hear all the horror stories about them. Right. And so that's good to know. All right, Eli, the bee guy. Thanks for being with me today. No problem. Happy it's our day. Let me just take a minute here to thank our presenting sponsor, Man Lake. Years before they became a sponsor, I was buying bees supplies from them. While they don't have a store near me, I've had great experiences with their customer service and shipping right to my home. They're passionate about bees and dedicated to helping beekeepers.

18:21 You can tell American made products with a commitment to quality craftsmanship and innovation. From woodenware to feeds, you can trust Man Lake. And maybe the best part, Man Lake is offering a discount to bee love beekeeping listeners. Click on the link in the show notes and use the special discount code to get $10 off your purchase of $100 or more. We are going so far to listen to our guests today. If I made you guess, I don't think anyone would ever guess. We're going all the way to Newfoundland.

19:02 Did I say that right, Andrea? You sure did. Thank you. I've been practicing. Before we started recording, Andrea taught me the correct way to say it. Newfoundland, if you don't know where it is, why don't you explain to everybody where you are? I'm on an island in the Atlantic off the coast of Maine, I guess, from your perspective, from people from the U.S. But in Atlantic Canada. I was thinking you were further north than that, but you're more east of Maine than Canada itself. Interesting. Yes. Okay. Your longitude, I think, would be the right direction.

19:45 It's similar to Vancouver. I'm guessing it's a lot colder, though. It gets pretty cold, Harriet. I am one of the few people from here that has actually been to Newfoundland. That's awesome. How did you make your way to Newfoundland, Eric? It was a crash landing. Uh-oh. I was on a charter plane coming back from Europe, very long story short. The plane had problems and we had an emergency landing in Gander, Newfoundland. Oh, wow. Wait, that wasn't 9-11, though, was it? No. No, it was quite a few years before that, even. And we were stuck there for about 48 hours and we ate more lobster than anyone could ever imagine.

20:33 Well, I ask you about 9-11 because we're world-known for that day, for our hospitality. I remember seeing a documentary or something on that. There were a whole bunch of planes stuck there that couldn't get into the U.S., right? That's correct. I think there was maybe 5,000 passengers. I could be wrong with the numbers that were stranded here and in Gander. And us new feasts, like we do, we took everyone in as if they were our own and we fed them and we flowed them and we housed them. And I think there's stories of, I think, someone even married one of them. Well, thank you for all you did. And we are so far off topic. We're talking about beekeeping today.

21:18 And why in the world would anyone want to keep bees in a place like Newfoundland? Well, the one thing that I would like to brag about and the reason why I do it is because we are Varroa mite-free. We are so jealous. Yes. Back in the mid-80s, when Varroa first came to Canada, the pioneers of our beekeeping industry here in Newfoundland went to the government and asked for the borders to be closed. So it's illegal to import honey bees or used equipment to Newfoundland. And that's amazing. You kept them out. I mean, even making it illegal in Australia did too and they're now overrun those poor guys.

22:04 I get it. I think that is just wonderful. It takes being on a little island like that. There are a couple of islands in Hawaii that are still Varroa-free. It does. It takes being on an island, unfortunately. Yeah. All right. For some reason, I think for most of us, when we picture Newfoundland, we picture Antarctica. And it's like, how could bees even survive there? Give us an idea of what it's like day to day keeping bees there and what you're a little bit about what your climate is like. Our spring starts late April. We have a summer that might be about 75 degrees or so.

22:54 And we have actually a decent summer and it lasts until October. They can feed very well until then. Then October itself is kind of hit and miss. Like just yesterday we got snow, but normally it doesn't come until the end of the month, but it's still very cold during the day. So we really only have about six months where the bees are active. And then after that, they're just inside their hive. They might get a little bit of a break in March when we might get a plus 10 degree day and they'll come out for a cleansing flight. Plus 10 degree Fahrenheit? No Celsius, sorry.

23:35 Okay. Okay, Fahrenheit wise, if it's January, the depths of winter, what's the high temperature and the low temperature on an average? You can Google the translation. That's okay. Yeah, like, well, okay, so Celsius, we're looking at, I typically see about minus 20 from January to the end of March. Fahrenheit minus four degrees. Minus four, okay. And plus two is going to be a little above freezing. Yeah. So let's pretend like we're smart. Okay. So translating that minus 20 Celsius is about minus four Fahrenheit, right?

24:17 Correct. I didn't cheat with Google at all on that one. Now, what I remember the countryside being like, again, it was a long time ago, I was in Newfoundland. It was mostly pine tree forest kind of thing. What are your bees foraging on? Yeah, I believe it's called the boreal forest. I'm not very familiar with it, but I know that the very first thing that they're after is the alder and then the maple and then the willows. And then we go into all of our wildflowers. We have a wide variety here and a lot of wild berries like blueberry, low bush blueberry, the wild strawberry and raspberry and raspberry, partridge berries, cloud berries.

25:06 There's just many, many, many different types. It has been my experience that most of the beekeepers here, all of their honey is produced just from wildflower. There is not a lot of pollination services that happen here on the island, nor are there many monocrops that are producing honey. That actually sounds pretty good. So later in the summer, August, September, do they have anything to forage on then? Still wildflowers? Yes, mostly just the wildflower. Well, August brings the raspberries and our partridge berry and then there's the fireweed and goldenrod and aster.

25:51 Well, it just sounds like utopia of beekeeping. It kind of is in some ways. Tell me some of the things that maybe are difficult about keeping bees there. I don't know if it's a difficulty, but you do have to be very resourceful. You have to be able to use what it is that you have on hand because for one, if you want to bring in any equipment, it has to be used and there's the days of shipping that it would take for it to come. Being resourceful, I think, is the most critical thing. I don't know if that would be difficult. So creating solutions. Yes, being able to use what you have and maybe it doesn't look like someone else's quote box, but it still does the same purpose.

26:37 Yeah. And what is your survival rate over winter? Actually, according to Canada's statistics from the Canadian Honey Council, Newfoundland has the lowest mortality rates where we're hovering between 10 and 15% for Canada. Some provinces are up to 40%. That sounds really good. Tell me about some of the joys that you experienced with honeybees. I really enjoy learning about them and educating other people and seeing the look on their face as they realize just how important the honeybees are to us.

27:21 It's almost like you get to see that little light bulb of reality go off in their minds and express on their face. That really does bring me a lot of joy. Speaking of education, tell us about your job. Well, I am the beekeeper at the Newfoundland Insectarium, which is essentially an insect museum where there are preserved and live specimens. And I manage the hive that is on exhibit as well as 30 other hives on property, which are the ones that produce honey for their gift shop. So part of what I do in my job is educating people who come to the museum about what they see in the observation hive.

28:08 And most recently, I started doing extraction demonstrations. I had a lot of people ask me, well, how do you get the honey out? And I thought, let's show you. That is a great question. You're in such an unusual place and environment and having no varroa, so we're all jealous. But what kinds of things maybe have you specifically, Andrea, come up with that you can share with others that might help in their beekeeping journey? I think it's really important to learn how to be self-sufficient and not to have to rely on purchasing nukes or queens or even packages.

28:52 If you can be self-sustaining and be able to provide for yourself, I think you would be a better advantage to anyone who has to purchase. That makes sense. How many splits are you able to do each year? When I first started, I did what we knew if he's called walkaway splits. But now I've learned how to graft queens. So I've gotten into that and I'm helping to fill some of the gap here on the island for people who need queens right away or because they've had some losses of some kind. Do you have an idea of how many beekeepers are on the island?

29:34 There are currently 180 beekeepers registered with the Newfoundland Beekeeping Association. And in that 180, there are probably just over a thousand colonies on the island. That's it. Wow, that's not a lot. And average, how many pounds of honey are you getting per colony? Commercial stats show us about 30 pounds. So that's not a lot. And that's after you've left the bees a whole bunch to get through winter. That's a long winter. Yes. And we have to leave them. The rule of thumb here is about 100 pounds for the winter. So how do you measure that? Do you actually wait or do you just go, ah, there's so many boxes I'll do?

30:17 I personally heft. And when I get the opportunity towards the end, I like to examine the frames and see how much honey is on them. When I began, I was taught how to weigh up a hive to the appropriate amount, like a dummy hive, and heft it. So I would know what it felt like. I know you've been beekeeping quite a few years. Have you ever had an experience that was, hmm, let's say memorable. Could give us a little bit of a chuckle today, whether it was painful, embarrassing, funny, whatever. Yeah. Okay. So there was this one day, I have several apiaries that are within like a 60 mile radius of each other.

31:01 And so I'm at this one yard that is down a country, just a single lane country road next to a river. And I'm normally there by myself. There's this one house way down on the end of the road. I never see anybody, but I'm beekeeping this one day. And it's the end of the day. And I think I'm probably, you know, had stayed a little too long. And I'm getting out of my suit. And there are a couple of these bees are just at me. They won't leave me alone. Like, you know, that bee that one takes it upon herself to guard the whole yard. And I just, I started to walk away. My suit is half off. And she just kind of went back and I went back and took my suit totally off.

31:43 And she's coming at me again. And I'm like, Oh my gosh. So I walk halfway out the yard again. And again, she's gone. I start to walk back and I come again. The third time I come back, she's at me again. And I'm kind of feeling, I don't know, maybe tired and silly. And I start to actually run out of the yard with my arms flailing and being silly. And when I look down the road, there's this family of four that were out for a walk. And they see me running across the street like this mad woman with the arms going screaming. And they have no idea why they don't see this little bee after.

32:25 You should have started yelling bear, bear. Maybe if it happens again, I will save a little dignity that way. Yeah, that's a good one. Thank you for sharing. The last thing that I want to know about Newfoundland is this screech ceremony thing. Is that just a legend or is there really such a thing? Oh, no, it's true. We call it a screech in. If you are not a Newfoundlander, you will be given the opportunity to become an honorary Newfoundlander. If you can perform, I guess, a series of things. So like you're given usually a phrase to say, oh my goodness, something like someday on clothes or what are you at by.

33:12 And then you wear a traditional southwestern hat, which is the hat a fisherman would wear. You kiss a cod and then you take a shot of this new fee screech, which is a Jamaican rum. And I guess they call it screech because that's what it makes you do when you drink it. But at that point, then you're an honorary Newfoundlander. You should add that one really feisty honeybee to that. Maybe. And a honeybee get chased by a honeybee something. Yeah. All right, Andrea, thanks a lot for your time.

33:54 You're very welcome, Eric. Thank you so much for joining us here on Be Love, Be Keeping presented by Man Lake. Please right now hit those follow or subscribe buttons. And remember, if you're not just in it for the honey or the money, you're in it for the love. See you next week.