New Beehive Design - 120 R-Value, Twice The Honey


This episode features a beekeeper-engineer’s quest to copy what a honey bee colony does naturally in a hollow tree—and to put that into a production hive.
Alex Gamberoni of Primal Bee, shares how repeated winter losses drove him and his co-founder to model nest shape, airflow, and dew point, ultimately designing the insulated, trapezoidal “Primal Bee” nest that aims to reduce winter losses (reported <10%, sometimes ~5%) and increase honey yields—without changing your honey supers or extractors.
Along the way, we cover forage in the Italian Alps, chestnut honey’s “sweet-then-spicy” flavor, and a delightfully chaotic bee-in-the-Jeep 'Wild & Crazy' beekeeping story.
Beekeeping takeaways abound for every beekeeper, from winter management and feeding density to why nest shape may matter more than insulation thickness for honey bee thermoregulation.
It's all about having fun while we learn about beekeeping and sharing the love of honey bees!
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Video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/taiIW_Xpcrk
Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mann Lake! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
Mann Lake discount code: MLBEELOVE10 for $10 off your first $100 order.
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in a world brimming with complexity few creatures
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embody harmony like the honeybee with tireless
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precision she dances from bloom to bloom each
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motion guided by millennia upon millennia of
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instinct each act in service to the whole and
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then There are the beekeepers, watchful stewards
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of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist,
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part poet, they move along their hives with the
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efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to
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the bee's needs as best they can comprehend,
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and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the
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Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing
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like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their
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journey. Welcome, welcome to Be Love, Be Keep
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being presented by Man Lake. we're going over
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to Europe again today to discuss a whole new
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kind of beehive design that creators claim can
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cut your winter colony losses down to five percent
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and double your honey yield. And our guest's
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wild and crazy beekeeping story is one for the
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ages. But first in beekeeping related news, a
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really sad story out of Ireland. Board -winning
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longtime beekeeper Kathleen Devine dies after
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suffering multiple stings. This was just earlier
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this week and details are still a little sketchy.
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One report has her being stung only twice. Another
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says it may have been up to 20 times. Either
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way, how does someone who's been beekeeping for
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decades suddenly die from a few stings? Well,
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here's what we do know. Kathleen was in her early
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70s and had recently taken a step back from beekeeping
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because she had quote, suffered some reactions
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from stings. Early Monday evening she went to
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help another beekeeper with his hives and that's
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when it all happened. She received stings, had
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a reaction, and was transferred by air ambulance
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to a hospital where she passed away. A post mortem
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examination will be carried out. I guess it's
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just a really sobering reminder that even though
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you haven't been allergic to bee stings in the
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past, you can develop an allergy in the future.
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If you have reactions, especially new ones, don't
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take them lightly. Seek proper medical advice.
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These situations are rare but they do happen
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so be careful out there and consider having an
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EpiPen on hand just in case. Mrs. Devine and
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her husband Des were hobby beekeepers. well loved
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by the local beekeeping community. They had won
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numerous prizes for their honey at various agricultural
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shows country -wide. Sympathies and prayers for
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her and her family at this time. On a more upbeat
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note, British and Danish researchers have just
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engineered a super food to protect honey bees
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from growing threats. Their results are published
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in the weekly science and technology journal
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Nature. The work we did here represents a major
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technology breakthrough for the beekeeping industry
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and for food security and global pollination,"
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noted University of Oxford researcher Professor
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Geraldine Wright. The scientists first identified
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the key compounds in pollen that benefit bees
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which involve six plant sterols. They then genetically
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engineered a strain of yeast to produce a precise
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mixture of these ingredients in a sustainable
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and affordable way. The colonies fed the superfood
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thrived and boosted reproduction when compared
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to the control group. There's a lot of scientific
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details. If you're interested, we'll post a link
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to the study in the show notes. Okay, let's get
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to our interview. By the way, if you like awesome
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Italian accents, you're going to love what's
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coming up. Hey, I'd like to welcome to the show
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today super special guest all the way coming
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to us from Italy, Alex Scamberoni. How are you
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doing today? I'm fine, I'm really very happy.
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I will harvest my last honey flow next Friday
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with the Primal Beehive in the mountains. So
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far so good. And we're going to be talking about
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Primal Beehive. That's one thing that I love
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doing on this show is finding out about new products
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and new ways to do things before we jump into
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that. I want to get into a little bit of your
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history. Tell me what got you into beekeeping
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and when, and then we'll kind of go from there.
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Yeah, actually, it's pretty easy. In my home
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village, we have two long, very long standing
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traditions, centuries old tradition. One is the
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silkworms. No one is working with silkworms in
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my area anymore. But beekeeping, oh, that's for
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sure. So since I was in elementary school, my
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mother would use it to buy honey from local beekeepers.
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And I always loved the smell of the beeswax of
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the honey. We mainly have two blossoms here,
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two main nectar flow. One is the acacia and the
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other one is the sweet chestnut, which is my
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preferred honey. So yeah. Years ago when I had
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finally time free time because I closed my machine
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tools company and I started to keep bees just
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for fun It was love at first sight. It was also
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a dream come true because Really where every
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time I I was making breakfast with the milk and
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honey from my local beekeepers I was always thinking
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I should have my own bees. So as soon as I was
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able but it was 2006, so almost 20 years ago,
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I started keeping bees by my own. So before we
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started recording, you were telling me about
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this sweet chestnut honey. Describe the flavor.
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What's it like? When it's really, really harvested
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at the right moment, it's really dense, dark.
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It's not black, but it's pretty brown, dark brown,
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and it has kind of two sensations the first one
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when you start testing it mainly is the sweet
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part of the chestnut that comes to you but then
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when it goes down into the throat it became I'll
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just say you said before spicy spicy and it's
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a kind of a second experience after a few seconds
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that that was I really like the most and yeah
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it's a It's everywhere here because from the
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hill behind my village up to the mountains in
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Switzerland, this part of the Alps, the valley
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that goes from the Lago Maggiore up to the main
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ridge of the Alps, it's full of sweet chestnut
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forest. So it's something that we really like
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a lot in the area, both on the Italian and on
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the Switzerland side. Here in the U .S. there's
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a thing called hot honey now. It's a spicy honey,
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but people are doing it by infusing things like
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jalapeno peppers in their honey. And it's really
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good, but I think it's a lot more fun when it
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just comes directly from the bees with whatever
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flavor it is. There's just something very special
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about that. What other kinds of things do they
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forage on in your area? The very first blossom
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is the wild cherry, following with apricots.
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And then we also have another English word for
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dandelion. Dandelion. Dandelion. And then we
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have acacia, on which we usually harvest honey.
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After acacia, we have wild flowers, different
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kind. And then it depends from the season. It
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could be late June, beginning of July, we have
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the sweet chestnut. Here, at the end of the Alps
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and the foothill, it's almost the last blossom
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that we have. Then we move up in the mountains,
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our colonies, to have a second wave of sweet
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chestnut and wild flowers until beginning of
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September, more or less. That's mainly what happened
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during the blossoming season. We go to the mountains
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because it's a time machine, it's a dramatic
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operation. So we go back in time to harvest more,
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at least to forage, to have the bee foraging
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on natural flowers and not feeding syrup so early
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in the season. Now climate -wise, how cold is
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it where you are? What are the winters like?
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It depends, but on average, we have winters that
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can be as cold as minus seven, minus 10 Celsius.
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that is about 14 degrees fahrenheit and then
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we have a hot summer that can be as hot as 36
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celsius which is kind of i think close to 90
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or 100 fahrenheit very humid okay and so that's
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a huge range did you find that you had a lot
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of winter die -off At the beginning, yes, and
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the problem was related to the dissipation of
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the hive. Nowadays, still, people using the dandt
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langstroth hives, they are used to feed not less
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than 26, even more, sometimes even 50 liters
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of syrup to overwinter colonies. And this comes
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with other problems like nosema disease because
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of those very liquid syrups. Since the first
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industrial prototype that we built, Giammario
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and I with Primal B, we went down to less than
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10 liters of CO2 over winter colony. And we also
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reduced the winter losses at the same time. In
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the actual version of the Primal B hive and the
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test that we did last winter, we went down to
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no more than 4 liters of syrup and less than
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10 % of colony losses. Actually, last winter
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we lost less than 5%. But on average, I'm comfortable
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to say that we can work with less than 10 % colony
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losses during the winter time. So I live in an
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area where the common losses is at least 50 %
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per year. It's just, it's very, very, it's very,
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very cold here in the winter and a lot of snow.
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And if your bees are weak, you know, from Varroa
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or whatever, or don't have enough food, they
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just, they just don't survive period. Now you
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were telling me previously that your first three
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years or so in beekeeping, you had a lot of losses.
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100%. Yeah. 100 % is a lot. And that was what
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led you and your partner into thinking there's
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got to be a better way. Tell me that story. How
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did that all come about? Yeah, actually, again,
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I had a wife and three small kids and I was not
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able to enjoy my family because of my previous
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job. I founded and owned a machine tools company
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with my brother and we were working. too much,
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too many hours, even all weekends. So when I
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decided with my brother to quit the company,
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to have a better lifetime, and I started to keep
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busy, I told Gianmario and he said, okay, let's
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do it together so we can spend more time together
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because Gianmario and I, we met at high school
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and I mean, you cannot choose your brothers,
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but if I could, it would have been John Mario.
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So we were always looking for each other to spend
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time in the mountains, climbing ice falls, ski
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touring, whatever it could be in the mountains.
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And bees in our area, they really were the first
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excuse to meet each other more often and to be
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outside in the outdoors. So we started together.
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But At the very beginning, as you said, for three
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years in a row, we lost everything. We were buying
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B package, not B package, nucleus at the beginning
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of spring. And we tried to harvest honey. We
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were not able to harvest even one drop of honey.
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And then by November, more or less, in the best
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case, it could have been January, all of our
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colony died. So we were really close to give
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up and then it was the fourth year and a friend
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of mine called me, the guy Herman from German
00:14:13.639 --> 00:14:16.519
origin, he is a professional tree climber and
00:14:16.519 --> 00:14:23.419
he was cutting down a huge cedar tree in a beautiful
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centuries old villa. in the park of this villa
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and he called me because he's allergic and he
00:14:30.980 --> 00:14:33.320
said, look, there is a swarm of bees here. I
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cannot do my job. People are paying me to do
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this job I cannot do. So just run, come here,
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grab the swarm and let me work. And when I arrived,
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that was not a swarm. That was a huge colony
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inside this incredible, huge hollow tree. I'm
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talking about a tree that was two meter maybe
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more at the bottom and up to 12 more or less
00:14:58.450 --> 00:15:02.809
12 meters high there was this hole in the in
00:15:02.809 --> 00:15:06.730
the hole tree and literally a black pipe of bees
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coming in and out pretty angry because chainsaw
00:15:11.830 --> 00:15:15.629
is not something they like they like so I was
00:15:15.629 --> 00:15:18.889
I was a fool actually because when I saw that
00:15:18.889 --> 00:15:22.250
thing I was thinking probably this is a I don't
00:15:22.250 --> 00:15:27.909
know, kind of a better strain of a queen. So
00:15:27.909 --> 00:15:32.230
with Hermann, he literally opened a one -meter
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door with the chain so that we were pushing the
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chain into the hollow tree until we saw honey
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coming in, not chips. And also I called Gianmario.
00:15:42.429 --> 00:15:46.610
Gianmario was giving a lecture at the university,
00:15:46.710 --> 00:15:49.519
and I remember him telling to the classroom.
00:15:50.500 --> 00:15:53.179
Okay, guys, the lesson is over. I have more important
00:15:53.179 --> 00:15:56.639
stuff to do. And one hour later, he was showing
00:15:56.639 --> 00:15:59.779
up in the place where Herman and I were trying
00:15:59.779 --> 00:16:03.379
to understand what was going on inside the tree.
00:16:03.879 --> 00:16:05.960
If you're a beekeeper like me, we're getting
00:16:05.960 --> 00:16:09.080
into that favorite time of year, honey harvest.
00:16:09.419 --> 00:16:11.980
But it can be a lot of work. That's where Man
00:16:11.980 --> 00:16:14.460
Lake comes in. They have everything you need
00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:17.940
to make the job easier, cleaner, and more efficient.
00:16:18.190 --> 00:16:21.909
Removal aids, refractometers, uncapping tools,
00:16:22.429 --> 00:16:25.529
extractors, tanks, wax melters, even the jars
00:16:25.529 --> 00:16:28.190
and labels. Plus they have free shipping on glass
00:16:28.190 --> 00:16:30.889
containers. Whether you're a hobbyist with two
00:16:30.889 --> 00:16:33.909
hives or a full -blown commercial operation,
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Man Lake has it all. And don't forget your discount
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code MLBlove10. It's in the show notes. For $10
00:16:40.629 --> 00:16:45.330
off your first $100 purchase. So we tried to
00:16:45.330 --> 00:16:49.700
move a colony that was with combs that were more
00:16:49.700 --> 00:16:55.360
than one meter high and there was four or six
00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:59.440
those huge combs and and we were trying to move
00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:03.179
this colony into the dam which is pretty much
00:17:03.179 --> 00:17:06.240
the same of a Langstroth wooden hive and now
00:17:06.240 --> 00:17:11.460
when I look back of this event I cannot believe
00:17:11.460 --> 00:17:14.440
how full I was because even in terms of volume
00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:17.779
that doesn't fit that it was not possible. we
00:17:17.779 --> 00:17:20.839
killed that colony actually and that was very
00:17:20.839 --> 00:17:24.539
very sad. Gianmario didn't sleep he went back
00:17:24.539 --> 00:17:28.160
to his lab and the day after he woke me up telling
00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:31.559
me we need to change the box because what we
00:17:31.559 --> 00:17:35.819
really what he really did was to redesign everything
00:17:35.819 --> 00:17:40.259
in a three -dimensional software where he can
00:17:40.259 --> 00:17:45.640
assign mechanical and thermal property to every
00:17:45.640 --> 00:17:48.240
component that he designed. He designed the holotree,
00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:51.160
the combs and the bees in a way that he could
00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:55.799
apply mathematical simulation, mainly Navier
00:17:55.799 --> 00:18:00.519
-Stroke's equation to understand what was going
00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:04.259
on inside, starting from the idea that they need
00:18:04.259 --> 00:18:09.619
to keep energy in a better way in order to have
00:18:09.619 --> 00:18:13.480
those huge combs that we saw. the following morning
00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:18.440
when he woke me up he told me look in your email
00:18:18.440 --> 00:18:21.880
so I look at the email and I saw this drawing
00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:24.960
that he built with the mathematical simulation
00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:28.180
and the drawing was showing me a different shape
00:18:28.180 --> 00:18:31.779
mainly a different shape of a comb compared to
00:18:31.779 --> 00:18:35.720
the dead ant we were working with the same day
00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:39.619
we started prototyping something that was kind
00:18:39.619 --> 00:18:43.789
of simulation of the hollow tree And from that
00:18:43.789 --> 00:18:47.210
moment on, we built many, many different kinds
00:18:47.210 --> 00:18:51.750
of prototypes, even from concrete. And you can
00:18:51.750 --> 00:18:57.789
imagine an empty hive made of concrete, 80 kilo
00:18:57.789 --> 00:19:01.690
of a prototype. And we were trying to move those
00:19:01.690 --> 00:19:05.269
empty hives waiting, just the hardware was waiting
00:19:05.269 --> 00:19:09.210
80 kilo. And then we put bees inside and swarm
00:19:09.210 --> 00:19:13.380
and testing. we started really seeing differences
00:19:13.380 --> 00:19:19.240
in the colony behavior. So we improved our prototype
00:19:19.240 --> 00:19:24.259
and then as he was and he still was last year
00:19:24.259 --> 00:19:27.220
a professor at university in Lugano, we were
00:19:27.220 --> 00:19:31.720
allowed to apply mainly from what is the Swiss
00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:35.990
startup ecosystem. We realized after me visiting
00:19:35.990 --> 00:19:39.430
the U .S. relatives and traveling and asking
00:19:39.430 --> 00:19:42.589
to meet beekeepers in the U .S., we realized
00:19:42.589 --> 00:19:45.569
that we may have a business opportunity or something
00:19:45.569 --> 00:19:48.789
that eventually could be good for the beekeeping
00:19:48.789 --> 00:19:54.029
community worldwide. But we like the money, so
00:19:54.029 --> 00:19:57.349
we applied for competition, kind of the shark
00:19:57.349 --> 00:20:03.019
tanks that you have in the U .S. pretty much
00:20:03.019 --> 00:20:06.640
everything that we could win in the ecosystem
00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:09.779
in Switzerland. And with that money, we built
00:20:09.779 --> 00:20:13.500
better prototypes and we traveled extensively,
00:20:13.500 --> 00:20:17.940
I may say, for three weeks from Southern California
00:20:17.940 --> 00:20:20.900
to Vancouver Island and from Baltimore to Atlanta
00:20:20.900 --> 00:20:26.019
in three weeks, meeting every beekeeper that
00:20:26.019 --> 00:20:30.019
was willing to meet us, hobbyists, sideliners,
00:20:30.420 --> 00:20:33.359
commercials. Everybody that was willing to meet
00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:36.819
us, we were willing to spend our time and sharing
00:20:36.819 --> 00:20:39.539
our experience and learning along the way. So
00:20:39.539 --> 00:20:42.640
when we came back, we decided to build something
00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:46.799
better from the previous prototype. And we made
00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:50.900
the mistake to think that that could be the product
00:20:50.900 --> 00:20:53.980
to put on the market. And we really under evaluated
00:20:53.980 --> 00:20:57.500
the amount of time, the amount of effort and
00:20:57.500 --> 00:21:00.529
the amount of money that we needed. to enter
00:21:00.529 --> 00:21:03.509
a market and then the pandemic hit and with the
00:21:03.509 --> 00:21:07.849
pandemic we were in where I live I live less
00:21:07.849 --> 00:21:13.289
than one hour from the very hot spot first hot
00:21:13.289 --> 00:21:17.509
spot of the pandemic in Europe because I am between
00:21:17.509 --> 00:21:20.250
Milano and Lugano between Italy and Switzerland
00:21:20.250 --> 00:21:24.569
and the first hot spot was a small village just
00:21:24.569 --> 00:21:28.049
south was from Milano so we were stuck in our
00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:32.779
houses no not allowed even to go outside in our
00:21:32.779 --> 00:21:37.859
street we decided to do something and to redesign
00:21:37.859 --> 00:21:40.819
everything from scratch this time knowing what
00:21:40.819 --> 00:21:44.720
the performance could be but also scaling down
00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:47.700
the manufacturing cost. Because before the pandemic,
00:21:48.140 --> 00:21:51.779
when we realized that we can really deliver something
00:21:51.779 --> 00:21:55.180
better for the colony, we traveled also to test
00:21:55.180 --> 00:21:58.380
our solution. So we delivered some of the previous
00:21:58.380 --> 00:22:02.960
version in the very hot Negev desert in Israel,
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:06.779
but also we over winter colony in Alaska, few
00:22:06.779 --> 00:22:11.089
hours. westward from Anchorage on the Kinaipan
00:22:11.089 --> 00:22:15.609
Isola. And when we were able to talk again, to
00:22:15.609 --> 00:22:18.569
travel again and meeting potential suppliers
00:22:18.569 --> 00:22:24.670
in US and in Europe, we knew that we could deliver
00:22:24.670 --> 00:22:29.750
a good hive, a primal bee hive at a fair retail
00:22:29.750 --> 00:22:34.769
price and all the related activity that we needed
00:22:34.769 --> 00:22:36.980
to do. I just want to catch up and make sure
00:22:36.980 --> 00:22:40.039
we're on the same page here. So we've got a couple
00:22:40.039 --> 00:22:44.500
of brothers living in Italy in Switzerland and
00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:48.180
the winter is killing off your bees and then
00:22:48.180 --> 00:22:53.420
you come across this giant hive in a hollow tree
00:22:53.420 --> 00:22:57.690
end up cutting it apart and realize None of the
00:22:57.690 --> 00:23:00.650
beehives being made right now are good old buddy
00:23:00.650 --> 00:23:04.130
Langstroth. It doesn't fit what bees actually
00:23:04.130 --> 00:23:07.990
do inside a hollow tree. So that's what we're
00:23:07.990 --> 00:23:10.490
going to do. And we're going to figure out how
00:23:10.490 --> 00:23:13.410
to do it. So so a couple of you guys, are you
00:23:13.410 --> 00:23:16.380
both engineers or just? Your brother. Gianmario
00:23:16.380 --> 00:23:21.420
is an engineer. I am by college. I am a mechanic,
00:23:21.640 --> 00:23:25.559
a mechanical technician. I was used to design
00:23:25.559 --> 00:23:29.440
machine tools, huge CNC machine tools. So our
00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:31.859
background is both mechanical, but I was more
00:23:31.859 --> 00:23:34.440
on the manufacturing side and Gianmario was more
00:23:34.440 --> 00:23:37.500
on the theoretical and simulation side of the
00:23:37.500 --> 00:23:40.140
mechanical stuff. So you guys know how to design
00:23:40.140 --> 00:23:42.789
and build things. And you came up with what sounds
00:23:42.789 --> 00:23:45.450
like a good design. At what point did you say,
00:23:46.170 --> 00:23:49.210
hey, this thing weighs way, way, way, way too
00:23:49.210 --> 00:23:51.930
much to be practical. We're going to shift to
00:23:51.930 --> 00:23:55.089
polystyrene. What made you think that's the material
00:23:55.089 --> 00:23:59.170
you wanted to use? Actually, it's a bit different.
00:24:00.009 --> 00:24:03.230
First, thanks to John Mario's simulation and
00:24:03.230 --> 00:24:07.529
then to the first prototype that we did, we realized
00:24:07.529 --> 00:24:12.640
that we have a good explanation. about the whole
00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:16.640
system. So the colony, the bees, the hardware
00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:20.039
where you keep the bees, the hive and the outside
00:24:20.039 --> 00:24:22.880
temperature, the outside environment, which means
00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:26.920
mainly temperature and seasonality. From that
00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:31.940
good explanation, we then decided to build something
00:24:31.940 --> 00:24:35.940
and we can build with different materials. But
00:24:35.940 --> 00:24:40.890
when we went down to manufacturing cost, I grade,
00:24:41.250 --> 00:24:45.150
high density, food grade EPS. It's a technology
00:24:45.150 --> 00:24:50.730
that is mature, I may say, and can be used at
00:24:50.730 --> 00:24:54.950
scale. So when we were thinking about the U .S.
00:24:55.150 --> 00:24:58.309
market and the huge number that bees are in the
00:24:58.309 --> 00:25:00.490
U .S. market and in North America, generally
00:25:00.490 --> 00:25:04.430
speaking, we realized that we really need something
00:25:04.430 --> 00:25:08.309
that can be used at scale. And so we started
00:25:08.309 --> 00:25:11.400
the partnering up with one of the best companies
00:25:11.400 --> 00:25:16.440
in Europe. They are now our first supplier and
00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:20.140
they manage that technology very well. They manage
00:25:20.140 --> 00:25:22.680
the technology so well that they are now helping
00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:27.160
us to move the manufacturing into the U .S. And
00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:30.880
this is not only because of the wonderful tariff
00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:35.619
that we love so much. Yeah, but also because
00:25:35.619 --> 00:25:39.250
even before that, we are paying transportation
00:25:39.250 --> 00:25:41.049
costs because now we are shipping containers
00:25:41.049 --> 00:25:43.769
from Europe to the US and this is killing us
00:25:43.769 --> 00:25:47.130
in terms of cost and time to deliver. So the
00:25:47.130 --> 00:25:50.309
idea to move the manufacturing process in the
00:25:50.309 --> 00:25:54.589
US was born more than one year ago when we closed
00:25:54.589 --> 00:25:58.410
our seed round and then we waited to have the
00:25:58.410 --> 00:26:02.500
first good and not good feedback from the early
00:26:02.500 --> 00:26:06.539
adopters in the US, not only hobbyist, but also
00:26:06.539 --> 00:26:09.539
commercial guy, because there are a few features
00:26:09.539 --> 00:26:12.240
that we really need to change in order to allow
00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:15.500
those people to work with Primal B and to take
00:26:15.500 --> 00:26:20.240
advantage of the results. So now we are planning
00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:22.880
to have manufacturing up and running by the end
00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:26.059
of the year in the US. Hopefully, we will be
00:26:26.059 --> 00:26:29.720
able to deliver from the US in February. On the
00:26:29.720 --> 00:26:32.640
video version of this podcast, I'm going to insert
00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:35.200
some pictures of what this actually looks like
00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:37.880
for those that are just listening to the audio.
00:26:38.140 --> 00:26:42.019
I want you to describe what does your hive actually
00:26:42.019 --> 00:26:44.299
look like because it doesn't look like a regular
00:26:44.299 --> 00:26:47.819
Langstroth hive or even a top bar hive. Yeah
00:26:47.819 --> 00:26:51.740
okay in the primal bee hive we changed the nest
00:26:51.740 --> 00:26:53.900
and the nest only this is the first things that
00:26:53.900 --> 00:26:56.500
people need to know there's no need to change
00:26:56.500 --> 00:26:59.480
extraction equipment for our vesting honey because
00:26:59.480 --> 00:27:03.460
we can put supers above the nest as usual and
00:27:03.460 --> 00:27:08.160
in our supers the beekeeper can still use the
00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:11.480
deep or the medium langstroth frames that he's
00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:15.259
already working with. But the nest itself is
00:27:15.259 --> 00:27:19.400
a different shape because the shape of the nest
00:27:19.400 --> 00:27:24.490
really, really matters. in terms of thermal efficiency.
00:27:25.210 --> 00:27:27.710
It's much more the shape than the insulation.
00:27:28.470 --> 00:27:32.329
You can insulate a lag strut or a double dip
00:27:32.329 --> 00:27:36.029
as much as you want, as much as you can, but
00:27:36.029 --> 00:27:39.130
you cannot go... even closer to the performance
00:27:39.130 --> 00:27:43.710
that we can achieve using LA Primal B Nest which
00:27:43.710 --> 00:27:47.529
is made by eight frames with the trapezoidal
00:27:47.529 --> 00:27:55.170
shape they are as high as 70 centimeters 700
00:27:55.170 --> 00:27:59.309
millimeters and you have this trapezoidal shape
00:27:59.309 --> 00:28:02.109
because especially at the spring at the end of
00:28:02.109 --> 00:28:06.809
the winter in the spring build up The upper part
00:28:06.809 --> 00:28:11.210
of our frames provide a larger surface for the
00:28:11.210 --> 00:28:16.009
colony to develop and a whole single surface
00:28:16.009 --> 00:28:20.230
from top to bottom. These allow the queen to
00:28:20.230 --> 00:28:25.150
lay eggs in a more efficient way. That means
00:28:25.150 --> 00:28:28.150
that with the same amount of energy, they can
00:28:28.150 --> 00:28:33.069
have larger surface of brood, which also means
00:28:33.069 --> 00:28:37.259
every cycle you have more bees that can go back
00:28:37.259 --> 00:28:41.180
into the system to perform when you have those
00:28:41.180 --> 00:28:45.220
eight frames one stuck by the other then you
00:28:45.220 --> 00:28:48.240
have something that is a little bit bigger than
00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:52.720
a double deep and the external dimensions are
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:56.140
such that you can place four primer bee nests
00:28:56.140 --> 00:29:00.339
on a four -way palette so that the external dimension
00:29:00.339 --> 00:29:08.329
is four centimeters wide and 60 cm length. On
00:29:08.329 --> 00:29:13.349
top of this nest, we put a nest lid, what we
00:29:13.349 --> 00:29:17.289
call a nest lid, an empty super and a top lid
00:29:17.289 --> 00:29:23.849
for a total amount of more than 120 air value
00:29:23.849 --> 00:29:26.829
as a closure of the cross -section of the nest
00:29:26.829 --> 00:29:31.740
and this provides most of the efficiency that
00:29:31.740 --> 00:29:36.900
we can deliver to the colony. Did you say 120
00:29:36.900 --> 00:29:40.319
R value? Yeah, it depends which kind of empty
00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:43.799
super you can use, but we are between 120 and
00:29:43.799 --> 00:29:50.440
150 as the wall call it winter closure of the
00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:54.500
nest, which is made by three components. Nest
00:29:54.500 --> 00:29:59.519
lead, empty super, one empty super made of a
00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:04.779
solid APS and the top lid and the nylon strap
00:30:04.779 --> 00:30:07.859
to tie everything together. The coupling profile
00:30:07.859 --> 00:30:11.160
between the components is that such which is
00:30:11.160 --> 00:30:16.660
airtight. So the air inside the empty super provide
00:30:16.660 --> 00:30:19.119
better insulation. And when we overwinter in
00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:22.880
Alaska, we instead of just an empty super, we
00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:28.240
put kind of a mattress of additional EPS as an
00:30:28.240 --> 00:30:31.259
insulation material to better survive the long
00:30:31.259 --> 00:30:34.299
Alaska winter. And the same thing goes when you
00:30:34.299 --> 00:30:38.380
are in very hot climate. Yeah. Let me just interpret
00:30:38.380 --> 00:30:41.559
this for everybody a little bit. So this does
00:30:41.559 --> 00:30:44.579
not look like a normal beehive. You see this
00:30:44.579 --> 00:30:49.420
EPS material and the brood box, there's not two,
00:30:49.539 --> 00:30:52.099
there's one, and you call it a nest, which I
00:30:52.099 --> 00:30:55.200
absolutely love that term, by the way, the frames
00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:58.789
inside are you said 70 centimeters, which is
00:30:58.789 --> 00:31:04.170
about 27 and a half inches tall. Exactly. And
00:31:04.170 --> 00:31:07.269
the width is roughly the regular width. Yeah,
00:31:07.269 --> 00:31:10.210
a little shorter, a little bit shorter. Just
00:31:10.210 --> 00:31:14.609
a little bit shorter. And so in the nest, you're
00:31:14.609 --> 00:31:17.630
going to be pulling out frames that are 27 and
00:31:17.630 --> 00:31:22.009
a half inches tall. Now, above that goes a brood
00:31:22.009 --> 00:31:24.529
box made out of the same material, same kind
00:31:24.529 --> 00:31:29.180
of insulation. But we can put our regular Langstroth
00:31:29.180 --> 00:31:33.059
frames in it. Exactly. Which also means we can
00:31:33.059 --> 00:31:36.079
pull them out and put them in our regular extractors.
00:31:36.119 --> 00:31:38.619
We don't have to do anything special, different,
00:31:38.819 --> 00:31:41.019
or anything else to extract honey from them.
00:31:41.420 --> 00:31:45.509
That's a big deal. Yeah, and also because we
00:31:45.509 --> 00:31:47.970
don't want to harvest the honey from the primal
00:31:47.970 --> 00:31:52.630
bee nest frames, matched with the thermal efficiency
00:31:52.630 --> 00:31:56.309
of the nest itself, this is why we can really
00:31:56.309 --> 00:31:59.250
feed less and less compared to every other solution.
00:31:59.809 --> 00:32:04.009
Because the cluster of the bees during the winter
00:32:04.009 --> 00:32:07.150
start at the very bottom of the primal bee frames
00:32:07.150 --> 00:32:11.119
and then the cluster moves very, very little
00:32:11.119 --> 00:32:16.759
by little upwards when they need some honey for
00:32:16.759 --> 00:32:20.779
the winter consumption. But most of the time,
00:32:21.180 --> 00:32:25.359
between 10 and 12 centimeters of honey on top
00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:28.880
of the frame is more than enough to overwinter
00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:32.960
the colony, at least in the place where we made
00:32:32.960 --> 00:32:36.240
our experiment. Okay, now your R value, you mentioned
00:32:36.240 --> 00:32:39.619
120. which I don't know of anything that's that
00:32:39.619 --> 00:32:43.380
high in our regular length strut hives, which
00:32:43.380 --> 00:32:46.059
are three quarter inch wood. I believe the R
00:32:46.059 --> 00:32:50.059
value is like one or two. Yeah, maybe five. It
00:32:50.059 --> 00:32:53.880
depends from the thickness of the play. So hardly
00:32:53.880 --> 00:32:58.000
insulated at all, but a big fat tree has a ton
00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:01.200
of insulation. So you're trying to reproduce
00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:05.599
this tree like atmosphere. The last thing I don't
00:33:05.599 --> 00:33:08.319
want to get too technical here. But could you
00:33:08.319 --> 00:33:10.859
talk about the thermal dynamics just a little
00:33:10.859 --> 00:33:14.200
bit? Because we've had various people on the
00:33:14.200 --> 00:33:18.680
show talking about how important airflow is even
00:33:18.680 --> 00:33:21.940
when it's really cold in the winter. And other
00:33:21.940 --> 00:33:25.039
philosophies are, no, shut them down and don't
00:33:25.039 --> 00:33:28.140
have very much airflow at all. What's the airflow
00:33:28.140 --> 00:33:32.140
like on this? The critical point is the dew point.
00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:36.500
People that are used to open some hole or something
00:33:36.970 --> 00:33:41.289
on top of the nest, they do so because they think
00:33:41.289 --> 00:33:44.329
that the circulation of air between the bottom
00:33:44.329 --> 00:33:50.619
and the top can help the bees to evacuate. to
00:33:50.619 --> 00:33:54.720
put away the moisture inside the nest. But the
00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:57.480
real question is why those colonies have moisture
00:33:57.480 --> 00:34:00.740
inside the nest? And the answer is because the
00:34:00.740 --> 00:34:04.359
dew point is inside the nest. So when you provide
00:34:04.359 --> 00:34:07.740
because of the shape and then the material, you
00:34:07.740 --> 00:34:11.769
provide such thermal efficiency. we move the
00:34:11.769 --> 00:34:15.190
dew point outside. That means that they don't
00:34:15.190 --> 00:34:19.130
need an air flow inside the nest during winter
00:34:19.130 --> 00:34:21.789
time. They need to stabilize the temperature
00:34:21.789 --> 00:34:26.170
and to do that with the minimal effort possible,
00:34:26.230 --> 00:34:28.869
with the minimal possible effort in a way that
00:34:28.869 --> 00:34:33.690
they really can keep the queen alive at the right
00:34:33.690 --> 00:34:38.630
temperature, almost just with their metabolic
00:34:38.630 --> 00:34:41.769
energy. That goes with the less consumption during
00:34:41.769 --> 00:34:46.010
the winter passage and at the beginning of spring
00:34:46.010 --> 00:34:50.010
when the cluster opens up and the queen understands
00:34:50.010 --> 00:34:52.309
that the queen feels that it's time to lay eggs,
00:34:53.090 --> 00:34:56.789
this operation to open the cluster and to raise
00:34:56.789 --> 00:35:00.440
the temperature from the winter queen passage
00:35:00.440 --> 00:35:05.119
to the brood temperature of 36 degrees comes
00:35:05.119 --> 00:35:10.460
with the five or even more five times less effort
00:35:10.460 --> 00:35:13.860
than compared to the landstock hive. This is
00:35:13.860 --> 00:35:17.429
key because And this is much more related to
00:35:17.429 --> 00:35:21.150
the shape of the nest than the material itself.
00:35:21.269 --> 00:35:23.449
This is one of the things that we struggle the
00:35:23.449 --> 00:35:27.349
most to communicate because insulation is easy
00:35:27.349 --> 00:35:31.929
to understand. And even in our own houses, we
00:35:31.929 --> 00:35:35.230
see that when we put insulation in the house,
00:35:35.670 --> 00:35:38.690
we can consume less energy to stay warm during
00:35:38.690 --> 00:35:43.190
the winter. But the shape is really key. One
00:35:43.190 --> 00:35:46.630
of the things that Gianmario always try to explain
00:35:46.630 --> 00:35:51.610
to me first is a comparison between the shape,
00:35:51.829 --> 00:35:56.570
the small difference in shapes on a race car.
00:35:56.869 --> 00:36:01.090
When they change millimeters of the spoiler of
00:36:01.090 --> 00:36:05.110
the wings or whatever, the effect, the downside
00:36:05.110 --> 00:36:08.070
effect or the differences in the performance,
00:36:08.289 --> 00:36:11.050
it's huge. And mainly this is the same thing,
00:36:11.710 --> 00:36:15.099
changing the nest the shape of the nest improve
00:36:15.099 --> 00:36:18.239
a lot what the bees can do. And the bees, they
00:36:18.239 --> 00:36:21.920
know better than us. So when they feel they are
00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:28.380
in a nest that is well made and easy to manage,
00:36:28.820 --> 00:36:32.940
they just act doing what they do best. So the
00:36:32.940 --> 00:36:35.420
conservation of energy and the better use of
00:36:35.420 --> 00:36:39.420
resources is in their DNA, and they just keep
00:36:39.420 --> 00:36:43.070
doing what they were able to do for. billions
00:36:43.070 --> 00:36:45.409
of years, for many, many years, thousands of
00:36:45.409 --> 00:36:49.010
years. And they go back to do what they were
00:36:49.010 --> 00:36:54.389
used to do before wrong wooden highs. Have you
00:36:54.389 --> 00:36:57.389
found that the bees also produce more honey?
00:36:57.650 --> 00:37:00.949
And if so, why? Correct. The bees produce more
00:37:00.949 --> 00:37:04.409
honey because, again, it's in their DNA. They
00:37:04.409 --> 00:37:09.030
know that when the net flow comes, it's time
00:37:09.030 --> 00:37:14.579
to put energy let's say in the ziagonal cells
00:37:14.579 --> 00:37:17.400
for when the winter will come and they don't
00:37:17.400 --> 00:37:21.000
have a limit. I mean, the limit is the nectar
00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:25.619
flow itself. So when they understand by instinct
00:37:25.619 --> 00:37:30.199
that they don't need so much energy to keep the
00:37:30.199 --> 00:37:33.400
temperature of the brood inside the nest, they
00:37:33.400 --> 00:37:37.380
keep going harvesting nectar and this nectar
00:37:37.719 --> 00:37:40.920
will not be used during the same season, will
00:37:40.920 --> 00:37:44.380
be stored for the winter to come. The key point
00:37:44.380 --> 00:37:48.139
in the primal bee is that using the same last
00:37:48.139 --> 00:37:51.320
medium or deep to harvest honey and having the
00:37:51.320 --> 00:37:55.300
nest which consume, which require so less energy
00:37:55.300 --> 00:37:58.400
compared to what we were used to work with, it's
00:37:58.400 --> 00:38:01.460
a win -win situation because what we leave into
00:38:01.460 --> 00:38:05.860
the nest for the colony is enough. or close to
00:38:05.860 --> 00:38:09.860
enough to survive an average winter everywhere
00:38:09.860 --> 00:38:13.820
in Europe and I can say everywhere in the US,
00:38:14.039 --> 00:38:18.239
maybe excluding Alaska or the cold state or the
00:38:18.239 --> 00:38:22.179
northeast of the US. But at the same time, we
00:38:22.179 --> 00:38:25.179
can harvest more honey. And from the comparison
00:38:25.179 --> 00:38:28.239
that we have already done in Europe and in Israel,
00:38:28.670 --> 00:38:32.289
On average, we harvest double the quantity compared
00:38:32.289 --> 00:38:35.010
to the wooden Langstock type. Sometimes it's
00:38:35.010 --> 00:38:37.929
even more, it depends. There are beekeepers in
00:38:37.929 --> 00:38:41.969
my area working with Primal Bee. They are already
00:38:41.969 --> 00:38:46.320
used to harvest the wild cherry honey. which
00:38:46.320 --> 00:38:49.440
is something that people forgot about because
00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:53.400
since the Varroa came in and the colony became
00:38:53.400 --> 00:38:57.000
weaker and weaker they were not able to harvest
00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:00.659
the wild cherry which is the very very first
00:39:00.659 --> 00:39:03.440
blossom that we have but with the primal bee
00:39:03.440 --> 00:39:06.780
and overwintery a strong colony and now they
00:39:06.780 --> 00:39:09.820
start going back to collect this honey that has
00:39:09.820 --> 00:39:12.380
not been collected since the 18 more or less.
00:39:12.710 --> 00:39:15.190
Alright, so what I'm gonna say, and I don't want
00:39:15.190 --> 00:39:17.550
this to sound rude in any way shape or form,
00:39:18.070 --> 00:39:21.210
you're putting a lot of promises out there, right?
00:39:21.449 --> 00:39:24.429
Less bee die -off, twice as much honey made.
00:39:25.210 --> 00:39:28.889
I decided to put this thing to the test and your
00:39:28.889 --> 00:39:32.150
marketing people were kind enough to send me
00:39:32.150 --> 00:39:35.630
one of your hives, the whole package, and even
00:39:35.630 --> 00:39:38.989
though This is going to be close to the end of
00:39:38.989 --> 00:39:41.969
August before I get bees in it. I'm going to
00:39:41.969 --> 00:39:44.949
try one this year and see how these bees overwinter.
00:39:45.530 --> 00:39:48.289
That's probably not fair because that's not enough
00:39:48.289 --> 00:39:50.349
of a head start before winter. Now you will need
00:39:50.349 --> 00:39:55.289
to feed them probably very very dense syrup as
00:39:55.289 --> 00:39:59.289
dense as honey and not less than probably between
00:39:59.289 --> 00:40:02.940
8 and 12 kilo. until they will build at least
00:40:02.940 --> 00:40:06.199
four or five full comms. And then I'm pretty
00:40:06.199 --> 00:40:08.800
sure that you will overwinter very well. Okay,
00:40:09.179 --> 00:40:11.940
I will do that. I'll feed the crap out of them
00:40:11.940 --> 00:40:15.300
and we'll see how it goes. And our listeners
00:40:15.300 --> 00:40:17.920
know here, I'll be very honest. If it works,
00:40:17.960 --> 00:40:20.639
and I really hope it does, and I think it will
00:40:20.639 --> 00:40:23.360
because everything you're saying just makes sense,
00:40:23.599 --> 00:40:26.659
then I'll report on that. And if for some reason
00:40:26.659 --> 00:40:30.329
it doesn't, then We'll learn and we'll talk about
00:40:30.329 --> 00:40:34.650
that come spring. I will be traveling again and
00:40:34.650 --> 00:40:38.699
again in the U .S. we should also create the
00:40:38.699 --> 00:40:41.820
opportunity for me to visit you in your place.
00:40:41.920 --> 00:40:44.679
Not only meeting in person in Appimondia, but
00:40:44.679 --> 00:40:47.820
really, I really would like to visit you in person
00:40:47.820 --> 00:40:51.840
so we can share our own experience. Yeah, it
00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:53.840
would be great. I would love that. That'll be
00:40:53.840 --> 00:40:56.320
really fun. And we are going to meet at Appimondia
00:40:56.320 --> 00:40:59.480
coming up here soon. Alex, I hope I remember
00:40:59.480 --> 00:41:01.940
to warn you of this when we talked previously.
00:41:02.679 --> 00:41:05.940
Everybody that comes on this show gets to tell
00:41:05.940 --> 00:41:10.440
about a wild or crazy or embarrassing or painfully
00:41:10.440 --> 00:41:13.780
unusual beekeeping story that they personally
00:41:13.780 --> 00:41:16.019
have had. Would you have something you want to
00:41:16.019 --> 00:41:19.380
share with us? Yeah, actually, the craziest things
00:41:19.380 --> 00:41:22.719
that Gianmario and I did when we were using our
00:41:22.719 --> 00:41:26.960
first prototype was starting moving the colony
00:41:26.960 --> 00:41:29.519
from where we are up to the mountains on the
00:41:29.519 --> 00:41:32.559
Switzerland border. In this ballet that it's
00:41:32.780 --> 00:41:39.099
25 kilometers long, full of sweet chestnut. It's
00:41:39.099 --> 00:41:42.059
a valley where you only have sweet chestnut trees.
00:41:42.860 --> 00:41:45.739
And I remember one night, and we were used to
00:41:45.739 --> 00:41:49.239
move our hive with my pickup truck. I have an
00:41:49.239 --> 00:41:54.820
old 99 Dodge pickup truck. It's my hobby. I dismantle,
00:41:54.820 --> 00:41:58.199
I modify it. But that night it was not available.
00:41:58.320 --> 00:42:03.300
So we use the John Mario's car. a old four wheel
00:42:03.300 --> 00:42:09.199
drive Jeep that has not picked up bad. So we
00:42:09.199 --> 00:42:12.760
put the hives inside the car. And there were
00:42:12.760 --> 00:42:17.559
prototypes, so not very well made with bees that
00:42:17.559 --> 00:42:22.400
can eventually get out. And driving during the
00:42:22.400 --> 00:42:25.840
night on this mountain road. every time we were
00:42:25.840 --> 00:42:28.920
looking for just to see just to because it was
00:42:28.920 --> 00:42:32.780
fun to see wild boars and deers and actually
00:42:32.780 --> 00:42:37.500
after that we were going up and in the middle
00:42:37.500 --> 00:42:41.739
of the road there was a beautiful deer and Giammario
00:42:41.739 --> 00:42:45.199
loves animals but I was back then I was also
00:42:45.199 --> 00:42:48.840
a deer hunter. When Giammario saw the deer he
00:42:48.840 --> 00:42:51.400
saw a beautiful animal and when I saw the deer
00:42:51.400 --> 00:42:57.139
I saw mainly uh yeah goulash and uh and steaks
00:42:57.139 --> 00:43:01.340
and kind of so i i was trying to stop the car
00:43:01.340 --> 00:43:03.900
and i was shouting to him no don't stop don't
00:43:03.900 --> 00:43:06.920
stop grab the deal we have space we have room
00:43:06.920 --> 00:43:09.599
inside for the deal as well so there was a moment
00:43:09.599 --> 00:43:14.900
of uh doubt and the car was shaking left and
00:43:14.900 --> 00:43:18.840
right and the eyes the prototypes open up so
00:43:18.840 --> 00:43:22.179
in a matter of a few seconds we were covered
00:43:22.179 --> 00:43:25.400
with thousands of bees and we were forced to
00:43:25.400 --> 00:43:28.400
stop the car ran out in the middle of the road
00:43:28.400 --> 00:43:32.019
in the mountains and shouting to each other how
00:43:32.019 --> 00:43:37.460
full we were. And at the end, we spent the following
00:43:37.460 --> 00:43:40.380
two hours trying to recover the bees inside the
00:43:40.380 --> 00:43:43.559
car, close the prototype and go on to the mountain
00:43:43.559 --> 00:43:47.519
apiary. And when we arrived at home, I was swallowing
00:43:47.519 --> 00:43:52.309
like, wow, it was the craziest night. as he might
00:43:52.309 --> 00:43:56.130
be keeping experience, and we still laugh about
00:43:56.130 --> 00:43:59.210
that and remember about that. And that was when
00:43:59.210 --> 00:44:02.570
we decided that we needed a nylon strap to tie
00:44:02.570 --> 00:44:06.429
everything down and not have these things happening
00:44:06.429 --> 00:44:10.829
again. That was really crazy. That is an awesome
00:44:10.829 --> 00:44:13.650
story. I wish we had video of that. I'm just
00:44:13.650 --> 00:44:18.650
picturing it in my mind. open hives in the car.
00:44:19.230 --> 00:44:20.989
You know that reminds me of something I'm going
00:44:20.989 --> 00:44:23.789
to tell this little story real quick. The first
00:44:23.789 --> 00:44:26.710
time that I ever caught a swarm and it was a
00:44:26.710 --> 00:44:29.389
really big one. It's one of the biggest swarms
00:44:29.389 --> 00:44:33.210
I have ever seen. And I had been told you can
00:44:33.210 --> 00:44:36.250
just take a cardboard box, shake it from the
00:44:36.250 --> 00:44:40.179
tree into the box. Well Let's just say it was
00:44:40.179 --> 00:44:43.139
a big swarm and it took a couple of boxes and
00:44:43.139 --> 00:44:46.500
I did that. And then I put some tape on the boxes,
00:44:46.539 --> 00:44:49.800
but I didn't want to make it, you know, airtight.
00:44:50.380 --> 00:44:52.340
Not that you can really get cardboard airtight,
00:44:52.820 --> 00:44:54.880
but there were a little teeny gap so that there
00:44:54.880 --> 00:44:57.300
was air flow going in and out. And I was driving
00:44:57.300 --> 00:45:00.199
my wife's car. That's a little Toyota hatchback.
00:45:00.340 --> 00:45:03.480
And I have these boxes of bees in the back seat.
00:45:03.960 --> 00:45:06.659
And as I'm driving along, they start getting
00:45:06.659 --> 00:45:10.159
out. and one gets out and then two and then three
00:45:10.159 --> 00:45:13.980
and then thirty and forty and thank goodness
00:45:13.980 --> 00:45:17.539
they weren't coming after me they wanted to get
00:45:17.539 --> 00:45:20.639
out so they were against the windows and by the
00:45:20.639 --> 00:45:23.460
time i got home i couldn't even see out of the
00:45:23.460 --> 00:45:26.199
back window or the back side windows because
00:45:26.199 --> 00:45:29.500
they were completely blabbered with colon by
00:45:29.500 --> 00:45:33.079
bees And, uh, you know, we learned these lessons
00:45:33.079 --> 00:45:37.380
the hard way and it ended up being fun and a
00:45:37.380 --> 00:45:40.739
fun story. Yeah. But honestly, uh, now it's,
00:45:40.739 --> 00:45:44.420
uh, it's a startup companies with Israeli startup.
00:45:44.519 --> 00:45:47.360
Uh, we have the team in the U S, uh, all amazing
00:45:47.360 --> 00:45:50.559
people. They are doing a great job, but, uh,
00:45:50.559 --> 00:45:53.539
at the bottom, the bottom is when we started
00:45:53.539 --> 00:45:56.320
working with the bees, uh, there was nothing
00:45:56.320 --> 00:45:59.489
like working with the bees. in our previous experience.
00:45:59.710 --> 00:46:02.650
And it's really something that you became addicted
00:46:02.650 --> 00:46:07.610
to. And even the way we look around on every
00:46:07.610 --> 00:46:11.510
season changed. We didn't notice flowers before
00:46:11.510 --> 00:46:14.650
working with bees. We didn't notice the different
00:46:14.650 --> 00:46:17.730
blossom of big trees before keeping bees. We
00:46:17.730 --> 00:46:21.869
didn't look at the nature around us in the same
00:46:21.869 --> 00:46:25.230
way that we look at now. It's amazing. It's just
00:46:25.230 --> 00:46:28.210
amazing. That's so true, and one of the beauties
00:46:28.210 --> 00:46:31.090
of beekeeping. All right, I need to let you go.
00:46:31.570 --> 00:46:33.969
Alex Gamberoni, thank you so much for being with
00:46:33.969 --> 00:46:38.170
me. Best of luck to Primal B. And by the way,
00:46:38.170 --> 00:46:40.250
we'll stick a link in the show notes if anybody
00:46:40.250 --> 00:46:42.889
wants to look it up and have a look at exactly
00:46:42.889 --> 00:46:45.289
what this thing looks like and how it works.
00:46:45.590 --> 00:46:48.250
And I'll see you at Appimondia. Yeah, yeah. Thank
00:46:48.250 --> 00:46:51.730
you very much, Eric, to host me in this wonderful
00:46:51.730 --> 00:46:54.690
conversation. And really, I'm looking forward
00:46:54.690 --> 00:46:57.610
to meet you in person in Appimondia. I will have
00:46:57.610 --> 00:47:01.010
those samples of the sweet chestnut for you to
00:47:01.010 --> 00:47:04.750
taste and bring back home. And yeah. We should
00:47:04.750 --> 00:47:09.510
also plan me to visit you in in Huta. Yeah, perfect.
00:47:09.730 --> 00:47:12.289
You come out here and do some skiing or in the
00:47:12.289 --> 00:47:14.750
summer and see the bees, either way. Yeah, yeah,
00:47:14.750 --> 00:47:20.429
I will. Thanks for joining us on Be Love Beekeeping
00:47:20.429 --> 00:47:23.769
presented by Man Lake. If you like this content,
00:47:23.829 --> 00:47:26.210
I hope you'll share it with a friend. Follow
00:47:26.210 --> 00:47:29.710
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00:47:29.710 --> 00:47:32.010
for our newsletter at Be Love Beekeeping dot
00:47:32.010 --> 00:47:34.800
com. Also, just a shout out to Vita B Health
00:47:34.800 --> 00:47:37.760
for their support, we appreciate them. Vita's
00:47:37.760 --> 00:47:40.719
Varroa Control range of products includes Apistan,
00:47:40.980 --> 00:47:45.099
Apigard, and now Varroxan, Extended Release Oxalic
00:47:45.099 --> 00:47:48.900
Acid Strips. Thanks guys, and remember, if you're
00:47:48.900 --> 00:47:51.579
not just in it for the honey or the money, you're
00:47:51.579 --> 00:47:53.940
in it for the love. See you next week.