50 Years of the Sustainable Apiary - Mike Palmer - What changed?

everything okay Mike thanks for having me here it's  a pleasure honors good to see you too   so first of all I wanted to congratulate you.  50 years right? 50 years 50 years doing beekeeping Monday so congratulations how'd that  feel? It felt great but it was you know now I   can write my uh CC Miller book 50 years among  the bees yeah yeah but um it just um it struck   me how things have changed in the last 50 years.  Tell me about it. That is the biggest thing to me   um well 50 years ago the biggest threat  was American foul and everybody's treat   with terramycin so there was really very very uh  little foul brood um as long as you burnt what you   found you know and you didn't use used equipment  out of the barns well pretty much all that used   equipments that come out of the Barns and been  burned up and whatever so our our incidents of   American faulbrood is very low you know I haven't  seen any in years I don't use antibiotics and it   always gets traced back to used equipment coming  out of a barn somewhere and so they that's pretty   well cleaned up and that's that's a good thing you  know we don't have to use antibiotics constantly   uh what else has changed so well first trachea  mites came in acarine came in yep and started   wiping bees I mean even up to 50 percent  uh you know in the springtime I mean you   go down the roads and there'd be so many dead  bees on the ground outside the row you know   Outside The Hive and no bees in the hive  and full of honey and that's what that was   um and then just a couple years later Varroa  showed up yeah and that that was that was even   worse well at first it was easy oh just put in  Apistan and you know it'll kill all the mites   and and but the crazy thing is back then you'd  find uh you'd find a bottom board with measurable   amounts of mites I mean almost depth of mites on  and no deformed wing you wouldn't see anything   and so they could have a lot of mice in hive and  uh and you kill them with Apistan but they   really didn't affect the hive much well now you  don't need many mites in the high before they're   they're killing the hive you know and we just went  through a thing with a with a lot of hives that   were were uh tested uh for varroa load and uh and  we didn't treat anything that was below treatment   threshold because we're told you know don't  worry about it oh come on most of them are dead   what's going on uh Zach lamas's talk about  uh one might doesn't come out of a cell and   hang out on a B for five days she goes  from Bee to Bee to Bee to Bee to Bee biting each   one infecting each one so it doesn't take  very many mites anymore to infect the colony   so yeah I don't know it's it's just getting  worse all the time there is always something   new and we need to keep evolving our Management  systems and but one one change that I just heard   you know we're right here with your yard and  you're right there in a there is a field corn   I remember in the past you were not a  too too much into the pesticide thing   do you change your mind something have changed?  something has changed you know it used to be   well I know where the pesticide kill looks like  yeah there's dead bees everywhere yeah there's   positive dead bees on the ground they're on the  covers they're on the road they're everywhere   I never saw that with with corn neonic Clothianidin  or or soybean uh imidacloprid I never saw that   and then they say well maybe it's a low uh a  sub-lethal effect all right well I asked   people to show me where sub-lethal effect is  and nobody could show me a sub-lethal effect   you know I wouldn't know what a sub-lethal  effect if it bit me on the ass I wouldn't know   what a sub-lethal effect is so but we're having  a hard time keeping our bees alive and so then we   started doing that the state of Vermont actually  told me the guy ran running the brief the boss   of the bee program said they sampled pollen in  beehives and they found no clothianidin okay what   am I supposed to believe? so I believe  him yep you know and uh but now we're starting to   sample pollen trapped pollen not pollen in the  beehives trapped pollen and we've got a program   now going there's there's at least 20 beekeepers  out there with pollen traps and and they're widely   scattered across the county so I'm in uh row crop  agriculture so I'm away from row crop Agriculture   and we're going to find out just what's where you  know so anyway the Vermont Bee lab did some uh some   samples of uh Pollen and uh trapped pollen in an  apiary that's just surrounded by row crop and uh   and the amount of pollen the the pesticides that's  in that in that pollen I mean just just three   of the of the big ones uh clothianidin the corn  on neonicotinoid 5.31 parts per billion now I   understand from the lab that parts per trillion  will will affect or have an effect on insects   parts per trillion well what's five what's five  parts per billion isn't that five thousand parts   per trillion that's much more that's much much  more okay what about uh uh atrazine atrazine is   an herbicide that they used to use and I thought  they banned it because you know it was it was   affecting uh it was getting in milk and it was  affecting the the abortion rate of the cattle   and so what they did is they put it on the  restricted list all that means is that you   have to be a lot have a license to be  able to apply it still applying it yep 108 parts per billion of atrazine in the pollen  and then what about others other um herbicides   that are being used um because you know Roundup  or maybe something is losing their effect of it it   may need a more effective herbicide that you're  they're using metallic lore I don't even know   what Metallica is you I don't know what that is I  think it's it's an herbicide 189 parts per billion   in the pollen that I'm collecting in that  apiary but they tell us that the state of   Vermont said there's nothing of significance  in the pollen just last summer they said this   so this is what we're up against we're up against  the farmers being able to use anything they want   with no regard for us you know I couldn't  do something that killed their that that   sub-lethally affected their crop yeah but they  can and they're supported by the state so you   know this is why I've changed because obviously  oh it is there in high amounts now that all that   yard where they sampled the pollen uh last summer  last early summer had um 37 hives uh in the fall   they had 25 hives this spring there's four hives  left right in the middle of row crop agriculture what's going on that's the stories I was hearding  about and what brought me here I want to hear   more about those stories but I had to see I  know of course I and I completely understand   so it's just getting more difficult all the time  now I've been called through that there's studies   that show that um that neonicotinoids are actually  some either making the viruses more virulent or   the varroa more virulent all those interactions  that with new pathogens new chemicals things that   we don't know exist those things are very reactive  atrazine is I mean we just uh David Peck from   from better be yep he just told us that  there was a uh that there's an effect of   um atrazine on uh on beehives making a viruses  more virulent so and they're just there's 109   Parks per billion of atrazine in the pollen  being fed to my young bees yeah I yeah I have   problems with pesticides exactly because of  that we can't predict is designed to kill and   it will kill it's just a matter of time to to  find the right conditions right yeah so anyway   we're running a more samples this year as I said  20 beekeepers and we're going to find out just   what's where yeah that's cool that's good I want  to hear more about that that was that was good we   um I went to a bee meeting you know our local a  county Bee meeting and uh and I started to rant   about the pollen the pollen and what's in the pollen  and uh and it'd be really great if y'all could uh   drop pollen we'll find out maybe what's in  the county and then everybody's going yeah   yeah let's do that and then Samantha at the  Bee lab said yeah well I can take the samples   and then uh but we need pollen traps okay and  so then I called my old friend uh Ben Carpenter   over at the Sundance pollen traps thank you Ben and  he sold us pollen traps for 45 a piece here we go   Nicholas I don't know how 95 100 I don't know how  much they cost a lot significantly more so now we   got 20 people out there with the pollen trap and  they're gonna at specific times of the year yeah   that's planting corn tasseling whatever they're  going to sample close the Trap sample the pollen   we'll get what's going on at that time of year  got the job done I'm glad to hear that yeah all   right Mike show me around here what we don't have  here so this is uh this is my cell building York   okay my office is your office okay all these  hides over here are so future cell builders   uh we had a big loss again this year oh my  gosh it's this year was the worst so I brought   in strong highs from other yards so I'd have  strong highs to work with and um what are you   supposed to be doing today but you know today  to set up um to set up cell Builders Okay so   I run on the brother Adam plan of uh of his  cell building I like his method and so ten   days before a graft um you pick a strong  colony you know eight ten frames of brood   um make sure the uh it's Queen right with a  good Queen doesn't have any Queen cells in it   and above an excluder you add  a box of emerging brood so   in a box it would be the two outside combs would  be honey and then seven frames of emerging Brood   it's important emerging brood, because you're  trying to grow nurse bees sure you know and   purple eye bees aren't going to be nurse bees  for a couple weeks yeah weeks but this way when   they're coming out and we're waiting 10 days until  we graph from the time we set up the cell Builder   until the time the day we graft is 10 days  so a lot of that is hatched I've emerged and   they're like they're they're right on it they're  right on that that critical that 10 day 12 Day   um and so they're so you're growing nurse bess  and we can do this a number of times so it's just   not one round and one and done you know we I  can do another round of this every 20 days to   the same Hive so by the time you do two or three  rounds oh my gosh there's so many nurse bees in   those hives if so so that would be set up um you  can see over here we've got one set up already so we put a partially full super with no  brood or queen or anything on top of the   queen of scooter and then we put the setup up  here and then on a grafting day we'll take it off   Turn The Hive around and put it on  the ground facing the other way put   a new bottom board down put the super  on it you know we're and we're checking   for Queen cells all the time you know  sometimes the queen will get up there   or there were some eggs you didn't see 10  days ago yeah if you leave them in there and then this is the box with the two frames  of honey in the seven frames of emerging   and so so on grafting day that'll be rearranged  and the graft and the uh and this becomes the cell   Builder yeah got it okay now The Brood that goes  in here it comes from these over here now these   are called I call it brood factories you did it uh  uh presentation on brood factories yes we did so those are   The Brood factories so the Bottom boxe well the  very bottom box is nothing but an empty box it's   a high stand way down there on the ground nope  but then you can see the the white boxes says   p122 that's the queen that's in there and um and  so that's the first box that's a divided double   yeah divided uh uh ten frames 10 frame bucks so  you have two sides two sides the one on the right   has the entrance uh right there yep the one on  the left has an entrance around the back side   so if you face it it's always on the right the  correct side the right side the right side Okay so   these get up to I try to Winter them in three  um some of my if they're light down below and   they had a super honey on top leave it you know  I it's not worth taking it off and then feeding   so this one probably wintered in for in four High  so there's four combs in each box you can see that   they're they've done very well I mean look at the  the residue from the pollen on their feet you know   so that's probably a pretty good one and so we'll  start at the beginning when we have to make up a   cell Builder and we're pulling frames of emerging  it depends on how strong the the colony is how   may we pull out if it just an average colony and  they can just give us one of emerging that's fine   if they're getting stronger we might want to  take two if you start to see cups with eggs   Queen cups with eggs or maybe a little jelly uh  oh you better take more more and so really knock   them back and and when we take so if we were to  take two friends that are emerging out of here   we'd make a space right here for two frames and we  put the empty comb from Storage back right there   now this device this is the divider it goes  right down through right yep that's the divider   but these are these form a dividers they meet  over that divider and so they can't cross they   can't cross okay these two columns and these  two combs are right down through here that's   the center of their broodnest okay it's not  here yeah is it close it's here the Border   because they're together they make they make  a cluster yeah so we put those Combs back in   here and that right away props the queen to lay  in there because that's the center of a her   broodnest if you put them up here what are they  going to do if there's a flow they're going to   put nectar in it no we want brood we want to  encourage her that wow we've got all this room   it is we had one the other day up front that had  a huge beard on it and we haven't even taken out   we haven't taken brood out of all these  yet just one day today was supposed to be   the second day it's too cold yeah 40 degrees  in Vermont Vermont style don't you love it   so we took four out of that one because it had  Queen cells and it had a beard and they were   going to be gone next time we come around so so  those are The Brood factories so we start at the   beginning and we worked down the row and then you  get to where you left off we left off over here   somewhere and if we haven't done them yet the  bricks are all like that okay and once we get   it done put the brick down that one's done move  to the next one until you have enough for the day and start where we stopped and go  around until we have enough for that day   and stop and that's the way you don't need to  that's the way we that's right to buy Queens well   that's why I yeah that's why I don't have to use  production hives to stock my cell Builders yeah   you know so if you start doing that with with  production highs and they become your nurse   bee donors yes you can you can dump them back in  front of the hive they came from in a few in a few   days okay but um I still think that affects your  production hives so I like this these are just   they're dedicated brood factories they're  not meant to make honey they're meant to   make brood brood fast as they can and in this  this vertical configuration there's something   about it that and I guess it's because of heat  rising yeah the heat rising just like 10 frame   production Hive if you're using that to expand the  broodnest remember they have to expand horizontally   in order to expand horizontally they have to  have two things they got to have more population   and they have to have time to clean and polish  and warm those Combs they don't need they don't   need to expand their the heat rises they come  right up there and they just crank out frames   of brood so fast it's hard to keep up with  that which is the point that's the point yeah very good Mike and then so  then down here are the breeder hives   and these are the ones that  we're going to graft from so you see their single story yes um there's  a queen in here and her nuke uh this one is uh   this is one of the Bria program Queens so she came  from uh nuke number 95 which is in the program   her uh her breeder her mother was was Pete three  and she was raised in 22. and when we transferred   them from their their wintering nuke configuration  into a ten frame they had eight frames of brood   already on uh on 515 which you know God if you're  in New Jersey or Washington or I mean Virginia or   that's nothing yet but look at yeah what we got  to work with yep so so this is the breeder hive   so you'll have a uh you have an excluded  uh an excluded part there's the excluder   it's a hard it's a vertical excluder that's  rabbited into the front and the back wall   it goes all the way to the bottom board the  bag sits on it and the cover the lid sits on   and pushes it down so the the queen can't  cross over got it and there's a cleat in   front of the entrance over here so she can't  leave you can't leave and she can't go around   she can't go under so she's stuck there  this is the rest of her nuke so when I   put them in here you know I uh I uh I set  up a nice little nuke here with maybe four   or five frames of brood so it's brewed all  the way out here I just did this on Monday   um and so we keep her on this side I keep her on  this side of the of the excluder and then by by   rotating Combs out and in a breeder grafting comb  in if I can really control the age of the larvae   that are in my grafting comb now I know there's  other ways there's the uh the cage one comb cage   and the prune goes in the cage with the one comb  for one day and you take it out and put another   one in seems like an awful lot of manipulation  to me a lot of work and if you miss once anyway   so I do this every four days uh and it's and it  figures out that I do it five days before grafting   well I thought you could do it on day four  and put a column in the ground for grafting   four days before and there'd be a young larvae  because because they emerge on day three   doesn't work that way because the the bees  have to warm the comb polish the comb get it   ready for the queen to lay in so she so  you put it in five days before grafting   now in the center might be some that are a  little old but all around here are beautiful   from eggs to Young larvae puddles of jelly  and that's so what the the um the rotation is   I want that to come out dip Dad it's  so cold out here yeah the rotation is um so five days before our grafting   I'll pull this comb out this is their feed comb we  have to maintain a feed comb in there all the time   you pull this one out it's usually just nectar and  pollen because the brood is already hatched out of   it emerged from it and then you move these these  uh four remaining Combs over against the feed   comb creating space here four okay got it this  this is the oldest oldest brood in her section   and so you take it off make sure she's not there  and you want to do this before it starts to emerge   because if you have emerging brood anywhere  in here she's going to lay there before she   lays on your feet home because she loves  emerging brood that's where she goes   so you take that out and you put it in this space  no no Queen then you move these two over and then   you put your empty comb your grafting comb here  now this is the one I put in there four days ago   so tomorrow is grafting day this is the comb I  pull and a graph from it and then he put it back   in again and then again three days later  or whatever it is I'll repeat the process   so I've always got a comb here that they're  cleaning and warming and polishing and getting   ready for her so when on drafting day that this  is where my graphic graft is going to come from   and I know every and every once in a while  there's a delay timing is everything that's   right and and so they didn't jump on it as  fast as I wish they had and I get only eggs   I can't craft eggs but that's why I have six here  and I only have four cell Builders every four days   so out of the six I'll get at least four four you  know I always have material to work yeah right   yeah it's like you know we only need 12  supers today well why don't you bring 14.   yeah bring extra figure on extra  yeah so those are the breeder hives very nice mark thank you thank  you very much for the lessons yeah   yeah so what else is going on in Vermont  beekeepings boy right now that's about it   yeah oh it's too cool time for anything else  though yeah gardening trying to get my garden in   okay I think uh Saturday will be a partial Garden  Day somebody wants to come from Virginia and   have a visit and you know that kind of  stuff yeah it's all right I don't mind that that's a nice place I like this Apiary yeah I do too   yeah just we could we could do  something about that corn over there but what's that not always there that's been there for  years and years and years same field same stuff   and the corn gets shorter every year that's just  what they're putting in there now yeah well they   just keep using it for corn they don't ever put  anything under no rotation you know over here was   always Alfalfa and hay uh hay crop and a few years  ago they decided to uh plow it up and plant corn   and because they play outside because there's so  much humus in the soil and all that is so good   the corn was that high and you come over here  where it's corn every year every year for 20   years and the corn is this high I see it plain as  dead I'm not a I'm not a corn farmer I'm not I was   brought up by in on Long Island you know I mean I  I but I know what crop rotation is yeah we learned   that in school you know I mean middle school or  elementary school right so it's just I don't know   it's so discouraging right now birdhouse yeah well  I think once we have our uh our survey done and   all these different people from across the county  are gathering uh pollen trapping pollen   I think we're going to see something uh real  amazing yeah whether it's going to do us any good   you stay at the first but eventually maybe  agriculture in Vermont is dairy and Maple   period nothing else seems to matter oh  now they're growing cannabis seems like   they're giving more help to the Cannabis  Growers than they are to any beekeepers   you know Dairy Farmers are getting tens  of millions of dollars all the time   the organic Dairy Farmers just got four million  dollars to help them with their businesses   okay you know the the maple producers they get  all this money to help them with their with their   business with their marketing with their what do  we guess yeah does the organic help at all with   the Bee side of things I don't know I mean they're a  few and far between so I mean there's always some   field in nearby the bees yeah that's true so yeah  I'm I don't know it's really getting discouraging   at 74 I've been doing it 50 years and I could I  could see it just stopping I could I could see   it I don't want to stop I I love it too much you  know we're running this breeding program I want   to finish the breeding program but I'm gonna  lose 50 or 60 percent of my bees every year   and have to restock it all the time every year  yeah breaks your heart rate I'm trying I'm trying   well thanks for your effort yeah trying to keep  motivated yeah your inspiration for many people   yeah I know and and I really you know I really  appreciate that I go to a bee meeting for instance   EAS in Ithaca you know I can't walk from this  side of the room to that side of the room without   four people stopping me and saying wow I just  can't believe your video it's helping so much   that's my reward right there yeah and you  know as I said in my town I don't want money   I wanna I wanna when I leave I want our industry  our our community to be better than I found it and   I think it has been I think I've done something  at least oh yeah change that so so many places   I've visited North in U.S but in South America in  in the Middle East and everybody knows you I know   that that's cool right that really blew me away  I just work every day yeah I don't pay attention   yeah and then people said you better start paying  attention and I just went whoa El methadone I mean come on the method really the method yeah  this that's so cool that's cool so I'm hoping uh   Chile on this year I'm gonna try one more time to  see if I can can't give a talk I think it would be   really good for the uh for the beekeepers that  all know me yeah and give me a let them let me   give them a talk about vertical yeah you know and  they want to hear I I receive a lot of requests   from my channel from South America followers with  me when you're gonna visit Mike when are you gonna   visit tomorrow yeah I believe it don't forget to  put the subtitles in Spanish yeah okay I'll do it

Channel: Inside The Hive TV

Views: 18,211

Keywords: Insidethehive.tv, honey bee channel, Apis mellifera, Science, Varroa mites, honey bees, bees

Id: 0Qb5Poy_MJA

Length: 29min 58sec (1798 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 29 2023