North American Honey Bee Expo 2024

yeah wow shut you can go you should ignore me okay  thank you I like your hat I bet Randy likes it too hook them up did you hook them up  yeah you know what that's for yeah scra   the I three of them it's for keeping Todd  man how's it going bad so what do you do   with it you can measure spaghetti you can  scrape your bees out you can smack people   yeah so what else how how strong is that  plastic very strong watch this let me show   you something will you hold my phone for  me demon okay watch this it is wow that's   cool that's not normal plastic no that's like  like to be it's above average thank you thank you I just want from car we watch you every day  I ha thank you so much thank you oh thank you I   hope it's a good experience thank you well I'm so  glad and you just made my review vide so there you   go I I enjoy your photography video thank you  I appreciate all of that as a very very very new sorry did I catch you are you angry sorry I'm the  Cornerstone of this pile of boxes I mean there's   there's these other people I don't know who they  are yeah who's this guy right here Cayman again I   don't know who he is or why his name would be on  anything do you know Mr red we're here at what's   the name of B bomb honey and I was pulled over  here because you said you have the best creamed   honey in the world let's see what it is let's talk  about it I see that Mrs done is here she's trying   and she's about to taste some oh my gosh is that  the best creamed honey in the world do you say yes   she says yes talk about it what makes it the best  um so we've been making cream honey for about 5   years so a lot of people just make cream honey  without studying the science behind the cream   honey and understanding how the sugars work when  the honey crystallizes um so we've done a very   good job of making our seed extremely smooth um  we don't use a honey creamer it's all done in 5   gallon buckets in either 30 lb or 60 lb um batches  so we process about um around 600 lb of so let's   pack this up a second for people that don't even  know what creamed honey is so we know what honey   is we know what comb honey is but now creamed  honey requires different proc processing or how   do you get it to that state so we have what's  called a seed batch okay and um that seed batch   started 5 years ago and what we did was we ground  that already crystallized honey with a mortar and   a pestl okay and we got it extremely smooth and  then when I thought it was smooth enough I went   back and I ground it some more and um can't think  of the gentleman's name from France right now that   talks about the dice method no not France he's  from England I'm sorry okay um but that was like   one of the first people that I kind of followed on  that stuff but we use the dice method to make so   and so now is cream Dy a big part of your business  it is the major let's go over infused honey okay   so I see a lot of stuff here at your booth yep  so my wife makes lip balms and lotion bars from   our uh beeswax cies okay and this is the cream h$1  this theam honey over here we have 15 flavors here   and Ashley is over there selling everything you  have she is y and then you're giving out samples   do people buy this online as well yes so let's  look at that really quick strawberry and it's   also got the scan code wik and then people are  sampling it so you're out of Nebraska Nebraska   Nebraska now how does the honey have to differ  if at all is there a better source for creamed   honey is there a better Floral Source does it  matter overall well the Honeys that crystallize   quicker obviously make a better so that include  like Golden Rod and asers and stuff like that   okay um we use a lot of clover because of where  we're at okay um of course um you want to start   with honey that H it's free of impurities so like  if you have have a lot of pollen or chunks of wax   in it those are going to be sources where you  can get larger crystallization at okay so if   you're competing with your cream honey then that  leads yeah that leads me to my next question are   you competing no we're not you did not submit okay  um so we have that going on here at the conference   um I need to talk to the gentleman that's running  that because I so a lot of the way we do our stuff   is kind of stuff we perfected ourselves okay and  I didn't know if I was going to have to like give   away my trade secret okay I see what you're saying  once I know more proprietary mix with your cream   Tony we feel we do we have a certain way we do  things that we don't openly discuss with others   you have social media you have a Facebook page  we do have a Facebook page okay so if people want   to check in on that and your number one selling  thing that you make is your creamed honey it is   yeah it is okay all right our hot honey and  our garlic Ginger and F are very popular as well I know that oh now she got to get two of them you all had that nice mating  gr up set up for you last night   yeah nothing like a midnight meet GRE at  the hotel I tell you what somebody was   practicing lightting smoker is what  they told me but it wasn't a beast smoke if anyone's from out in the west  coast please don't take offense but it's   funny cuz it's kind of true every time  I go out there to speak there's a lot   of that those non walking skunk  smells you know talking about we know you sorry no that was perfect located by  the escalators over over in the lobby um   one thing Fred wanted me to mention um  while while I'm still running through   these announcements is the screen  is going to be very important uh to   his presentation so if you're not in a  great place like a like normally I'm a   backro Baptist myself so you all might  want to move up because there's a lot of all right so I'm really glad to meet you  Nick and you're the owner of motherload yes   and so I actually use these probably not in the  way that you intend them to be used okay I heard   I use these frame feeders as space holders ah  okay you want to talk to us a little bit about   uh what you make and what you sell and I want to  know also what is most in demand from your company   here at the Expo this year yes uh so motherload  products we've been making in-hive frame feeders   or division board feeders since 1980 and we still  have some from the 80s in the field uh this is the   traditional one gon division board feeder we make  this with a cap and ladder for it and we make it   in a couple different sizes one gallon uh we've  always had a two gallon right here we had a two   gallon we have a medium feeder for medium hives  and then we just came out with a gallon and a half   okay so a gallon and a half a lot of the koser  guys use it for 10 frame boxes fits real good with   eight frames and then this year we just started a  new C and Ladder style so our new style has drop   in tubes and it a cover snaps onto the feeder and  the benefit of this is you got a cover that goes   all the way to the edge and water doesn't leak  into the frame feeder and then the ladders you   can actually Rock them and pull these ladders out  if they ever propol lie or if they ever oh yeah   gum up now that's a good question let me catch you  off real quick yeah let's say you propy that how   do we clean it up you can throw it in hot water  and propis will melt away how hot does water have   to be uh around 100 120° 120 okay around there  now if you left a thin coating of propolis after   you did that would it actually give the bees  better footing on it at all or would yeah would   and rough it up the inside here to give the bees  a better grip not just the holes but a little bit   of a grip on the inside too now why did you make  this change from these end you call those ladders   yeah these are ladders these are cap ladders and  you your new product is the inserts why the change   uh half our customers buy cap and ladders and the  other half they leave the tops open and they throw   some Twigs or floats inside and both methods work  but you do get drowning in both methods and so   some uh some commercial customers wanted an insert  where they could slow down the flow of bees coming   in and they could more easily clean or replace the  ladder next question you have the ability you have   two inserts here if you wanted to slow down the  consumption can you do you sell plugs we are we're   making a plug for for this hole okay and we'll be  able to sell plugs so you can have just one one   slot for people okay and who's your do you have  how many sellers are carrying your products in the   United States we've got about 800 customers  800 sellers uh 800 customers customers 50%   commercial about 50% retail resellers Miller be  Supply better be okay uh there's there's quite a   few chanoa be Supply in Virginia uh Florida we've  got the handful I they we've been doing this since   the 80s making the same so since the 80s can you  talk to me about the composition of your plasic   a lot of people will ask about food grade yep it's  food food grade okay uh 100% recycled so it's kind   of good for the environment we take recycled  product only food grade stuff and we reform it   into inh high feeders but we do anything plastic  for beekeeping so we make a plastic propolis trap   okay so you can collect propolis with your with  your bees you throw this on top the bees will gum   it up and then you freeze it and crack off the  propolis we make a queen excluder here in the   states okay and so everything we do is made in USA  uh we've been making plastic High bodies for about   20 years this is an example of your yeah this is  a high body they snap together they come shipped   like this this is a 10 frame high body okay and  these snap together in about 30 seconds and they   standard Lang sto frames yep 10 frame Lang STW  eight frame we've got let's talk about all the   way on the end here what's going on is this a  queen starter or a queen castle Queen Castle   okay mini M notok um so mini frames we make uh we  make a feeder for it and a lot of the California   Hawaiian Queen Growers this is the style they  run um they run okay U singles on top of their   NN boxes okay do you have plans to make these out  of your plastic we do but this is just a regular   10 frame L stop medium and I've got the plans for  the internals the dividers the the tooling and the   startup costs are pretty expensive and the market  for this is a little bit small right so uh but   I've never seen these before yeah we're the only  ones that that make those I think in the world um   you can get them in Wood you can get a wood kit  and you got a you can put a plastic Foundation   inside I'm going ask you a question yeah okay now  the way the imprint is on the bottom we've got the   V at the bottom uhhuh we go around and we see some  of the foundations have the flat across the bottom   do you ever see the bees correct that now they're  they're natural you'd find most natural comb with   this configuration but if you turn it would the  bees correct that as they draw it out or do they   just follow what's there they they start off  this way and they do correct it when they they   draw it out okay um so we haven't had too much  the bees haven't complained too much about it   and do you offer that with a wax primer on it we  do yep we can we put heavy wax we heavy wax all   of our frames and foundation so it's um we've  got we can also unwax it sell it unwaxed fresh   plastic if you prefer to apply the wax yourself  right when you're going to drop it in but to   save time yeah we ship them wax okay hey I want to  thank you Nick I appreciate the time appreciate it yep okay so we're here with please pronounce  your name Melanie Melanie okay and what's   your position with this company I'm a product  manager I manage the supply chain and uh and   on the supply chain okay and so what we're  talking about about is a bee smoker that's   not a bee smoker no it's a smoker or let smoke  just Vapor to turn on is easy to press fre time yeah and now you are vapor oh that's now this is intended  to replace the combustion   of materials in a normal smoke  right so what about the heat any heat it um for the the bees it's the same  reaction like the smoke okay so it comes a   be it comes in the in the into the eyes eat and  uh have the same reaction and uh easy to to use   to turn on turn off you can stay and if you  you stay like this in 20 minute so while it's   upside down it automatically turns off yeah  okay and if you want to turn off you can stay   second close oh keep it closed okay is there  a clamp for example that would go on that to   hold it or you have to hold it shut because  we have a magnet oh a magnet okay a magnet   and when you you uh you press three times it  detect the the action and the turn on and in   this position when stay close detect the maget  and 3 second after turn off okay so who is this   intended for like commercial operations or  backyard beekeepers who is your market for   for this verion is obes and the little smaller  beeping okay and now this has to be filled what   what are the fillers what do you use what's the  liquid yeah you refill the tank with Native it's   proprial and glycol and two molecule present  in the flowers for which by bees lavander and W okay oh it's made in the United  States and Britain yeah we have a   a company in New York in New York  okay and then this gets is that   one of the capsules that it fills  how does this yeah you we F the tank you have a coil into the Silicon to close  the tank okay the coold transform the liquid   in in vapable okay at what temperature do  you know roughly 50 50° 50 de C transform   yes okay and um when the the vapor go  out is as the same of the temperature   ambient temperature ambient temperature  yes okay now how long would one fill last like so once you fill  this up and you start to use   when fully charged tank you can visit  40 hives 40 hives and with one bottle   you can visit 300 Ives and give me  a ballp perk what does that bottle cost these are the prices for your entire  system right yeah for dx4 it's a pack with   uh one AIS one bottle and five Co because you  change those wear out does that wear out that's   why you changed that cap yeah for one year  you use one or two Co for a year yeah okay   all right how long does it take to charge  the system brand new um 2 hours 2 hours 2   hours and it's charged and it's a regular USB  charger yes okay like a small phone okay and   are you selling a lot of these at the Expo or  are people seeing it for the first time is it   New to them or have they seen it before we we we  have a shop on the website and uh we sell IND the Expo that's good and on the website you can see  some video of Mikus use Ab Serv and uh you can   share sh experience with a okay and the the place  you can take AIS in Z practice okay for beast and   if they have um C be AIS can replace total SM  for professional is a good alternative for risk   fire it's to reduce the risk of fire right that  makes perfect sense Su of French uh sometimes uh   we have a fire B okay and some beekeepers take  aist because it's a good alternative to Smoker   during pH season now are you beekeepers yes I am  beekeeper okay so I know I've seen the questions   that are being posted on Dr Alberto's video some  people like concerns if a hive is highly defensive   that this may not be as calming as a standard  smoker have you found that to be the case yes   we have make some analyze but native formulation  is not magic uh the result the result of the test   um show native formulation is 80 50% effective  as SP okay okay it's for Cal it's not aggressive   African okay not African right I don't think  we want those anyway all right so um and these   are available to the United States how long have  you been selling here in the United States this   the first year this is the first year they're  available of the next the last year last year   okay uh in Europe we have 51 okay I am facing  okay is there anything that you want people   to know about in general about the product or I  like the idea that we're not having a source of   combustion so a lot of people start fires with  their smokers they forget they put them in the   back of their truck they drive home they see that  their equipment's on fire this doesn't have that   risk so people I know they're going to ask about  the composition of the liquid and whether or not   it's potentially harmful to bees and I think you  said it's been in use already in other parts of   the world and and so has there been analysis  of what the gas is yes so what is it um it it's   a it's a great Christian but if you're okay uh  some people ask me of formulation of native it's   a good question it's a proprietary formula right  but um no no people uh know the composition of   the smoke right well we know if it's burning and  there's combustion that the byproduct of that is   not healthy uh we make analyze of his SM okay and  analyze of SM shown uh we have 27 toxic elements   in the smoke and we're talking about when you say  that you're talking about the combustion of leaves   or grass or something like that if you yes uh the  material is safe it's okay but you but you burn   the material and you and you transform corre the  original material another material and in Native   formulation it's safe because we use prop and  gcor for make a vapor it's safe okay some people   use for VAP for example and two active molecule  get from flowers okay we use lavender lavender   Okay C bees and roast for mask alarm fomon and  to have a reaction and the be go on a okay go   on the honey okay so that's the other question I  guess too if there's honey supers on is there any   interaction with this and the honey that they  have any reason that would we know by the way   that when we use standard smokers the particulates  from that smoker does end up in honey it's one of   the most frequently found contaminants in honey so  how does this show up in the honey if at all and   have you tested honey after treatment open cells  of honey do we know we have made analyze on wax   not on wax bees wax okay yes um we don't have any  components of native formulation in whats because   it's um quick intervention and uh it's not uh  intensive utilization okay limited use okay like   but if you use some so much smoke on H the H get  a flavor on of I think it's the same thing for for   na because smoke get all in the air y okay because  it's more safe to to Expos with components uh on   small okay well I want to thank you for your time  and for giving me the presentation I appreciate   it thank you is a term that was coined coined  by Ian steppler um he's a Canadian beekeeper   I think he also has a YouTube channel and um the  actual name of the product is a biologics and apis   biologics has two products that they sell and it  is a supplement that you mix in with either your   syrup or your patties to get your supplemental  feed even closer to the profile that you would   find the nutritional profile of nectar and pollen  so the bioactivator goes into our patties so we   have our Ultra be with natural pollen and then the  bioactivator so it's just adding vitamins minerals   um just a more complete amino acid profile enzymes  just to offer something that's that much closer   to Natural pollen we're never going to get 100%  I think to having a good diverse natural pollen   feed Source but this is as close as we've we've  gotten okay and when you mentioned the pollen   you finally sourced it through a company that  would provide it from the United States is it   coming out of California do you know where yes  it's one of our California beekeepers I believe   it's Northern California so do we know the pollen  SCE the Floral Source the Floral Source I don't   know off the top of my head okay yeah so when  was rocket fuel first offered like how long   has this been available to peepers fuel we have  carried it now like in the bioactivator and the   bio control for about a year a year okay it's  been on the market for a little bit longer than   that um I would say at least 3 years it's it's  been out there okay and what's your top seller   at the conference at the conference so far it's  still that I think the regular Ultra Ultra okay   yes especially for the area that we're at the  further south dry is the preference because it's   not in the hive and small Hive beetles also like  pollen substitute so feeding the dry eliminates   luring the small hive beetle into your high okay  what time of year are you recommending beekeepers   use it's going to depend on where you're at so  basically early spring is when you're going to   want to offer it so if you're in the South your  Spring's going to come a lot earlier than where   I'm from in Minesota I'm not going to feed  it until plate April okay yeah do you ever   recommend feeding it in the fall yes you can also  feed it in the fall you're going to want to do it   earlier on in the fall so once you pull your honey  supers you start supplemental feeding again for   winter offer your pollena because it's going to  encourage food rearing and then you're going to   have young healthy bees going into winter so it  it just helps fall off your Colony for winter as   well okay terrific well thank you so much for your  time and frtr us in the product you're welcome all right so say the name of the company by the way  the easy peasy beeping equipment the easy peasy   beekeeping equipment and what's your position with  this company I'm the owner originator inventor   owner originator and inventor I guess that's it  and your Sidekick this is my buddy Mike Mike way   all right so now I couldn't help but notice and  one of the things that stopped me here first of   all I like your incubator but I also noticed you  guys are Award winners today absolutely you want   to explain that what happened yeah well um at the  honey show at last year's hi life conference there   are various categories of course one of them  is the gadget category okay and uh we won first   place for the gadget for the easy peasy Queen cage  system let's go over that what is the easy peasy   Queen cage system well like a lot of people who  raise their own Queens I prefer the Jay-Z bz cell   cup system okay that's the cups and the bars okay  but there's no roller cage type protection for   um cap cells virgin queens or anything like that  so over time I went through the same frustration   everybody else did making something try to work  with a roller cage trying to Jimmy something   together tape this wax that um make wire cages  none of that worked and then I learned how to   3D print and I said hey I can develop something  so 15 prototypes later I've got the easy peasy   self cage okay you want to go over the details  of it the features of it well once yeah let's   go over here okay no no because once they once  they once your cells are capped basically the   queen really the the the put this over developing  virgin really just needs warmth and humidity in   order to develop she no longer needs the direct  immediate attention of the workers so it's often   beneficial to cage that cell that keeps a rogue  Queen from getting in there tearing them down   that keeps the workers from tearing down a lot  of the cells and it keeps early emerging virgins   from getting at each other and we all know that  disaster so the the cages go over after capping   you can add a drop of Honey to a little trough  in the bottom of the cage they can go back in a   finisher if you have a strong finisher or they  can go into an incubator to finish and emerge   there the cups work beautifully with the cage  system they hold securely but you can get them   off when you're ready okay when you're finished  you can use the cage again for introduction with   the candy cap that matches perfectly do you mix  that candy yourself I mix my own candy what is it   uh the formula is mostly powdered sugar course  and you can use corn syrup Some people prefer   to use real honey in that mix how far in advance  can you preix that does it dry out pretty fast I   keep mine in a Ziploc bag and it works out okay  okay so you can preload a bunch of them then   yeah yeah work out fine all right then um if you  have a mated Queen you've introduced your virgin   you can use the the cage once again to catch with  this one-handed Queen cager what you you find the   queen on the mating nuke frame yeah place this  gently over her maybe a few attendant if that's   the way you like to cage and gently Corral the  queen forward and Scoot her into this cage hold   your finger over of course pop the candy cap on  and then you've got this ready for introduction   as well into a production hi or you can sell your  queen that way if okay I've got it available all   cart you can get exactly what you want I've got  a full kit for folks just learning how to start   grafting I've got a set for folks who already you  working with the jzbz system okay I I never saw   now talk to me a little bit about the incubator  let's I want to know what that climate's like   inside from temperature to humidity to what kind  of controls do you have to have uh this actually   this works really well it's a reptile incubator  it doesn't have specific humidity control but   what I found is the troughs in the bottom that  hold water and the circulating airan are really   pretty good at holding the temperature and the  humidity for these I'm I'm actually really happy   with this it's just an inexpensive reptile  incubator I also work with the H now let's   back up a little is it forested air yes it is okay  and so do you take into consideration the humidity   levels of the space that the incubator in if you  don't have humidity is what it's bringing in I   haven't had enough of a problem okay now I've  only been working with this one for one season   okay for years I've been using a a converted  Merill toolbox okay uh I bought a incit mini   and installed that into the Merill toolbox what  kind of power consumption are we talking about   for oh this is pretty minimal minimal it even has  a 12vt adapter so you can use it as a portable if   you want okay I don't sell the incubators this is  here to demonstrate how it would be used yeah so   now look can we talk a little bit about banking  Queens to the Limit that I have experienced   banking sure okay so what let's explain that to  people who've never even heard of it okay banked   Queens what are the how long would you expect  to keep a queen viable when it's banked and   what would the environment to keep a queen like  that be like sure you would use the basically   the same environment as a finisher I would if I  do it I run I run a cloak board system for rear   and queens so I would keep it Queen right and I'd  keep the queen below an excluder and I would have   a a lot of young bees available I'd have a healthy  strong colony and drop a frame with the with the   cages down into that top half and I would not  Bank virgins for very long at all only a few   days at most but mated Queens can be banked for  quite a while okay um I actually I have a buddy   who is working now on overwintering mated Queens  he's making that long y we'll see how that works   out okay great any piece of gear what's your  most popular thing that people are interested   in right now they love the easy peasy Queen cage  system peasy Queen cage system we're selling we're   selling the kits about as fast as we're selling  the sets so we got folks that are just learning   grafting they're buying the whole kit folks that  are already happy with jzbz system they're buying   the set because they've already got the basics  put together do you sell grafting kits this is the   cold kit right here it's got grafting tools it's  got a syringe for adding a your preferred grafting   tool I actually like the Chinese tool Chinese  that's popular yeah really well for me all right   well hey I want to thank you for the introduction  and explaining what you're selling the opportunity   thanks a lot okay so we're talking to Bob carrian  and this is really interesting this caught my eye   so we're looking at a mechanism for getting us  warm to voluntarily leave a tree branch right   and then move on to a used comb on what you have  here is a deep standard Lang stroth frame but the   Innovation is this clamp right that goes into your  hole right you take this clamp how long have you   had this out this is the second year second year  right what made you want to make that um I had a   swarm that was deep in some bushes yeah and they  kept moving the wrong direction so I took a um   frame with some comb on it and just pushed it in  there and they all jumped on it okay so I thought   I have some so then the next time they were up in  a tree I made a prototype and just stuck it right   into the Swarm yeah and the bees were just all  over it nice and so I've made stuff before with   injection molding and so I designed this it took  me a while with prototypes and now it'll fit any   screw top pole I use a little painters tape to  tighten it up but um it will go on a painters   pole a window washer pole um all different sizes  and this one that one will reach close to 30 ft nice it saves getting on the back of a truck  and on a ladder I'll tell you okay so have you   been selling a lot of them I have just been by  best show and you also have a website where people   could order website it's swarm reach.com and I  advertise at all the be magazines um they're $14   delivered online okay that's fantastic thank you  I want to thank you for the interview box okay so   we're looking at sirel be for life and Brit does  not want to talk but Josie does so we already know   I like your products a lot and you're located in  New Oakland New Zealand New Zealand Auckland okay   so if we're looking at a map of New Zealand where  is that you're looking in the North Island there's   a a long sliver we're kind of at the base of the  sliver at the top here at the base of the sliver   at the top now how did you end up coming here to  Louisville uh well we flew but uh we came to the   hive life conference last year my my dad and my  brother came and they were showing these products   um because cuz people like yourself love them so  we're hoping to so is that where they are now are   they at the other conference or uh no no they're  not so we I got to come this time they'll probably   come next year okay good so I like to talk about  your products we already know let's start at the   end talk to me about The Great Escape is that what  this is called that's what this is called so it's   a really efficient V Escape when you're wanting to  have honey so it's nice and deep so any bees that   are coming through will go out nice and quick they  won't get overcrowded um you can see that there   are 10 escapes that go through here and it's got  it'll clip in just like that so you get you get   the cones 25 they come with it usually 35 so you  just clip them on the bottom and then you put this   on and you'll get 99% of your bees out guaranteed  24 hours 24 hours so is there a specific time of   day you recommend people put a b escape on really  um it depends but if you can get a full day like   full sunny day you'll have because your bees are  cycling more on a sunny day you'll have a more   efficient flow of getting those bees out okay and  they come in eight or 10 frame they come eight or   10 do you have a nuke size we don't have a nuke  size this that's my number one complaint all right   I would like to know because a lot of people are  going to nucleus hives nuke hives and they're five   frames generally and if we had a nuke um size of  skateboard it would be very helpful right okay so   let's move on to your feeder boes so Hive top  feeders and this is for nuc this one is for a   n so this is a five frame nuke it's got two trays  I don't know what they are in gallons but you'll   get 2 and 1/2 l in here um and depending because  it's got the corner a you can have it if your hi   is slightly tilen forward just have your Corners  facing that way so they can get all of the syrup   if it's slightly that way just tilt them like that  and they'll be able to get all the syrup like that   okay now it's also set up for dry feeding as well  it is so you just push from the behind and the   clip will come out and then your bees will climb  up the corner and come down into the dry feed so   you just take off if you need and that's goes for  eight and out 10 frame you just take them off for   any dry feet that you want want to put in I have  a question about what kind of cover you recommend   over the top of this because when we look at the  sides there's this Gap here so what kind of cover   would be this is a hive top feater so what would  you recommend go over the top of that well we use   just a standard Hive mat because it has a rim that  will protect it um did you say Hive mat a hive mat   it's a like an inner cover okay that's what you  guys call it we don't an inner cover right yes and   what's yours made out of um ours is made out of  what's called weather TS which is a It's actually   an exterior housing platting eucalyptus wood with  um Carin waxs so it's really water resistant it's   nice and heavy and it's good for insulation okay  and does it cover all the way around the sides   the whole way it doesn't go down the sides but  it's got a rim that just sits on the edge oh I   see what we're talking about okay that makes sense  and then our Lids go on top of that and they wrap   around the edge okay so so that's eliminated it's  quite it's again different to what's in the US I   I believe it's a it's a stainless steel lid that  like that I know oh that's very interesting and   those are not available in the United States  no no because that's a question we're going to   get so I'm answering it now so viewers don't  start clicking away mhm so so what items are   currently available in the United States your  skateboard oh and bwood carry SE bwood yeah two   for 50 I'll give you two for 75 okay so this has  been around for a while great this comes in a 10   or eight 10 or eight okay high capacity now with  a dry feed would you put a fondant Patty up here   and with the bees then come up and feed on the  fonding Y so you can just take this off so it's   it's clipped in we've we've developed some new  clips on this yeah so it's more secure so you   have to pull quite hard wo that was tough yeah  so it's got these two clips on the inside they   hook on underneath so if you're doing dry feed or  you're doing fondant just take that off textured   for the bees to get their footing textured on the  inside as well nice I do have a question so with   the space that's available underneath is there  any issue with the bees creating brace comb or   propz what they expect yeah so you will get some  on this one um because of that Gap in the middle   okay but you can just get in there and scrape it  out okay and you do get some on this one because   in the chimney you've got this cavity here so you  do get it but just get your hive tool and scoop   it out it's going to be or I find leaving it is  good because it's like a lattice work that they   climb up so they're actually other than to get it  apart do you have any tricks for if you're going   to remove this and you know you've got comb  connecting it do you have any recommendations   for how best to cut away that wax what some people  yeah we've had I have had some people do that they   just get frame wire and just thread it through  like a flosser and it just cuts through did you   already know that so people that work with Clay  by the way they have the clay Cutters with the   tea handles that works really well yeah excellent  now this is this your newest Innovation we know   about the robbing screens yes so these were  out about a year before the whole floor um so   the these are what we call the Beast blocker they  are run blocker Beast blocker Beast blocker yeah   describe the Beast what is it Beast we're talking  was Hornets prob oh okay yeah that's interesting   can I just un going remove this okay now describe  the bottom board a few ways so the bottom board   was designed to fit this as well so this will  just sit at the front so that's defending your   hive at the front and what it does is it drives  all of your uh wasps and hornets into the oh this   is the one that has the trap at the bottom and  it has the Trap right here so it slides in and   out you can access from either side and it pulls  right out so that you can dump everything out   that's inside have you had good feedback uh I know  this was available last year to have people come   up and talked about their experience with it and  what were their comments generally so we I don't   think we've sold the floor in Us in the US yet but  in New Zealand we've had amazing feedback okay we   get people sending us photos of all the Wass that  they've bought they're super happy um they'll have   a robbing situation and they'll put this on it  goes away within 20 48 hours why is is there a   45° angle here uh it was just if you're trying to  so with the front it's just there so that you can   screw it down yeah yeah so in New Zealand we've  actually got it on the back as well so you can   screw all four I have that one yeah but we we had  to make it bigger because your boxes are slightly   bigger yes and it left an opening in the back  yes so you have fix that thank you I was about   to almost criticize it but now that it's been  fixed I'm I'm Happy Well it fits perfect now so   what's your number one seller at the uh conference  I would say the top theer and then a lot of people   are really asking about the escape and also our  BRS have you seen our brf yeah the frames because   they've got these cells in the periphery which uh  the bees use yeah now are these also for sale in   the US now they are are they heavy waxed uh you  can get them waxed I believe need to see Pi Co   they do all the waxing oh is pi Co selling these  they do yes I didn't realize that interesting and   these are also made in New Zealand though they  are yes so we have our own molding in Oakland   New Zealand um and there's the most durable frame  that you'll probably buy yeah they're very good   I I use them too oh Fant now what about why have  all these little circles in that's what makes this   Frame so special yeah um um with small hive beetle  they will find any nook and cranny to hide as bees   chase them away but they can't hide in any edge  of the frame because it's got the standard cell   size so they'll be cleaning that out they'll be  putting honey they'll be putting nectar um know   be bread they'll be putting anything in the edge  if you're doing honey you'll see they cap it yeah   okay that's great and it is nice and stiff and  the field never flexes it's fantastic see so I'm   glad to know they're all available but you say  this bottom board is not yet available in the   US coming out I think andwood will car might  be about a month away great well I want to   thank you for giving us this presentation it  means a lot and I wish you all the best with   your product line oh thank you it's what we like  to do we like to develop products that make the   more enjoyable for beekeepers and easier that's  great now are you personally a beekeeper uh yes   I haven't in the last 2 years but I helped my  brother out he's got around 50 knives you help   your brother okay last words anything you want  to share talk about nothing First Impressions is   this your first time to the United States's  first time so give us your impression is it   what you thought it would be no it's better it's  better yeah okay wasn't sure what I was expecting   but it's just blown me away it's blown you away  super friendly people that okay I have to say   I've Loved um everyone coming in and telling us  these stories who have these products already and   hearing their stories about how it's just changed  how they're beeping they're having so much much   better success yeah that's what we want that's  what we love that's great well thank you all right a yeah his little baby to hasn't come out and we're here with Bob hey FR how are you how's  the conference going great great good having a   really really phenomenal turnout it's great a lot  of interest in the land side so what's changed   since we talked last uh there in West Virginia  anything new we've tweaked a few design changes   in our landsize from customer feedback okay um  one of them was our base we've modified it a   little bit to adjust the height we have for our  women and people in wheelchairs we we've got the   the height accessible for a wheelchair now okay  that that someone can come up and work out on   that's cool so this is a hive configuration that's  good for people that can't lift move things around   limited Mobility correct I like that idea and and  that's the advantage of the heaviest thing anyone   will ever LIF with this Hive is 14 lb if that's  400 14 lb cap that's what's going to weigh so   we're working frame we're not working boxes okay  I like it now who do you recommend a hive like   this for we for anybody anybody any beekeeper I  think I think beekeepers ought to keep multiple   types of highs okay when I give you this Frame  full of bees you're going to read it just like   like you would read a l straw FR okay the only  difference is the management style that we're   going to have in this side versus a l straw so  we're working frames meaning in here instead   of adding boxes four frames when if my bees are  confined over here there's nothing over here my   management means I'm going to look at this last  frame soon as they draw in that frame give them   a new frame and I'm done I just noticed something  you don't use coverboards no not at all not at all   I think that's interesting you want to introduce  your partner this is my wife Joyce the president   of the president okay and so how do you divide  uh your responsibilities with the company I make   boxes okay she tells me what boxes I need to make  and when I need to have them make okay takes care   of the paperwork and The Bu and so talk about  your own apiary like you what's what's that   like what kind of so we have an apiary behind  the shop we run Lango and LS okay we use it a   lot for our customers when they come in to be  able to go out and take them and let them see   what the differences are okay oh that's great so  you have a yard for introductions I think that's   great makes it nice um we do a lot of a lot of  Education back there we've had a we've had a good   bit of media there and it's interesting part we'll  have newspap TV people in we'll put a suit on them   great they're all weird scared and you know sort  of timid we get done and they're like when can I   come back and do this again excellent so what  would you say here at the conference would be   the most interesting item to the visitors what are  they after when they stop into year well I've been   intrigued by some of the new stuff especially  the extractors but people that are coming to   your presentation what's your number one seller  this year the land side the lands now you have   different sizes we sold out of our observation  time you sold out they're gone and we've sold   out of our resource time and you sold out of  the resource high oh man by the way that's a   good price on that yes that is a good price FR we  come up with you buy a l Hive and you're running   Lang stop boxes Y how do I get my bees from Lango  to Lanes correct so you grab take a side which   are basically two four frame nukes side by side  okay we have come up with what we call conversion Mars we can put a feeder jar here a quart feeder  jar okay L frame fits here I would take four Lango   frames from one of my Langs with with the queen  put them here set this over put my frames here I   can put my one to one here so they can build and  grow yep it'll fill my four L frames y back into   my L box I have a question so look at this Frame  so we took inserts which are standard Lang stroth   inserts and we have this flat botom correct do the  bees ever turn that as they draw it out a right   great question do so when we look at this this  should be orientated horizontally and the little   y when we look inside of a inside Y is going to  be turned upside down right what we found was when   they start drawing this they literally turn it  to the right orientation they interesting that's   really interesting most people don't ask that  question yeah I like it okay now I have to ask   something uhhuh is this the whole configuration  this would be a langst to land conversion what do   they get for $129 you're going to get that that  one that resource you get this one right here okay hey what are you doing I'm making a video  okay yeah so that you're now in I'm in it now   you're in it you're you you get the conversion box  for $99 okay all right so you need the resource to   make it work okay all right all right so it's  packaged for 228 if you want to get the whole   thing nice all right now do you is this insulated  at all no no so do you insulate your horizontal   hives our horizontal hives no we don't you don't  we do not and even the cover no no insulation but   this has to do with where you're located let's  talk about that no this is this is this is we   don't make a horizontal Hive it's a l Hive I'm  sorry L hives are horizontal okay so you can   see our this is our insulation and that's around  the circumference what do you recommend for the   top it's got the same insulation okay only thing  that we have found in our experience a lot of land   land's recommendation to put a blanket over this  for winter time we do not recommend it we have   found when that happens we get a lot of moisture  that defeats the insulation so we've got our vent   holes up here these are strickly vent holes  and we've had very good success no blanket we   don't have be loss um we don't have the moisture  what do your winners like where you live 30 well   pretty similar to yours are you we're an hour 2  hours south a year yeah okay um all righty cold   okay it's an R9 Factor it keeps them cold and  it keeps them warm okay yeah so summer winter   same thing insulated is insulated and uh talk to  me about how you're sourcing your Lumber that's   an interesting part of our company and one of our  missions we have our own Mill Joy's father about   80 years ago on her family farm planted a bunch of  white pine they are diseased and have a pine so we   have a mill now and a Kil so joy runs the mill  Bob does the grunt work loads and offloads and   we start from a tree to a finished product okay  interesting you look at our little bird houses   yeah back here that's that's our straps okay oh I  see okay yeah so we from our Lango boxes that we   make this is our cut off it's made who does this  artwork so you hand paint those nice we take these   a lot of times I make them into a kit pre- drill  them Boy Scouts cup Scouts for in groups okay to   them what's the diameter of that hole in and one  qu inch and a quarter which is important for the   bird species that you're thinking about really  bird okay nice all right anything else we've   introduced some our grafting table yeah let's  talk about it so it's made out of a solid piece   of popper solid plank we had a customer come  in and said can you make some make a grafting   table we started looking at grafting tables  and we were not real crazy about the quality   of what they were okay and and how they were put  together and they didn't have any adjustability   in them so we started working with our customer  which we've done on a lot of our products made   a prototype they give us feedback adjustments  yeah and we end up with we put adjustability   in it oh nice I like that train and tried to  make it a nice what we call furniture grade quality 169 and it ship that's free shipping free  shipping at 169 okay I like that story anything   else Last Words last words if you've never tried  a land side look us up yeah and see what you think   how should people learn about L's Hive management  do you recommend a book do you recommend some   resource the best book keeping bees with a smile  with Dr Leo is I think the best reference out   there that's great good recommendation I want to  thank you for your time Bob apprciate appreciate it so we're at midnight B Supply and here with  Calvin uh first of all talk to me about your   position with midnight be Supply so I'm the  owner we started out actually building for a   couple small clients and then uh moved into my  parents garage open on Saturdays for about 3   years and then we started a storefront um in our  small little town of Vass uh it's done well we   wholesale for a lot of people but uh I met my  wife at a B show she was actually working for   Dr tarpy at NC State of the time and I stole her  away and now she runs the front of the shop for   us and I'm in the back is she here she is not  she we have we have a 10mon old okay traveling   9 hours is going to be all right so I'm so I'm  looking over your inventory I mean you've got   a lot of stuff you've got an observation Hive  yep we' got plenty of observation hives we'   sold out of observation hives at this point in  the day but uh we have some honey display frames   everybody else has um this right here for a honey  judging okay this is our thing for honey judging   yep oh and I like that you've got the a little  posts in it to keep it from swinging forward   and back Y and one of the things that caught my  eye was this screen that you have here you said   this is a queen introduction or isolation yep uh  you can use it either way you can put your queen   cage here or if you're just isolating just throw  it in this section can cork off CL this section   off but if you're introducing a new Queen to a  stubborn hi that does not want to take a queen   which happens from time to time this gives her a  lot more time to get used to the bees and the bees   to get used to her the queen cage fits perfectly  in here slides straight down into a frame takes   the place of an outside frame that's not being  uh well used at the time but you can sitti this   right in the middle of the hive and after they  seem like they're getting along good you can   open this door right here and just let her take  her time walking out and you don't have to touch   her and this is screen on both sides screen on  both sides and that's number eight number eight   Hardware c y they can feed her through there  easily um and she gets gets a lot more time and   a lot more exposure to a lot more bees before she  gets released that do you happen to have a queen   cage that you can show how it slides in I don't  think I have one with me you don't have one okay   I like that piece of Kit now what are you pricing  that at I think it's uh $12.95 $12.95 and can they   order online absolutely midnight be supply.com  midnight be Supply okay that's very interesting   I like that talking to me about something else I  just grabbed yep this is a uh trying to think of   the name of they entrance Queen excluder yep  it's a entrance guard is what they they call   it on our website a lot of people use it to  try to keep the queen in during swarming sure   sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't I'm not  going to promise you it's going to work but now   why doesn't the odor prevent swarming right but  you got to think a queen size is reduced before   swarming so she can fly so there is a possibility  that she can still get through the Queeny SP yeah   um I have a different use for it what's that when  I Hive a a fresh swarm oh yeah and I don't want   want to to a scon on me that's a that's a good I  put that over the front and not a lot of people   make them yep we do and I like that it's so thick  front to back because it'll stand on its own you   can just park it there that's right and that's  an eight frame y this is eight frame we make 10   frame and we also make nuke and they're made out  of Cypress you have nukes also yep and what do   you sell those for uh we'll have to check on that  one I'm not sure all right that's okay we'll talk   later yep uh let's talk about some of the other  things that maybe are unique to your company yeah   one thing we really like to do is our observation  hives okay uh here at the show we' sold quite a   few they have uh people really like these for  going to Market okay or school events teaching   young kids Queen most of the time we leave her up  top okay uh cuz everybody wants to see the queen   with a mark on her and she's up there but that she  just got plenty of support in the bottom because   she's got five frames down there four when you  pull the one out or five in five we try to put   six total in there even one's blank cuz if you  put less than the five in the bottom one can   shift and drop and you can mess up a frame so you  consider putting a feeder there board feeder that   fits uh the division board feeders fit very well  they take up just enough space for one frame now   are you making those no we're not imported from  Greece imported from Greece yep can you show us   one yeah no problem that's very popular all right  and it sold it looks like are you selling a lot   of stuff at this conference I'm guessing division  board Feer now what made you choose this one so   I've had the the width a lot of other feeders  are wider okay that'll either take up one and   A2 frames or all the excess room plus one frame  in your box have a hard time getting that first   frame out when you're working your VI yeah so  this is the width of a frame it's easy so you   pull one frame and that takes the space of one  frame okay yep it comes with its own floats and a   little storage area here for them these floats fit  perfectly down in here with not a lot of excess   space for the bees to get around around okay so  the bees get on the float yep and it just goes   down yep that's it very easy that's interesting  and you have a price point 1150 1150 yep and now   do you have free shipping Beyond a certain point  or no uh our prices are a lot lower than most of   the big guys because we have a a better price to  begin with we don't offer the free sh okay all   right so there's oh and I'm looking at these veils  and uh your oversized beit this is a baby beit I   know that looks like a baby Lobster yeah okay  yep right all right what else do we have That's   Unique you have the Pierce comb cutter you have  the pollen trap what do we have here there a this   is a smoker fuel it's cotton raw cotton smoker  fuel okay have you used it much yourself I have   uh in our area though we do have a lot of pine  trees so it's very easy to use pine Tre all right   but it does work very very well uh something  else that's unique to us be have Copper Top mailbox 79.95 yeah um fine they paint up  very beautifully solid copper on top not   a painted met yeah nice so then you've  got your ring screen and you've got   metal entrance oh let's talk about your  screen bottom boards yeah from down here okay screen bottom Boards of course number eight  hardware cloth these are Cypress we either have   Cyprus or painted Pine one of the two 3 and 1/2  in entrance here got a nice plastic hard to get   cut on compared to the metal slaps for your uh  IPM board that slides in there and the Cyprus   will hold up a lot better than a unpainted Pine  okay and what do you recommend for finishing that   uh you can paint them you don't have to the  Eco wood dip works very very well everybody   likes that stuff Cyprus itself has a long longer  lasting oil that helps kind of keep it uh from   rotting compar yeah cuz that's a wetland tree yeah  okay also sell quite a few solid bottom boards and   Cyprus as well and reversible on that side y 38  stick on the back so you can reverse them very easily all right well anything you want people  to know about let's look at what is this little   screen oh this is a nuke screen bottom board y  n ventilated in cover okay yep about sold out of   our um the skateboard okay about sold out of those  and slatter racks how are the sales on those racks   these are frame out of those make some hoops as  well these are Cyprus I'm sure nobody else makes   a I have not seen a sled rack for n first okay  yep and all Cyprus so where do you source that   uh be honestly you a lot of it comes from North  Carolina North Carolina Y and there's some that   comes from Georgia just depends on price and  what we're trying to do okay wow I want to   thank you for your time a lot of good products  here appreciate it all right so you caught my   eye and we're looking at your company name running  wild Apiaries yes sir and uh creators of the com   assist so he assists you in combing your hair how  does it okayed experience and what's your what's   your job with the company are you the owner so we  are co-owners we're Partners okay uh this started   as a an opportunity to try our fun try to fund our  beeping addiction okay and so we saw the idea on   Facebook one day it was somebody but somebody had  taken PDC like 4in PVC and then kind of heated it   up and shaped it into 4 sections on a deep really  and we were like I think we can do that a little   bit better and so we both worked from home this  was in the middle of the pandemic as well so I   ran outside to my table so I started throwing some  stuff together and and we came up with a prototype   okay this gentleman right here with his esteemed  degree from Auburn University has a product design   degree I said partner I need you to come up with  something more and also a backr at all or just   product design are you uh just just product design  General so are you a beekeeper now or okay yes and   no beekeeping beekeeping was our um you were INF  influential in our beekeeping experience you were   a positive influence yes sir okay good that's  that depends on if you ask your wife or okay we   don't need to hear from the inexpensive seeds  all right exactly no uh we consider beekeeping   our our covid hobby okay uh so we are both get are  interested in various items uh various things we   Tinker around with things he had the laser for  doing this so we were able to refine the comist   into something that we could market and put out  there for regular people to use and are these 4   in by 4 in is that for the for the deeps they are  the mediums are a little bit taller of course so   the deeps are designed to fit into the 4x4 one lb  cassettes um the mediums are a little bit taller   so we've had suggestions from customers and uh  other friends that use them that what they'll do   is they'll cut it out to the size of the cassette  sure and they'll leave the top leave a starter at   the top the other thing that people have pointed  out that they like with this size of the mediums   which is good because a lot of people run mediums  is they'll let it they'll cut the whole thing out   they'll split it down the middle and that's the  perfect size for chunk honey okay so they're   dropping that into a court jar for people that  don't know okay um okay so out of so we off we do   offer it in two versions the original version was  what we call a flat pack and um so it's basically   this is what you purchase this is the version  for the Deep okay and you would basically lay   it out and assemble it on a flat surface okay  and then take your your frame you provide the   frame with this okay and then you assemble it on  a flat surface and you take your frame and put it   over top and push it into your frame you line up  these slots with the grooves and these wedges are   what lock it all in place okay I see what we're  talking about so we wanted a product where people   didn't have to use any additional tools no glue  or anything like that so it's mostly friction fit   with most frames but with these wedges it doesn't  have to be friction fit it will'll lock it in   place and of course once you get in with the bees  they're going to glue it they'll propol it and   glue it in place anyway now we offer it in that  version but we also started offering it in a fully   assembled version because we had people that said  I don't want to mess with the building something   and so for the show we actually made a bunch of  these ourselves um we have nicely engraved it well   so it's that's so what is the wood what's the so  the wood is uh put this inside your Birch birwood   bir and the thing that we really liked about this  we're down in Georgia and we wanted to do truly   foundation with honey okay and we didn't want any  wax Foundation or anything so we want to try that   out well it gets nice and warm in the summertime  in Georgia and if they have not attached all the   way around you run the risk of that falling out  on a hot day not careful so this provides an   infrastructure for the bees to actually have more  surface area to attach the comb to which makes   it more sturdy and more stable the happy accident  that comes with that is that as they fill out the   sections you can Harvest it you can basically do  on demand harvesting oh yeah you don't even have   to wait to fill the whole frame correct okay it's  a happy accident um and so for hobby beekeepers   if you want to just get into a little bit of  cut conb it's great opportunity and then you   get excited you see that that that uh particular  section is capped over you take your knife out   to the in a little container doesn't have to be  this whatever cut you cut it out put it in your   container make sure it's seal you want your bees  to get to it and you put this right back in the H   okay and you let them go back do you prime it I'm  sorry do you prime it with bees fls or anything so   there are two things that we tell customers  about using this two recommendations one is   priming it with wax we just worri about painting  on a little bit of wax on the top of each SE so   all eight sections or all four sections depending  on what size you have just paint a little bit of   wax on the top okay um we do not but we've had  lots of customers and some of our people that   ran our prototype from our local beov yeah they  just dropped it in with nothing and they had no   problem they worked it anyway the other thing that  we tell our customers is do not run them side by   side I would love to sell you nothing more than  to sell you full 10 frame super of these sa yeah   but that's not smart if you run them next together  you're going to run the risk a high risk of cross   combing okay so we tell everybody check our board  them with Foundation frames preferably something   that's drawn out that way you're limiting the  space that they can draw these out they tried   them in nukes we have not tried them in nukes  I don't think I haven't seen any no I can't say   we've tried them in nukes I'm going to recommend  trying them in nukes why is that here's why if you   start with a five frame wooden nuke and they take  the Deep frames we got our Baseline built you got   the second tier now you've got 10 full frames that  third box which is what I use for resource hives   uhhuh if we put these in that top box they will  draw them out much faster than they do a fulls   sizee eight or 10 frame that makes sense box  plus it's a nuke and it's smaller and you'll   get more out of it you're basically forcing them  to use it you kind of are it's at the top of that   sh but it's warm enough they work it longer and I  would like to see if anybody's watching right now   that has it if they try that out in nukes and see  what goes on we have somebody that came by that   said that they were going to be doing something  like that I don't remember the specifics talk to   so many people right I can imagine so um we have  actually been very fortunate as far as the nukes   thing I'm sorry somebody yes has has said that  they going to be doing something similar they   running multiple tier nukes okay like that so it  would be interesting I we asked them of course   let us know how it goes we' love nice Innovation  and you have a business card or something so we're   very small business and we uh we underestimated  the number of business cards we were going to   need okay I'm just going to zoom in your contact  information up here and our QR code will take you   directly to our website great how much did the ks  cost and how long have these been out about we've   been making them for about 3 years now 3 years  yes sir and have you made any corrections based   on feedback any changes other than locking it into  the grooves there the only thing that we've really   had to address was people did not want to put  them together because they can be a little bit   finicky okay and so part of that we addressed that  in two ways the first way that we addressed it is   we created a jig that allows the user to basically  put this whole thing together on the table for a   third hand and it will hold it together until you  get it in the frame yeah and once you get in the   frame you push it in The Jig will pop off and you  can reuse it for the next frame nice and so once   you get in there like I said before you'll line  it up with s this is the assembled version you'll   line it up with the the spots with the groove put  your wedges in your down the other thing that we   did as far as taking feedback from our customers  is they they said we don't want to have to put   them together so you're selling the assemble so  we we came up with the assemble unfortunately   right now the assemble we seems we're basically  working through Logistics on that we're very small   this is a complete side hustle for us so we're  used to send these which we can send like five   of these for $5 shipping nice you know so we'd  like to keep it as cheap as possible okay so   we're working through the logistics of shipping  fully assembled frames because it becomes a lot   bigger and it's going to be more expensive we're  working through um unfortunately we fortunately   for us and unfortunately for everybody else here  we've sold out of everything medium you sold out   okay mediums all right yes sir we have but the  deeps are good in nukes okay I'm just going to   plug that just I like it one size fits all thanks  Nick I really appreciate talking with you nice innovation here we are at propa and this box  has my name on it and now we run into Matthew   so what do you want to tell us about what's new  what is the big reveal well by the way we've   got an exciting reveal uh that Fred has been  a part of um so we're Premier B products and   we are launching The propa Hive uh here at the  North American honeybee Expo which we're super   excited about um do you want to go over here  and I'll show you let's go let's walk and talk so what we've done with propa the long and  short of it um we're mimicking the inside of   a tree cavity um if you look at this hollowed out  tree cavity here you see the bees have proped the   entire interior surface they've been doing this  since the beginning of their species right um   and only within the last 10 to 15 years have we  figured out why um Dr spivac at the University   of Minnesota um her student Dr Michael Simone  finstrom now he's on his own he was a student   a while ago but um they have been instrumental  and uh doing this research of why do bees propol   the in inside of their hives and what benefits do  they enjoy from that um the big things being their   disease loads go way down um propolis is very  antimicrobial meaning antibacterial antifungal   antiviral um so you see diseases like chalk brood  and fowl brood um way lower in the hives their uh   immune genes are way less expressed so they see  things uh you know they're just they're healthier   bees they're more productive they see populations  go up um this is what bees have been doing forever   and so we know what's important and that's what  we're trying to create with propy hives is just   you know taking the standard langth Hive and  you know mimicking the inside of of the tree   cavity that they're used to making it feel more  like home and so you've got some boxes here that   have already been used by the bees that have this  patented interior surface that's right that the   bees then recognize as something that needs to  be glazed over with propolis y right and as you   said that's part of their immunity for the hive  yes and I understand that the boxes that they do   propy like that which your boxes encourage uh can  increase 20% roughly of the V population through   longevity Better Health wellbeing of the bee yep  okay and it's great that uh Dr spivac endorses   this now and she gave a talk today that I missed  did you catch it I did catch about half of it okay   I wish I could catch more okay so Dr spivac is  here from the spivac lab at the University of   Minnesota and uh this is one of the things that  she's excited and everybody's excited about but   we're looking at a box here that has been how  long has this been out in with bees in it this   was actually only out for about 6 weeks six and  they pretty much now it's going to depend on   your region um the the hoarding Behavior propis  hoarding behavior of the bees but yeah this one   they propy real fast okay so does that mean that  after today these boxes are being sold by Premier   correct y okay and are people buying them here  yes they are did you get much of a response after   her presentation did people come absolutely  absolutely there's been a lot of education   and that's why guys like you are so important and  we're all trying to spread the m message of um you   know we kind of as we as a collective beekeeping  Community change things when we started selling   smooth walled boxes um bees are used to rough  inside hives and homes so that's what we're doing   and yeah so we sell them here um we're selling  them online we've got five Distributors here that   are selling them uh and uh yeah so who are some of  the Distributors who are some of the count um so   we've got the be Supply we've got dancing bee  out of Canada okay Nature's Image Farm uh Bob   Benny's blue rid is selling them and Rosman AP  are are the ones selling them and all launching   at the Expo correct yep everything's here nice  yes and so this ties in not only that propolis   encouraging surface right but also the joinery  that your Premier boxes are known for you want   to explain a little bit about that yeah absolutely  so um you look here we use a unique joint um it's   a it's a dovetail joint and it's a half blind  dovetail joint so this surface has no end grain   exposed which is nice because um you avoid rot the  end grain is a is a common spot of Rod so having   less endgrain exposed is really helpful but it's  a it's a strong joint it's a broad handle that   we've got okay you know it's just it's the little  details that commercial guys really love that we   started incorporating our box want to go take a  look at some of the joinery when it's not together   absolutely I also like this this purol is play is  really interesting where did you get these cutouts   where did you get these pieces we got these out  of a guy in Iowa collects them so we went down a   couple months ago and you know opened two of them  um they didn't have bees in them at this time but   yeah it was it was pretty fascinating to see nice  the propolus that they so this is the joinery all   right and are people buying most of them assembled  or are they buying the boxes unassembled what's   popular we are selling some assembled here most  of our Distributors carry unassembled it's more   popular because a it's a little bit cheaper  um but B it's our boxes are really easy to   put together um they're self squaring so this  duv tail I'll do a little demonstration here   glue those mortises they self Square all they  can do is fit together and then you take your   Mallet and just pound them together okay and these  little gaps these little r sorry I haven't pounded   in all the way I okay but otherwise they would  be closed out close up so or they'd be prized   but it wouldn't be the right Dimension yeah no  they they close up all the way and so thickness   of the wood uh of this wood right here yeah  yeah it's three standard 3/4 in 3/4 that's   and standard Pine where are you sourcing your  lumber for these uh Lumber comes mostly out of   New Hampshire New Hampshire okay yeah everything  is American made okay American everything we're   out of SE Fall South Dakota that's where  we do everything we bu it foundation and our and then the website is Premier bprs  tocom and people can look into it this is   something that a lot of us are going to be  following paying attention to and testing   out yeah so Matthew thanks for your time I  appreciate the presentation y all right yep bruan what what's your  experience then with what has for your we'll do a bar to see I'll take it so here we are at aame and  we've got the man himself let's talk about the   conference and what are people looking at the  most what kind of feedback are you getting hey   Fred uh it's been a great conference actually we  just there's so many great people so many people   with great experien with our products and they  just talk about it and it makes me really happy   that like this is my third one this is my fourth  one that means that like when they made the first   initial choice to go with our product so like  they may have had doubts but when they go for the   second and the third one is because they like it  they like the experience so that was like the best   thing about this exper uh this conference like  hearing people's experience and like going for a   second and a third and fourth high so uh I have  a lot of people going for my seven frame Knicks   because they say that just like and I repeat  that as well this is an ICU this is a recovery   unit for your colonies if you have a colony that  is in bad shape you just put it in here for Rehab   you put it here so hearing that like people can  actually uh bring almost dead colonies back to   life in my products it it is exciting so this has  been one of the like the biggest sellers of I sem   frame has been let's go over the features of it  just so that people know what we're talking about   absolutely so this is our FMA 7 frame insulator  H and just like the uh be PS we have this is   got like a big insulation sty foam inside and with  our insulated lid it is heavy and it's got two and   let's talk r value on each component so the lid  our r value is almost seven so it's like having   6 in of uh finewood in all sides and basically  even when you get the commercially available   sleeves it brings up to like a six or seven so  whatever you buy that's available if you wrap it   up completely it becomes this okay okay so you  don't really need to wrap this one any further   okay to just increase the value well you would  increase the value uh it comes with two feers   and the reason we always stick with the Dual feers  is the most used feature especially in these small   ones is that you can divide this Hive to have two  colonies in it like you can have two three frame   colonies with the division board or you can take  the division board out and have a seven frame Hive   and one of the biggest reasons people like the  seven frame Hive is because it's so much easier   to lift and we met multiple people like getting  old and saying that they want to transition from   their deep hives to an old medium high because  it's a lot easier to lift but transitioning from   an existing deep frame to a medium frame it's  it's a pain so they you need to buy everything   brand new and then you need to transfer your bees  without creating a chaos so they actually prefer   this unit and they just put their seven frames  in it and put like additional frames on top so   now they can work with equally weighing boxes is  like basically instead of having a medium they   have a seven frame deep and they continue so  switching when they get old or when they don't   want to lift much switching from their existing  hardware and like continuing beekeeping is a lot   easier when you use this one and I had multiple  people uh going into C rearing and using this   as a timing box as we told because this itself  is the division board but again putting it in   this setting would make it a queen excluder in  here and by isolating the last frame and putting   your clean and a fully drwn comb here you can  use it as a timing Box come back 4 days later   nice grab from this Frame and you don't need to  hunt for Lara and I have gentleman who are using   two queens for having two queens in the same box  coming back every other day grafting so you can   really get a lot of Queens out of this box so  so this is being the favorite product in this   yeah in this conference yeah and I like it are you  getting feedback on people feeding if they wanted   to put a fondant pack in that feeder what do you  recommend if they want to do Fonda like I still   have some space under the feeder okay so there are  some Brands if you're doing homemade you can make   it a little thinner and put it under uh what I've  seen people is like put granulated sugar in here   right and fill it with granulated sugar put it in  the dry feet uh sitting like this so it absorbs   all the moisture if especially if you're in a  very high humidity area sure uh it absorbs all   the moisture and turns the like sugar granulated  sugar into rock candy and as it gets warmer the   bees can get out and eat more but the thing is  the bees already consume very little in my hives   because of insulation so many times come spring  many times come spring you're going to find out   that like there are still honey stores in there  so while there's honey they're not really going   to go for sugar bricks but if they do there's  going to be some on the top and there's going   to be raw candy with just from the granulated  sugar you have already or alternatively I know   that people like to P some thicker blocks they  want to ensure that the colony like has food   so they can have a mound or sugar block and  they can put a reflecting or a double-sided   bubble on top instead of the feeders because  my top cover has an area where they can just   fill it with sugar break okay so how much space  is there between this surface and the interior   surface there well considering the sidewalls would  actually sit here you have this entire area so it   looks like almost 2 in uh it is almost 2 in and  that would be about like 10 in by 20 18 in yeah   so can I tell you what I did that worked this  year what what is it I took these uh-huh I put   it in the candy setting okay I cut fondant packs  into quarters uhhuh so a 2 lb fondant pack four   qus and I just put one here and one here on the  warmer days mid-30s low 40s the bees are up there   consuming fonding perfect so I like it so just  another way you know to use it it just works it   was it originally intended but right I understand  but it gives us a way to provide something exactly   exactly okay it's very interesting so um have  you been selling that new 10 frame with the   center feed pack oh I ran out of them I have  you ran out let's talk about it let's go get okay this is sold out show so I'm Shing  into people's houses now do you make this   just for the 10 or it says 10 and eight uh  this is just for the 10 just for the 10 wow   this looks elaborate uh again we have 1.1 gallon  syrup capacity here and the bees would walk up from the area that we have here to get the syrup  it would fill up the syrup in here you never have   to take these out uh even if your hive is tilted  a little bit there's always a place where they can   get the ser and in the winter you just put your  fond on patties right in the center and if you   get commercially available ones you can just  slice the bag put it here close it if you're   making your uh fond at home just pour it in these  containers and we have extra containers available   as well just just fill five six of them and then  as you see the food is food levels are getting   lower just hot swap them with another one from the  bridge so nice yeah I like that that's great and   you sold out on these I sold out on these in the  show and I'm just going to have to go and start   shipping them from our warehouse there well by  the time people are seeing this video they'll   have to go to your website anyway so exactly  exactly so is there anything else you want to   touch on uh we have some stuff coming up that I  haven't had a chance to Deb yet but I will hit   you up when I do one thing I actually uh wanted  to show is our little propolis trap this is a   okay this is this is not our main product it's  a side product but it I just want to show the   things that we think of while we're designing a  product there are a lot of propolis traps in the   field that look like the Queener they're a lot  more rigid you can't really bend it or anything   to extract propolis you actually really need to  curl this up so we have this product made from   the silicone like you have the cooking wear okay  so this is something you cannot actually do with   any of the propolis traps out there the like is  really full so uh the biggest use that I've seen   in these is actually in the southern states in  the Summer where it is very humid they actually   use this propis trap as a ventilating tu as a  what ventilating top cover inner cover okay so   what they do is they just like put it on top of  the uh Hive and they close our uh they close the   lid because all our Lids have the vents slust in  the front the it prevents the moisture build up   uh they come back once this the bees don't like  to have this so they start proping all the gaps   in here to close off the close out and they come  back at we later they swap this with an empty one   and they extract propolis in the meantime while  also controlling the moisture inside the H Okay   cool so this is something I just wanted to show  that like old the little things that we think   about and when our customers come out with a use  that we didn't think about it's just we like to   show that as well guys you can actually do this  help and beekeepers beepers help beepers okay   so I'm going to look at this is your is this the  website information that's our website information   we come here and the scan Tron there you go  all right well it's good to talk to you again   everywhere I go there you are so good products I  use them I like it I'm a fan of this nuke Hive a   lot right now for my resource hives in particular  all of your hives are convenient good stuff thanks   again I hope you have a great conference I think  so I point that out cuz I didn't even know that so that is our difference compared to other weate oh he turned his head so here we are strong microbials Earls with  us and you have a new that I just learned about   it's your fun and you want to run it down for  us a little certainly thank you so very much   so we're currently collaborating with Andrew mun  from apis biologics is a Canadian company there   and they've created polyenals and bof flavor  eyes that nimic nectar and so we now have   nectar on demand superfuel which is a fondant that  provides all the energy necessary for the hive to   thrive so it's a very good feeding method it's  economical and the best part is that the small   high beetles actually don't lay larv in it so  they can hide under it but they don't lay the   eggs and the larv into the patties so much better  than a Hollen substitute that's very interesting   so the people at the conference this year did  they know about it in advance or is it seem we   actually had some pre-orders so but it was on our  website there but it just became launched uh this   month so yep it's fantastic new product so before  it launched here in the United States has it been   tested elsewhere other parts of the world yeah  exactly we have some Canadians also using the   rocket fuel there so that was fantastic yes okay  perfect and how are you supplied do you have have   you sold a lot of it since you've been here  well I see I think right now we're up to about   50 pallets and uh we make about eight pallets a  day so so it's it's a long process but yes it's   fantastic now once someone buys this what's the  shelf life 2 years 2 years and how should they   store it uh just making sure it's dry stays in  the box and they keep the uh plastic wrapped up   okay and what's the best way to feed it to your  bees well right now we just open up the hive and   place the fondant right where the brood is there  where the nurse bees are so that's so they have   access to it okay that sounds great thank you  very much and all right thank you I appreciate it an name middle one yeah I think so this is yeah yeah that'll be F gu gu so I'm picking up so here we are better B someone that we're all  familiar with if you watch my channel Dr David P   so I've been trying to get up get caught up with  you things are really busy here at better they   absolutely are so what's the greatest interest  what's the product that's moving the most right   now I mean everything that we brought is moving  and that's why we brought it but I think the   stuff that's getting get a lot of the the main  interest here are these different cages um the   biggest frustration I've got is that we've got  these frame isolation cages where that are queen   excluder spacing on all the bars which means  that you can put a queen in or keep a queen out   put a drone in keep a drone out you know however  but the workers are coming and going you've got   nurse Beast tending to brood and all of that they  unfortunately look almost identical to the queen   introduction cages which have a totally different  function because no Bees can get through these   bars and I know that folks who have been paying  attention to your Channel are well aware of how   these different things work and can be used um  I think probably my favorite part of getting   to come to a show like this is every single time  I bring out the the fic's the frame introduction   cages or the isolation cages somebody comes up to  me and they say well I'm doing this interesting   instrumental insemination but I need my drones  to be this old so I found a way that I could   use this to do and they tell me something that  I never would have dreamed of in 100 years you   know we we brought this out because I had used  them during some of my doctoral work use them   for various experiments and then you know there  it's a very easy sell to someone who's grafting   uh Queens because you know put my queen in take  around 6 hours later come back 4 days later I   know exactly you know every single larvae in there  is within 6 hours the same age so they're going to   be ready to go so that's an easy sell the the  more interesting stuff is when someone comes   up and they say oh yeah well I caught a swarm and  I found the queen and I put her on a brood frame   inside this and I Hive the Swarm and normally you  know I catch swarms in my neighborhood one out of   three of them SC away well now the queen can't  leave so I can leave her there for two or three   days to start laying and now she's stuck inside so  there's all of these different tricks that the the   cages allow folks to do so that's that's I guess  why we sold out yeah so my question and I'm glad   you touched on the collecting a swarm and then  having the queen with them and would you advise   them to figure out if that's a mated queen or  maybe it's an after swarm that would have an unmad   Queen so how would you tell them to handle that  so if you find that Queen which I think is always   a good practice when you catch a swarm on the one  hand if you disturb them a lot you're going to be   more likely to drive them to gone on the other  hand if you do get in you find that Queen um   you know if she's got a paint dot she was made it  she was in somebody else's High okay um if she if   she looks like a virgin if she's got that short  abdomen then you might start worrying that she's   likely to be she's got a big long abdomen if it  looks like she can barely fly that's a good sign   that she's made um but a big part of it is trying  to understand where that swarm Source was where   did that swarm come from a swarm is not going to  fly 5 miles away from its hive before it starts   looking through a so you found a swarm it either  came out of your aary or your neighbor's athary   or it was living up in the old you know oak tree  with that that knle but if you can figure out you   know is there one swarm here or are there two  swarms here was there a swarm in this tree two   days ago and that was probably the prime swarm  and now here's another little one well maybe   that's the after swarmm with the Virgin Queen in  it that gives you an opportunity to to start to   make predictions but you know you're right there  would be a risk if you lock the queen up in there   for a week that you come back and after a week  that Virgin Queen wouldn't have been able to make   and and it's now going to be you know scuttled oh  that's a good biology question uh when we have an   unmad Queen what's the maximum amount of time uh  before she's viable to be made it uh so if from   the moment that that Queen chws her way out of the  cell assuming that she chews out on a normal you   know developmental time period Then you would  expect her to need at least a period of a few   days to to harden her wings finish maturation get  her reproductive organs in line get some food into   her get herself ready to function as a be um then  typically you're going to expect to see probably   2 days of orientation flights which she's going  out figuring out where the entrance is figuring   out how to get home and then you might expect  you know on average to to see something like 3   to 4 days of mating flights plenty of Queens can  go out and get mated all they need in one or two   flights on a day or two um but sometimes it takes  a little longer if you've got rain then they have   some mechanis physiologically they they know  they're not mating and not flying they can try   to hold themselves together but I would say you  know a week after a clean emerges I start to get   nervous about the likelihood of her being able to  me 10 days you know 14 days 2 weeks after she's   out could be too long very unlikely that she's  going to be able to mate if she does she might   she might mate she might get some sperm she  might move it to her spera maybe she can lay   some fertile eggs that's not a queen who's got to  last 6 years laying 1,000 eggs a day so you know   the mating is critical and and you don't want to  interfere in it if if in any way possible okay I'm   going to throw a curve ball cuz it just hit me but  I think you'll know it yeah Queens have some kind   of sensor that lets them know when their spera is  full yes there are there are mechano sensors on   the spera itself so they can actually feel the  the stretch as it were there's also obviously   chemicals right you know if you're a if you're a  queen every cell in your body is is the same genes   cuz it's your body okay all of those sperm cells  they're they're not the same as you they came   from all the drones which means that as they're  stored in that organ all of the the nutrients that   are wrapped around them all of that material is  itself going to produce you know chemicals that   can diffuse slowly into the Queen's body and the  presence of a lot of that gives her a sense of how   much sperm she's got left wow very interesting  okay now tell us more about better be you teach   classes there yes uh let's talk a little bit about  what goes on right at your site yeah so we've got   we've got iners and online classes so if you want  to come up and see us in green wi New York then   we're always happy to to see folks um but not  everybody wants to drive there if you're from   California I I don't know that the drive would  be worth it uh but that doesn't mean that that   we don't want to have you take the online broa  class or the online sort of seasonal beekeeping   classes we offer you know you're what we tend  to do for those I really like them um a lot of   folks will give you a winter beekeeping class  in Winter or fall beekeeping class in October   November still going on the silent auction  is still going on until 12 p.m. with lots of   amazing items if you're not bidding on the silent  auction you're making a mistake have you put any   bids in I put in stuff just to auction off yeah  we did the same thing yeah uh oh this is a long announcement there we go all righty what was I  talking about uh we're talking about what goes   on with courses learning what you're offer online  so so the I was saying that I I like the seasons   of beekeeping class that we offer because instead  of teaching you how to do fall beekeeping in the   middle of fall we teach you how to do fall  beekeeping in late summer so that everything   you learn you're not going to go oh jeez that's  what I did wrong we're going to try to teach you   hey here's what to get ready for here's what you  should do in a month yeah um which is you know the   the model that we use we're not teaching classes  to make a fortune off the tuition teaching classes   so that people will become better beekeepers  correct and that's the way that better be   succeeds is that if the people work with us and  talk to us and listen to us continue to succeed   and continue to grow then you're going to have to  buy more hi absolutely exactly I like that that's   been the model since we were founded 45 years  ago okay so let's talk about have you been able   to walk around and see what's going on with other  vendors a bit Yeah has anything caught your eye   that better be might be interested in carrying or  some new products there have definitely been some   interesting conversations had I think uh well  obviously we've been talking for a long time   with uh optera uh kir Wagner and Phoebe Snider's  company and the ubo test for might resistance um   we I just did an interview you can find on YouTube  um okay all about that so that's that's a that's a   product that we're really excited to help support  and get launched into the world nice um there's   been some there's been some cool rumors going  around some of some some of the things you can   hear at a trade show that people can't announce  on their website yet um but there's been some   exciting stuff coming out of uh you know Dal  coming out of uh VAB B Health there's some cool   things going on in terms of mic control and and be  Health uh Improvement um and there's there's neat   stuff you know you come here to a show like this  it's so big you you know I was I was talking to   a guy with a company in Israel who has this timed  release amitraz or time all dosing device it's got   a little solar panel it vaporizes a tiny amount  of I've seen that was that on inside the hi TV was   that the same yeah I think yeah okay I've seen  that so that's a cool thing we're having those   conversations yeah exactly and and you know on the  one hand as someone who uses any any appropriate   might management that I can in my hive um I am  obviously going to follow IPM practices I'm going   to avoid chemicals when I can I'm going to avoid  avoid synthetics if I can get do make do with   something that isn't a synthetic mde um but what  I really found compelling about their argument is   they've got such a small amount of amitraz going  in that there is less potential for resistance   potentially um so the total amount of pesticide  that goes into each Hive is less that means it's   cheaper for the keeper but it also means that  that the bees and the Honey are just exposed   to less of the stuff okay so not on the spot but  what are your thoughts about that delivery system   it seems pretty elaborate for a beehive so it is  yeah I mean it's it's putting Electronics into   beehives and that's always brought um doesn't  mean it can't be done you know the the folks at   brood minder have put sensors and and detectors  and things into hives for years and it works   yes they probiz it yes sometimes they prize it  so much you have to replace it or clean it but   that's the nature of working um I think it has  potential obviously you know what I said to them   what I everybody is what an exciting idea what an  exciting product what a neat technology what what   cool work you're doing give me the data give  me the graphs send me the Excel sheet I'll S   I want to analyze it because I'm not going to  I'm not going to carry a product that doesn't   cut the mustard generally we don't carry anything  that we haven't tested certainly we don't carry   anything that hasn't been tested and you know you  do you've got some really really great folks here   you've got some folks selling stuff that sounds  like they thought up two weeks ago and started   cobbling together and you know maybe a be's  never seen it right okay well listen I want   to thank you for your time I appreciate catching  up with you talking to you and thanks for sharing yeah I got it and you're driving right okay so everything you  need to test total of 10 have two to kind of get comfortable with how the  applicator Works um and at the end of testing   we just unscrew this to get to the White overing  and just use a dab of this um overing to keep function okay so I actually heard about your booth  I didn't know you had one here from better be Dr   P so he ushered me ushered me over here and so  I'd like to know more about what we're talking   about what are you selling and what's the science  behind it and why do beekeepers need it sure um   so this product is called ubo um it's been in  develop well in research and development now   for um 12 plus years um so 10 years of research  and we've been building the product for the last   four years um and so the work of Dr KRA Wagner  and others at UNC Greensboro we identified um uh   brood pheromone profiles of unhealthy brood and  compared them to healthy brood and found that   there are certain pheromones that are elevated  when brood is infected with viruses and have mites   and so essentially we are uh treating a patch of  C brood um with these pheromones to test how well   the be is respond to so the more sensitive they  are the more hygienic that colony is and the more   resistant to might so does does this then take  the place of like the liquid nitrogen test to   some degree or how is it different so this um ubo  measures their direct response to these pheromones   whereas um liquid nitrogen just measures uh kind  of their General smelling response the response   to dead BR yeah whereas these pheromones are much  more subtle compared to a rotting dead yeah dead   bird smell okay and let's back up what is your  position with the company uh I'm the co-founder   and Co co-founder so would you go over the  components of the kit that you're offering   and what they do okay um so this well this is just  my demo kit here um so it comes with two five test   um ubo vials So within each vial uh comes with  enough pheromones to test uh five colonies each   um we have the applicator cleaning solution to  keep your applicator functioning over time the   applicator itself um this is just demo vial of  water right now but so you can uh use multiple   vials um this uh delivers a measured dose so it's  three sprays per each test um and so you can use   this over time uh once you get through all the  vials for one season you just free up and order   more vials from us um and the only other thing  you need in addition to the kit is uh an iPad or   a phone to um take a picture of the Whiteboard  and picture of the of the test okay so you can   have um once you're finished then you'll have  your uh beginning picture and then the picture   at the end of the two hours so you count the  number of cells between each to calculate the   uo score okay so and then just for the late person  that's looking at this why do we need to know the   hygienic behavior of our bees who's that who would  care and why sure um I think everybody should care   okay um to some to some not not necessarily that  everybody has to be testing depending on how many   hives they have and where they're at right um  kind of in their beekeeping Journey but um being   that if we have more hygienic bees they're more  resistant to might and disease um thinking about   even how we run our operations you know maybe  we're spending less time treating losing less   colonies um spending less time having to replace  them less money to replace them um so whether you   are testing your own Queens yourself to kind of  implement in your own breeding program or using   ubo to kind of communicate with other breeders to  um Source Queens for your own operation so I think   there's lots of different ways to to benefit from  uh might so who are your customers most often are   they Queen breeders are they typically yeah um  and I'm seeing a lot of um clubs uh County clubs   coming in oh so as a club they're buying the  system and then they're sharing it with their   membership yep okay having the one kit ordering  multiple five test fals and um I think kind of   identifying high scoring colonies in the um in  the county kind of uses resources amongst each   other and um I think when we invest in that  all of our vs are um our drones and they're   all improving yeah y so are you finding that  the people that are visiting your booth here   did they know about you in advance or is this  like a moment of Discovery like oh what's this   how's that going so is this new to most people um  a lot of people have kind of heard Whispers of it   Cory Stevens has been um really instrumental and  kind helping us get the word out um and since it's   been in develop we've been kind of teasing it for  the last couple years so um some people have been   following us for a while and but I think it was  a surprise and it was a surprise to me too that   I would actually have kids here for sale today um  so it's been quite a journey and uh yeah but a lot   of people I think see this uncapped stuff and it's  just interesting enough to think that doesn't look   like anything I've seen a whole patch of uncapped  Roots so what so there's a lot lot of curiosity   too sure and so how are sales pretty good pretty  good I'm content I know somebody's going to want   to know what do it cost for one of those kits  sure so just for the base kit comes with um   two five test files to test uh 10 colonies for  .99 and you can add on additional vials as well   okay interesting and will it be improved and some  of the vile contents be changed as you develop so   what kind of R&D went into this you mentioned  how long the company has existed you're one of   the co-founders why did you even get involved in  that in the first place um so this was uh out of   UNC Greensboro we kind of had developed it um so  were you a student in anology or something there   yes yeah I was stting my masters um okay and Co  had hit and we were all kind of thinking like   what's next what are we going to do next and Cara  had this technology um really the pheromones were   identified and kind of The Next Step was building  it as a product and developing an applicator um   so that was really where my main work came in of  building the infrastructure of the company and   designing the product and um really figuring out  how to make it work with lots of different scales   of we outstanding so have you already thought  about some things looking forward maybe based   on feedback that you want to improve or change  do you have something in the works already so   we have already been thinking about and really it  kind of came with uh Cory when we when Cara went   and tested um with him this past season his bees  were just off the charts performers um so we're   thinking about how can we how can ubo evolve  with the industry as more people get involved   and start testing and you know maybe we need  to adjust the threshold from 60 maybe it needs   to be higher maybe that's more on an individual  scale basis um maybe you know we've talked about   um changing concentrations of of the uo mix like  a uo 2.0 something like that okay um so but what   we're seeing right now is that um from some new  data um that those that perform high on ubo are   also more resistant to chalk bird and NOA too so  excellent even with the mix that we currently have   there's still a lot more potential to to learn are  you uh noticing that people aren't paying enough   attention to things like NOA that it's not even  a consideration I think the only people who are   really thinking about noima are the commercial  crowd yeah and they they're doing the testing   um and kind of keeping an eye on that they're  they're treating for it as well and how are   they treating um I believe fillan yeah you might  have to I'm I'm not the that's the final word on   it that's just you're guessing that that's what  they're doing from what I hear I think there's a   few other um few other treatments but okay great  yeah are there any any last words something you   want to share you have a website we're just kind  of getting started um yeah keep in touch with our   website it's um opter aes.com um yeah so we're  we're excited for this first season great well   thank you so much for the interview I appreciate  it yeah I appreciate it thank you colies keep   themselves healthy okay what's their Health Care  system so it can be divided into different kind   of areas how they're organized how they prevent  um disease and then once they're infected how   do they fight it off so division of labor just how  be up your honey swap honey the doors were Clos at 123 additionally we have out of control right now so I'm here with Seth what's up guys what do  you think of these horizontal hives that one's the   prettiest one I've ever seen a lot is it worth the  money yeah if you're in the horizontal Hive see   I've never run one I could see having them if you  just want two or three in the garden or something   or they're really or if you're too old to lift  boxes stuff that too I don't have that problem yet   okay it's coming it'll be here before I know it  I'm sure all right thank you you're welome to see you line over there Ricky thanks for letting  me visit your booth appreciate it friend you're   always a pleasure to have around You've Lost  Your Voice just like me all right let's talk   about what's new this year what are people  interested in the most you know that lightning   H let's take a look let's talk about that thing  man people just love this thing I could have sold   20 of them this year would have should have and  could have yeah it's always the new stuff right   yeah so what made you want to electrocute  a beehive well you know I had a customer   said I want something very unusual and I got on  YouTube and I started looking at some of the uh   new designs and stuff people are doing I said  hey we could do a really cool electrical look   to this Hive and it's made from black locust  it's going to last forever yeah and it's got   a cool look to it what is that process like I  mean I understand it it burns it while you're   going but are you just sticking electrodes  on the wood you wet it or you what are you   doing two electrodes on both sides and put uh  water with some baking soda and and it really   works it was amazing watching the electricity  run through the hive man yeah that sounds cool   yeah even later at night if we run electri from  here to here and we had burn the other side it   was sparking on the other side so it is a very  dangerous process now did they request it or is   it something you just wanted to try out uh it's  something they kind of requested and I wanted to   try at the same time so uh it is very dangerous  uh we had a dead switch with that so we're not   telling people to do it we're just explaining what  was done right okay yes all right let's go over   the features of your hive I know it's probably  similar to your other horizontal hives sure is   absolutely and we are talking horizontal bees.com  y okay let's go over the features let's check it out so this customer want what is going on here  jar conb honey oh is that where they're going to   Prime the base of the jar with beeswax and they're  going to build comb in it that's correct they did   that with one of our Walnut hobes that we made  for them and they wanted that same style here do   you have a sample of a jar with comb in it where  that happened uh she actually shows the video of   where they actually did that yeah okay so these  are made for Smallmouth mason jars that's correct   and they just put the lid right down there now  let's look at the parts underneath absolutely   you got you got a follower board actually this one  there's our follower board this is not electricity   this is just Char okay we just trying to keep  the same B look right yeah then we got our you know around I got them in there good and your stock  is standard Tu byai is that yeah it's a inch   and a half thck this again it's black Locus so  it's extremely hard okay but it's it's just like   our regular hives are most of your hives made  with black locust no just this one just this   one that's the thing about the horizontal right  I don't have to stick with white pine right I can   play with anything I want right and it can weigh  as much as it absolutely away right but you're   probably not going to move it at that point yeah  got a nice gasket on here too yeah what kind of   gasket material how do you keep that from sticking  to that sticking to that this one is a polye thing   too it really sticks good to that but most of them  actually drive some Nails in there to help give a   little support from pulling away exactly okay nice  now we already know the feedback is good very good   how's business overall sold out yesterday sold out  yesterday taking preorders today so are you taking   orders yep and do you hit a point where you've  taken all the orders you're going to deal with for   the year are you worried about being overworked  FR I am way overworked we're actually pushed out   till March before we came to the navi so Rick's  got to do something different right i' got I've   got to make an expansion or or do something you  know just bringing something for the customers   that they can use that's all okay you wanted  to use them okay now all right anything else   coming along and the the thought process changes  ideas what does your wife allow you to do well I   really like building something new uh my wife has  been pretty she's actually going to let me quit my   job so we're going to do this full time she wants  you to quit your job she's let me quit my job did   I not say you could quit your day job I told you  I quit my day job right I got I told him he could   quit his day job and now he's allowed yep okay got  it on camera I helped apply that pressure that's   right right there we go all right but we need  more people so you are you're going to really   do it yeah we're need people like Fred how do we  push this to another step right yeah let's think   outside the box what else can we do to him right  to meet what a beekeeper might need you know we   got the rotating Hive down there for Justin  Ruger okay yeah yeah for handicap beekeepers   Absol abolutely yeah let's do stuff like that and  figure out a new way to use this same Hive right   yeah young or old you can work a horizontal  hi that's right I want to thank you Ricky for   catching up making a great product keeping up with  your customers and listening to their feedback   that's the best hey man all the best yep so here  we are at easy Ox powder that's the name of the   company EAS well Mike's be the name of the company  okay what's your position product called easy off   tablets and Powers we sell both products and this  is our powder comes in at 400 Grand package it's   going to retail for $22.95 okay uh you can do  100 um Double D pipes with this we're approv   for two G per D so if you got a double D pip you  can do four G okay our tablets come in a 50 count   package they retail for $12.95 they're 1 G tablets  exactly one gr so if you're used to a single deep   you'd use two tablets and that's EPA approved  and then how do you deliver the OA with those   tablets exotic acid uh is vaporizer vaporizer any  vaporizer wand whatever you got J any any brand   of work okay I've tried a bunch of different ones  like in our B club guys have all different kinds   I've took the tablets to the club and they they  work every now when you have to make a tablet   and you have to compress it to make the tablet  yes you do what are you adding to it anything   well we add one excipient okay this excipient is  a lube for the machine and it also is a binder so   it like you say it's got to come back we tried  to use with done you can't do that you got to   put something in so we we spent over 2 years doing  research and making these tablet okay first thing   they got to do is not hurt the bees second thing  they got to they got to vaporize and they don't   want to leave any residue in your vaporiz okay  so we found one recipient this ision one that   that'll work on then I was worried about the EPA  not approving my exient I knew I knew the uh AEL   acid should go since the USDA already approved  it one time and so when I got to that point I   had you know I had to hire a consultant to do this  for me cuz I don't speak EPA okay but he does and   my worries came to an end real quick when I told  him what my recipient was which is my confidental   superg that they make you sign away but she had  to declare that to the EA you don't have to tell   us with that they know my secret formula okay and  anyway they said that's over your food you do not   we're not worried about that that's out the window  you're good to go but it's still took 13 months to   get the oelc acid approval and I got the the uh  dosage inre to two G per deep we tried for three   and at the very last minute comes the September  was my 12th month we're working forward to October   and my consultant says they're probably going  to be late but they contacted him and said if   your client will agree to two GRS we will go ahead  and approve you today okay and my consultant says   take it I'll file for three soon as you sign the  papay okay sounds good now I see that there's an   expiration date yes there is this is right now  right now it's 2 years yeah for a shell flag   two years and you'll notice also there's a a lot  number each uh batch of oxyc acid that we produce   has to be tied to a certificate of analysis that  analysis tells the EPA and me what the impurities   are in that 90 we use 99.7 or better for our uh  active ingredient I will not accept anything in   less than that it's got to be 99.7 or better just  because because I got to put an exient I want to   get it as good as I can and also I want to mention  when you have a pesticide your active ingredient   the EPA will allow you a 5% deviation okay A lot  of times your AC greed is like2 G and a 10 G in   our case it's a 99.7 or 99.6 so my 5% is a bigger  number that I can and I always try to well we   always are better we never go below our 97 it's 97  okay so how are they selling selling well selling   a lot Cameron Jack I guess said something about  us it really nobody knew there was another aelc   acid that's approved by the EPA well if Cameron  Jack endorses you that's well I don't know about   but he said we're here I don't know what he  said I don't I've never met the guy a bunch   of came to you after that okay yeah we'd like to  actually help him out with our product when his   you know we love all right sounds good last words  anything else you want to share how do people find   it I just had a great time done this is the first  time we've ever really try to sell our product is   that Mike's be yep Mike's be Cambridge Ohio and by  the way I'm working on state registrations right   now we're in at least 16 States we've registered  Pennsylvania being one uh but uh more than double   that we have already went and U sent the money and  the paperwork we're waiting on replies and I know   Texas I got an email from yesterday they say two  to three more weeks we should be registered Texas   okay but I have a lot of Fe keeping companies in  Texas that want to sell our products so I'm hoping   that gets here quick nice yeah cuz it's very  expensive to do what I did well thanks a lot   Mike I want to appreciate your time and thanks  for your service to by the way all right thank   you for doing what you do FR y you're welcome  they're normally 15 we're selling 10 you take   cash um yeah I guess we'll take Cas you we'll  take Cash's time we'll take it until we can't   take it anymore so yeah I did so here we are with  Scott who I've dealt with for many years so I'm   glad to talk with you this is the first convention  I've been to where you've been here for right it's   hard for me to come to some of these things and so  how's it going what what are the hot selling items   for it's going really good um probably the best  selling item them had is a 2 oz swarm Commander   um we created that product about about 7 years  ago I used to work in the flavor and fragrance   industry yeah corporately and got tired of that  after about 18 years um wait huh it took 18 years   to get tired it took 18 years over the road stuff  you know you get tired of that after a while but   anyway what happened is that I got it I used to  work with research and development scientists   that were looking three to five years down the  road with different products for the industry   got used to that when I got into beekeeping I  realized that this in this skew this area had   not been you know in innovated in in a long time  or ever so I knew I could do a better job so what   we did we took Nan off uh to a laboratory up north  and they synthesized it for us and they broke it   down and synthesized synthesized it force and um  so we it took about 2 years to perfect the formula   to get it right but uh finally we got it right  the re reason I knew that we had it cuz I I went   out in my backyard had two hives uh three hives  actually on a hive stand the middle one was dead   and I wanted to spray some in it so I went to go  lift the lid and um after I had loaded the bottle   on the way out to the hives somebody gotten on my  shirt yeah so I go out there lift the lid off the   hive it had was propoli and it banged on the on  the stand and you know those those bees on the   left and right weren happy about it so I backed  off cuz one of them was a hot hot so I backed off   and they came out towards me and I was expecting  to get stuned but they came towards me landed on   my shirt and it get warm around me and they were  they were Fanning their wings but they're behind   up in the a so I knew then that we had the right  formula that didn't happen so which was you know   a godsend as far as I'm concerned so we started  marketing it um people were really upset about   the price of the product but the raw materials are  majorly expensive some of the raw materials are   thousands of dollars and are very rare to find  and um you know we only use small amounts you   know in some of the in that product and um so if  you buy a bottle for $35 you have to realize that   what you're getting is 200 pumps so you're only  you're only putting three to four pumps in your   trap whenever you're utilizing you catch one swarm  that will package packages are now going for what   $60 $170 you know and so they're expensive you've  got fre be so itay for itself like five times it   also has a 2ear shelf like yeah has a twoe sh  years some people are saying they kept their   bottle for 4 years so yeah I've got them they're  still if you take and put put it in a Ziploc bag   yeah roll it up and put it in your refrigerator  it'll last much long yeah could It Go in the   freezer or is that bad no I wouldn't freeze do  not freeze I'm glad we're talking about do freeze   things you don't okay you're going to get some  chemical separation in that uh and I'm afraid   that if you did it might not uh go back together  okay and I'm glad you mentioned this because I'm   going to give you some frequently asked questions  okay one of the first things that people respond   to that with is hey it's just lemongrass oil you  just put that cuz you can smell it it smells like   lemongrass oil so I'm really happy that you hit on  the complexity of the chemistry behind it in that   it imitates Nas that's right so right that's very  important for people to understand it isn't just   a bottled extract Lem expensive lemongrass it's  not and if you've ever stood next to a bunch of   bees that are Fanning their nasoff glands right it  smells like lemongrass oil absolutely absolutely   or we could say it actually smells like swarm  Commander yeah Absolut so what inspired you to   go from these bottles to these little quick packs  well each each one of these these versions has a   different time frame that it last okay um some  people didn't want the 30 $5 bottle that it cost   they wanted something cheaper so I actually have  four different versions of swarm Commander the   spray bottle the crush vies the super lures I also  have a gel I created a gel product as well in a 1   oz bottle that you can uh release and sprit or  spray and not spray but squeeze inside of your   ey these are the Innovation that he came up with  to substitute for the old Tommy vs that you would   open it they would spill sure the plastic ones  that you know that that are sold in little manila   envelopes these are more like smelling salts when  you break them the cotton applicator is going to   fill up with the Swarm commander and then swipe  it on the landing board and toss it in your swarm   track and where do you recommend they place that  just toss it in the hive it doesn't matter where   anywhere anywhere now is there some concern about  putting too much of it on your hive no because it   releases the correct amount out all the time okay  and what about with your spray spray yes you don't   want to put too much on it it will repel the bees  and when we first started selling this product   of course we're selling it to guys guys stin  sometimes more as better and it's not in this   instance I kept getting calls from guys telling me  that they caught bees but they didn't go into the   hive they were mounting underneath the bottom of  the Trap so they're attracted but they wouldn't go   in right and I couldn't figure out why they were  doing that cuz we had tested this so I'd walk it   through them and ask him okay tell me what you did  how you loaded it and without fail they'd see well   five or six times I sprayed it I'm like can't do  that you're going to overload it some guys would   do more than that you can't overload it'll repel  them now are your sales what you expected them   to be uh are people already familiar with your  product when they come here or are you introducing   to it time man it's it's been amazing uh because  I don't come to these shows very often um first   of all I'm a disable vet and I have arthritis plus  kidney failure and I'm in a dialysis chair 4 days   a week so I don't really make it to these a lot  but um I've gotten so much feedback here that it's   heartwarming you know guys will come up and tell  me man I can't thank you enough for the product   I've used lemongrass I've used whatever other  product is on the market yours always beats it   out to know that I've worked as hard as I have on  the products that I created and to have that kind   of feedback is just amazing I mean it makes you  feel like you've really made a great impact on   the on the industry which is knows what swarm  command is what they don't know is who really   is behind it and how you arrived at it that's  why this is really good to be doing thank you   I appreciate itely and thank you for all you do  you know your channel is amazing and I appreciate   think people are learning a lot not only about  you know beekeeping but other other things that   you do which are is is really interesting intering  you're interesting character thank you so much I'm   glad to meet you in person St friend thank  you Fred ncy tasa that's your last name ncy tasa your cellone first area code is 717 Nancy if  you are here in the vendor Hall so I'm going to   say it right now Terry uh if you have to get one  beit it should be vented we can always put more   clothing on underneath but when it gets hot you  can't take more off right I do have here's what   I like about this one see the placement of the  pockets mhm some people wear your suits without   clothing underneath do you recommend that if  they do they should pick the ones with the   most Pockets right yeah I would I would agree  with that definitely go full suit okay let's   move on now yeah I noticed that you have some  new gloves you want to talk about that a little   bit yeah uh you know we we put we redesigned the  gloves we came out with our own style ventilated   to the fingertips um still got goat goat skin  on the inside uh they are quickly becoming our   biggest seller um as far as total volume they  have caught on really well we started getting   people asking for a shorter version so this year  we came out with the short glove same style okay   I have to say something what's that let's look at  this again here's what I like see that strap often   this elastic wears out through the years right is  that the reason you added that strap we did and   also we have uh noticed that a lot more women are  getting into beekeeping okay and smaller wrist so   just even if right off the you know first day is  not quite tight enough you can cinch it down or   do they ever just wear the gloves without the suit  absolutely they do sometimes a lot of times we'll   get the long gloves for people that that don't  wear full protection um and and the short gloves   so they don't have to run up over their sleeves  if they do wear the jacket yeah but we also uh   it's not quite as obvious but we do recommend if  you're a a a cost conscious person yeah to use   these as an insurance policy because your working  area from the elbow down sure where you're going   to get a lot of or most of your damage sagging  or ripping yeah we would much rather you damage   an inexpensive part of your protective clothing  instead of having to replace a full suit so so   it's kind of like an added layer of insurance if  you're comfortable with it not we still got you C   okay nice I like that idea so what are you selling  the most of this year at at the conference at the   conference I would say probably the roundville  pro has always been the main for us umy design   made made a couple changes on our round Vil he  uh you know shorten the back which isn't new to   us but just changed the way it sat a little bit  created a nice that like does that absorb sweat   too and it let's go in let's go in here we go oh  yeah I see what you're doing is that almost like   a terry cloth what is that it actually does Terry  it's it's near that more more elasticity to plus   it's venting through the head and you you have  a nice shade around your face that's right and   there's a bungee Slaughter okay for some people  just like to have that extra layer of security um   and we tell people you know some people love it  some don't just snip it off if it's if it's not   for you oh the cord okay yeah if it's not for you  just take it right on out the way nice but uh hat   or no hat you know they snug right now okay got  good workability and and that's the most common   thing with I watched a recent uh video where  the guy was constantly being stung on the nose   and I would highly recommend if you're one of  those people that get stung in the nose all the   time that's your Veil there you go not a proail  okay all right well thanks Harry I appreciate it   thank you we're over here we got you Mike Barry  over here I don't know what he's doing yet but   but whatever it is is how he does it's always  good I think it's something about how he does   be or I don't know what's going on so thanks a  lot Terry wish you all the best always yes sir go so you're going to be my last interview of the  conference Matthew all right so let's talk about   did any of the presentations that were given at  the conference have any impact on your customer   flow here at Premiere oh absolutely um Dr Mara  SPAC of the University of Minnesota gave two   really awesome presentations uh Friday morning  and Saturday morning about all of her research   over the past 10 to 15 years on the propolis  onle and she covered everything so uh she's   awesome she happened to be speaking at the same  time as Fred Friday morning bummer but that's   okay so then because we did an opening interview  right yes so did you see an influx of people that   were interested then in this box yes yeah and  so how did sales go um sales were good yeah we   had we had five Distributors all around you know  a lot of people bought stuff beforehand so we've   had a lot of people that are like oh I wish  I knew about this beforehand but that's the   nature of launching any product um so but now they  know this is exactly now they know and there's a   lot of Education that needs to be done on uh  why prop envelope is important which is what   stuff like this Expo is important excellent  yeah well I'm glad you guys had a good run I   appreciate the presentation here too by the  way with these naturally prized uh pieces of   trees and stuff and uh we're going to hear good  things about it through the year right that's   right okay thanks again Matt glad you guys had a  great run thanks for being here I appreciate it y yes okay so a lot of people are walking around the  conference and they've picked up a new board game   and they're coming up and showing it to me and  suggesting that I check it out so that leads me   over here and I'm talking to Mario and Regina and  you want to tell me what you do for the company   or how this got started or what your part in it  is well I'm an engineer by trade an environmental   engineer okay and I've been a bige keeper for  almost 13 years now okay and uh there's so much to   learn from bees that I wanted to put everything uh  in a format that anybody can learn and play with   bees without getting stun nice so this captures  a b biology in a in a board game uh setting and   it's super engaging super fun and super difficult  to survive one year which is surviving year with   these is a challenge is that what you're saying ex  accurate to your life so okay you're an engineer   you just said I am yes and what's your part Regina  what do you do I help to design the board game and   the colors are you a graphic designer no no I just  help my dad so this is your dad yes okay and so   he's giving all the proceeds to you is that what's  happening she's getting her Fresh Hair Friz now   game board design is a thing right so do you have  any past history with other games that succeeded   or games but I did use a lot of engineering uh  we did a computer simulations to make sure the   game stays accurate to real life uh and then like  you can actually play but there's no dead ends so   we did a lot of computing to get this game done so  you then in the process of Designing the game did   you have testers and people that played it to see  if it was fun to do and yes that was us a lot of   the time so that was you both of you and we have I  have siblings so uh me and my brother we played a   lot voluntarily or were you told to voluntarily  you're in a safe space you can explain okay   so where have you launched it other than at this  convention uh so we've done local Texas beekeeping   shows okay Central Texas beeping uh pretty much  the show where we've launched it okay uh we   went to Vegas for Toy Fest there's a toy fest in  Vegas Fest when was that that was uh last March   so several toy stores in the midwest are carrying  this game and then we do have also uh we went to   another show Board Game Geek show say that again  Board Game Geek geek show that was where geek is   actually in a positive term it is a positive term  apparently if you're a board gamer so now here at   the conference how have the sales been they've  been fantastic I see a lot of people carrying   them around so something's happening we're almost  sold out okay almost sold out and we're wrapping   up the conference today right you're you're going  to you're going to finish up this is the last day   and uh do you have another place after this  like for example if somebody sees this video   it says where can I see it what next what's  the next conference are going to be at so the   next conference is going to be again toyfest in  Vegas in March toyfest in Vegas in March but we do   have a website and that is right here it's www.b  game.com that is a Shameless plug see that good   good good we do shipping um basically anywhere in  the globe anywhere in the globe yeah yes it's all   games all over um I think the furthest oh what's  the farthest place that somebody purchased one   of your games uh New Zealand Australia Denmark  Sweden Sweden no kidding so it translates well   if they didn't necessarily have a strong English  background or is it educational as well yes give   me an example of how it's educational okay well  well here in the game oh would you like me for   me to explain the game sure absolutely okay  so you start out with your mini Hive or your   nuke you have four honeycomb cells one honey one  egg one larvae one Pupa and one bee and the game   has four stages so the first stage is to draw a  season card so you will pick a season card this   one says day after rain collect one pollen per be  so we place our pollen on top of our beam another   type of card that you can play is a dice card  so this is a command card this is a dice card   depending on the level of difficulty that you  would like to play this is in the instructions   the standard version is if you roll a one or a two  it's a bonus a three or four it's a question and a   five or six it's a hazard so here the questions  can range from uh what is the Queen's gender to how long does it take for a queen to develop from  an egg to a bee wait a second what is the Queen's   gender yes that's pretty pretty easy I mean where  are we going with that okay so you just want to   know if participants understand the queen is  a female yes sir okay so the answer is right   there so we recommend either uh putting it with  your finger so you don't automatically go to the   answer or someone else okay okay I like that um  some of the questions are difficult like how many   eyes does a be have or how many times per second  does a b there no eyes in B right just a b and two   e okay now uh the second step is to age everything  so the egg goes to the larvae the larvae goes to   the pupa and the pupa goes to the Oh I like that  so it's a biology education program that's nice   here because we already have uh the two standard  processes we just take the lowest one and we add   a be the bees stay outside of the hive third step  is to unload our be so here whatever we had in the   first round we will be able to put inside of  our Combs if you have no more space your bee   has to carry it and the next time that you get  something your bee won't be able to carry the   very last step is make improvements here's where  the strategy element of the game comes in because   you can take a honey and exchange it for a honey  comb and you can take a pollen and exchange it for   an egg oh or I like it you can choose to not do  that and stockpile food you also have to take in   account the hazards and weather so here in Spring  the weather's going to be very nice and there are   going to be little to no hazards so what we're  going to want to do is expand our Hive as much   as possible before winter arrives and we have  to just try and survive there you go once you   have four bees four honeys you can exchange it  for a swarm token a swarm token Whoever has the   most swarms at the end of the year wins and that's  the goal of the game yes we added another level of   complexity to the game so if it's if you want more  pain there is more pain if it's a little boring to   you you can add the sudden death element okay this  is more for tournaments you can choose whether you   live in a city a barn a tree or a cave in the city  and in the barn the beef keeper will help you but   he will take away your honey in the cave and in  the tree you're all by yourself and depending   on where you live you will funnel these cards of  Hazards and uh natural disasters into either all   the seasons or just in the hazards section so the  poor person who gets a hazard will have to die so   here if you get a uh natural disaster for fire in  a cave it won't affect you but if you get a flood   you're dead so some natural disasters affect  some of the places but not all of them right   so you have to live and die by your decision of  where to live I like the barn and then the Beacher   FS your honey very interesting so and people  can buy them online and uh price point what   would they expect to pay for this so it's $40 plus  shipping plus shipping and what's shipping within   the United States the United States it's probably  going to be less than $10 almost anywhere so 50   bucks roughly for that all right well I want to  thank you for introducing us to your game and for   talking to me here at the conference and I wish  you guys all the best with your Innovation here fantastic okay so I'm walking by and I see this  backdrop that says the be and Butterfly habitat   fund a NextGen conservation solution and so  you guys were wrapping up the conference but   you still have high energy what's going on what is  this program and what do we need to know about it   as backyard beekeepers so we are excited because  we are a nonprofit that provides free SE to land   owners free seeds one more time to landowners that  want to do pollinator habitat projects on their l   between 2 and 25 acres in size perfect okay so  where does this program cover I mean you said   it's a nonprofit so how are people supporting  you by if the seeds are free yeah the seeds are   free we are funded through corporate donations  grants and then also small individual donations   something like our gifts at grow program where  you can make a donation in honor of someone for   a memorial for a holiday birthday whatever the  case may be what a great way to pay forward um   and then we work with land owners to get their  habitat ready and uh I'll let our new Mandy uh   new Mandy what happened to Old she's brand new  just this weekend she's our new biologist that's   going to be working with land owners to help oh  you're biologist I love that story so explain   to us what species were benefiting with these  particular plants yes so um we do a two species   or a two seed mix uh project for all of our  projects and so 50% of the land will be in a   bee friendly mix so that's going to be Clover  uh Clover's primarily and then some other wild   flowers and some grasses and sedges and so that's  really beneficial for um both forage and habitat   for our native and are introduced Bees honey bees  and bubble bees and then we'll do the other half   of the project will be in a native mix that is  primarily focused on butterflies and pollinators   so it'll have wild flowers and milk weeds and  some grasses and so uh we do see you know the   bees are in the butterfly mix the butterflies are  in the bee mix but they're both beneficial um for   all sorts of species so okay and we that's really  interesting we're primarily in these 14 States   we actually just launched into Pennsylvania back  in October the most important state I know right   that's where I'm from and then we just launched  into Kentucky and that's why we're here at the   American honeybee Expo now you said non-native  species and you included apis mifer but you also   said bumblebees the bombus group right so which  Bumblebees are not native oh I just me like both   native oh you're including the Bumblebee as the  native group are there any non-native bumblebees   I don't know okay moving on now sorry so no that's  okay we're just talking we're just talking we're   just talking this is her second day okay so  wait let's talk about your background a little   bit so you're a biologist where did you get your  degree um I went to the University of Wisconsin   Stevens Point and I studied Wildlife ecology and  management and then um I've been working in uh   birth East Kansas on Upland Prairie habitat for  the last several years so that's fantastic and   what's your background uh I actually have a degree  in education but I was working for alany college   in Northwestern Pennsylvania and the development  office and went searching for a nonprofit that   um was close to my heart so I am in charge of  fundraising and bringing in the funds and working   with different companies to help um continue this  Mission so how long has this program been around   um so we are like baby nonprofit We started in  2017 okay and so we're pretty new this is year   seven I guess so yeah you're not actually unknown  because I've had some of my viewers contact me   and suggest that I recommend this program so  it's kind of kismet that I just happened by   and you were willing to talk to me so let's talk  about this poller habitat seed mix are we dealing   only with Native species so there's like a top 10  most common um Native wild flowers but I they're   not necessarily native to every single state  but they're pretty top 10 Common that should   be planable for almost everybody to put in their  Garden just for fun and to get them talking about   us and get just for fun yeah cuz then we really  want them to sign up for the program it's like   two to 25 acres of pollinator habitat so when they  sign up for the program what happens so they sign   up for the program we get their information our  biologist Elsa will reach out to them and then   they can uh learn about how to get their sight  prepped and then once their sight is prepped we   will send them free seats so when they sign up  for this program are there any hidden costs uh   whatever you choose to do as your site prep would  be your cost to you so you so that's on the land   owner yeah it's on the land owner so you can do  something from an all national method all the way   to using life estate and everything in between  we work with you no matter what your choice is   we just kind of guide you through the process so  some people plant um soybeans or find a farmer   locally that will plant some soy beans as a cover  crop to um get their site ready and we usually do   seeding in the fall and that way the seeds can do  those stratifications cing over the winter okay   good yeah so do you know about the xery society's  top 100 pollinator plants are you familiar at all   with that list did that list have any impact on  the seed varieties that you're offering I'm not   sure I'm the fundraiser not the biologist our  biologist Elsa would probably be better not oh   Elsa they're they're really um passionate about  getting like really high quality seed mixes for   um these planting so we call them nextg seed mixes  and so they have looked at you know what are the   you know native species that we're putting in  here what are the pollinator benefits to them   I'm sure we have an example somewhere but we  look at Bloom season we look at you know are   there enough of each color in the mix um for  our specific mix and then for the B specific   mix um we're looking at what is the best you know  for forage and for half for those species so nice   well said so when we're talking about soil prep  and those who have uh maybe agricultural areas   where they can contribute to this program by  using their land in this way some people are   feeling pretty strongly about no till preparation  and others are like youat till or you won't get   what you need what do you think about that um I  think uh it can go either way right so um Amanda   was just talking about kind of our no till option  I guess is to plant the soy beans to harvest them   and um no till or broadcaster seed into it  after that um and that is for folks who are   comfortable using an herbici side and doing the uh  agricultural operation on there if folks are not   we do you recommend burning we have seen people  do page mowing when's the best time of year to   burn huh best time of year to burn best time year  to burn depends on what you want to do so uh if   you're looking to deal with Woody encroachment  to set back grasses and encourage Wild Flower   growth I typically recommend a growing season  burn so um just depends on where you're at um   my area northeast Kansas I recommend uh August  September October for one of those Burns um but   if you're looking to you know do different stuff  if you want to promote your grasses if you want   to um do some cool season manipulation we you  know there's Springtime there's winter it's not   usually a bad time to burn it just depends on  what you want to do nice yes what we have here   so I just want to point out some of our research  findings this um graph shows the USGS research on   our pollinator habitats and you can see that  we are outperforming ing drastically all of   the other habitats that were studied there's  the CRP conservation Reserve program The Wild   Life Refuge yeah getting some really great  results so we're pretty excited and proud of that so I want to thank you so much for  talking with me I hope that the viewers   that want to know more about it will look down  in the video description and follow the links   provided there or follow the links that you  saw on the screen during the the interview   thank you for your time and it's very important  to provide diverse forage for all pollinators   honeybees right in there with the rest of  them thanks a lot I appreciate it thank you

Channel: Frederick Dunn

Views: 61,025

Keywords: North American Honey Bee Expo, 2024, Interviews

Id: ZjaHE4TbnEI

Length: 171min 2sec (10262 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2024