WEBVTT
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Hello podcast listeners.
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Let's walk back to the bee yard.
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Spring is here.
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Grass is already growing.
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Birds are happy.
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We'll walk back to the barn and I want to do some if the robbers are not too bad I want to see if we can do some forensic work back here
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and see what happened with these two packages while they died during the winter.
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I know that one passed on early on because it I had a perpetual clean issue with it.
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So let's have a look.
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Listeners, I'm Jim Tew.
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I come to you here once a week at Honey Bee Obscure where I just try to talk about something conversationally to do with plain talk beekeeping.
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Welcome to Honey Bee Object.
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The Obscura, brought to you by Growing Planet Media, the producers of the Beekeeping Today podcast.
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Join Jim 2, your guide through the complexities, the beauty, the fun, and the challenges.
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Of managing honeybees.
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Jim hosts fun and interesting guests who take a deep dive into the intricate world of honeybees.
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Whether you're a seasoned beekeeper or just getting started, get ready for some plain talk that'll definitely
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into all things honey bees.
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Oh man, this is a crazy place back here.
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That forensic stuff I was telling you we were going to do.
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We're not gonna do that because the bees are robbing like crazy.
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And those are two that died.
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So all I could do was find out this is gonna be smoker stuff.
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I want to say again, I cannot believe this many of my bees are alive
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as long and as cold as it was.
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So I'm at a loss now.
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I'm not sure what to do.
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I don't want to suit up
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But I got a suspicion with this kind of robbing going on at these two.
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Why wouldn't you ask me why wouldn't I stop that robbing?
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Well I wouldn't mind having it cleaned out and if I can set instead of doing stimulative feeding just let them go over there and clean that equipment out for me and then I'll put packages on it
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So I feel like it's staying in my yard.
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I know that I know there could be bees some other places.
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But even then I'm helping them some because uh I hope they cast a swarm that I'll pick up
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You know, you just have a sense about a bee yard, don't you?
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And my sense is with this kind of rambunctious flight and that one colony being robbed out, that they're probably in a feisty mood
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Okay.
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Just so you know I'm not totally crazy.
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I went stopped everything.
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Walked all the way back to the shop
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Got on some light protective gear just in case because it takes me too long to heal now, so I don't want to cause any
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Major disconsternation to myself.
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I'll pull my veil over my head
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Pick up a hive tool here, fix my glasses, put my hearing aids back on where I knocked them off
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Open the door.
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I'm met by bees.
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I seem to think there's something in here.
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Well, I don't know what to say about this.
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The bees are all up top.
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What does that mean?
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I would have thought they would have died in a cluster.
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That's actually worthy of a picture.
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There's just all the bees they're dead and they're dead up on the inner cover.
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I've never seen anything like this.
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And they had done a good job of propalizing it down.
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They had some dysentery, not much
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They weren't trapped by the snow because I had an upper entrance for them.
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So there's a little bit of dysentery.
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And there is actually no honey here
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So I see the what little bit of honey they had has been robbed out.
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But I've never seen anything like this.
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I gotta keep the mic going.
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I'll come back and make a picture
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and posted on the page on how oddly these bees died.
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They didn't die in a cluster.
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They died up on the inner cover.
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What were they trying to get away from?
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This is going to be a question for you guys.
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Tell me what happened here if you see this picture.
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I was expecting to see a tight small cluster.
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It was a medium-sized cluster
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And here I am thinking I'm a forensic apriculturist, and I can't tell you what those bees did.
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I'll put this back just like I found it so I can make a picture of it for you using a handheld mic it bumps around
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Now this may not work if I open this and they come roaring out a black widow spider
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Think so.
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Yeah, these are robbers.
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There's a lot of hunting in this still.
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So I can't tell you why this one died.
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Oh, there's still a lot of honey up here
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Ask me about Varroa.
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No, I didn't treat for Varroa last season.
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Everybody knows the reasons why.
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So I guess Varroa could be on the list.
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Or it could just be that a queen died
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See if I can pull out the tray in the back.
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Oh, they have really been uncapping honey
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But there's no indication of a of a Baroa bomb.
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I mean there's nothing.
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The colony, since it's just me here and I can say whatever I want and I'm just talking to you.
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The queen in this colony died during the winter
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You know, I had cut trouble with the other queens too.
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So I'm going to go ahead and say that that's what's happening.
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Listen, uh, listeners, I don't want you to be as casual.
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About robbing as I am.
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I've told you I'm kind of a proponent of the logical concept for bees cleaning up each other's mess
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But that it causes a certain franticness in the yard.
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I mean these bees should be bringing back pollen
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But I don't know if they're just going over the just a few few yards away to those other one colony that still has something in it.
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There is some pollen going in
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Yep, this this is frenzied flight.
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Right after Maple, we go into a little bit of a dearth.
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Right after the first sources
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So I I'm thinking that's what's happening here now.
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You know, I had that
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Last podcast segment where I told you that these colonies had not been open in so long, what should I do?
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Leave it alone?
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One thing about these screen bottom boards is that when they drop pollen, it goes through the screen and the bees can't get to it.
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I guess they would want to get to it.
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And then the carpet beetles move in.
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So you have beetles down below.
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Just looking quickly, I don't see any might fall.
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Now I'm not doing a close check, close look
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But I've decided to kind of breathe in a bag about this whole thing.
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If I set up a second yard
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Then I'm not gonna be able to get to it.
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And all I'm gonna do is complain to you about not going to the other yard all the time
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So I've decided to do what I did last year.
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Just buy two packages, which means I've got to cancel some packages, which hope somebody reminds me to do that.
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buy two packages and replace those that died out.
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And the other thing is my neighbors are putting in a nice big garden.
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And you know my luck, I've always had
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hypersensitive neighbors.
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I mean they seem to be the real deal.
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They carry epipens.
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They're putting in a large garden and one, two, three, four
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Five, six, six colonies here.
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That would be eight, and that's a gracious plenty.
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Their garden is probably
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120, maybe a hundred yards from me.
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But you know if a swarm goes, you know where it's gonna land.
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It'll go right to their property.
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So I've decided to cut my enthusiasm
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And just get two packages to play with.
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So I can complain about Queens and whatever like I did last season.
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And then I gotta do something with these bees.
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If whereas I thought they would be hammered dead in the winter, these bees are gonna be swarming their butts off here
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in just a short time.
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So one reason I didn't mind that honey being robbed out is I'd like to break those things apart and set up a couple of swarm traps just to see if anything will come in
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But I'll probably never do it.
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It's just me making plans.
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It's a beautiful day.
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I realized that I've had these nice quiet talks with you back here during the winter.
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If just me and the occasional bird.
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Well all that's going to change.
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The motors are already starting.
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Lawns are being rolled.
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This guy with my neighbor's out putting in his garden
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So we're going to be entering the the season of the moor here very soon.
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I'll never be able to have a quiet day again.
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Gotta deal with that.
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Everything looks all right out here, listeners.
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I mean it's other than the bees being the least bit testy, I did go put a veil on.
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They would obviously want a bite of me
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In fact they're kind of getting worked up a little bit, but I do have a veil on now.
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But it just I you know I guess that would be a a reason to try to restrain Robin because it seems to agitate the yard
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Why would that be?
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Since I've talked about and thought about robbing for untold numbers of hours.
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When one colony is being robbed out, are bees each checking each other's access.
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You know what I'm trying to ask?
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If one if one colony is being robbed
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Are all other colonies being checked to see which one is the right one?
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Otherwise, how would bees know to leave this colony right here, two feet from me?
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And then go 15 still 25 feet down the way there to where that empty colony is.
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I'm guessing it would be trial and error, but I can't confirm that for sure.
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Listen, I told you in the previous episode that I'm I'm right now I'm slip shod beekeeping, so don't do what I do.
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I'm
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I'm I'm not a young beekeeper anymore and I'm just enjoying life and I'm not doing things the way I know I should do.
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So just because you're listening to me, please keep in mind where I am in life.
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And I hope you're not there.
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I hope you still want to cooking colonies up and scrape frames and keep things in order.
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Because right now I've got a a lot more bees than I thought I would have and I need to to be do something with them.
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It's like is it like raising rabbits?
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I've never raised rabbits in my life, but it seems like
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You go from feast to famine.
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I thought I would have maybe one colony alive.
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And now if each of these things swarms once or twice, I want to have more bees than I know what to do with.
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So while I'm thinking I can control this.
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Beekeepers, do I dare say it?
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Am I so far gone, so long in the tooth?
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that the swarms can just go.
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Before Varroa some years there would be so many swarms that you couldn't find somebody to get them.
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Everybody had all they wanted.
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Those days are have long since been gone.
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So back in the early, late mid-70s, early eighties, sometimes it was
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It was actually tricky to find somebody who'd drop everything and go pick up a swarm and a heavy swarm year.
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Is that where I am?
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So when these colonies swarm, just wish them well.
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I could never do that though.
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If I would be the guy who'd be putting 'em in cardboard boxes or whatever
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I'm rattling on and on.
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It is so nice to be outside and to be with the bees and it not be freezing cold.
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And of course, tomorrow's gonna be back in the 30s, but today is beautiful and the bees are making the most of it
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I think I'm gonna stop at this point.
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What I think I've figured out so far is that the one colony had an odd death
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a small amount of dysentery, and all the bees dyed up on the inner cover.
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I don't know what that means.
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The other colony, I see no signs of of any kind of varroa bomb.
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There's you know if they had died of varroa, there'd be bees everywhere, with varroa on the on the you know the this insert that I had under the screen.
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I'm guessing that they had a defective queen too.
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And they lost the queen in the middle of the year and then waned or something.
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I d I don't know.
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I'm guessing.
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Because it doesn't look like it was Varroa, there's not signs of that.
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The other colonists, when I open the bottom pens
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I don't see a lot of Aurora drops there.
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That doesn't mean anything.
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I'm wonder how people ride me telling me how slip shod this is, but all I'm doing is just doing a quick check, a quick look on a nice day
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I hope you have a nice afternoon and I hope your bees are thriving and looking good too.
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I know parts of the country are really
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really hot right now and I just submitted an article to the Journal just the basics of providing water.
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That's an exciting routine.
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So those of you in having
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hot weather I hope your bees are surviving okay good too.
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I'm just putting a post-up picture in think you have an idea what happened.
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I hope I'll do my best to find very bad
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Until you buy until this time next week.