Oct. 1, 2026

Plain Talk: Autumn Walkabout (303)

Plain Talk: Autumn Walkabout (303)

Sometimes, the best beekeeping activity is simply taking a walk and watching the bees. In this episode of Honey Bee Obscura, Dr. Jim Tew heads into a nearby field for an informal autumn walkabout. His destination is a stand of goldenrod, where he hopes to observe honey bees and other insects taking advantage of the season's remaining flowers.

Along the way, Jim encounters butterflies, bumblebees, wasps, and plenty of goldenrod. He wonders why some plants attract more insects than others, observes differences in goldenrod growth, and considers how the changing landscape influences the availability of fall forage.

The walk also brings back memories of his early beekeeping days at Auburn University. Jim recalls encountering the distinctive smell of a strong autumn nectar flow for the first time—and mistakenly worrying that his colonies had developed American foulbrood!

Returning to his bee yard, Jim reflects on observation hives, seasonal changes, and the unmistakable aroma associated with fall nectar production.

But this episode is about more than honey bees and goldenrod. It's also about staying active, appreciating the outdoors, and finding satisfaction in simply observing the natural world.

Join Jim for a relaxed autumn walk and a reminder that sometimes beekeeping is about enjoying the bees rather than managing them.

______________________

Thanks to Betterbee for sponsoring today's episode. Betterbee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, Betterbee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com

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We’d like to thank Vita Bee Health for supporting the podcast. Vita provides proven tools for controlling Varroa—from Apistan and Apiguard to the new VarroxSan extended-release oxalic acid strips—helping beekeepers keep stronger, healthier colonies.

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Thanks to Bee Culture, the Magazine of American Beekeeping, for their support of Honey Bee Obscura. Available in print and digital at www.beeculture.com

______________________

Honey Bee Obscura is brought to you by Growing Planet Media, LLC, the home of Beekeeping Today Podcast.

Music: Heart & Soul by Gyom, All We Know by Midway Music; Christmas Avenue by Immersive Music; original guitar music by Jeffrey Ott

Cartoons by: John Martin (Beezwax Comics)

Copyright © 2026 by Growing Planet Media, LLC

WEBVTT

00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:05.600
Listeners,

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several years ago.

00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:10.640
I bought one of those

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smart

00:00:12.719 --> 00:00:13.120
scales

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to tell me

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how fat

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I was.

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Well

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it

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I have to tell you it's really doing a good job

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It just

00:00:25.020 --> 00:00:26.540
informed me that I am

00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:28.540
remarkably

00:00:28.780 --> 00:00:31.980
have a low level of physical fitness.

00:00:31.980 --> 00:00:35.660
It's a little bit more information than I actually wanted.

00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:38.160
I need to walk more

00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:40.320
anyway.

00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:42.720
Stay more involved and stay active

00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:46.820
So I'm gonna go on a short walk back here

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to a field that I have written about, talked about, and that

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surely

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one day is going to become a housing complex.

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But for right now,

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It's just a field

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with native plants in it.

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I want to go look at them.

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Listeners, I'm Jim Tew.

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I come to you here once a week at Honey Bee Obscura, where I try to do something.

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that in some way

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relates

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to

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plain

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talk beekeeping.

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Welcome to Honey Bee Obscura, brought to you by Growing Planet Media, the producers

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of the Beekeeping Today

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podcast.

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Join Jim Tew, your guide through the complexities, the beauty, the fun, and the challenges of managing honey bees.

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Jim hosts fun and interesting guests who take a deep dive into the intricate world of honey bees.

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Whether you're a seasoned beekeeper

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or just getting started, get ready for some plain talk that'll delve into all things honey bees.

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I'm here at the goldenrod

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Plant.

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You know, plants are frequently

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not as exciting as they've been built up to be.

00:02:04.800 --> 00:02:06.240
When you read a bee book

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,

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And you think the golden

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rod

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is a

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is a plant

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that's just going to attract everything being known to mankind, humankind.

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Yeah, there's insects here.

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But it's not like a crowded buffet.

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Here's

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and uh

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about a ten

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square foot area

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There's a butterfly.

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I should know the name of it, but I don't.

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There's two or three honey bees.

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There's a bumblebee

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right

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here

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There's some kind of a fly, a dipterous

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insect.

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Bumblebees collecting pollen.

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There's a thread

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wasted

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wasp.

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Would

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be called a Sphecidae.

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There's the red wasp

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that I've just talked about in

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other

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segments that used to terrify me and sting me to death.

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It

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seems to be a general diversity

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of insects, but not like

00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:10.800
every insect known to humankind, something I've already said.

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Let's go up to a denser planting up here of

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naturally planted

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golden

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rod

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All you beekeepers in my home state of Alabama

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go on these walks.

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And even though I don't think there's been a venomous snake here in Wayne County, Ohio, and

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75

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to 100 years, I always think well

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keep

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an eye out for you know what my grandmother would always say

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now

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you boys watch out for snakes out there

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and

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on occasion

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As you know, they were out there.

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I haven't seen a snake in the wild in years.

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Sounds like famous last words, doesn't it?

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I'm out here in the planting.

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There's honey

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honey bees, honey

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bees, gentle breeze blowing.

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I hope my

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windscreen is

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protecting the microphone so you don't have to hear the wind blowing

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This is just a wide open field.

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It's being reclaimed

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by goldenrod.

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The fall flowers, the little tiny asters

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are just starting.

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So

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I may come back at some point.

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I don't want to bore you to death with this.

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I may come back at some point

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Check out these asters

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because right now they're not competitive.

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Is that by design?

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There's a bald-faced hornet

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I didn't know they did this.

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Let me

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get closer.

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See if I can get stung and give you some

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drama here

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Nope, it took off.

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Too close.

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I got inside his territory.

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There is a lot of insect activity, but you see now I'm doing it.

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When I say there's a lot of insect activity

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I'm thinking there should be tens of thousands, but there's just hundreds.

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The plant's always stuck with this notion of

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how much reward to give

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And when are they giving so much reward

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that it's costing them too much?

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You know, I just realized I don't know how

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golden

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rod

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is pollinated.

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My neighbor

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for years

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has

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uh

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fertilizer lawn and then they captured the clippings, something I've never done, and they would bring them back here and dump the clippings in this field

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And where they dump their clippings, there's goldenrod that's higher than my head

00:05:46.419 --> 00:05:48.180
and outside that area

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is

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goldenrod that's hardly waist

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tall.

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So I'm comfortable saying that golden

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rod

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responds well

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to

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soil fertilizer rates.

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If I was going to do this, I should have worn something besides

00:06:05.440 --> 00:06:05.759
These

00:06:06.080 --> 00:06:08.879
running shoes for a man who doesn't run anymore.

00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:11.599
My machine's already told me that.

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Yep, if I were in Alabama, I'd be uncomfortable right now.

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Trekking up in these weeds

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Well I'm comfortable telling it

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most

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of these bees are mine.

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And if you look up over the horizon, you can see good

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insect flight.

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What what does that mean, Jim?

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I can see 25

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30 insects over

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a hundred square feet of

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whatever here

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of golden

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rod

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primarily.

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He's

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aster.

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Here's Queen Anne's lace, but I don't ever

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see

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bees

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doing anything on that wild carrot or Queen Anne's lace or whatever you call it.

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A lot of the goldenrod hasn't opened yet.

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And

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you know I wonder if if just if there's different species of golden

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rod

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out here.

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I think there's two or three in Ohio and I can't tell them apart.

00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:08.460
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00:07:09.860 --> 00:07:21.140
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When I went to Auburn

00:08:19.320 --> 00:08:24.760
and stumbled into beekeeping, I got three hives of bees

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Can't recall where I got the third one.

00:08:27.500 --> 00:08:28.860
I got two from my

00:08:29.500 --> 00:08:31.020
uncle.

00:08:31.020 --> 00:08:32.620
And then I got a third one somewhere.

00:08:32.620 --> 00:08:34.539
And I had them outside of Auburn

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on my major professor's property

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And I pulled into the yard one day,

00:08:41.420 --> 00:08:45.660
took my little three beehives, and there was a stink.

00:08:45.660 --> 00:08:46.060
To me

00:08:46.220 --> 00:08:47.820
it was a stink.

00:08:47.920 --> 00:08:52.079
that I had never smelled before and I went into high panic

00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:59.279
that I had American foulbrood so fast, so bad, that the whole bee yard was smelled up by it

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I honestly called

00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:07.300
the state inspector and the county inspector came out

00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:08.660
and politely

00:09:08.820 --> 00:09:12.500
and lovingly told me that that was the fall nectar flow from goldenrod

00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:13.480
But

00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:15.480
I sometimes wonder if goldenrod

00:09:15.640 --> 00:09:16.760
gets the blame

00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:20.280
for what the aster is contributing to.

00:09:20.280 --> 00:09:23.400
But you never get a chance to separate the fall asters

00:09:23.560 --> 00:09:24.600
and the Fall goldenrod

00:09:24.760 --> 00:09:27.640
to see which is responsible for the odor.

00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:30.160
I'm sure a chemist could do it at some point if there are

00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:31.200
reason for it.

00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:32.800
But all I had going that day

00:09:33.760 --> 00:09:35.760
was a good fall golden

00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:36.240
rod

00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:37.920
crop coming in

00:09:39.140 --> 00:09:39.220
I

00:09:39.540 --> 00:09:43.060
learned to like the smell and sometimes with a good flow

00:09:43.380 --> 00:09:46.500
on, I could smell goldenrod

00:09:46.740 --> 00:09:48.740
crop from my bee yard

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to my

00:09:50.260 --> 00:09:51.540
back door.

00:09:51.820 --> 00:09:54.780
And it's 80 yards away.

00:09:54.780 --> 00:10:01.260
And it was a very distinctive odor that primarily seemed to come out at night.

00:10:01.260 --> 00:10:03.980
Don't have a lot of basis for saying that

00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:08.640
We'll see if I can get out of this growth and go to another one of these.

00:10:08.640 --> 00:10:10.480
And I got used to the smell.

00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:12.320
I learned to like the smell

00:10:12.920 --> 00:10:15.720
And I learned to know that that is a strong

00:10:15.959 --> 00:10:17.800
odiferous indicator

00:10:18.040 --> 00:10:18.920
of the fall

00:10:19.079 --> 00:10:21.319
nectar flow going on.

00:10:21.319 --> 00:10:23.319
And when that flow is over

00:10:23.959 --> 00:10:26.040
and that smell goes away

00:10:26.860 --> 00:10:30.060
Then it except just for an occasional

00:10:30.940 --> 00:10:32.779
planting and a flower bed

00:10:32.940 --> 00:10:35.339
someplace, that's it for the year.

00:10:36.180 --> 00:10:37.380
2026

00:10:37.540 --> 00:10:39.459
nectar production year

00:10:39.779 --> 00:10:40.420
is over

00:10:40.660 --> 00:10:42.260
and done.

00:10:42.260 --> 00:10:43.380
Back down nearby

00:10:43.860 --> 00:10:44.339
yard

00:10:45.020 --> 00:10:47.260
I was going to see if what they're doing here.

00:10:47.260 --> 00:10:50.620
Here's butterflies on the aster plant.

00:10:52.620 --> 00:10:52.940
So

00:10:53.100 --> 00:10:57.260
several years ago I had a nine-frame observation hive.

00:10:57.140 --> 00:10:57.220
I

00:10:57.380 --> 00:10:59.220
'm gonna work my way around this

00:10:59.540 --> 00:11:00.180
poison

00:11:00.420 --> 00:11:01.460
ivy.

00:11:01.460 --> 00:11:03.300
I had a nine-frame observation

00:11:03.460 --> 00:11:03.700
hive

00:11:04.020 --> 00:11:04.660
set up

00:11:06.040 --> 00:11:06.360
And

00:11:06.520 --> 00:11:13.240
when the fall flow started, there's a little whiff of it down this bee yard.

00:11:13.240 --> 00:11:15.240
When the fall flow started

00:11:16.060 --> 00:11:19.420
I had that thing inside the porch on my shop.

00:11:19.420 --> 00:11:21.260
I just about couldn't stay in the shop.

00:11:21.260 --> 00:11:23.580
The odor was so strong.

00:11:23.580 --> 00:11:26.380
Just overwhelmingly strong.

00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:30.220
I can't tell that there's any more bees on the goldenrod in the bee yard

00:11:31.180 --> 00:11:32.779
than is on the goldenrod

00:11:33.260 --> 00:11:36.779
up in the field where I just walked back from.

00:11:36.940 --> 00:11:41.260
I'm not really trying to tell you a falsehood here.

00:11:41.140 --> 00:11:42.740
It's a nice day

00:11:43.620 --> 00:11:45.540
and I just wanted to be out

00:11:46.180 --> 00:11:47.060
walking around

00:11:47.220 --> 00:11:48.980
and I didn't want to have to light a smoker.

00:11:48.980 --> 00:11:51.460
I've got a trip coming up Wednesday

00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:56.200
So I'm not trying to start anything big before I leave.

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Be going

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through next Monday.

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And I just wanted to get out for a walk.

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There's not a cloud in the sky, and it's just one of those days

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for no particular

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good reason

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you just

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Feel good about watching the bees come and go.

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This time of the year they can be the least bit cranky

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My daughter gave me a shirt that said, I'm a beekeeper.

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If I run, you should run

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too.

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I know you've all seen those

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and

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my family thought that was hilarious

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So I

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wear it periodically

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so

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they can get a laugh out of it.

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Now I'm at a beehive entrance here.

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There's absolutely beautiful flight

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And

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there's some pollen

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so they're bringing in both.

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There's a tall hive that they're up in the top of it primarily and they got cross

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comb

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up there.

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I think I'll just dread that till

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next spring

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Let that go.

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Apple crop.

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I always get a ridiculous number of golf-ball sized apples because the pollination in this bee yard

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is 100%

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complete.

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Beekeepers is a nice day

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just to be a philosophical

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beekeeper.

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Go for a walk and look at bees doing what they do

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on

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their own, watching the plants do what they do

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on their

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own, watching the other insects that come to the smorgasbord of

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the fall crop

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is all these insects get ready for the upcoming big dearth.

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That will

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definitely be here

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in just uh

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probably a few more weeks

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yet

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Trying not to fall.

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I always have my phone on me.

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When you

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live alone, you always need some kind of an emergency, whatever.

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So I made it back out of the brush

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I'm back out in the ditch.

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I'm hiking back.

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Listen, I really appreciate you hanging out with me.

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I know this is not

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incredibly insightful information, but it

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just feels good.

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It just feels good to be

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able and

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to move and to do as much as I can do

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I can't do the heavy lifting anymore.

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I don't even try.

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So I don't have the best managed bees in the country, but

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I can't tell that they complain much about it.

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Until we can talk next week

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about something.

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probably more beekeepingly relevant.

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We'll tell you bye for now.

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See if I can get back to the house, take a short break, and do something constructive.

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That's all I got for now.