Tara Chapman: Using your smoker is really important. This is what I do. I smoke the entrance first, and I will smoke the entrance of the colony I’m gonna work. And the ones on either side of it. If I have five colonies in a row, I’ll just go ahead and smoke a little bit. Two or three puffs at each entrance as you remove each piece of wooden wear smoke.
So as you’re moving your outer cover, your inner cover, apply a few puffs of smoke. As you remove each piece of wood and wear, then once you’re in the colony, I would say, a few, three or so puffs, every 30 to 45 seconds is usually just fine. As you get more experience, you’ll become very in tune with the hum of the bees and how they’re feeling. Just because they are making noise does not mean they are upset. But as best you can, pay attention, try not to remove any distractions because if you can start to link the sound and the behavior of the bees, you’ll be able to pick up on if they’re more [00:01:00] aggressive, long before they start stinging, once you start to make these connections, but it takes experience.
[00:02:00]
Josh Wilder: Welcome to the Mother Earth News and Friends podcast at Mother Earth News. For 50 years and counting, we’ve been dedicated to conserving the planet’s natural resources, while helping you conserve your financial resources. In this podcast, we host conversations with experts in the fields of sustainability, homesteading natural health, and more to share all about how you can live well wherever you are, in a way that values both people and our Mother Earth.
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Josh Wilder: Hello and welcome to this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends podcast with Tara Chapman, owner and founder of Two Hives Honey. They welcome thousands of bee curious folks to the Honey Ranch just outside of Austin, Texas each year.
Thanks for joining me today, Tara.
Tara Chapman: Yeah, thanks. I’m so glad to be back.
Josh Wilder: And today we’ll be talking about equipment for spring hive inspection. It doesn’t get too awfully frozen down there in Texas, but most of the rest of the country we don’t have that luxury.
Right.
Tara Chapman: Think of it the opposite way. Think of the long break that y’all get. We get no break, and honestly, we don’t even get like the strong nectar with the warm weather. So if it makes you feel better.
Josh Wilder: What tools do you find necessary or helpful?
Tara Chapman: Yeah, so I wanna take a moment and share like a philosophy note of that I am a [00:03:00] minimalist. I joke that you can solve a lot of problems with a stick over buying something. So I come from the place of like bare minimalism.
So I’ll talk about the bare minimalist. Thing that you need. And then some things that you might consider, obviously a hive tool, you must have a hive tool. I’m sure we’ll get into different types of hive tools later, but you must have a hive tool to work a colony. I have used plenty of things in absence by three of them, because you’re gonna lose two almost immediately.
So a hive tool a smoker, obviously, my. Strongly recommend you use a smoker every single time you get into a colony. And then finally, a comb stand can be really useful. These can look differently depending on what type of hive you have, but it’s just a sort of stand where you can hang your frames or your bars if you’re doing top bars or worry to you wanna make some space in the colony.
And having somewhere to put them can be used. It’s especially helpful again if you do some of [00:04:00] the foundation list beekeeping, if you’re doing top bars or worries because with the lang straw frame, you can lean it up against the side of a colony, usually without any fanfare, but you can’t do that with those.
So some sort of comb stand where you can hang those frames and bars to give you some space to move around. Another few things that I always like to mention is that, if you were doing lang stroke colonies lifting is unfortunately involved. Every hive type has its pros and cons. The biggest downside to lengths is, of course, that we have to do some lifting and moving of boxes.
I think it’s useful to have a nearby table if you don’t have a table. I have dozens and dozens of yards. We don’t have tables in those yards. What can be really helpful is just to have an extra hive body or two stacked up on the ground next to you. That way when you’re lifting boxes up, it’s a makeshift place for you to rest.
Those boxes. Also, if you don’t have a comb stand, which I don’t carry one around, because again I try to keep what I’ve got. My pocket’s an [00:05:00] omni minimal. You can use those extra hive bodies to be a comb stand right, to hang those frames. And you could even put a, extra top over top to give you a complete tabletop.
But those are the things that you really must have every time you’re working colonies. There’s other, if you open up a beekeeping catalog, there’s literally thousands of things that you can buy that is really all that you need to work bees. But if you’re someone that really enjoys gear and stuff.
Dig around in the catalog, see what suits you. But I’m a minimalist and so I really try to keep my toolbox pretty lean.
Josh Wilder: Great, thanks. Yeah. And as far as taking care of those tools, how do you keep habits on, on maintaining those and what are your methods to ensure that they last.
Tara Chapman: Yeah. So I will say everything that you have is going to be coated with propolis, from your gloves, your suit, your high tool. Everything’s gonna be coated with that kind of like dark brown propolis pretty quickly. It’s very hard to [00:06:00] clean. It’s okay. It’s microbial and antiviral by design.
Beautiful. Your smoker. However, I really encourage people to. By quality. A good quality smoker will last you literally probably the lifetime of your beekeeping journey. I’ve been using the same one for many years. What will wear out the fastest is the bellows. That’s the squeeze box on the side, right?
That pushes the air through. So having an extra around that works for your smoker, honestly, is not a bad idea. They’re not universal, just. And that they, have pre-drilled holes on where they will line up with the smoker. But when you get a smoker, I would just get an extra bells if you’re, if the store where you’re buying from sells ’em.
Just have them around. And then the other thing that will happen with your smoker is that it’s gonna get clogged with creosote So you know, which is what is formed when you. Burn wood and such in the metal tin. It’s gonna get clogged up with that creosote pretty quickly. And so I’m gonna [00:07:00] share my tip for you to try to prevent that as much as you can.
So when you finish with your smoker at the end of the day, first of all, you always wanna put it somewhere where it’s not gonna light anything on fire. You don’t wanna put it on anything plastic. You don’t wanna be very mindful of where it goes. A 10. A metal box is best. So keep that in mind. But rather than just let it burn through, which will create crea sote that will come up and clog the end of the smoker.
What I like to do is fill it full of fuel hardwoods, pellets, whatever you’re using, fill it full, get it going really strong again, and then you can use a cork. Any sort of things to plug it up. What I think is easiest and best is just taking a sheet of newspaper and I roll it into a cone and then I stick it into the end of the smoker.
Of course, the benefit of newspaper is that it can kind of mold to the shape of the end of the smoker. What will happen there is it’ll will prevent all the fuel from burning through and it’ll create a sort of like charcoal. So next time [00:08:00] you come out to light your smoker. Light, it will be a breeze. And then secondly, it will prevent the end of your smoker from filling up with that crea sote so that you don’t come out next time and you’re pumping and pumping your bellows and nothing’s coming out because it’s all clogged up.
If your smoker does get really junky inside with really thick, with that crea and it will you can just buy a little blow torch, torch that you can get at any home Depot or home store like that to, it cleans it out really quickly and if it get stuck together a little torch works really well as well.
Josh Wilder: Great. Great. Yeah, I know that that’s something that I, I. I struggle to remember to take care of the things that I need to, I only use once or twice a year, but so how often are you using those tools and how often would you say to do some of that cleaning?
Tara Chapman: Yeah, we’re using ours daily from February until into November.
Like I mentioned, we have a pretty long season in Texas, so you know, if I’m telling you that [00:09:00] a smoker can last for years with, taking care of the bellows it’s true ’cause we use ours very often. I don’t do any sort of like cleaning of my tools again, other than using the torch to clean, clean out the smoker, really just as needed.
Something that will give you trouble, not in the tool area, but in the protective gear area, is your. Be gloves are going to get very stiff. Whatever leather they’re made out of are gonna get very stiff because of the propolis. I will tell you, I have not found I have tried leather cleaner.
I’ve tried soaking them. I have not found anything that actually works. When they get so thick with propolis that they’re almost immobile other than just buying new gloves. So maybe a listener can chime in the comments or something later and share something’s worked for them. But I have not found anything and my response is just buy new gloves.
Josh Wilder: Okay. Fair enough. So as far as other tools, do you know Hive tool for prying frames does it have [00:10:00] other less obvious uses perhaps during the spring inspection?
Tara Chapman: I love this question because, gosh a hive tool can be. A hammer. It can be a, it can be a screwdriver. I have used it as a screwdriver in a pinch.
A scraper, when you’re working and they build a bunch of bur comb in different places, obviously you can use it like an, you would an ice scraper, to scrape extra bur comb or extra propolis out of the way. It’s a very handy tool. When my son is out with me, it’s our spoon to eat honey from the colony.
We use it to, cut out if you’re, if you were calling drone comb and calling drones basically means you are removing drones from the colony. It’s a part of an integrated pest management. It’s part of the tools in that toolkit that you might use, it can be used as a knife. So all sorts of things that can be used for.
But one thing I’ll mention that I don’t know that people might have thought of before is that a lot of times, particularly when you’re working Lang STR colonies, [00:11:00] people have a hard time. De sticking the boxes, right? You unstick one side with propolis and then you let it go when you go to unstick the other side, and then your first side’s stuck again.
So if you have two hive tools on you, what you can do is you can, when you break the seals on the one side, you can actually stick that hive tool in as a shim to keep that seal broken while you work the other side, and that’s gonna be a much easier way to move the box. I see a lot of pretty new beekeepers who haven’t yet.
If there is a way to break the seals without putting the box back down, it’s a bit tricky when you’re first getting started. So using a hive tool as a shim to keep one side, from sticking together while you work on the other side, can be great to prevent the dreaded, you pick up the box and they’re still stuck together, and you pick up the whole hive, and then ultimately the seal breaks and the colony comes crashing down and everyone is very upset as a result.
So using it as a shim can be a great tool. Oh my gosh, I almost forgot the most important. It’s a [00:12:00] great stinger remover. You’ll hear people say, use a credit card, and I thought, oh my gosh. By the time you find a credit card and pull it out, you’re the venom is in you. It’s the best stinger remover.
So if you ever see me like, scratching my back or on my shoulder with my hive tool I’ve been stung. And so I just use it as a scraper to scrape the sting. Grout works great.
Josh Wilder: Nice.
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Josh Wilder: As [00:13:00] far as the styles of hive tools J Hook standard, what do you prefer for inspections and are there certain styles that are better for different hive types?
Tara Chapman: Oh, the great debate, J hook versus traditional. So I have a theory that whatever you worked with first is what you stick with and what you love the most. I’m very traditional here. I started on a traditional your standard size hive tool. And so to me, holding a J hook feels like an alien experience in my hand. That being said, J Hooks can be very helpful. When I see people that know what they’re doing and have experience and they can use that little hook to pry frames and like to get into small spots amazing. But again, I just. I never put my hive tool down. You, you really just need three fingers on each hand to work a colony.
And I keep my hive tool tucked into my back two hands all the time. And again, it’s just when you’re used to using a tool, that’s what you use. So if you’re brand [00:14:00] new, I’d encourage you, again, I’ve just recommended always have two or three hive tools around, buy one of each and play around with it and see if you have a favorite.
But I do think that whichever one you start on is the one that you stick with for life. Tread carefully in the beginning. Try out a few different ones. And then they also have they have some, you can get different links of hive tools, which might be better for smaller or bigger hands.
They’ve got little pocket size hive tools that can be better. Like my son, he’s four. He uses a little pocket size hive tool so you can get different weights, different sizes. There’s all different options out there, even beyond just the traditional and the J hook. And if you buy a hive tool and it is not painted a bright color, you should remedy that immediately because the reason it’s painted hot pink or red or yellow is because inevitably you’re gonna lose it in the grass again, and that’s the only way that you’re gonna be able to find it.
So put some paint on if it didn’t come with one.
Josh Wilder: Yeah. That’s a great, that’s a great tip. Yeah, and as far as all the different types I [00:15:00] assume, it could be different for different people, but as far as using the Hive tool when you’re doing the inspection, and what’s the way that you might use it that would be least disruptive to the bees and prevent crushing comb or bees themselves?
Especially when it’s congested in the spring.
Tara Chapman: Yeah, it’s a great, it’s a great question. This is where you wanna use the smoker as a tool. I think we’re gonna probably get into smokers more a little bit later, but using the, if you’re, if bees are running up and on top of the frames it’s hard to work.
So using the smoker to move the bees back down and out of the way. And then I think what’s most critical is just when you go to loosen up your frames or your bars. Break the propolis seals on all four sides of the far the frame or the bar. What often will happen is people will loosen a little bit and then they start to pull and they ignore the resistance and then they yank.
And then, you can do everything from lift up multiple frames [00:16:00] or scrape open brood or god forbid, scrape open honey. And now you’ve got honey everywhere on the colony, the big mess that can incite, robbing. Don’t ignore the resistance if you’re getting a lot of strong resistance. Stop for a minute.
Loosen seals again, and if you’re still fi, finding resistance. Move to some, a different frame, a different bar. I always tell folks, when you first open a colony, the first framer bar to remove is the hardest, the last one to put in as the hardest, right? You’re apt to do the most damage. And so look along your frames and see.
Do you see any bur comb? Is there a lot of cross combing? If so, don’t start with that frame, right? Pick one that looks. Pretty detached and easy to remove and start there. We always tell people start in the brood nest, but that doesn’t mean you have to pull a frame out of the brood nest first.
Pull a frame or a bar that’s easiest to remove. And then you can move things around and you can make some space. And then you can get in there and start to see, oh gosh, these two are crossed combed. ‘Cause you wouldn’t [00:17:00] wanna. At some point you’re gonna have to fix the cross combing, but there’s certain times of the year when you really don’t want, and you don’t have to make a huge mess of trying to pull a bunch of cross combing apart and have honey everywhere.
So again, don’t ignore the resistance and then choose the first frame that looks the easiest to remove. And then go on from there.
Josh Wilder: Great. Thank you. And you already talked about some of the reasons why using a smoker is crucial. Can you talk a little bit about the difference between a proper puff and overs smoking?
Tara Chapman: Yeah, this is tough, right? Because these terms are relative. What does over smoking mean? What’s a it’s real tough and this is why I think working alongside an experienced beekeeper that you trust when you’re first getting started is most important. Unfortunately, that’s not an option for everybody.
But I will say off the top, unless you are installing a package of bees which is the one scenario in which I don’t. Always recommend using a smoker. You should use a smoker every single time you get [00:18:00] into your colony. It’s a minimal interruption to the bees that has huge payoffs. It only takes one really bad day that could inflict some pretty serious trauma on you.
I’ve seen beekeepers that would never go back into their colonies again after having a really bad day. They got a colony in the spring. They got a new colony. They’d been working it all year not using the smoker or maybe not using it effectively or enough overnight. Perhaps a raccoon or a skunk was disturbing that colony.
And what’s normally very like chill colony is not so chill, and I’ve seen it happen multiple times where beekeepers. We completely got out of beekeeping because it was such a traumatic experience. You know that little lion cub that you get in the spring, hopefully someday, will grow up into a line.
And so using your smoker is really important. This is what I do. I smoke the entrance first, and I will smoke the entrance of the colony. I’m gonna work and the ones on either side of it. If I have five colonies in a row, I’ll just go ahead [00:19:00] and smoke a little bit. Two or three puffs at entrance. At each entrance as you remove each piece of wooden wear smoke.
So as you’re moving your outer cover, your inner cover, apply a few puffs of smoke. As you remove each piece of wood and wear, then once you’re in the colony, I would say, a few, three or so puffs, every 30 to 45 seconds is usually just fine. As you get more experience, you’ll become very in tune with.
The hum of the bees and how they’re feeling. Just because they are making noise does not mean they are upset. But as best you can, pay attention, try not to remove any distractions because if you can start to link the sound and the behavior of the bees, you’ll be able to pick up on if they’re more aggressive, long before they start stinging, once you start to make these connections.
But it takes experience,
Josh Wilder: sure. Yeah. And as far as, keeping the smoker going during that inspection what’s what sort [00:20:00] of fuel do you recommend, maybe natural or sustainable and what makes it better for calming the ease and keeping them safe?
Tara Chapman: Yeah, sure. So what you want here is cool strong smoke.
Again, going back to my minimalism, you can buy smoker fuel. It just, it’s really not necessary. There is free smoker fuel literally everywhere outside. But you wanna make sure you’re filling your smoker full of things that are going to slow burn. And you go your tender kindling and then ultimately your fuel.
So tender, something that. Easier to life. It’s not gonna stay lit very long for the actual fuel part. Things like pine needles. Smoke and burlap smokes beautifully, but that is not gonna keep your smoker lit for very long. Think about if you relied in a campfire, right? You’re not gonna keep a campfire going with Burla, you’ve gotta actually have hardwoods, and so I just prefer big, chunky pieces of bark.
Or, wood from trees, [00:21:00] just hardwoods that you find on the ground. There’s a lot of mesquite in Texas, so I use a lot of mesquite. So big chunky sticks are gonna stay lit the longest in your smoker. And then again, things like pine needles, cardboard is great. You know all those Amazon boxes and shipping boxes you have around.
Not gonna stay lit very long, but they’re gonna smoke very well. So you can use cardboard. Burlap also smokes really well. And again, these are things that you’re gonna find in your recycling bin or outside as you forage. Pine cones are another great one. We don’t have a lot of pine cones in my part of Texas, but they do smoke really nicely and they smell pretty nice too.
Josh Wilder: Great. Yeah that’s a facet of it that people don’t generally think about. ’cause it’s, the smell’s gonna add to your experience for sure. But as far as once you have the fuel, can you kinda walk us through like your step by step of lighting it and then maintaining it throughout the inspection and how do you know when the smoke is the right temperature and consistency?
Tara Chapman: Yeah, for [00:22:00] sure. So everyone has their way and is tied to their way. I get, again, I go back to think about how you would build a campfire, right? You can’t light a piece of firewood right off the bat and start a campfire. So I do the layering, so I do that tender. So that’s something that, again, that lights very easily and quickly, but is not going to sta lit long at all.
Newspaper is my choice. Any sort of like paper wax coated paper’s, not gonna work very well, but newspaper works beautifully. We start with our newspaper and then you’re gonna add your kindling. Something that, again, is easy or to light, not as easy as tender, but easy to light, but isn’t gonna stay lit very long.
But we’ll stay lit. A little bit longer than tender, long enough hopefully for you to get that those hardwoods lit. So kindling can be all the things we mentioned before. Cardboard straw and hay. Be very careful with straw and hay and things like cedar bark. They’re very flammable.
So they light almost [00:23:00] too easily, but they do work really great. Cardboard, all those kind of things like that. And then finally, once you get that kindling lit then you start to add in your hardwood. That’s those big chunky pieces of sticks, bark, wood pellets if you have it. If you’re a wood worker, save all your little bits of wood.
Those are actually phenomenal in a smoker, and those are gonna stay lit a long time. And once you get, so when you’re lighting a smoker, you can hear the moment that it goes from. Not quite lit to lit by the whoosh, whoosh whoosh sound that the bellows makes as it pushes air through the smoker. And I encourage you to like again, be present, pay attention.
You’ll start to notice when you practice light in your smoker, when you go from. No, we’re not quite there to, we are lit because the sound of the bellows of the air pushing through from the bellows definitely sounds differently and you should have cool smoke. I like to add one extra [00:24:00] layer of good smoke producing kindling at the very end.
So after I’ve added my tender, my kindling, my fuel, I put another layer of kind of good smoking stuff on top that might be cardboard or burlap, and that’s gonna produce that really cool smoke. And that should keep you going. We literally light a smoker. 7:00 AM when we start the day, it might keep it going until six o’clock at night and we never have to relight it.
Because when you’re using your smoker and you’re pushing the bellows and you start to see embers coming out of the end of the smoker, that is your clue that you are running out of fuel. So again, another exercise in being present when you start to see embers coming out, stop. Pop open your smoker. You should always have extra fuel with.
You start to add more of the the fuel, the hardwoods, the bark, right? Whatever you’re using for your firewood. Start to add more. Pump the bells again. It will get lit again. Even if you look inside the can and you think there’s barely anything left, I promise [00:25:00] you. It’ll light again. What you do not want to do is think, open it up and see, oh, there’s just a little bit left here.
Let me dump it out and start over. That is a surefire way to start a fire, particularly if you’re in an area with hydro drought. So embers are coming outta the end of the smoker. That is your clue. I need to take a moment, pause, cover up my colony. While I step back, add more firewood, pump the bells a little bit, and you’ll be good to go for another round.
And again, at the end, that trick of plugging the smoker up, filling it full of fuel and then plugging it up with newspaper or a cork or whatever, will set you up for success next time.
Josh Wilder: Great. And like you mentioned, having and using the smoker to crucial for calming the bees and downplaying any chance of any traumatic.
Situations, for extra level of protection or, self-assurance of as far as protective gear, what do you recommend for a nervous beginner that’s doing their first spring [00:26:00] inspection and how might that change as they gain experience?
Tara Chapman: Yeah, I love this question. And the way that it’s phrased because there is a difference between the beginner and someone that’s been doing this a long time, both in terms of experience, but honestly mostly just in terms of the cues that we can read and we can see and hear from the bees that when you’re brand new, you’re just not gonna pick up on.
So when folks are brand new I strongly encourage you to choose. A more protective piece, right? So maybe a full suit, maybe that’s a jacket and veil. Certainly gloves always cover your face. You want to make sure that you can focus on the bees and not be worried about getting stung. So let’s say someone gifted you your gear and your tools for Christmas and you go out in the spring and you’ve got just a jacket and a veil, and you’re finding that you’re very nervous about your legs.
You keep looking at bees and worried about your legs. Buy more protective gear because if you are [00:27:00] focused on getting stung, you’re missing so much learning and opportunities for learning that’s right in front of you. You’re missing all the nuance. And again, the sound that the bees make, their behavior the way that they move, the way that they’re responding to you, like you’re just gonna miss so much if you’re worried about being stung.
Nobody gets golden stars for wearing. Less scare. So do what makes you feel the most comfortable? More is better. At first, of course there is a trade off between safety and dexterity and sometimes comfort, right? So I wear a veil. I rarely wear gloves. I always have a full suit and gloves within and arms reed like in the truck in case things go differently.
But I have a lot more dexterity when I don’t. Wear gloves. But I did not start off wearing no gloves and honestly, like I just. I, again, because of my many years of experience and my time in hives, [00:28:00] I can pick up on when the bees are not having a great day. So I know long before the stinging begins that maybe today’s not the day that I wear glove list, right?
You can start to shift those trade-offs with experience. But again, start with more initially and then you can start to peel back a year as you feel comfortable. But if you’re ever finding that, I take out students a lot and they see me and how I work, and so they want to the inclinations to wanna use less gear.
And I many times have seen students, try to go glove less and they’re doing this nervousness and I say, you gotta put on gloves, right? Again, no gold stars. And I want you to be focused on the bees and the beekeeping and the experience here and the sensory, all the sensory experiences that we’re having here and not worried about getting stung.
Josh Wilder: Yeah. As far as being comfortable, is there a certain type of material you might recommend, especially as it starts getting warmer in the spring.
Tara Chapman: Yeah. And keep in mind that we’re in Texas, so you’re not gonna get too much harder than where we are. [00:29:00] So I always recommend what’s called ventilated gear.
Protected gear can come in cotton, you’ll find it in the canvas material, and then you’ll find what’s called ventilated gear, which is three layers of mesh like material. The idea with a ventilated gear is that one, it’s. It’s got holes in it so it’s cooler, the breeze can get through.
But with the three layers of mesh, the idea there is that the stinger can’t reach your skin as opposed to a cotton piece or a canvas piece. They, the idea is that you wear a bigger kind of billowy piece and hopefully, if they sting, it’s not pressed up against your skin. But if it’s pressed up against you, if a bee stings me through a canvas jacket it’s gonna reach my skin now.
Ventilated gear is not sting proof. It’s just more sting resistant than regular gear. It is more expensive. But I strongly encourage for the primary beekeeper in the household. To have this nicer piece of gear. If you wanna [00:30:00] have a couple of guest jackets and veils, that, where you’ve just got like a jacket and veil made of canvas or the cotton material.
But for the primary beekeeper, having something that’s nice, that’s gonna keep you cool is really important. So look for that ventilated gear.
Josh Wilder: Great. Thanks for all your tips. Is there anything, any other tips you might wanna share as far as the spring inspection goes that we haven’t covered that might be helpful for new or even folks that have done it two or three times already?
Tara Chapman: Yeah, I just always like to tell beginners, or even those that are in their first couple of years. This is hard. Maybe hard’s not the right word, but there is an incredible amount of nuance. The colony is very complex, right? And so it can be very overwhelming and I just like to remind people that.
We are all learning all of the time. And when I say we, I mean like the scientific community. It wasn’t that long ago that we didn’t even realize that [00:31:00] varroa mite were feeding on the fatty liver of the honeybees. We thought they were feeding on something all together. So we’re all learning.
It’s all, we’re all somewhere in that journey together. But it is complicated. And so my best tip for the new or newish beekeepers is to get your head in as many colonies as possible. So that might mean, that can mean you have more colonies, of course, but that also can mean, finding friends meeting new people, going to bee clubs, even if you are brand new and you have two friends that are brand new.
And you work your colonies together, even though you don’t have any years of real experience in the yard, you will learn so much more just because you’re getting your head in so many more colonies, right? If you’ve got two colonies and you work those two colonies, once or twice a month over the course of the season, which might be, 7, 8, 9 months.
And if you had just two or four more colonies to work with friends, just think of the [00:32:00] opportunity of getting to learn so much more touch, so many more bees. See different temperaments, see different scenarios. And I always tell folks when you’re brand new, if nothing goes awry your first year, you’re probably just lucky.
You know what I mean? But if. Everything goes wrong. That can feel so defeating, but you have truly learned. So much more than the person where nothing went wrong because you just have so many more opportunities. So it’s making lemonade out of lemons of that, how much more you’ve learned when things just don’t go as planned.
So keep that in mind. Enjoy the experience, it’s about just getting out in nature and getting to spend time with these incredible insects that bring us so much in every way. And so things are gonna go awry, but it’s okay. Enjoy the experience.
Josh Wilder: Great. Thanks. And yeah, you can never have enough be friends, that’s for [00:33:00] sure.
Thanks for the time and all the knowhow. And I appreciate everything you do. And if anyone wants to follow Tara, I can find two hives, honey two hives on Instagram.
Tara Chapman: That’s right. Yes. Thank you.
Josh Wilder: All right, till next time.
[00:34:00]
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Thanks for joining us for this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends. To listen to more podcasts and get connected on our social media, visit www.MotherEarthNews.com/Podcast. You can also email us at Podcast@OgdenPubs.Com with any questions or suggestions.
Our podcast production team includes Alyssa Warner and myself Josh Wilder.
Music for this episode is “Hustle” by Kevin MacLeod.
The Mother Earth News and Friends podcast is a production of Ogden Publications.
