Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Welcome back here in the garden with Ron
Wilson again that toll free number eight hundred eight two
three eight two five five. Don't forget our website at
Ron Wilson online dot com. And of course we have
Rita's recipe there as well for the twelve herbs that
you can grow to keep those chickens happy and healthy
as well up through your herb garden. Now, as I promised,
(00:20):
we've got her back this morning to give us a
big update because we've got to find out what's going
on out there. She is our queen Bee. You know
who I'm talking about. Late you heard her, ladies and gentlemen,
the one, the only, mister missus Barbie Lecher, thank.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
You, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Those were just bees that were doing that.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Too, yeah, just we'ger bees too, just.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Jaz Yeah, No, there was all kinds of They're all
out there lined up on our windows so kind of crazy.
So how are you this morning?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Oh? I'm okay. I woke up with the horse throat. Well,
I took some honey. We'll see how that goes.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
What do you mean, you'll see how it goes. That's
what you always tell me to do.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, it's true. Yep, it should work, it should help.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
All right, we'll take we'll hope. So anyway, talking with
Barb Blatch here, she's our queen bee. Of course, bar
has been working with us on our show for many,
many years now, trying to keep everybody updated on on
our bees, our native bees, our honey bees, how to
be friendly and pollinator polite and old nine yards. And
unfortunately this past winter, all of a sudden, everybody realized
(01:33):
that we wound up with a major, major honeybee loss.
And of course that's all those records all come from.
Of course, the folks who raise honeybees that they're able
to calculate that. But uh, you know, I guess it's been.
It wound up being as bad as they thought, right.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, or worse or worse. Yeah, they're recording a sixty
two loss overall for martial beekeepers and one point six
million colonies from let's see, from spring last year until
March of this year twenty five, so one point six
(02:13):
billions so high in the world or one point six millions,
So how are you going to get your apples and
your pumpkins pollinated?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Thank goodness for some of those native bees out there.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Huh Yeah, Unfortunately, if you just can't box them up
and move them all around the country like we do
with honey bees. But yeah, that would certainly help.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, I mean again, they're a part of the of
the pollinating process. But here what we're talking about where
the concern is is, like Barber saying, is the fact
that these are commercial beekeepers that take their hives and
transport them to orchards, the almond orchards, places like that
for the pollination as needed, and Unford, fortunately the numbers
(03:00):
are so low they're not available to do that. Now
that means the populations are the pollination is going to
go down, and they do. They the general consensus what
they pollinated about a third of the crops that we
use every year.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, right, a throe of the crops. Every a third
of everything we take a bite of has been pollinated
by a honeybee.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So and I think you you gave me the about
fifteen billion dollars worth of crops every year is what
that's equivalent to. So if there are no honeybees, obviously
you're looking at the shortage. So that's where this is
coming up with some of these figures and not only
is it for the pollinators and the orchards out there,
but you know, you got the honey production loss as well,
(03:44):
and I think that was predicted, what about six hundred
million dollars.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Six hundred million dollars. Yeah, And that plus the fact
that some of these are you know, three and four
generation beekeepers and they've they've play well been wiped out.
And it interesting with the reports because it's not just
colonies in California, it's colonies all the United States. These
big commercial beekeepers, they were shipping them out to California
(04:12):
for a pollination and they were okay when they were
you know, put in the truck, and by the time
they arrived, there was hardly any bees left in the colonies.
And then they do this cold storage, some of the
beekeepers do. So they put them into so like a
storage unit which is cooler temperatures to control the auroramites.
(04:33):
They look great going into the storage unit. When they
brought them back out, they're all gone. All the bees are,
the hives are empty. So you know, multiple generation beekeepers
are they're just wiped out. So we may lose some
of our big beekeepers in addition to losing colonies in pollination. Yeah,
I mean it is really serious.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And again, when you're talking, just give me, give me
a rough example. You know, we're talking somebody major that
does this for a business. How many hives are they
producing on their bee farms or whatever whatever they would
that ever it's called. I mean, we're talking like a
thousand hives.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So our largest beekeeper, not in not his size, but
the largest one I think is five million colonies. Well
not five million, I can't count. There's five hundred thousand
colonies a.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Half a million colonies at one bee farm, right.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, so each each beekeeper, we can only keep like
twenty to thirty colonies in a yard, depending on what's
flowering around it. Some of these big places out in
North Dakota they can have, you know, one hundred colonies
you know here and there. But over here at least
in Ohio or Michigan or wherever, we're so urbanized we
(05:58):
can't have more than I need twenty eight to thirty
something colonies because there's not enough food. But you go
out to North Dakota where it's acres and acres of flowers,
they can have, you know, several hundred colonies in the yard.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So now they're just sitting there in their wooden high
boxes and nothing in.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Them, right, and then you get pasts. We have pets
that will actually eat stored honeycomb that's not being used,
so we have that in addition.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Wow, so is somebody like Nina Bagley, who was just
one of many, many, many across the United States bee
queen bee breeders. I would guess they're just probably going
crazy right now.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Oh yeah, the queen breeders are super busy, and so
you know, beekeepers buy packages in the spring. Most beekeeping
clubs will start out with packages for new beekeepers, so
there's bees. These come from colonies that were in pollination
or somewhere down south. Instead up paying to haul them
(07:08):
all up north, some of these beekeepers will you know,
sell them to a local package company so to speak.
You know, they'll take those colonies and shake them into
a package and sell packages. So the package package industry
is going crazy too because they need bees like now,
(07:28):
and it takes you know, all seasons for a colony
to build back up, so they're depending on all those
colonies left over from pollination to make packages and there
aren't any, so you know, queen readers Nina is like
busier than ever. And all these package companies down Florida
and Georgia, they're looking everywhere trying to find bees, just
(07:51):
to make packages for beekeepers.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Interesting, Now, what about beekeepers in other countries, you know,
if you look over to Europe or what ever were
they doing Did they experience any of this as well?
Or were they all in pretty good shape?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Not as badly as us, not as badly as us.
In the past, they've suffered largest, large losses. But I
have not heard the reports this year anything close to
what we had.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, all I've heard so far, nothing from Europe, you know,
but just the United States really suffering the big hit
on this. So let's take a break, we come back,
we'll see what Barb says they're finding out or are
they finding out anything at this stage? Swarms are coming
up a swarm season. What can you do for that?
And what should we be doing in our backyards and
(08:37):
our gardens and our containers to help be friendly and
help to increase of populations as well? More coming up
after the break with Barbie Blescher Here in the garden
with Ron Wilson. Landscaping made easier with your personal yard
boy he's in the garden and he's Ron Wilson. If
(09:11):
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(09:33):
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(09:54):
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and other fer loan products only at independent garden centers
and nurseries. That's Furlan, brush killer, stump killer. Welcome back
here in the Garden with Ron Wilson, our special guest
this morning, Barbbe. But let your are Queen Bee talking
(10:18):
about yeah, major major be loss this year and of course, uh,
major impacts all across. I mean, it's it's gonna hit this,
there's no doubt about it. Six one hundred million dollar
loss in honey production alone, plus you got the cost
of red getting these all redone and started all over again. Uh,
(10:39):
it's just it's it's crazy. Uh. So as we look
at this, Barb And by the way, do people think
of you as a nuisance? Probably, Well, well don't they
look at bees and say that they're they're a nuisance?
Oh yes, but she, but she actually she actually plays
(10:59):
a vital role the food that you eat every day.
So don't consider Barbie bleacher nuisance. So anyway, so on
a serious note, I mean, so obviously they're trying to
figure out if anything, one thing at all that's going on.
And I know that, I know they're looking at the
cocktail of all the stuff, right, the parasites and the
disease and pesticides. How's climate how's climate change affecting this?
(11:23):
I mean we got more you know, warmer temperatures and
the heat exposure and the storms that are happening out there.
That's got to play a role in this too.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, and climate change does play role. They have found
that the climate change has reduced the available pollen and
the flowers. They did a study with golden rod and
with soybeans, and there's actually reduced pollen quality due to
climate change, you know. And look at our springs. Our
(11:53):
springs are cool and rainy. Bees won't fly when it's
cold or rainy. And just in my short lifetime, I
seem to remember we had really nice springs and now
it's cool and rainy all the way through spring, and
then it gets hot and the rain stops, and there's
no pollen or in nectar and flowers that are full
(12:16):
of drought, you know, drought stricken plants.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah. So you get you get through the spring season
and you look at some of your your orchard crop
out there, and your apples and pears or whatever, cherries, whatever,
and you don't have quite the production that you've had
in the past. First thing, you got to look at
is look at the weather, and you know, if it's
been cool and it's been rainy, they can't get out
there and fly to do the whether it's the native
(12:39):
bees or the honey bees to do the pollinating. And
again it affects that that as well. So and then
the heat. And I think you you brought that up
on Joe Boggs and I were talking about golden Rod
last fall that you know, with the weather, the pollen
wasn't is it not as the quality or is just
not there.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
It's a little bit of hell. So these the plants
aren't going to expend the energy to produce that palm
because they're just trying to stay alive. So the quantity
and the quality are both reduced and nectar as well
because they don't have the extra moisture required to produce nectar.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
So as we look at that, I mean that nothing
obviously has come wrong so far as far as being
a one time a major issue. It's just they haven't
really had any answers yet, right.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, I mean, I think they're coming up with sufficient
And problem is that USDA is not allowed to talk
to the public yet just because there's you know, that
whole issue. So, yeah, they looked at the pesticides that
beekeepers use and my decides that we use in our colonies.
They sampled both live and dead colonies to compare the difference,
(13:56):
and they're still going through them. I was just reading
the number or cone is that they looked at. Oh gosh,
where I find that?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
And I, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Can't find it. But yeah, they looked at a lot
of the colonies, not only in California but other states
as well, trying to find out what nore of is
going on, and they just haven't been able to find,
uh find it.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
And that's kind of you know, you think about this,
that that the vera might which has been a major issue, uh,
and trying to keep that under control has been a
major issue over many many years. You have to have
a minor side slash pesticide, and you've got to come
up with something that takes care of the might but
doesn't affect they be And that's that's how that's gonna
(14:47):
be a tough thing.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, and then you can't use these spoke when you
have honeystepers on, so then you have to take all
the honey off and treat the bees and that's you see,
you know, several weeks to months before you can put
the honeysuperus back on, so then you lease your honey
crop and their sisters. We don't have good products. I mean,
we have a lot of choices. We have a lot
(15:10):
of choices, but there's not really a good product that
we can use safely that will effectively kill the mites
without hurting the bees.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So what about you know, I thought way back when
we were reading a lot about bee breeding, and again
we talked about the queen bee breeding like Nina Bagley,
but actual breeding of different from different countries. I think
there was a Russian bee that honey bee that picked
them off or ate them or something. I don't know
where does that I mean, is that still and I'm
(15:39):
sure they're still doing that type of a bee breeding,
trying to come up with more resistant selections.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah. So the Russian bees, they're very good at taking
the mites off of each other and just detecting mites
not only in the brood but on their brothers and sisters.
We have a lot of what we call hyde genic
bees that can detect or might you know, in a
developing bee, and they'll so remove that might and you know,
(16:08):
plaster their sister back up again. So she's going to
remove so she can continue developing. So there's a lot
of different things like that. But the thing is, if
that queen swarms, you know, if your colony swarms, you've
lost that queen. How you're starting oliver again. Yeah, So
which I have so many colonies, you know, we have
feral colonies. We have colonies of hobby bee keepers around.
(16:33):
You know, you don't know where they got their bees.
So it's hard to maintain that that dominant gene. And
that's that's the tricky part, is to have a dominant
gene for hygienics, and we don't have that yet, got it?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
So Nina Bagley gets us to work harder.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
She she's lucky. She finds bees out in the woods
that are far away from any other colonies and she
uses those to breed her bees.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Interesting talking with Barbie but Butcher. She is our queen
bee and has been the one that stuck with us
through all these years, keeping us informed about the honeybees
and the native bees and what we can do to
be more be friendly in our gardens. So swarming seasons
coming up and got a couple of minutes here real quick,
if somebody goes out and there's a swarm on a
(17:20):
tree in their house or on the side of their
house or whatever, don't panic, right what should they do?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yes, don't panic, please, we need those bees. You can
go to Centralhio Beekeepers dot org, Ohio Statebeekeepers dot org.
You can initially call a library or the police department.
There's a lot of sources to find swarms and just
leave them alone because most of the time they'll be
gone within twenty four hours. So you know, don't bat
(17:48):
at them, don't fight, you know, blast your phoes on them.
Just leave them alone and find a local beekeeper and
they all come and they'll collect those bees.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, they're not coming after you. They're not going to
swarm after you. And I've told you this many times.
I do not suggest anybody to do this, but I
have walked up to these swarms on the side of
a tree and put your hands right up next to them.
They could care less about you because they're protecting that
queen and moving and they'll they'll move right they're just
right in front of you and never do anything at all.
Just be But I'm not telling you to do that.
(18:18):
But point being is that's not you know, they're focused
on getting that queen somewhere, relocating. So if they stick
around for a couple three days, okay, call somebody and
they'll collect a swarm. But yeah, don't do anything. And again,
no matter what state you're in, there are beekeepers, good
lore out there that would love to come to your
house and collect those up.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
We have about thirty two thirty two hundred bee keepers
right here in Ohio, so there's plenty of beekeepers out
there who are more happy to get them. Three two
thousand beekeepers in Ohio, so that plenty of out there.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, and even if they even if they wind up
getting in the wall of a house or whatever, there
are a lot of bee keepers that will come and
help to take that apart, pull them out of there,
collect the bees, and then work with you as far
as getting it back together as well. So you know,
against work with them, don't work against them, try to
save them. And of course, you know, Barbie and I've
been talking for years now about how to be more
(19:16):
friendly in your garden planning for the pollinators. You know,
what our cultural practices, what we use in the garden
you know, Lookie reading these figures about this major be
loss this year. Now, it's become even more and more
important to be e e friendly in your gardening endeavors
that you do this year and forever, but this year especially,
(19:38):
Barbie Bletcher, our Queen Bee always a pleasure of great information.
We'll get you back on as we learn more. Thank
you so much for getting up and sharing. And I
hope you're a voice gets better.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
There will I surched some honey. It'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Well, we can always tell us better. It's just that
short period of time. Another thing right there, Drink your honey.
Take care of the Queen Bee. It'll take care of
you as well. Thanks Barbie, Thank you all right, quick
break we come back. Phone lines are open for you. No,
Gary Sullivan, today's on vacation. So next half hour it's
you and me. Gary eight hundred a two three eight
two five five Here in the garden with Ron Wilson, Green,
(20:29):
Tom or not. Ron can help at one eight hundred
eighty two three talk This says in the Garden with
Ron Wilson.
Good morning, Welcome back here in the garden with Ron
Wilson again that toll free number eight hundred eight two
three eight two five five. Don't forget our website at
Ron Wilson online dot com. And of course we have
Rita's recipe there as well for the twelve herbs that
you can grow to keep those chickens happy and healthy
as well up through your herb garden. Now, as I promised,
(00:20):
we've got her back this morning to give us a
big update because we've got to find out what's going
on out there. She is our queen Bee. You know
who I'm talking about. Late you heard her, ladies and gentlemen,
the one, the only, mister missus Barbie Lecher, thank.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
You, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Those were just bees that were doing that.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Too, yeah, just we'ger bees too, just.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Jaz Yeah, No, there was all kinds of They're all
out there lined up on our windows so kind of crazy.
So how are you this morning?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Oh? I'm okay. I woke up with the horse throat. Well,
I took some honey. We'll see how that goes.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
What do you mean, you'll see how it goes. That's
what you always tell me to do.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, it's true. Yep, it should work, it should help.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
All right, we'll take we'll hope. So anyway, talking with
Barb Blatch here, she's our queen bee. Of course, bar
has been working with us on our show for many,
many years now, trying to keep everybody updated on on
our bees, our native bees, our honey bees, how to
be friendly and pollinator polite and old nine yards. And
unfortunately this past winter, all of a sudden, everybody realized
(01:33):
that we wound up with a major, major honeybee loss.
And of course that's all those records all come from.
Of course, the folks who raise honeybees that they're able
to calculate that. But uh, you know, I guess it's been.
It wound up being as bad as they thought, right.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, or worse or worse. Yeah, they're recording a sixty
two loss overall for martial beekeepers and one point six
million colonies from let's see, from spring last year until
March of this year twenty five, so one point six
(02:13):
billions so high in the world or one point six millions,
So how are you going to get your apples and
your pumpkins pollinated?
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Thank goodness for some of those native bees out there.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Huh Yeah, Unfortunately, if you just can't box them up
and move them all around the country like we do
with honey bees. But yeah, that would certainly help.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, I mean again, they're a part of the of
the pollinating process. But here what we're talking about where
the concern is is, like Barber saying, is the fact
that these are commercial beekeepers that take their hives and
transport them to orchards, the almond orchards, places like that
for the pollination as needed, and Unford, fortunately the numbers
(03:00):
are so low they're not available to do that. Now
that means the populations are the pollination is going to
go down, and they do. They the general consensus what
they pollinated about a third of the crops that we
use every year.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Yeah, right, a throe of the crops. Every a third
of everything we take a bite of has been pollinated
by a honeybee.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So and I think you you gave me the about
fifteen billion dollars worth of crops every year is what
that's equivalent to. So if there are no honeybees, obviously
you're looking at the shortage. So that's where this is
coming up with some of these figures and not only
is it for the pollinators and the orchards out there,
but you know, you got the honey production loss as well,
(03:44):
and I think that was predicted, what about six hundred
million dollars.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Six hundred million dollars. Yeah, And that plus the fact
that some of these are you know, three and four
generation beekeepers and they've they've play well been wiped out.
And it interesting with the reports because it's not just
colonies in California, it's colonies all the United States. These
big commercial beekeepers, they were shipping them out to California
(04:12):
for a pollination and they were okay when they were
you know, put in the truck, and by the time
they arrived, there was hardly any bees left in the colonies.
And then they do this cold storage, some of the
beekeepers do. So they put them into so like a
storage unit which is cooler temperatures to control the auroramites.
(04:33):
They look great going into the storage unit. When they
brought them back out, they're all gone. All the bees are,
the hives are empty. So you know, multiple generation beekeepers
are they're just wiped out. So we may lose some
of our big beekeepers in addition to losing colonies in pollination. Yeah,
I mean it is really serious.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And again, when you're talking, just give me, give me
a rough example. You know, we're talking somebody major that
does this for a business. How many hives are they
producing on their bee farms or whatever whatever they would
that ever it's called. I mean, we're talking like a
thousand hives.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
So our largest beekeeper, not in not his size, but
the largest one I think is five million colonies. Well
not five million, I can't count. There's five hundred thousand
colonies a.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Half a million colonies at one bee farm, right.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, so each each beekeeper, we can only keep like
twenty to thirty colonies in a yard, depending on what's
flowering around it. Some of these big places out in
North Dakota they can have, you know, one hundred colonies
you know here and there. But over here at least
in Ohio or Michigan or wherever, we're so urbanized we
(05:58):
can't have more than I need twenty eight to thirty
something colonies because there's not enough food. But you go
out to North Dakota where it's acres and acres of flowers,
they can have, you know, several hundred colonies in the yard.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So now they're just sitting there in their wooden high
boxes and nothing in.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Them, right, and then you get pasts. We have pets
that will actually eat stored honeycomb that's not being used,
so we have that in addition.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Wow, so is somebody like Nina Bagley, who was just
one of many, many, many across the United States bee
queen bee breeders. I would guess they're just probably going
crazy right now.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Oh yeah, the queen breeders are super busy, and so
you know, beekeepers buy packages in the spring. Most beekeeping
clubs will start out with packages for new beekeepers, so
there's bees. These come from colonies that were in pollination
or somewhere down south. Instead up paying to haul them
(07:08):
all up north, some of these beekeepers will you know,
sell them to a local package company so to speak.
You know, they'll take those colonies and shake them into
a package and sell packages. So the package package industry
is going crazy too because they need bees like now,
(07:28):
and it takes you know, all seasons for a colony
to build back up, so they're depending on all those
colonies left over from pollination to make packages and there
aren't any, so you know, queen readers Nina is like
busier than ever. And all these package companies down Florida
and Georgia, they're looking everywhere trying to find bees, just
(07:51):
to make packages for beekeepers.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Interesting, Now, what about beekeepers in other countries, you know,
if you look over to Europe or what ever were
they doing Did they experience any of this as well?
Or were they all in pretty good shape?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Not as badly as us, not as badly as us.
In the past, they've suffered largest, large losses. But I
have not heard the reports this year anything close to
what we had.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah, all I've heard so far, nothing from Europe, you know,
but just the United States really suffering the big hit
on this. So let's take a break, we come back,
we'll see what Barb says they're finding out or are
they finding out anything at this stage? Swarms are coming
up a swarm season. What can you do for that?
And what should we be doing in our backyards and
(08:37):
our gardens and our containers to help be friendly and
help to increase of populations as well? More coming up
after the break with Barbie Blescher Here in the garden
with Ron Wilson. Landscaping made easier with your personal yard
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here in the Garden with Ron Wilson, our special guest
this morning, Barbbe. But let your are Queen Bee talking
(10:18):
about yeah, major major be loss this year and of course, uh,
major impacts all across. I mean, it's it's gonna hit this,
there's no doubt about it. Six one hundred million dollar
loss in honey production alone, plus you got the cost
of red getting these all redone and started all over again. Uh,
(10:39):
it's just it's it's crazy. Uh. So as we look
at this, Barb And by the way, do people think
of you as a nuisance? Probably, Well, well don't they
look at bees and say that they're they're a nuisance?
Oh yes, but she, but she actually she actually plays
(10:59):
a vital role the food that you eat every day.
So don't consider Barbie bleacher nuisance. So anyway, so on
a serious note, I mean, so obviously they're trying to
figure out if anything, one thing at all that's going on.
And I know that, I know they're looking at the
cocktail of all the stuff, right, the parasites and the
disease and pesticides. How's climate how's climate change affecting this?
(11:23):
I mean we got more you know, warmer temperatures and
the heat exposure and the storms that are happening out there.
That's got to play a role in this too.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Yeah, and climate change does play role. They have found
that the climate change has reduced the available pollen and
the flowers. They did a study with golden rod and
with soybeans, and there's actually reduced pollen quality due to
climate change, you know. And look at our springs. Our
(11:53):
springs are cool and rainy. Bees won't fly when it's
cold or rainy. And just in my short lifetime, I
seem to remember we had really nice springs and now
it's cool and rainy all the way through spring, and
then it gets hot and the rain stops, and there's
no pollen or in nectar and flowers that are full
(12:16):
of drought, you know, drought stricken plants.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah. So you get you get through the spring season
and you look at some of your your orchard crop
out there, and your apples and pears or whatever, cherries, whatever,
and you don't have quite the production that you've had
in the past. First thing, you got to look at
is look at the weather, and you know, if it's
been cool and it's been rainy, they can't get out
there and fly to do the whether it's the native
(12:39):
bees or the honey bees to do the pollinating. And
again it affects that that as well. So and then
the heat. And I think you you brought that up
on Joe Boggs and I were talking about golden Rod
last fall that you know, with the weather, the pollen
wasn't is it not as the quality or is just
not there.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
It's a little bit of hell. So these the plants
aren't going to expend the energy to produce that palm
because they're just trying to stay alive. So the quantity
and the quality are both reduced and nectar as well
because they don't have the extra moisture required to produce nectar.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
So as we look at that, I mean that nothing
obviously has come wrong so far as far as being
a one time a major issue. It's just they haven't
really had any answers yet, right.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, I mean, I think they're coming up with sufficient
And problem is that USDA is not allowed to talk
to the public yet just because there's you know, that
whole issue. So, yeah, they looked at the pesticides that
beekeepers use and my decides that we use in our colonies.
They sampled both live and dead colonies to compare the difference,
(13:56):
and they're still going through them. I was just reading
the number or cone is that they looked at. Oh gosh,
where I find that?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
And I, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Can't find it. But yeah, they looked at a lot
of the colonies, not only in California but other states
as well, trying to find out what nore of is
going on, and they just haven't been able to find,
uh find it.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
And that's kind of you know, you think about this,
that that the vera might which has been a major issue, uh,
and trying to keep that under control has been a
major issue over many many years. You have to have
a minor side slash pesticide, and you've got to come
up with something that takes care of the might but
doesn't affect they be And that's that's how that's gonna
(14:47):
be a tough thing.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, and then you can't use these spoke when you
have honeystepers on, so then you have to take all
the honey off and treat the bees and that's you see,
you know, several weeks to months before you can put
the honeysuperus back on, so then you lease your honey
crop and their sisters. We don't have good products. I mean,
we have a lot of choices. We have a lot
(15:10):
of choices, but there's not really a good product that
we can use safely that will effectively kill the mites
without hurting the bees.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So what about you know, I thought way back when
we were reading a lot about bee breeding, and again
we talked about the queen bee breeding like Nina Bagley,
but actual breeding of different from different countries. I think
there was a Russian bee that honey bee that picked
them off or ate them or something. I don't know
where does that I mean, is that still and I'm
(15:39):
sure they're still doing that type of a bee breeding,
trying to come up with more resistant selections.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yeah. So the Russian bees, they're very good at taking
the mites off of each other and just detecting mites
not only in the brood but on their brothers and sisters.
We have a lot of what we call hyde genic
bees that can detect or might you know, in a
developing bee, and they'll so remove that might and you know,
(16:08):
plaster their sister back up again. So she's going to
remove so she can continue developing. So there's a lot
of different things like that. But the thing is, if
that queen swarms, you know, if your colony swarms, you've
lost that queen. How you're starting oliver again. Yeah, So
which I have so many colonies, you know, we have
feral colonies. We have colonies of hobby bee keepers around.
(16:33):
You know, you don't know where they got their bees.
So it's hard to maintain that that dominant gene. And
that's that's the tricky part, is to have a dominant
gene for hygienics, and we don't have that yet, got it?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
So Nina Bagley gets us to work harder.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
She she's lucky. She finds bees out in the woods
that are far away from any other colonies and she
uses those to breed her bees.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Interesting talking with Barbie but Butcher. She is our queen
bee and has been the one that stuck with us
through all these years, keeping us informed about the honeybees
and the native bees and what we can do to
be more be friendly in our gardens. So swarming seasons
coming up and got a couple of minutes here real quick,
if somebody goes out and there's a swarm on a
(17:20):
tree in their house or on the side of their
house or whatever, don't panic, right what should they do?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yes, don't panic, please, we need those bees. You can
go to Centralhio Beekeepers dot org, Ohio Statebeekeepers dot org.
You can initially call a library or the police department.
There's a lot of sources to find swarms and just
leave them alone because most of the time they'll be
gone within twenty four hours. So you know, don't bat
(17:48):
at them, don't fight, you know, blast your phoes on them.
Just leave them alone and find a local beekeeper and
they all come and they'll collect those bees.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, they're not coming after you. They're not going to
swarm after you. And I've told you this many times.
I do not suggest anybody to do this, but I
have walked up to these swarms on the side of
a tree and put your hands right up next to them.
They could care less about you because they're protecting that
queen and moving and they'll they'll move right they're just
right in front of you and never do anything at all.
Just be But I'm not telling you to do that.
(18:18):
But point being is that's not you know, they're focused
on getting that queen somewhere, relocating. So if they stick
around for a couple three days, okay, call somebody and
they'll collect a swarm. But yeah, don't do anything. And again,
no matter what state you're in, there are beekeepers, good
lore out there that would love to come to your
house and collect those up.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
We have about thirty two thirty two hundred bee keepers
right here in Ohio, so there's plenty of beekeepers out
there who are more happy to get them. Three two
thousand beekeepers in Ohio, so that plenty of out there.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Yeah, and even if they even if they wind up
getting in the wall of a house or whatever, there
are a lot of bee keepers that will come and
help to take that apart, pull them out of there,
collect the bees, and then work with you as far
as getting it back together as well. So you know,
against work with them, don't work against them, try to
save them. And of course, you know, Barbie and I've
been talking for years now about how to be more
(19:16):
friendly in your garden planning for the pollinators. You know,
what our cultural practices, what we use in the garden
you know, Lookie reading these figures about this major be
loss this year. Now, it's become even more and more
important to be e e friendly in your gardening endeavors
that you do this year and forever, but this year especially,
(19:38):
Barbie Bletcher, our Queen Bee always a pleasure of great information.
We'll get you back on as we learn more. Thank
you so much for getting up and sharing. And I
hope you're a voice gets better.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
There will I surched some honey. It'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Well, we can always tell us better. It's just that
short period of time. Another thing right there, Drink your honey.
Take care of the Queen Bee. It'll take care of
you as well. Thanks Barbie, Thank you all right, quick
break we come back. Phone lines are open for you. No,
Gary Sullivan, today's on vacation. So next half hour it's
you and me. Gary eight hundred a two three eight
two five five Here in the garden with Ron Wilson, Green,
(20:29):
Tom or not. Ron can help at one eight hundred
eighty two three talk This says in the Garden with
Ron Wilson.
In The Garden with Ron Wilson News
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