Commercial Beekeeping Woes Can We Still Make Almond Contract? Another 386 Hives Lost to CCD
Вставка
- Опубліковано 2 лют 2024
- Gary Barber’s Commercial Beekeeping VLOG: January 2024 is a month that I am glad is over. Started the month at 952 hives ended at 566. Still on the decline. We made the almond contract and got the bees away again, but it wasn’t easy. Had to make merges ahead of single digit cold. Our bees were brooding, but the cold chilled it all. Also start to talk ELAP.
- Домашні улюбленці та дикі тварини
Hang in there, buddy. You'll figure this out, and you'll make this work. Ever Forward, and look to better days ahead. Hard work and optimism go a long way!
Heck yeah! If it was easy everyone would be doing it.
Good to see you back on the YT, Gary. I think you are going to be ok because you are starting to sound like a farmer! Very good update. I am working on a 2 way pallet to start thinking about being able to move bees with the tractor. Maybe in a year or two, I'll be bugging you about joining the co-op. Good luck to yall in the Almonds this year. Im hearing that the problems they had last year has caused a lot of people to not send bees and has created a shortage. If you decide to buy bees off of the Almonds, I hope you can share that experience. Take care.
Its looking like we are going to have to buy some or find some brood to buy around here. I still see a lot of guys looking to find a place for their bees in the Commercial Beekeepers FB group. Its a good one if you aren't a member. I also like Sideliners too big too quit. Diesel is definitely the way to go, we aint getting any younger.
Hey Gary…good luck to you in Pixley. I’m glad your driver didn’t get seriously hurt. That looked like an epic fall! The weather isn’t the best, but a ton better than last year! Orchards should only be muddy and not flooded.
Our broker got them spread. We notched the feeding rims this year just in case of flood. That fall scared the you know what out of me. It could have been real bad.
I hope they get more days to fly this year. We need a good build up.
You talking about not having a big building up in colony’s . That is the same thing that happened to me but for some reason it was just in one yard an all was treated the same way an all mite counts was low . My queens was in there year two but they all was the same age . So not sure what happened but it is just a thing that happened. This season is looking a lot better now so just do what I have to do . On the very clean white bee suit you can tell who the boss is. LOL . Hope you have a great season. Thanks
Who knows, probably got into something bad at that yard, just my guess? Thanks for the well wishes. Hope yours is a good one too. Gary
Nice 80 series Land Cruiser.!
Haha. Yeah that’s an office mates.
Michigan They formulate are diesel so it wont jell until we get below 0 for a few days to a week or so.
Makes sense, I heard our is normally good until 10f
Hello sir. Can you please explain how to resolve this matter in pollination services. I was working with a broker in the season of 2022. I do like to know the Almonds grower instead. Any suggestion/advice on this would be appreciated. I’m located in N Texas and I own around 150 colonies. Thank you and success to you.
I really don't know how to go about it remotely. We have a broker that we have been working with for 5 years now. I very happy with everything he provides for us and haven't had reason to look elsewhere.
Would love to know the number of hives that you actually got to pass grading in the almonds.
From what im hearing and seeing here on this video im betting it wont be many.
Looks like the real bee work...... Treating and feeding is being done 5 months to late.
We sent about 200, down 250 from last year. Yes correct, it was I bad year and I make no secret of that. Pretty obvious, but you had to comment anyway. So just being snarky or trying to help? I can't tell. I'm glad I got the point across. We work hard for our bees, what real work did we miss? I am curious to know. You know so much from one of our videos.
Guess you are en expert on our environment here in North Texas on the prairie. I would love more insight and help. Our biggest problem each year is nice winter days. Hives that are strong in November and December start crashing in January. We have bad winter dearths but nice days the bees fly and fly not finding anything and just wears out the winter bees. I wish they would just cluster for 3 months, that would be easy. Thanks for watching and engaging. This is a hard business especially trying to figure it out from scratch and not living in bee country. Please if you have real tips I would love to hear them. We had 600 that graded out late November. I'll take any real suggestions, but you seem to suggest that we don't put in the work. Give me something constructive, we don't need your petty assumptions. Cheers! Gary
Camera man… slow down the turns and movements please
I’ll do my best to slow it down. Need to find a good mic too. Thanks for watching.
Free insurance? Anyone want to guees why the national debt is 30+ trillion.
FREE Government. money isn't.
Sounds like you are not a fan of government assistance and feel we should absorb the losses incurred. Its intended to help the protect food chain for all of us. CCD is real. We do are best to keep them going, but so much out of our control.
Worried about making the contract at the expense of your honey bees! It's not always about the money! How's the weather in California? Yesterday in Michigan my honey bees got their first cleansing flight this winter. Why don't you commercial beekeepers do a pollinating strike until the toxic chemicals are band in the U.S.! My honey bees will only live 3-4 months through winter because of the toxic chemicals crop farmers are putting into the environment. I DO NOT FEEL SORRY FOR YOUR LOSSES!
This is our livelihood. We care about the health of our bees. Unfortunately we have to cull bees. The bees merged realistically should’ve been culled much sooner. We were trying to give them a chance. Most merged were less than 3 frames of bees. Being from Michigan I feel it’s fair to say you would agree that bees of this strength are ill prepared for sustained single digit cold. I feel we saved those workers be combining them. Yes we sacrificed some queens that had done their job, but were no longer.
I stay active with several associations that currently fight for better beekeeping practices in commercial agriculture.
We are in agriculture and support agriculture. The growers we work with do not spray when our bees are in the area. When they do they do it responsibly and work with us to develop their best practice. Boycotting an industry we support and rely on makes no sense. The almonds allow our bees to grow and build up early. That way we can have to bees to supply to small scale beekeepers.
If you want to make a difference join your favorite associations. Help them with lobbying efforts. Trolling commercial beekeepers that struggle with hard decisions faced when thinking about the health and viability of their entire operation probably won’t help make much of a change.
We do appreciate you watching and engaging. This is a hard business and we are faced with many challenges. Together as beekeepers we can make a difference.
What's up with the hate? The man is trying to make a living.