Hi All,
I was following the strings on yard rent and then on the five biggest
problems for beekeepers and I started to think (dangerous). IMHO the
biggest problem to beekeepers and beekeeping in general are beekeepers
themselves. I guess this can be true for any hobby/occupation/industry.
When we do root cause of most of the problems we have you can usually bring
it down to one of the following:
The Uneducated Beekeeper. Beehavers (as George fondly refers to them) who
will do something foolish because they just don't know any better. In most
cases they do most harm to their own operation, but they can also adversely
affect other beekeepers in the area.
The Lazy Beekeeper. You know the one who realizes they have a problem, but
just never get around to correcting it. These are the guys who are glad to
supply your bees with some fresh honey loaded with foulbrood spores because
they didn't have time to treat, or destroy, the colonies.
The Cheap Beekeeper. This is the one who will reuse Apistan strips, take
too much honey from the colony, never use the proper dosage when medicating,
use old, possibly dirty, containers for their honey storage. Did you ever
see someone storing honey in a Spackle bucket? These guys have the
potential to really hurt the entire industry. Note: They should not be
confused with the frugal beekeeper who are probably most of us just trying
to save a little here and there.
The Bad Beekeeper. This is the guy who only cares about one thing:
themselves. These are the people who steal hives, run illegal operations
and anything else to give them the edge. They sell poor queens, sick or
mite infested bees, contaminated/adulterated honey, etc. They always provide
the media with material for news stories that make beekeepers look bad.
Hopefully we don't have too many of these, but I always tend to blame our
biggest problems on them.
The Indebted Beekeeper. Most beekeepers fall into this category, they feel
they owe everybody some type of service just because they can do it. This
is the beekeeper who shows up to sell very good, local, honey and then
lowers their price to compete with someone selling generic/imported/cheap
honey that they had nothing to do with producing. This person will work all
day to remove bees from a building and then charge a small sum if anything
at all. They will drive 30 miles (50 km), climb 20 ft (9 m) up in the air
to retrieve a swarm while the homeowner watches from a distance and keeps
asking if they are "killer bees". They give the homeowner a jar of honey
take, nothing in compensation, other than the bees, then in a discussion
learn that the homeowner gladly paid an extermination company $100 to remove
a wasp nest the previous summer. Sometimes after driving the same distance
they find out the are honeybees are wasps, or are greeted by other
beekeepers whom the homeowner has also called because he wasn't sure who
would come. These beekeepers do all this because they love bees and
beekeeping and are usually embarrassed to expect anything for the work they
do. He/she feels they have a responsibility. I have been there and done
the above. Now, I am somewhat embarrassed about it. If you do a good job
you should be able to feel good about it. I now say that the honey we
produce is the best there is. You should be saying that about your honey
too!
There is my list!
One quick comment on yard rental. I refuse to negotiate to place my bees on
someone land. I have a number of out yards. I always give the land owner a
"gift" of honey each year. The amount usually depends on the yield for the
year, but I decide how much. The minute the landowner thinks I "owe" him
honey, the bees are gone. The landowner is getting the benefit of
pollination. I don't ask for 10 % of the pumpkin yield increase due to the
bees. Each year I have to turn away people who want bees on their property
and are even willing to pay for them. Unless there is something very
special about the site I wouldn't pay to put bees there. I understand I
only have between 40 and 50 colonies, and a large operation would view this
different, but for the small operator there are enough landowners out there
who know the value of bees. You shouldn't pay for the use of their land.
Just for the record, I usually give the land owner between 5 and 10 lb, and
all sites have 10 colonies or less. I do give them the honey that was
produced on their land. They are always excited about that. There really
are people out there who value us for what we and our bees do.
For those celebrating, have a great Thanksgiving! Everyone else, have a
great day!
Ron Bogansky
Milk & Honey Farm
Kutztown, PA USA
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