Starting Nucs with Will (178)

Episode 178 – Starting Nucs with Will

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Jim Tew: Podcast listeners, hi. It's that time of the week again. Got a special situation going on today that I wanted to include you in. I hope you're interested. I've got a brand new beekeeper. He's got an interest in bees. He's had one now for quite a while, but it's just taken a long time to get around. He's a bit of a young guy. He's still in high school, but he got his bees just a few days ago, and I was going to tell you how that went. If you want to listen in, we'll be glad to have you visit with us. I'm Jim Tew, and I'm coming to you from  Honey Bee Obscura, where once a week, we talk about something to do with beekeeping.

Will Laditka: Hi, I'm Will Laditka and I'm our rookie beekeeper today.

Jim: [laughs] He's not our rookie. I've been training you since the day you were born. Let's go ahead and start out with the official introduction. We're coming to you, as I said, from Honey Bee Obscura, and we're going to talk a few minutes about Will and his rookieness and how he's getting involved in beekeeping.

Speaker 3: Welcome to  Honey Bee Obscura, brought to you by Growing Planet Media, the producers of the Beekeeping Today podcast. Join Jim Tew, your guide through the complexities, the beauty, the fun, and the challenges of managing honeybees. Jim hosts fun and interesting guests who take a deep dive into the intricate world of honeybees. Whether you're a seasoned beekeeper or just getting started, get ready for some plain talk that'll delve into all things honeybees.

Jim: Listeners, how many years in the making was this, Will?

Will: I don't know. Depending on when we first started, probably at least a dozen years. Maybe more.

Jim: I guess we ought to tell the whole story, shouldn't we? You probably figured out by now that Wil's a grandson of mine. In fact, he's my oldest grandson of six grandkids, three sons, three daughters, three grandsons, and three granddaughters. He's the oldest. What does that make you, Will?

Will: It makes me special. I don't know,

Jim: It makes you special. Good question. Good answer for a dumb question. How old are you? Will, is what I'm trying to ask.

Will: I'm 17, and I'm currently a junior at Marshall High School in Marshall, Michigan.

Jim: Okay. You see, when we first started talking listeners, Will was-- I don't know- five or six years old and had a little bee suits and whatever, but Will's the only one of my grandkid who's taken the bait so far, so maybe this will entice the others. I got to tell you listeners, you know how it goes. This is beekeeping, so there's going to be some ups and downs, and we'll just deal with those when it happens. Will decided. I guess this is going to get confusing because my grandson is named Will, and we were going to the Will County beekeepers over in Illinois. That was when Will said, "This is going to be confusing right away."

That's when, I'll say, that my grandson, Will, was driving me to the Will County Beekeepers in Illinois, and that's where he really got his first introduction, I think Will. Right?

Will: Yes. That was the first epiphany of sorts to beekeeping.

Jim: The first epiphany of sorts. He had a good time. It was a long trip, and he came back, With Will sitting here, I'll tell you the truth, I didn't think he would hold up. Everybody has an interest in everything, but it usually passes. This was about soon to be a year ago, Will, and you maintained it very well. Listeners, I've had a previous podcast on this for those of you who are dedicated listeners. You knew Will as a nameless mystery man, where I was asking should I do this thing or not? The general consensus was absolutely, you do this thing. Listeners, what I decided to do was to buy nukes instead of buying packages because Will, my grandson, and I are separated by what, about four hours, Will?

Will: Yes, just under four.

Jim: We're not exactly up under each other. I've admonished Will to make beekeeper friends locally and I'll do what I can from afar, but he's going to need someone who can help him when something comes up. I ordered two five-frame nukes, Queen right. Good to go. Listeners, it's one of those things that you think is never going to happen because it was so far in the future, but then boom, all of a sudden, it's time. My wife and I were in the car and made the trip, went over, picked up the nukes, and then we waited till the next day. Then, Will, this is really getting to be a strange situation, Will, because Will is named Will. Will's partner is named, Will.

Will: So many Wills.

Jim: It was the Will County Beekeepers [chuckles] who turned Will and Will on the beekeeping. When you say, "Will, it covers a lot of ground." I went over and I picked up the nukes and Will, why don't you talk about it for a bit there. What did you do when they got the nukes? How did you get the equipment? What was the story on all this?

Will: It started about a year ago, shortly after the Will County Beekeeping meeting when I had the epiphany, that I asked for equipment from you and an absolute steal. You give me all this equipment for free. It saved me a bunch of money. Beekeeping, what I've learned so far this short time is it's really difficult to get started. That's the hard part. There's a lot of time and money you have to put in right at the beginning, but you made it so much easier for me and that made that start so much smoother, but overall, from the beginning, getting the nukes, that first transition is always the hardest part.

I felt a little bit overwhelmed, maybe a little shell-shocked of sorts just because all of a sudden, there are tens of thousands of bees right in your face, and when you're not really used to that, it's a little bit intimidating at first.

Jim: You handled it, both of you, both you and your partner, Will, handled it nicely. Nobody panicked. I guess we'll go ahead and discuss this. You were stung several times. You had a pair of loose-fitting boots and some of the bees, buzzing around, dropped down in your shoe, and motivated you there for a bit.

Will: If you go into beekeeping without anticipation of getting stung, then I'm not really sure what you think's going to happen. Of course, I think, "Let's wear shorts when we're putting the nukes into boxes. That's a fantastic idea." I had the suit on, but I had shorts on as well, and those boots. There was enough of a gap that a couple of them got lucky enough to fall right down into my boots and sting me on my legs, which no, I've been stung before, so I know what to expect but still, every time.

Jim: Every time it lights you up.

Will: Yes.

Jim: Doesn't you? [chuckles] It makes you rearrange your priorities. Will, I want to tell you that if you do keep bees, you are going to be stung. That part's exactly right, but you shouldn't be stung a lot. If you're being stung a lot and you're not a commercial beekeeper, you're not working big loads of bees, you've just got bees in the backyard. You need to reassess what is going on to be sure that your beekeeping protocol is correct because you shouldn't just be eaten up. It's okay to expect some stings, but it should be the quizzical thing. "I wonder why that bee did that." It shouldn't be, "Oh my stars, that's my 30th sting." You need to go back and review something if you're at that point.

Speaking of being at that point, Will, let's take a short break, and hear from our sponsor. We'll come right back and pick up where we left off.

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Jim: Will, what was the situation with the queen? Had you seen a queen before? Had I've shown you one somewhere in your life, or was the us finding those queens, was that also an epiphany to an epiphany that day?

Will: If I can recall correctly, the last time I had seen a queen bee in person was about 11 or 12 years ago in that YouTube video we made all those years ago. When we took apart that small hive and you handed it to me and I pointed out on the frame. I think that was the last time I had seen a queen bee in person.

Jim: Well, I really looked good, listeners, because, of course, the deck was stacked in my favor there, even though there were thousands of bees there, and to some people that'd be a lot of bees, it was a five frame nuke, which those of you who are experienced know already. That's basically half of one deep is kind of a small colony. I found the queen in both situations and everything worked very well there. That was fortuitous because if it had been queen-less, then back we do go, I guess, to the distributor for something, but anyway, right now, that part worked well.

Will, I felt like that they were light in stores because it had been closed up for a while and they had a little bit of nectar there, but not a lot, so I bought top feeders. You see, listeners, everything I'm doing is with an eye to cutting the complexity. I thought with top feeders, Will and his partner would not have to open the colony to get to a division board feeder. I didn't want use a Boardman feeder out front because there's raccoons in the area and they would just knocked it off so we went with an internal top feeder that I bought brand new, two nice feeders. Will, tell me what you found when you went out the check that the next day.

Will: That was just yesterday when I went out. I take the tops off of the first hive, the slightly smaller, more tame hive that I have, and there's no food left. It was a great sign, fantastic to see. I brought the food back with me and I filled it back up. Everything was good, but I approached the second hive and I saw several ants crawling on the cover. I didn't think much of it until I took the cover off and there were ants everywhere. There was still a bunch of food in it. I was slightly worried, so I reached out to you and got the protocol to handle that, so already some trials and tribulations I've been facing. It's interesting, two totally different scenarios on two hives, 15 feet apart.

Jim: That's the puzzlement, Will, and listeners, because to my knowledge, there's never been a beehive in that location where we put those two hives. They were 15 feet apart and somehow overnight, forager ants found that feeder up in the top. How did they do that? It was not scented sugar. We didn't spill anything. Nothing was leaking. That was really a shrewd move on those ants to find it. Now listeners, there is a quirk. The sun was setting and the day had been long and we wanted to get this over with. We just set the hives back up on blocks. We got them off the ground.

In a moment of frenzy, I forgot to tell Will to dribble a little bit of syrup on the top parts of the second colony. We did it on the first one and Will, it's interesting that that's the one that took all the syrup.

Will: Exactly correct.

Jim: Maybe we alerted them because I forgot to tell you to do that on the second one. Maybe they didn't know there was feed up there. We didn't ring their doorbell with "Here's some sweet food. Go look for more." What I had Will do was I had him take the feeder off and then get rid of the ants. I think you saved the syrup, didn't you?

Will: Yes, I just made sure there were no ants in it. There's nothing wrong with it, so I just put it back in the bucket. I took the feeder off, so in a few days, I'll make sure the ants dissipate. Then I'll go put the feeder back on and fill it back up. I'll make sure to put a little bit into the hive this time to see if that's the trick that works because it seemed to work on the other hive.

Jim: Well, maybe it may. You know what, it's ironic, isn't it that it seemed to work on the other one.

Will: Could completely be luck.

Jim: I realized just in a moment that I'd forgotten it, but we had the feeder on. You already had feed in it, and I thought just to pick it up and try to move it around. They're going to slosh it. I don't want to get my mess and get robbing and whatever, and lo and behold, it happened anyway. We've only been doing this now. We got them set up. Let's see, tomorrow Will, will be a week, won't it? Tomorrow will be a week, yes.

Will: Yes.

Jim: Seven days. They've been in the hive now for five days. It's a five-frame nuke. The flow there in southern Michigan, over on the Chicago side of Michigan, is already beyond fruit bloom, so I don't really know what's coming up next in that area. The owner of the property said that there was no basswood, no tulip to speak of, so I'm not really sure, short of white clover, what the next big crop is going to be. Will has a lot going on in his life and he's asked all the right questions. He plays several sports. He's a bit of an academician. He is a musician. He's got a lot going on, so he wanted to know how much time is this going to take and his partner wanted to know that.

The landowner, who's also got an interest in this, wanted to know. I never really know how to answer that question, how long is this going to take? Once everything is set up and operational and the bees are stabilized, they maintain themselves. It becomes an issue of what you want from the bees. If you want no swarms and all the honey you can get, then you would manage them for that. If you just want them there for biological fulfillment and you want to see bees provide pollination for the ecosystem, you don't have to do much at all. You can do as much as you want or as little as you want.

Listeners, what do you think? I've told Will to go out there as often as he wants and open it up and have a look. I told him to learn to light his smoker. I've really admonished him and his friend to be careful with the fire out there, especially as the season passes and it dries out. It would become too easy to get a fire going. I'm sure they will, but still, be careful. Will, what do you feel the most uncertain about right now?

Will: I don't know, I guess it's a tough question. It's just it's been not that much time since, like you said, it's only been a week. I'm excited to get through different stages of the colony and to see it grow. Not necessarily any concerns at this point besides the ant problem, so I'm hoping when we put that feeder back on, they won't come back. I'd say that's my biggest concern right now, but besides that, I'm mostly just looking forward to the future of them.

Jim: You said that, Will, tomorrow, you've been a beekeeper for six days.

Will: [laughs]

Jim: That's actually fairly new, to tell you the truth. That's a fairly new beekeeper, but we all, everybody has their genesis, Will. Everybody who started beekeeping had a starting point. All those years ago, I remember the excitement, the enthusiasm and the confusion and the concern and the wonderment and the stupid mistakes. It's just all a part of what it takes to do it. What I'd like to think is going to happen is that the colony is going to continue to build up and I'd like you and your partner to open the colonies occasionally. Little light smoke, learn to do that. Take out the outside frames, don't pull the middle frame out. The queen is probably going to be on some of the middle frames.

Then learn to manipulate colonies and to break the propolis seal. Then to see if they're maintaining a flow out there and can get enough of a crop to survive the first winter up there. That's basically the goal is to get them build up. Others have said, "Honey, honey, honey." Well, there won't be any honey, honey, honey, the first year. We're just trying to get these guys set up and get them through the winter. It's like you're in the deep end of the pool, Will. It lets you learn to keep bees and what to expect. That's where we are right now, listeners. Where are you, Will, on this thing?

Will: Just like you said excited, confused, filled with wonderment. It's just so much excitement, so many different feelings. It's just so fascinating to me. I'm just looking forward to it. There's so much I don't know, and I'm excited to learn. I don't know, it's just I'm looking forward to it. I'm just super excited.

Jim: Oh, well good. I'm glad you are. Well, I hope you enjoy this phase of it, this beginning part of it is a lot of fun and it should be enjoyable. If it were easy, I think everybody would be beekeepers, so there will be setbacks, guaranteed. Then we will deal with setbacks and make it work. You need to go ahead and put a bark on the wall somewhere of when you became a beekeeper, so when you're as old as I am, you can tell everybody that you started beekeeping 55, 60 years ago. I was just a kid in school.

Well, Will we need to shut things down here. I'd like to think that as you grow and as the bees grow, I can call you back up and we'll update people on seeing what it's like to be a new beekeeper and what you learn and what you didn't learn.

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Will: Definitely. If they're willing to have me, I would love to hop on once in a while and talk about how I'm progressing as a beekeeper and how the hive's progressing and how they're looking. The positives and the negatives as a young beekeeper and how the colonies continue to grow.

Jim: That sounds good to me. Well, so is Will Laditka, right now our six-day-old beekeeper who thinks he's going to be in this for a while. [chuckles]

Will: [laughs]

Jim: Thanks for talking to me, Will.

Will: Thanks for having me.

Jim: I'll be back in touch with you. All the best of you, buddy. See you.

Will: Take care.

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