About depression

I've seen a lot of posts on social media about depression. Some say that someone's always listening, some say just call me and we can talk. And some say whatever you need, I'm here. When I read these things I think, these people have no idea what depression is. I've been to funerals of suicides and hear people say, why didn't they ask for help? Odds are they did but you weren't listening. And that's the key to all of it. We're really not listening. We text, we e-mail and some tweet. Occasionally we talk on the phone but seldom make face to face contact. Someone wrote a book several years ago about love languages, we accept that people express love in different ways, why don't we accept that people communicate other emotions in different ways? I can tell you this from first person experience. I am typically depressed every day. It's the routine that keeps me going most days. I have a pretty good idea of what will help, I can remember times when I was not depressed, but haven't met anyone yet who can provide it though. I will keep trying. Someone who is deeply depressed, bordering on despair, will not call for help, because they don't believe that anyone can help. Sometimes the depressed person has no idea what they need, I'm there quite a lot. But communication is still there. It's probably little things. In military leadership school they taught us to look for changes in behavior. Is someone typically punctual to work and suddenly late frequently? Or the opposite, typically coming in right on time and then 20 - 30 minutes early? Changes in how much they talk, social habits. Do you know someone who was involved in social gatherings and has suddenly disappeared? Those may all be cries for help. And I can also say that the posts, while the intent is good, makes me think,"really, I've been screaming for years and you've never been here." Being a geek, I will use a scene from the original Star Trek motion picture. The Voyager probe returns to earth and has developed intelligence, it's name is now V'ger. It wants to communicate with the creator. In the middle of receiving the encryption code, V'ger burns off it's own antenna, which means the only way to complete the code sequence is for the creator, or someone who knows the code, to actually make contact. That's what we need. We don't need a text, or e-mail. Sometimes a phone call will help, but depressed people need, more than anything else personal contact. 

Just an average day

Let me tell you about my day. I went in to work today, we're making these stainless steel plates, a job straight from the pits of hell. Been doing it for 5 months now and when we first started I jokingly said it would take until Thanksgiving to finish. Looks like it will actually be past that. Work went OK, I managed to get done what I planned to do. After that I replaced the hinge pins on my Ranger driver's door. We made some pins about 2 years ago, used stainless steel but it was too soft and they wore grooves. I found some replacement pins with bushings on Ebay for around $8, bought them several weeks ago, just haven't had time to install. Took out the old pins, drilled out the holes to accept the new over-sized bushings and put everything back together. I wanted to make some wax cell cups today, and was thinking of using a turkey baster to move the melted wax. So I stopped at WalMart looking for a baster. $12 for a turkey baster, not. But I did have an idea while standing there. I could use one of those nasal aspirators. It's a little suction bulb parents use to suck snot out of an infant's nose. I actually have one of those, used it on a different job. While I'm standing there I see someone walk by with a new bike, and I think I should get new tubes for my bike. I knew it had a flat which had been repaired several times. Walmart used to have these never-flat tube inserts. It's a solid rubber insert that takes the place of a tube. Just being curious I walked over. They didn't have any. I looked at tubes, a basic tube is about $5, puncture resistant self sealing tubes $12. While I wanted to get my bike back in service, it's a luxury. Vicki has now been out of work for three months. We still have received nothing from the other party's insurance and her short term disability insurance is jerking us around. While $20 may not seem like much, it does add up and in my life, with things constantly breaking, and being a pragmatist, it was an expense I could not justify. Heading home, I have some old wax that had moths and beetle larvae, and some that got wet and was growing mold so they needed to be rendered down. The propane tank was empty, I knew that and planned to get it filled this weekend. Got the tank from the back yard, walked to the truck and noticed water dripping underneath. Looked and saw it coming down the front of the engine, typical of a water pump but the pump is less than 1 year old. Opened the hood. checking hoses, squeezed the upper hose and I saw a tiny stream of water from the thermostat jacket. Rubbed my finger over it and now it's pouring out, stream is 1/8 inch in diameter. Wonderful! No way to find a water jacket for a 1993 ford on a Saturday. I have some JB weld quick, I can pull off the jacket and put on a patch. But I don't have a gasket. Auto-zone has a gasket, they're 3.3 miles away. I also only have the one vehicle but I have a bike with a flat tire. Took off the tire and patched it, this is now 5 patches on this tube. The hole was right next to a previous hole and it's suspiciously on a seam. Put in some air, soapy water, no leaks so back together and I'm off to AZ. 2.3 miles later and the tire is flat. Pushed to AZ. Got the gasket, took off the tire and the tube has a split on the seam 3 inches long. Pushed it back home. Some of my pious acquaintances will say that God was telling to fix my bike. If that's true He wasn't speaking loud enough. On a positive note, the time it took to travel allowed the JB weld to set up. Put the truck back together. I did get the propane tank exchanged and I made some wax cell cups for Sunday. Did not render wax as it was dark. This wasn't a very good day, and I have at least two of these every week. Someone is always calling me with something that's broke, last Wednesday, just as I got home. my youngest son called. His car was dead in the middle of the road on his way to work. Spent about 40 minutes under the car in the dirt but I did get it running. I'm thankful for the skills to fix stuff, but I'm getting tired.

These fascinating little bugs.

I love working with bees, I aways learn so many things from and about them. Two items today. In the club yard I have a colony that recently re-queened. they haven't been very strong, in a 10 frame box and I debated moving them to something smaller. Today we saw only older brood and larvae, nothing younger than 7 days. So we determined there was no queen in the box.  Another club member noticed a large cluster under the stand hanging on the bottom board. So what's going on, are they swarming, just hanging out?  We started scooping up bees and putting them in the box. Found a small piece of new comb under the box, with eggs. Upon further conversation and reflection we determined that the bees under the box were actually a swarm, probably from a feral removal that was placed in the club yard last week, which today had about 1/4 the amount of bees. Maybe they detected a weak colony, or maybe it was just convenience. In any case, by the time I was ready to leave, they were all in the box. 

Second item; I graft queens every week and sometimes I go 9 or 10 days. When I'm going a bit long, I'll put the previous graft frame above an excluder so 9 or 10 days later I can put the capped brood in the cell builder. So today I'm on a long cycle, today is day 10. I opened the top box to move the brood frame, when I pulled it out there were 3 queen cells. While I've been told that bees will make queens above an excluder, we tried it with grafts last year with no luck. So as I debate what to do with these cells, I see one open up and out she comes. Bees can make queens from larvae from day 4 to 6. So it would appear that when I moved that frame, they started making  a queen from a day 6 larvae. Cut out the rest and put in incubator.  Went below the excluder to get a graft frame, saw the queen, one of my Picasso's, nice gob of white on her back. Talk about good timing.

Why don't you....

Just shut up! At least that's my thoughts this morning. I must admit that I too have been guilty of this problem, trying to stop. Sometimes we all ask questions. Can I do; whatever. But instead of a simple answer, we either give or receive all sorts of advice on how to do it differently. That wasn't the question. I get suggestions on my gadgets all the time. Why don't you silk screen, why don't you have a stamp made, why don't you..... any number of things. Simple answer, I don't want to. If I wanted to change the way I make things, I might ask. And if I ask for advice, that's one thing. If I ask a single question, something that might have a simple yes or now answer, then just give the answer. Next time you feel like saying something like, Why don't you, or you should, or have you thought of, stop and consider how you might feel if people do the same to you. And yes I did just give some unsolicited advice, you're welcome.

I'm sorry but your mistakes do define you

OK the title is meant to pique your interest and I'll explain my point in a bit. Over the past week or so I've noticed some yard signs. Plain white coroplast with black letters. They have writing on both sides, on each sign that I saw, one side says Don't give up!, the back side says one of the following; You matter, You are enough, and Your mistakes do not define you. I'm not sure where they came from, my thoughts are probably a local church, trying to be encouraging. I get the sentiment. Over the past couple of days I found that I was actually irritated by one of the signs, and with a little more thought realized how wrong some of them are. You are not enough, sorry to say but none of us are enough. We all need others, we need stuff. But the sad reality is that when the need is greatest, or when it really hurts, we're alone. Hopefully we are enough for that time and place. I like the "Don't give up " attitude, very few people succeed on the first try. Or the second or third for that matter, keep on trying. But the thing which really sets me off is that our mistakes do not define us. The reality is that we are a combination of successes and failures. Most of us learn from our mistakes, sometimes we repeat them. In fact all of us have those things which no matter how hard we try, no matter how bad it may get, we still do it over and over again. Addictions fall into this category and as so many successful programs show us, such as alcoholics anonymous, to overcome these destructive habits one MUST have support. So no you are not enough, at least not for that. Back to mistakes defining us. Still don't agree, let me make an example, Richard Nixon. You just thought of one word right? Nixon was actually a pretty good president. He established trade with China, got the U.S. out of Viet Nam, and established title IX collegiate sports. There are other things he did but what do we remember? Watergate. Yes our failures and mistakes mark us, while it's easier to overcome some foolishness we do at 15 than it is at 35, the things we did at 15 will affect us when we're 60. That's what's been bugging me lately. Like everyone I've done some dumb things in my past, most have helped forge me into what I am today. But the worst mistake I ever made was about 20 years ago, and I am painfully reminded of it every single day. The platitude to put the past behind me just isn't possible. I can't fix it and I can't escape from the reminders. The bottom line is that we will all fail, we all have some things that we need help with and we'll all make mistakes. Very few of us will ever find that special friend with whom we can share anything and who will smack us when we're being stupid. If you have that you are so specially blessed. But one of the signs is so very right, You matter. Even with your flaws, the dumb mistakes, the addictions and every other problem, YOU MATTER. Every day you touch the life of someone else, it can be for good or for bad. Some people will remember you and others will forget you, but in the day to day activities, we all have impact on others. Live life with care, try not to make to many mistakes, lean on someone when you can't walk alone, and let someone else lean on you. Make a difference every day because You Matter!

Just add a frame of eggs and larvae

How many times have you heard this, or even said it?  I've said it myself so many times, and in the past few days I've seen it posted on a number of Facebook pages. It seems like this is the go-to solution to so many problems. It's the most common solution to having no queen, or suspected of having no queen. The problem though is it doesn't take into account the reason for the problem. In my first year keeping bees I lost a queen, actually lost more than one and I still lose queens. In this particular case it had been a little over two weeks since I'd been in the box. Went in and there were capped brood, no signs of eggs or any larvae. I was advised, and having read as much as possible, I added a brood frame with eggs and larvae. Checked it in four days also as advised to see if they were making queens. They weren't making queens so it was assumed that there was already a queen in the box. Probably an unmated virgin or recently mated but just not laying yet. Waited another week, no sign of eggs and again I was advised to add a brood frame. So I did. Again no queens. I ended up putting in three frames of brood, they never made a queen and I wound up with laying workers. Maybe the laying workers were there before the first or second brood frame, I don't know but I don't think so. There were no capped cells of any kind, no brood and no drones. I spent a month trying to fix a problem that could not be fixed. Since this I've done more research and spoken with a lot of people. There are times when a colony of bees can get queen-less and simply not make a new queen. Like they just don't care or something. I don't know any way to determine this but I've seen it happen more than once. It's like they get past some arbitrary day, maybe it's 22 or 26 or 30. Maybe it's weather and some other factors but it happens. When I look back on the colony I tried to save, with all of the resources I put into it, I could have made a new split. I think it's important to consider that just putting in a frame of brood may not fix the problems. Are there other options? Actually there are. Factors need to be weighed. How big is the sick colony? Can it simply be merged with another? Do I have enough resources to invest a single frame of brood? Is it worth more than one frame? I've had more laying worker boxes since that one. We, as a club, have tried pretty much every published method to fix laying workers. What we learned is that you can't fix laying workers. My philosophy is to simply shake the bees out in the yard. Any food in frames are added to a strong colony. I just had to do this last week. My current plan on a relatively strong queen-less colony is a single frame of brood for just a few days. I'll add the frame, check it in four days and if there are no queen cells, it's going back where it came from. My other thoughts are to put in a frame of grafts. Or if not grafts, cut a strip of eggs and larvae, press it into a frame vertically oriented and see if they make queens. I don't believe that a box of bees that won't make a queen are worth keeping. Sometimes we just need to accept there will be some losses.

Practical beekeeping, and queen rearing

I've had an interesting week, a bit of a roller coaster actually. Some things went as planned and some didn't. One of my cell builders failed miserably and at the same time I cut some capped queen cells from two beehives. One that I intentionally made queen-less and one that I didn't. So in all I actually ended up with more than the cell builder would have yielded. Early in the week I was faced with a dilemma, putting together mating nucs for all of the unexpected queens. It was looking like I might get 20 when I was just expecting 10 or 12. I have the boxes, the problem has been having a frame or two of bees for a mating nuc. I was kicking the idea around Wednesday and Thursday, of what to do. The whole thing is a bit ironic as I've been advocating having a plan for everything. I actually have a long term plan for making queens, I just lost sight of the obvious. My long term plan is to have 30-40 mating nucs and swapping 12-18 mated queens each week. My original plan was to start out with 10-12 mating nucs, and as the queens mate, and brood grows in the nucs, I could split the nucs to make more. That was the plan. It's actually worked somewhat but a bit slow. The problem is, or at least was, that my focus has been on that plan and I sort of missed the obvious, more on that later. My long term plan is to have three breeder queens, each one perhaps a different breed. I'd like to get a Carpenter Martha, maybe a Saskatraz, and an Italian hybrid. The queens would all be open mated so the end results might be interesting. To make cell builders, which I currently like using a 5 frame nuc box for this, I need four or five strong colonies. The idea is to start with 1 builder and add one each week. Then break down and rebuild the oldest builder every three weeks. That's the plan now, it might turn into just two builders, it depends on how well I get at grafting. So this means I need 8 strong colonies to do what I plan. Thursday night I woke up and had an epiphany, I currently have, or at least on Thursday had 16 beehives, here is the obvious, I have twice the number of colonies than I need.  Sort of lost track of this in everything else that I'm doing. Ten of those are what I'd consider to be strong colonies.  So Friday I just broke down two weaker colonies and used those bees to make mating nucs. I had enough boxes, made up another triple 3 frame queen castle. One of the colonies I broke down was a queen-less hive from a recent cut out, didn't get the queen but I had 6 frames of bees and 5 brood frames. There were the beginnings of some queen cells on the comb, with some regrets I cut them off. In the end I pulled five mated queens and put 18 in mating nucs. There are 6 cells in the current builder which I expect to come out next Friday, the plan is to make one more triple 3 frame castle and another twin 2 frame mating nuc. This will put me at 28 mating nucs. I'm also thinking of parting with a couple of beehives since I have more than I need or want. I guess I got lost in the excitement of getting more colonies of bees.

Another patent infringement

I received two messages today, someone has copied my Beehive Frame Fingers design and they're selling them. There are two small differences. My holders are designed for a single frame, and they're made of aircraft aluminum. The copy holds two frames and are 3D plastic printed. Interesting the price is the same, don't know what the copier is charging for shipping. Yes I'm irritated, and a little angry. My options are somewhat limited. The market for these items isn't huge, it may change in the future but it's an item limited to the beekeeping community so there is a limited audience. I can ask that they stop production. If I want to enforce my patent I need to hire an attorney, might go to court and seek a federal cease and desist order. That's expensive. For a small business, as in 1 person, it's a pretty big expense and quite frankly not something I can afford or justify. I'll probably just keep making my product which I feel is of better quality and guaranteed for life. Don't know if the copy is. 

Something Good About Love Bugs

I live in Eastern Central Florida so that means that we get two hatches of love bugs each year.  When I first moved here I was told the old tale of how love bugs were a genetic engineering mistake, how they were designed to mate with mosquitoes to make them sterile. It's not true though. Funny that today as I was out removing a feral beehive, a young girl, perhaps 9-11 years old restated that same old tale. Love bugs are a species of march fly. The first documented discoveries in the US date to 1911.  Today they are mostly in states bordering on the Gulf of Mexico.  As we travel so much more, the localities will expand. When I used to drive back and forth to camp in Lake Wales, I remember seeing clouds of  love bugs on the highway. A lot ended up on my truck. They annoy us, their bodies are acidic and will play hell with a paint job, They get into EVERYTHING. If you leave your car door or window open for just a little while, the odds are they'll get inside. Fortunately they don't last too long, less than a week. So for this annoyance do they do any good? Actually they do. As beekeepers we really don't like the fact that they eat the same nectar that our bees want. But their appearance indicates the presence of a nectar flow. The one thing they do that is beneficial is in the larvae stage. They eat decaying vegetation. So yes there is something good about love bugs.

Taking honey in the first year

There are a lot of tales that deal with just about any subject in life. In beekeeping I frequently hear people tell others that they can't take honey off the hives in the first year. When I hear such nonsense I ask why?  Who made this rule and did anyone ask the bees?  The reality is that as long as the colony has sufficient to make it through the winter, go ahead and take off the surplus. Talk to local experienced beekeepers, and not just one or two but find a group. Learn how much honey you need in your area and add another 10-15 percent. Take everything else. Odds are that if you start in the late spring or mid summer they will probably just make enough to make it through. But if you start in early spring and you hit the primary flows then things look much better.  Bottom line is, make sure your bees have enough plus a buffer and go ahead and take the rest. Ignore the people who simply perpetuate foolishness.

Go ahead and crush the honey comb

I was recently at South Florida Bee college and among other topics, the idea of spinning vs crushing comb for honey came up.  I frequently hear how it takes 8 pounds of honey for a pound of wax. This is data taken form research done over 150 years ago. Might still be true but a pound of wax, drawn into comb is a lot. One pound of wax can fill 6 or 7 deep frames.   Randy Oliver at Scientific beekeeping did some tests and the results show about 1 1/2 pounds of sugar for a deep frame. I've also heard, and I've even said myself that it makes more work for the bees. But does it really?
 God made bees with the equipment to make wax, and it's what they do first when the colony swarms.  Maybe bees like to draw comb. Maybe the festooning while they draw is actually exercise, no need for a bee Planet Fitness.   From a commercial aspect, one in which gathering as much honey as possible is the objective, it makes more sense to preserve comb as long as possible.  But the conversation was with some hobbyists. Someone asked me about using foundation or just comb.  I told them I don't use foundation any more. We did some tests last year between some wax coated starter sticks and coated foundation. We found that in all of the colonies, the bees drew wax on the strips before the plastic. So I decided to forgo foundation. So how do you get out the honey? I was asked. Being a machinist, I made a cage of sorts to support spinning frames. And if you add wire or fishing string, it will help.  But I'm still not the typical backyard beek. What about the home-schooling mom, who only wants one or two beehives? Should she really worry about spinning honey? The average yield in Florida is 50 pounds per colony, that's a lot of honey for most people. Double that for two colonies. What is this home-school mom going to do with 100 pounds of honey?  So our focus needs to be on why we have bees. If you're a hobbyist, back yard beek, just cut the comb out of the frames and crush it. When I do extractions and there is comb honey, I simply put it in paint strainer bags and hang it for a day or so. Pretty easy to do this. So maybe you get 75 pounds and not 100. You'll also have maybe two pounds of wax. And you won't need to worry so much about wax moths during the off season.

How long should my bees stay in the nuc?

I get that and a similar question. When can I add a super?  a lot. The standard answer is when the bees fill all of the gaps between the frames. But that really isn't what people want to know. We want numbers, weeks, days, months, how long? So we'll do some math. Things will be different depending on what type nuc you have. If you bought a commercial nuc, you'll already have a laying queen and it should be close to full of bees. In this case it will probably just be a week or two. Might even directly put them in a full sized box. But what about splits? You'll need to wait for your queen to start laying, and then for enough brood to cover the frames. It takes about 1200 bees to cover a deep frame, around 800 for a medium. So to fill the gap you need about 2000 bees. A good queen can lay up to 2000 eggs a day but more typically 1200-1500. There will also be a daily attrition of several hundred. So in reality we can expect daily increases of 500 - 700 bees. This starts after our queen begins to lay. So if you have a walk away type split, one with no queen but suitable larvae to make a queen. It will be 12 days before any queen can come out, then 10 days to mate. We won't see brood for 21 days after she begins laying, then another 12-15 days to get the numbers up. So for a new nuc, walk away split, expect them to be in that box for 2 months. If you start with an unmated queen you can subtract 12-15 days, and a mated queen 22-25 days.  Using theses same formulas we can make some good guesses for when to add the super. If I look in my 8 frame box and they cover the gaps of 5, I need another 6000 bees, so about 10 days, or 3 1/2 days for every space that isn't filled.

Are you ready for spring buildup?

So pretty much true to form, Valentines day is kicking off the bee buildup here in Central FL. Now in all of my hives I'm seeing some drone cells, population has increased and in the past week more nectar is coming in. I don't know what it is but in the past week the bees in my backyard hive have drawn out three whole frames without foundation. So what does all of this mean? Primarily it means that I need to have a number of boxes and frames ready right now. And I need a game plan for long and short term. For every colony that over wintered (Florida winter LOL), I can probably make a split. The question is, do I want to, or do I want to give away some bees? I'd suggest considering how many beehives you want to have at the end of this season, and you should have all of that equipment right now. In addition, for every three colonies, you should have another complete set. Yes one can end up with a lot of stuff pretty quickly. As the build up has certainly started, and will continue or the next month at least, it's more important to do regular checks. It will only take 12 days for the bees to throw a swarm, you can be in the box and see no signs of queen cells or cups then 12 days later half the bees are gone and they left behind a brand new virgin queen. That's why a 10 day cycle is suggested. And I'd recommend checking every frame for at least the next month. So now what do you do if you check and there's a capped queen cell? Or several? You can take the frame with QC's and start a colony, that's pretty common. Some may choose to cut off the cells and try to prevent swarming but that typically doesn't work. And if you miss 1 cell they're gone. Personally I have a plan for this year, it's been done by others before so I think the potential for success is there. I'm running all 1 size box and frames so my logistics are a bit easier than some. I am keeping three boxes with frames in my truck now, just in case. About half of the frames have some comb, the rest are starter strips. When the situation arises and I spot queen cells, capped or uncapped this is my plan. Move the beehive, either across the yard if possible or just move it over 2 feet and spin it around 180 degrees. Put a new box and bottom board in the old location. Take the frame or frames with the cells and put in the new box. Locate the queen and be certain that she stays in the old box. Move all but 1 or 2 brood frames to the new box, and two frames of food. In the old brood box I want 1 or 2 frames of brood, 2 frames of drawn comb, 2 frames of food, and two frames with starter strips. In the super, whatever stores were left after the split and fill the spaces with starter frames. By doing this I create a virtual swarm, the queen and whatever bees are in the box have moved. Some may migrate back but the nurse bees on the brood combs won't, the queen will continue to lay, and the young workers will stay. In the new split, there is emerging brood with nurse bees as an anchor. And any foragers will return to the old location. I can monitor things, again every 10 days and should something go wrong, I only need to turn the old box back around and re-stack the whole thing into 1 colony again. That's my plan for now, but as a colonel I knew in the service used to say, the plan is only good until the first shot is fired. Along the lines of spring buildup, we are seeing some swarms and I expect to get regular calls for the next several weeks. Be ready, have some sort of box, a nuc at least for that chance to go nab a swarm. Everyone should have at least 1 empty nuc just in case. And of course, as always we're here to help if you have questions or problems.

My price gouging

Although I know stuff like this shouldn't bother me, but this has gotten under my skin a bit and I just want to vent. Today is January 30, 2019, last week, I believe Friday, Jason Chrisman at JC's Bees did a video featuring the grafting tray. I appreciate the video, thank you very much. Today I got a note from someone asking if I'd read the comments. Hadn't been there since I first saw the video so thought maybe I'd check them out. For the most part positive comments, some on the tray, some on Jason's truck. There was one that kind of set me off, that my price gouging is ridiculous. I wanted to immediately respond but thought better of it. Drove home and since it still bothered me I thought I just might write a blog. Some history on the products. The frame fingers were first. Made a bunch from scrap, sent out a LOT of samples all over the country with some response but nothing great. Then the queen disk came about 1 year later. The first responses were that it was a dumb idea. I'd like to have a few more ideas just as dumb. Again the first disks were made from scrap on some free machine time. Sold them very cheap, in fact I set a price before finding out what postage would cost. It's fifty cents for the bubble mailer and $3.38 for postage up to 8 ounces. (That's why I charge $3.95 for shipping, a few cents for tape). When I started receiving more orders and it became apparent that this item would sell, I spoke with a financial advisor. I needed to set up manufacturing and incorporate as a company. We figured out what the material cost, the fact that the owner of the shop where I work didn't mind me making a few items but if I'm running an actual business on his machines I needed to pay for them. And while I think my profits and losses are no-ones business but mine, the state and federal governments both think differently. When one adds up the material, the machine costs, state corporate, sales and income taxes, then the federal taxes too it's amazing how much our silent partners take away. Then there was the question of what I wanted to pay myself, something that a lot of small business owners don't think about. I told him that I wanted to keep prices down to where the average tinkerer, like me, won't go make his/her own, but I could still make some profit. So we came up with the current prices. It's still possible for someone with the tools and skills to copy my stuff for less than my selling price but that assumes their time has no value. The tray was a real tough one for me. I fought pretty hard to get that price lower. My initial desire was $50 to include shipping but there was just no way. A part of the issue is that my stuff is all American made. American metal and fasteners. Foregin material has been cheaper but I set on American made. I was approached by someone who could have all of my stuff made overseas, I could have the disks machined and assembled and fingers cut for less than I am currently paying. And I wouldn't need to assemble anything. But that's not what I want. I still have a pretty strong sense of national pride. I can't guarantee where some of the hardware is made, I do know the source for the aluminum though and the fasteners. 

I also want to address the sending of products to You-tubers. I made some strategic gifts one might say. Never specifically asked anyone to do videos or endorsements. But I will admit that I hoped for some. Ian and Jason are the only two who've done any videos and I am sincerely grateful for their endorsement. I sent out a lot of stuff to a lot of channels. Some said thanks, some said nothing and some said, how much will you pay for me to sell this?
As I said, strategic gifts. 

I've not had any specific complaints, some feedback on possible improvements, but as far as I know my customers have been satisfied and that means a lot to me. 

So if you've purchased I want to say thank you very much. 

Mid January thoughts

The title speaks for the blog today, just some random thoughts. It's January 13th and I'm still getting queens mated. Not grafting a lot or trying that many, just running four mating nucs. Last Wednesday the temp dropped down to mid 40's. I lost seven grafts. I'm blaming it on the cold, they should have emerged Friday or Saturday. I candled them and saw the pupae just flopping around as I turned the cell. Cut open and it was obvious the development had stopped.  I've since build an incubator, I'll do a video of it soon. It operates on 12 volts so I can plug it in the truck. Currently I have it connected to an old car battery with a battery maintainer in the garage. The thermostat reads 93.5, it runs from 91.5 to 94.  Don't know how accurate it is. I have five cells in now which should emerge on Wednesday. Bee Culture magazine came out yesterday, they did a thing on my gadgets, pretty cool. I anticipate an increase in sales. Certainly hope for one. If you read this and came here because of the article, leave me a note.  I've upgraded the spindle on my engraver, makes a big difference, still not at full speed, a new power supply coming next week should solve that. My Youtube channel is n_spect_r.
Today much of the country is under a severe winter storm warning, it's near 60 here with a forecast of sun and 80. We're having another club build day, trying to make some wooden-ware and stay ahead of the spring buildup.  Around here Valentine's day sort of marks the kick off, drone populations rise and swarms start. Although we had some swarms in December, been a strange winter.  Maple is already starting to bloom, I see my bees bring in white and yellow pollen every day and all of my boxes have some honey and nectar. I re-queened three boxes last fall, as a necessity since the original queens were lost. In all of those boxes they are totally packed with bees and the queens are laying brood on three or four frames. Something I plan to try again this fall. I think as soon as the Brazilian pepper starts to flow, I'll introduce new queens in half of my colonies and see how they winter (yeah right winter in Florida). Met some new people at the monthly club meeting this month. We had more than 40 attend. Been a club now for two years and we've had at least 30 people at each meeting. One new member said he found us from Ian Steppler's video on my gadget. On the subject of the gadgets. When I made the first one there were a few people who said it was a dumb idea, sold over 300 since then. I need some more dumb ideas. I've had some thoughts on this lately and been watching some Youtube videos on queen rearing. In most videos I see two specific items, Chinese grafting tools and JZ-BZ cups. They're almost the standard. Personally I don't like the Chinese tool but it's still the most popular. So I have an objective that five years from now, new videos on grafting will also include my disk. With that in mind I'm looking for places and people who regularly hold queen rearing classes. I'll make a deal with you for bulk disks for each student.  The tray has been and continues to be a frustration for me. I should have had some inventory two months ago but constant delays. I will have limited inventory in a day or so. And I mean really limited, like less than 10.  It's still a bit early, I know most people won't start the queen rearing for another two months so I'm hopeful to have some decent numbers by mid February.  Stay tuned to the blog and watch the gadgets page.