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.

What's it like to have a day off?

It's been another busy Saturday, I think for me every day is busy. A day off work isn't a day off. I had several things I wanted to do today. My truck radiator was leaking,  bought a new one which arrived Thursday. Figured I'd do the timing belt while I had the radiator out.  Did not go as planned. I needed a tool to remove the damper pulley, went to the shop and made one. Came back, took off the pulley and broke the crank position sensor bracket. Back to the shop to do some welding. Instead of two hours it took close to six. Wanted to do some work on the engraving table, I did get a table built for it to set on. In the process blew a seal on my framing nailer. That will wait for repairs, I hadn't used it in probably 3 years.  Wanted to do some work on the grafting trays, didn't happen. I do have some blanks cut out but need to bend and install hinges. Maybe Monday evening. I did get a modified Langstroth box made for a club member who received some flow frames as a gift.  I also wanted to cut wood for my incubator but that didn't happen. We're doing a build day at the club tomorrow so maybe then. Even though I didn't get everything done it was still a pretty good day. So thankful for the skills and resources to fix my truck. Thanks dad for those years in the garage.

We're returning to the Dark Ages

I had a bit of an epiphany today. Having a conversation with a co-worker we discussed that the USA is currently involved in a civil war. It's not super violent yet but there certainly is a fair amount of violence. Oddly it comes from the people who most vociferously advocate tolerance yet have none.  Certainly the nation is divided like never before, but there is more. I say we're entering the Dark Ages again and I really believe it's true. If we look back to the 16th century what body had the most power? Then it was the Roman Catholic Church. Today it's shared by academia and news media. And both have become more religion and less objective over the recent years. Academics today focus more on theory than fact. The news media has become more opinion than news. When confronted with facts and evidence which contradicts the current idea, they refuse to accept. Much like when Galileo turned his telescope to the stars, the church and the scientific community would not accept his findings. Today it's not an earth centered solar system, or a flat earth (although there are still some flat earthers). Today it's pseudoscience like global warming, climate change and  greenhouse effects.  These are all religious items and held sacred. Just bring up any evidence against any of these and you'll have a war. And social programs like single payer health care, free college, gun control, and socialist societies. No matter how many times it's been tried, the current socialists simply say that the others just did it wrong. Fortunately for us today the new religions haven't yet amassed the power the church had in Galileo's day. We still have people with enough common sense to know that there are only two sexes. And how to tell the difference. Stand firm, the elite call us deplorables, but we can see the truth that they can't.  I've said this countless times, it's like the story of the emperor's new clothes. The liberals and socialists are walking around naked but either don't realize it or are too afraid to admit it. And if you try to tell them, like the church of the dark ages, they will not accept facts. But we need to keep trying. 

Just some ramblings

More lessons in the world of beekeeping and specifically queen rearing. I think the one item I would really stress is no brood in the cell builder. Three times this year I had queen cells on frames that I didn't see, which emerged and killed my grafts. The first was because I added a brood frame and just didn't think about checking for QC's. The others were when rogue queens got loose, then got themselves mated and started laying. It's a bit more work but I think that henceforth I'll pull and check each frame every time I do grafts. The second lesson, which directly relates to the first. Find a way to secure cages.  This is where the second and third queens got loose. I'm using nicot cups and roller cages but some cages aren't real tight. I suspect that when a queen emerges, bees gather on the cage and the weight pulls it off.  I need to make frames with a bar under the cage to hold it up.  Another item is the temperature in the cell builder.  When I first started I had some good results, late April and through May. Then it got hot in June and I vented the top of my boxes. Three sets of grafts didn't finish. Took out the vents and I had some of my best results in July and August. Recently, just this past week, again I have cells that just don't finish and the over night temps are getting below 60. Since I run all screened bottoms my thoughts are I'm losing too much heat. I put political signs under my cell builders to see what happens. I know that most of the country has stopped their queen rearing, I'm in central Florida and I still see drones in more than half of our boxes. It doesn't cost me anything and I certainly can use the experience so I  think I'll keep grafting at least four to six each week at the off chance I can get a queen mated.  Had one mate last year during Christmas week so it is possible. 

Mini mating nucs just aren't for me

This is my first year trying to raise queens. As I am the type who will do a lot of research and then action, I studied what people were using to mate queens. The one item that nearly all of the queen breeders doing YouTube videos neglect to mention is that for every cell you make you need a mating box. And bees to put in them. That's the largest problem in queen raising, getting them mated. Some people use queen castles, a large box divided in three or four compartments and each has some frames and a queen is added to go mate. Some are using full size boxes and some a form of mini. I also read a very good book that's available on pdf called Practical Queen Rearing, by Frank C Pellett. Written about 100 years ago, still has some great information. In his book Frank Pellett mentions the mini mating nuc, three frames 4 1/2 inches square. At the time of publication  they were forty cents each. Wow! I found that a lot of queen breeders use that same type of mini nuc today, just to get the queen mated.  So I decided to make some double two medium frame mating boxes. Essentially a five frame nuc with a divider board in the middle and opposing entrances. So I have two nucs facing different directions with two frames each. The theory seemed sound, I'm using almost exclusively medium frames so I have at least as much if not more area than the mini's.  The first go around was pretty good. I got 5 of 8. But then different things happened. I learned that I needed to really be on top of what's happening in the nuc. Once the queen mates, she can lay up every cell in two or three days, (assuming there is some food stores in some cells). And if one is not ready they can and will swarm. I had two boxes do this. Put in a virgin, came back two weeks later to find some capped brood and a queen cell. Two weeks might be too long but I have a full time day job and need to be able to juggle queening at the same time. I also learned it's pretty hard to catch a queen in that narrow two frame box. It took me three tries yesterday to catch one and at first she actually flew off.  I was told at bee college to leave the top open and she'll come back.  Did just that and sure enough in about 10 minutes she was back. For both the space in catching and the extra area for her to lay in, I think I'll go to three and four frame boxes. In the off season I'll convert these six doubles I have into four frame boxes, just remove the center divider board, or cut a section out of it so the bees can cross.  I plan to try at least a few three frame boxes, maybe five or six, whatever I can make from a single sheet of ply. They'd be five inches across and easier to catch a queen in. By mid April I'd like to have 40 mating nucs running so that's 120 to 160 frames, plus the actual boxes. A lot of inventory. Might rethink this and shoot for 25 this coming year and 50 the next year. I have almost six months to think about it and get ready. Guess I'll stay busy during the winter.

Colony management, making lemonade

I think this falls in line with management. About 4 weeks back I noticed one of the colonies in my home yard was lacking young brood. Made a note that there might be a queen problem, I found what looked like an open cell.  First thought was they superseded her, (she was over a year old and not very good).  So I left them. Checked about a week and a half later, no brood, no signs of eggs or larvae. Gave them a frame from a different hive. Waited a week, no queen cells on the frame. So I figure there's a queen but just not laying. Again I waited until last Wednesday. No brood, no eggs, no sign of queen. So now what are my options. Something we should all think about from time to time. I had several grafts being made into queens, there are at least 4 virgin queens in mating nucs so getting a queen in a week shouldn't be a problem. And hopefully next year, from March to November we'll have queens all the time. Considered different possibilities, I really wanted a mated queen to put on the box in a cage and check the reaction. One can determine quickly if there is a queen in the box like this. I decided to go to a different yard and pull a frame of brood, at least with brood in the box the pheromones will suppress laying workers.  And the brood will maintain the population somewhat. While in that hive I spotted the queen. She too was a year old, and although still laying, I had planned to replace her in November. Made a quick decision to catch her and see if the first box was queen-less. Took home the frame of brood, put the queen in a cage and checked. Bees immediately came up to check out the queen. Fed her through the holes in the cage, were not aggressive just welcoming. So there was not a queen. Time to make some more decisions. Do I take this queen back to her old home? Do I leave her in this box in a cage overnight? Maybe for a few days? If I leave her then take her away will they suddenly panic and start making cells? (Now that''s something I might try to experiment with).  So here is what I decided. The second colony is very strong with four frames of brood and a lot of young larvae. I decided to leave the queen caged for two days in the first hive, check for any queen cells in the second colony and go from there. Meantime my grafts and virgins can be doing their things. Went back and checked the second box, at least 8 queen cells. I figure I'll leave them alone and create a bit of a brood break. In the first box I decided I'd release the queen after the third day but also after doing an oxalic acid treatment. There is currently no brood in this hive so it should be quite effective. Pulled out the queen, put her in my pocket and gassed the hive. Waited an hour and put the caged queen back in. The next morning I let her out, she ran right down between the frames. I'll check this box in four days for brood. In 11 days or so one of the capped cells will emerge as the new queen, in hive 2. So on day 9 or 10 I'll do an OA treatment there.  Will still be some capped brood but not a lot. Here is a prime example of why a beekeeper should have at least two strong colonies of bees. From the misfortune of losing a queen, I'm using the time to replace a weak queen and treating two hives for mites. Making some lemonade from what could have been bad.