I pulled this funny looking 5-pounder of comb honey from one of my hives yesterday. No humans or bees were harmed. The honey extractor known as a “Flow Hive” would deprive me of this experience. Beekeeping, for me, is about being close to the bees. Honey is the bonus.
The first swarm I ever experienced happened around this date in 2012. I haven’t had a colony come anywhere close to being this strong since. The extraordinarily robust colonies I was able to build up during my first few years of beekeeping may have been more the result of unusually warm and sunny weather than anything else. Beekeepers should give credit where credit is due, and let’s be honest: Most of the credit goes to the weather.
I attribute most of my success in beekeeping to good weather.
24 minutes of just sitting here listening to the snow fall and the wind blow and the birds doing birdy things and all that stillness. Why not?
The video was shot on my Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone, so the audio isn’t exactly Hi-Fi, but I’ve cranked it up so all the natural sounds jump out a little more. It’s quiet for the most part, though.
In honour of making it to 13,000 subscribers on YouTube (though honestly, I’d say maybe 200 or 300 subscribers actually watch the videos), here’s a link to all of my most popular videos (click or tap the image).
13,000 YouTube subscribers.
Because the internet is weird, the above link might not work on cell phones. If so, try this link or most likely this one (and scroll down a bit to “Popular uploads.”)
My #1 video has almost 4.5 million views. The views drop off quite dramatically after that. Most of my beekeeping videos these days max out at about 200 views, so the glory days are over.
At Mud Songs, we may not make it first, but I think we can make it last.
My personal favourites aren’t popular at all. They’re the quiet ones like the First Honey of 2012 video. And my Quiet Time With The Bees video:
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I ate some honey that’s been frozen in my freezer since 2011. It tasted like summer.
Eating honey six years after it was bottled.
This sums up my approach to beekeeping:
Page 109 from William Wharton’s (Albert du Aime’s) novel, Last Lovers.
Beekeeping is living with the possibility of error. All the time.
