# Bit of a giggle



## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Stop supporting commercial beekeepers. LOL

http://parkerbees.blogspot.com/search/label/Commercial Beekeepers


----------



## Akademee (Apr 5, 2020)

LOL, so this guy thinks that bees will evolve to not need any treatments any more due to developing genetic resistance, but also researching bee genetics and raising bees like VSH and ankle-biters is bad? Wut?


----------



## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

Start supporting commercial bloggers!


----------



## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Saltybee said:


> Start supporting commercial bloggers!


Is there money in it or does it just need to satisfy the _messiah complex_?


----------



## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

When have you seen a messiah without a money angle? maybe it is just my negativity. My bad.


----------



## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

> Is there money in it


he was doing well for a bit... doing some big speaking gigs, I assume it was paying better then his beekeeping. 
now not so much
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1KFEk2aktU


----------



## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

msl said:


> he was doing well for a bit... doing some big speaking gigs,


He's way too busy with his "work". Ball's in my court?...Overhead smash! No return.


----------



## crofter (May 5, 2011)

He was moderator of the TF forum here on Beesource for a while. I thought it got a bit messy at times. I cant remember how that all played out.


----------



## HarryVanderpool (Apr 11, 2005)

I love my fellow beekeepers here in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.
I also love that certain ones of them keep their bees hundreds of miles from mine.......


----------



## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

msl said:


> doing some big speaking gigs, I assume it was paying better then his beekeeping.


I have never understood how the guy survives.

When he was an engineering student he already owned a house and an electric car, despite never having earned. Had other toys like an expensive motorbike, etc. Once graduated he got a job which fell through after a few months, and then another job which also fell through in a few months. Those 2 jobs are the only real money he has ever made, and are also why he had to move twice, and then again afterwards. He then started a business moving shipping containers to properties that wanted one, moved 2 or 3, then that fell over.

Beekeeping has likely cost more than it's made him, and other than that, speaking engagements and holding his hand out for donations. 

His real life secret, which I wish I knew, is how to live seemingly rather well, on no money, and no work.


----------



## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

you missed the stint as a "full time beekeeper"


> He then started a business moving shipping containers to properties that wanted one, moved 2 or 3, then that fell over.


then he got up on a ladder, and that fell over :lookout: sorry had to... I realy hope he is better now, I don't wish a broken back on anyone. 

Nothing wrong with being a "kept man" and working the homefront, not too proud to say there was a point in time I had to step back profenicaly to handle family matters as it had to be done and the wife's income was larger... In fact I am there again do to the lockdown... wife has work "from home" and I don't expect the entertainment industry to come back before july (theamparks, concerts, touring Broadway, large corporate conventions, etc) and when it does its going to be a trickle till Sept, So I am now daycare/home school/domestic chores.


----------



## fieldsofnaturalhoney (Feb 29, 2012)

Oldtimer said:


> Stop supporting commercial beekeepers. LOL


This was in 2016, if you are wanting to be a TF beekeeper, makes sense to me to not buy treated bees?


----------



## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

fieldsofnaturalhoney said:


> This was in 2016, if you are wanting to be a TF beekeeper, makes sense to me to not buy treated bees?


It does make sense to buy TF bees if available ( in 2016). It is, and was not, a sin to buy a commercial bee. How wise is a different story. It is the fervor of many background echos of many posts that are a bit of a giggle.


----------



## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

msl said:


> Nothing wrong with being a "kept man" and working the homefront.


Oh that's the secret. I must have married the wrong woman .

As you can tell she never read Beesource.


----------



## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

C''mon guys, he is not all bad. After all , he is the one that annointed me with the "Crazy" title. 


Crazy Roland


----------



## edzkoda (Aug 9, 2014)

Roland said:


> C''mon guys, he is not all bad. After all , he is the one that annointed me with the "Crazy" title.
> 
> 
> Crazy Roland


Now that's funny..


----------



## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Roland said:


> he is the one that annointed me with the "Crazy" title.
> 
> 
> Crazy Roland


LOL I remember that.


----------



## Adam Foster Collins (Nov 4, 2009)

Good old Solomon. 

I still think the video of his visit to Dee Lusby's yards are among the classics.

Hey, my goal is always going to be treatment free. I've just learned enough to know that 'the Bond method' isn't the way to get there. It's odd that the identity of the treatment free approach is one of 'the kindler/gentler/earth-friendly', when what defines it is the allowing of livestock to carry a human-induced parasitic condition until death or the expression of an inherent resistance - all the while, under the additional demands of providing honey and/or bees to the caregiver. Then there's the 'breeding' which is often supposedly taking place, while the beekeeper often has less than 50 hives, no I.I., open mating in an area surrounded by other bees and beekeepers - with death as the only real selector. Pretty cold approach if you think about it.

And I _*have*_ thought about it. I know these things because I've been one of these well-meaning individuals and since learned enough to realize how ridiculous that is. 

Treatment free remains my goal, as it is, I'm sure for most of you. I have come to believe that commercial beekeepers are the ones most likely to get us there, as they have all the bees. 

That's why I became a commercial beekeeper. 

Adam


----------



## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Wow that's quite a journey you have had Adam, I can remember when you were a treatment free newby with (_I think_), some top bar hives?

You have certainly covered the whole spectrum!


----------



## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Adam wrote::::

"I have come to believe that commercial beekeepers are the ones most likely to get us there, as they have all the bees."

Similiar to my statement that earned me the title. I claimed only commercial beekeepers would be "Treatment free" due to large capitol investments.

Crazy Roland


----------



## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

> And I have thought about it. I know these things because I've been one of these well-meaning individuals and since learned enough to realize how ridiculous that is.
> 
> Treatment free remains my goal, as it is, I'm sure for most of you. I have come to believe that commercial beekeepers are the ones most likely to get us there, as they have all the bees.


So true

VP is TF
Latshaw is TF 
who is ordering those expensive($300-$600) II breeders? Not joe blow split and let die.


----------



## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

> "oh well, let us stick to science. let them have their beliefs and intuitions!"


Giggle of the day: I'm reminded of the long held (for 20+ years!) belief and intuition of the scientific community of the Varroa destructor mite feeding upon hemolymph!

Thanks.


----------



## Saltybee (Feb 9, 2012)

Better to be called Crazy Roland than Premature Roland. (On your prediction I mean)


----------



## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Just don't call me late for dinner.

Crazy Roland


----------



## Outdoor N8 (Aug 7, 2015)

" Invest in swarm traps.
Let no swarm call go unanswered." Even if the swarm comes from a 'commercial hive' that is so healthy it just has to replicate! ??

So much chafe, so few kernels.


----------



## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Not sure why a guy who has been breeding his "strong bees and weak mites" for 12 years would want to pollute this awesome breed, with swarms of unknown origin.


----------



## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

"A bit of a giggle" ha ha, yes, haven't thought about him in a while. I guess as long as there are people still willing to listen to a guy whose years of bee experience have, to this point, netted him some speaking engagements and a handful of live hives then more power to him. To each his own....


----------



## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Look at it this way:

All of those unsuspecting sheep that follow him only to fail, will get a taste of REAL honey, and after they are done beekeeping , will gladly pay that rich price we are asking.

Crazy Roland


----------

