# please excuse this little rant



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

For anyone reading this, please excuse this little rant I’m about to make. OUR environment is changing. I’m not referring to “climate change” as everyone is so focused on and wasting time and money on. I’m referring to our natural area and environment we currently live in. Things are changing, our environment is in a transformation where every aspect of it through out the growing season is being manipulated to the point where everything natural about it is being lost. It’s the clearing of arable land, and the clearing of non arable land, clearing and drainage of swamps and leveling out of ravines to allow machinery to travel over. Massive water drainage projects where we
run off the surface water as fast as we can, drain the sub surface water year round into ditches and pump deep water reserves to irrigate our crops. It’s the blanket use of insecticides not once but up to five times a season to protect the crop from pests, the use of fungicides to everything that is growing and the use of highly efficient herbicides leaving nothing else growing within the fields but the crop its self. It’s this expansion of our fields and intensively managed mono culture that is in a way creating a living desert in areas which should flourish with life and diversity. We are/have set up an ecosystem that is so fragile that anything natural within it is always on the brink of survival. And when we experience harsh weather as we did this last spring nobody notices the actual devastating effect it had on the living environment around them.

We are managing honeybees to take the place of natural pollinators to pollinate our cropping requirements. Here in again we bring in a manageable solution to solve our manged problems. But things are getting so far out of hand that we infact are even having trouble managing our managed pollinators. Why??? Because everything we do as beekeepers is directly influenced by the environment around us. That environment around us is being destroyed, and because of that my bees are struggling. If we don’t change the way we perceive and respect the natural environment, our managed environment will collapse and with that all of us around it. This focus on climate change has blinded the public to the actual environmental threats at home, tangible actions that we could be focusing our attention on which would actually go a long way in preserving our lands and creating a sustainable working environment for all of us to live in.

We manage land, lots of land, I appreciate everything that is done to make a living off the land and the hardships that are involved in managing the land. I understand the reason why we use production practices to improve our bottom dollar and understand the reason why we must realize short sightedness sometimes is the only managing stratagy which allows us to keep in business. BUT we also appreciate our natural environment and try our best to preserve the land in a sustainable fashion. On our farm we have 500 acres left as natural raven, not pastured or pushed, leveled, drained and cropped! On our farm we have ten quarters of muskeg wet land bush, managed as pasture but grazed in a fashion which does not destroy its wet land ecosystem. On our farm we manage 3000 acres of crop land, on land which will carry equipment and anything else is hayed. We zero till or minimal till the land to protect the soil structure and everything living in it. Wet land “pot holes” are left as they are, hill side springs and field runs are hayed to eliminate erosion and low lands are left as grass, using the available water resource and cut later in the year as hay.

There has to be a place for agriculture on the lands or we will all starve, but agriculture has to manage itself in a diverse fashion using the lands as it presents itself to allow all living things to flourish. I feel very fortunate as a beekeeper to be able to shelter my operation around our farm, as it reinforces diversity and provides that for my bees to live on. EVERYWHERE else on the countryside I am seeing a complete wipe down of anything natural.


----------



## RogerCrum (Jun 19, 2011)

Very well said, Ian. That hits home.


----------



## Kirk Osborne (Oct 7, 2012)

Thanks for posting, Ian.


----------



## LT (Aug 17, 2006)

And the poison in the seed !


----------



## johnbeejohn (Jun 30, 2013)

speak the truth !!!!!!! it is sad that people don't know or care I guess that almost every action that they take effects the earth in a good way or more often bad we need to start taking more care to try and do anything you can to help the world out DOWN WITH MONSANTO EVERYONE GO NON GMO


----------



## djastram (May 1, 2011)

Very well said Ian.

I live in the middle of corn country USA, and am surprised at the anti-ethanol ads shown on TV now. 

People are tiling everything, pushing in groves, tearing out fences, and turning everything they can into corn production.

Good Job!

DJ


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

we use GMO in our cropping operation
going non GMO just means using more of the expensive chemicals and using more tillage on our farm

here in again, if we put all the that time and money spent on fighting GMO into preserving wetland and habitat, keeping tree rows and encouraging diversity, I think we would have a lot more accomplished right now.


----------



## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

Rant at will, I hear ya.

Crazy Roland


----------



## dgl1948 (Oct 5, 2005)

Ian said:


> we use GMO in our cropping operation
> going non GMO just means using more of the expensive chemicals and using more tillage on our farm
> 
> here in again, if we put all the that time and money spent on fighting GMO into preserving wetland and habitat, keeping tree rows and encouraging diversity, I think we would have a lot more accomplished right now.


Without GMO we would need to hurt our environment more than we do now. It would take a lot of extra acres to make up the production we get from GMO crops. We seem hell bent to level, drain, till and crop every acre. What will that mean for future generations? I am with you all the way on this one Ian.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

You are excused.


----------



## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

good post ian.


----------



## mnbeekeeper (Jun 30, 2010)

:ws:


----------



## Brian Suchan (Apr 6, 2005)

Dryland cash rent is sky high around here. Neighbor was telling me the other day about guy up the road who cash rented 2 quarters of dryland farmground and is paying $820 acre. How can that even come close to working???


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

It all hurts the environment, and what hurts the environment hurts our bees


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Your mear existence harms the environment. I hope you are practicing zero population growth reproduction.


----------



## NoDak Beekeeper (Sep 3, 2012)

First let me start off by saying that I have 10 years of commercial beekeeping behind me until this spring when I sold out. Secondly let me tell you that I am currently working out in the North Dakota Oil Patch. While I agree with some peoples posts, I find it very offensive that someone who has not been out here can sit at their computer and tell everyone that we are destroying the land over here. I work on the reclamation side of all of this. Oil companies have strict rules and regulations to follow from location sizes to clean up to the TYPE OF GRASS that has to be planted when the actual location pad is sized back down to just a pumping unit and tanks. I deal a lot with the US Gov’t because a lot of the land around me is federal land therefore I can tell you there are many rules and regulations and many people that will check on you and follow up after you have completed the job and if it is not done to their specs guess what you RE-DO IT! Ya the dust from the roads gets on the plants but a lot of money has been spent on dust reduction and reduced speeds on these roads so that has been reduced greatly too. I don’t think there should be any commercial (or hobbiest I have 2 deep supers and 4 mediums currently on my hives) beekeeper around here that doesn’t have a good crop. I am seeing a lot of skyscraper beehives out on the country side. So the next time you decide to go off on how UN environmentally friendly we are out here maybe you should come walk beside me for a few days….Oh wait then you would have to sit through 3 days of classes just so that you could step foot on each of the companies I currently do work for (ahh nevermind that last part of “3 days of class” after all there are no safety regulations or orientations out here right)


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

sqkcrk said:


> Your mear existence harms the environment. I hope you are practicing zero population growth reproduction.


I think China tried that, hmmm


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

You can do it voluntarely. It would be a great survice to the rest of humanity.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

wow, 
an attack out of no where, 
not called for Mark, bad form
if you do not like what I had said, then attack what I said, not me personally


----------



## Haraga (Sep 12, 2011)

mnbeekeeper said:


> well said ian, well said. it seems like a step we could take is to stop giving the farmers so much money. also what if we said for every 100 acres tilled there must be x amount of land sitting natural. seem like that would be a good first step. i know that no one wants to be told what to do with their land, but this farming is outa control.
> 
> some one i know was just out in the oil field boom in north dakota. he said boy are they destroying the land up there. nothing was regulated. so much is being destroyed, but he said, if you like paying 3.75 at the pump vs. 10$ a gal. then you cant complain.
> 
> ...


Obviously you are not a farmer or an oilfield worker. I am a farmer and specifically what tell us more about the farmer getting too much money. 
Every winter I drive a water truck out of Parshall ND. It has been my experience that the land has not been destroyed. Do you have any first hand experience that makes you eligible to comment on these two subjects?


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Ian said:


> wow,
> an attack out of no where,
> not called for Mark, bad form
> if you do not like what I had said, then attack what I said, not me personally


You saw that as an attack? No. I am serious. If you wish to ease the impact of your life upon the environment how else would you suggest easing that impact? Did you not see my first reply? "You are excused."? You ask and I responded.

I mean you no ill will. I think you should figure out how to remedy the situation. How would you suggest we live differently?


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

How many acres in total are under your control?


----------



## mnbeekeeper (Jun 30, 2010)

Do you have any first hand experience that makes you eligible to comment on these two subjects?[/QUOTE]

actually i do. my girl friends dad is a excavator. he works for a lot of farmers in my area. they are his childhood friends. he was a farmer. he quit right before it turned around. still has the land, rents it. his buddies are all rich farmers now. they hire him to do dumb ass jobs like ian says, level it, fill it in and make it drain. they get govnt money to harm this great state of MN. they are changing it by making spiecies go extinct. and polluting the ground water slowly and many other things. actually i do think we need population control and i am practicing it. im sure i will have one child but not 3 4 or more. why would i want to bring more people into a over crowded earth. the worst part is our goverment is set up so that the stupid people are breeding the most. they get money the more stupid kids they have the more money they get. maybe i am negative or just a mean person but its the way it all seems to me. i do not know how to see it any other way. i may not be that smart, but im not that ignorant.


----------



## Haraga (Sep 12, 2011)

So bottom line you don't have any first hand experience. Tell us about how the farmers are paid too much.


----------



## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> ... how to remedy the situation. How would you suggest we live differently?


 In order to find a remedy, people first need to realize that there is an issue. If people in denial, even magic-remedy would not help. Excuse my ESL, could you explain what you mean: "Your mear existence harms the environment." How?


----------



## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

Haraga said:


> ... Tell us about how the farmers are paid too much.


 I do not know how much is too much, but agriculture in US is heavily subsidized:
"This week, House Republicans passed a rather unusual farm bill. There was no money for food stamps for the poor, a program that typically makes up the bulk of these bills. But the House did manage to pass *billions in subsidies for farmers* and agribusinesses."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ers-so-why-does-congress-love-farm-subsidies/

I do not know how much from this comes in the farmer's pocket. Any idea?


----------



## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

Haraga said:


> ... how the farmers are paid too much.


 For USA, there is website "Farm Subsidy Database" with the map showing how much subsidies invested into state, county etc. You may enter zip-code to see what is going on in your local area:

http://farm.ewg.org/


----------



## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

I checked out the subsidies website. Interesting. I see some of the folks in my area cashed in on "crop insurance" due to natural disasters. Not sure how that falls into federal subsidizing considering they actually have to pay for the crop insurance.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

cerezha said:


> Excuse my ESL, could you explain what you mean: "Your mear existence harms the environment." How?


Spell check doesn't like how I spell "mear", so maybe it should be "mere".

Just by living we impact the environment. Most of which can be seen as in a negative way. Walk across a field a field and you harm the grass. Drive a car and you add to the air pollution. Buy the beef that comes from Ian cattle and you will have to pay for a lot of shipping from way up North. Transportation costs mean, roads, pavement, trucks, fuel, etc, which are all unnatural. That's what I mean.

This probably trivializes Ian's point in his "rant". I admire him and his family for being so conscientious in how they handle their 5,000 acres. I have 103 acres of land of which a minor amount is cultivated. 15 acres is cut for hay. What was at one time pastured my Wife is slowly planting in pine trees at a rate of 100 each year, something she started w/ the kids years ago. So I don't do what Ian does exactly (we only have one sheep left), but we produced one child and adopted two. That's my contribution to zero pop. growth, sorta.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

BMAC said:


> I checked out the subsidies website. Interesting. I see some of the folks in my area cashed in on "crop insurance" due to natural disasters. Not sure how that falls into federal subsidizing considering they actually have to pay for the crop insurance.


Some of them are beekeepers too. I don't consider those subsidies, just low cost Insurance. I wish I could get health insurance that inexpensively. Is Health Insurance deductible? I bet the crop insurance payments are. Is the "income" from a claim taxable?


----------



## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

BMAC said:


> I checked out the subsidies website. Interesting. I see some of the folks in my area cashed in on "crop insurance" due to natural disasters. Not sure how that falls into federal subsidizing considering they actually have to pay for the crop insurance.


 I wish somebody could explain to me how it works, but what bothers me is that the same names have hundreds of thousand dollars from year to year.


----------



## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Insurance is insurance correct, so your property is damaged covered by insurance then you put in a claim and get paid by insurance company? Besides farmers that actually borrow money from the FSA division of FDA for their farm growth are required by FDA to retain crop insurance.

Alot of the folks in our area that put in claims for insurance have been due to crops freezing out in spring or the re-occurence of flash floods we have had in the last 3 years.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

cerezha said:


> I wish somebody could explain to me how it works,but what bothers me is that the same names have hundreds of thousand dollars from year to year.


You found the link. You aught to be able to find the Program. I forget too much about it to explain it. I am not a participant.


----------



## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> Spell check doesn't like how I spell "mear", so maybe it should be "mere"...


 Oh, Mark:
*mear * 
Web definitions
[vi] [rude] to urinate, to pee, to piss (on). It appears in the phrase meado por los perros ‘pissed on by dogs’, meaning ‘screwed...

My ESL interpretation was that you accuse Ian that he damage environment by peeing in nature  hilarious!

As for impact to the environment - your position make sense from one point. From another point, we are part of environment and should concentrate on positive effects from our activity. I told this story many times, how 2 million toilets saved Mono Lake. Los Angeles purchased all water rights around Mono Lake, so we have a water. All small creeks were diverted to aquaduck and it drains the Mono Lake. The group of enthusiasts decided to save Mono Lake by installing low-water toilets in LA. So they did - they installed 2 million low water toilets and it saved the lake - lake's level has been increased by 10 feet and continuing. This is very positive story to me - what simple people can do! We have a program for LA kids (who grew on concrete) to learn this story of Mono Lake - for 5 days they live in very rough conditions in the Nature cleaning the creeks and kayaking the Mono Lake. City kids learned how to live in Nature (it is OK to pee in the forest!). These kids, I am sure, would fight for changes beneficial to Nature.


----------



## cerezha (Oct 11, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> ... I am not a participant.


 This is what bothers me - billion dollars in subsidies and NONE for beekeeping!


----------



## gmcharlie (May 9, 2009)

cerezha said:


> I do not know how much is too much, but agriculture in US is heavily subsidized:
> "This week, House Republicans passed a rather unusual farm bill. There was no money for food stamps for the poor, a program that typically makes up the bulk of these bills. But the House did manage to pass *billions in subsidies for farmers* and agribusinesses."
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ers-so-why-does-congress-love-farm-subsidies/
> 
> I do not know how much from this comes in the farmer's pocket. Any idea?


You might do a bit of research..... you will find out that over 70% of the farm bill is for FOOD STAMPS... a point city slickers like to ignore....


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

cerezha said:


> This is what bothers me - billion dollars in subsidies and NONE for beekeeping!


Beekeepers can participate in the crop insurance program. There was a time when beekeepers could take an LDP (I think that's what it is.) Loan. The beekeeper would take a loan from the FSA for 54 cents per pound and could pay it back at 48 cents w/in a certain time period. Or they could turn in the honey.

Not that long ago there was an article in the Wall Street Journal (or was it the NY Times?) about the millions of Federal dollars paid to one beekeeper. So, it does happen Sergey.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

gmcharlie said:


> You might do a bit of research..... you will find out that over 70% of the farm bill is for FOOD STAMPS... a point city slickers like to ignore....


Not the 2013 Farm Bill. Unless I missed something. Congress was so proud to have gotten something passed and it was said that the SNAP Program (aka Food Stamps) would be in another Bill.


----------



## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

sqkcrk said:


> we produced one child and adopted two. That's my contribution to zero pop. growth, sorta.


Population growth and the governments role in that needs to head over to TG.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I'm kind of surprised you didn't suggest that the whole Thread be moved to Tailgater. The subject of the Thread certainly isn't what Commercial Beekeeping/Pollination is all about.

I didn't mention the Governments role in population control. Someone else did that by bringing up China.


----------



## gmcharlie (May 9, 2009)

sqkcrk said:


> Not the 2013 Farm Bill. Unless I missed something. Congress was so proud to have gotten something passed and it was said that the SNAP Program (aka Food Stamps) would be in another Bill.


They were trying, but so far no joy either way. whats interesting is were talking about past and future in the same tense. The numbers everyone wants to throw out are past farm bills, which for the last 20+ years has included food stamps. your referring to future now, not passed yet that I know of, and no numbers to discuss.
Its also interesting that a lot of opponents of that quote susidys paid out for corn and beans... But for the last 5 years or so that number has been effectivly zero, as the market is way above subsidy price on those..... still out there for milk and cotton.... and yes there are some scammers in the system... probably not as many as food stamp scammers, but some any way....


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Comparing SNAP recipients and Farm Subsidy recipients, I wonder which dollar amount is the greatest.


----------



## Haraga (Sep 12, 2011)

I will agree with you on the subject of new farm equipment. I will guarantee you that most of that new equipment is financed. Take away the financing and you will see them use older equipment.


----------



## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

cerezha said:


> This is what bothers me - billion dollars in subsidies and NONE for beekeeping!


There is tons of money for keepers.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

sqkcrk said:


> You saw that as an attack? No. I am serious. If you wish to ease the impact of your life upon the environment how else would you suggest easing that impact? Did you not see my first reply? "You are excused."? You ask and I responded.
> 
> I mean you no ill will. I think you should figure out how to remedy the situation. How would you suggest we live differently?


okay, as you directed that comment towards me twice, and I let the first one slide. Come on man, how else would that comment be taken.

So , with that mis understanding aside, ...

I completely agree with you. 

I am preaching an example of balance. We need balance to this equation, all I am seeing around here now is a total lack of it. AND a total lack of consideration to our neighbours


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

sqkcrk said:


> How many acres in total are under your control?


Id say 5000 acres or so total, including all we manage


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

sqkcrk said:


> I'm kind of surprised you didn't suggest that the whole Thread be moved to Tailgater. The subject of the Thread certainly isn't what Commercial Beekeeping/Pollination is all about.


It is to my operation. What happens to the landscape directly influences what happens in my beekeeping operation.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Ian said:


> okay, as you directed that comment towards me twice, and I let the first one slide. Come on man, how else would that comment be taken.


I apologize. I didn't mean it in a mean way. I often don't understand how my words appear to others reading them. I meant no disrespect.


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Ian said:


> Id say 5000 acres or so total, including all we manage


Not to get too personal, but how many of you are living off of that 5,000 acres? Just curious. Trying to understand what modern farming is like. My Grandpa Porter farmed 200 some acres in Iowa and raised 5 kids on it w/ my Uncle Gordon staying on w/ his family until 10 years after his parents died.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

sqkcrk said:


> Not to get too personal, but how many of you are living off of that 5,000 acres? Just curious. Trying to understand what modern farming is like. My Grandpa Porter farmed 200 some acres in Iowa and raised 5 kids on it w/ my Uncle Gordon staying on w/ his family until 10 years after his parents died.


Our family farm, all run together, parents, three brothers and my family. We raise 400 head of cattle , 900 hives and grain farm 3000 acres. Its enough to support us so far.


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

sqkcrk said:


> I meant no disrespect.


thats all that matters in these forums, my fingers do not always type what my head is thinking either


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Yeah, now that I read it, maybe I should have written "We can do it voluntarily. It would be a great service to the rest of humanity."


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Last year I had a neighbour decide he was going to farm the treed raven road allowance to which I kept my bees beside. He pushed the bush feet away from my bee yard, pile the brush 50 feet away from the yards and lite it on fire, all within a day, and without consulting any neighbours adjacent to him. I had to scramble to get my hives out of there as the flames and smoke was drifting nearly in my direction!
All to try to farm raven, and guess what, he cant farm it! BECAUSE ITS RAVEN!


----------



## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

What's Raven?


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

maybe Im mis spelling it, class two or three water shed. Usually steep side banks cut into the earth at the time of the Glaciers and now treed over

we are getting farmers here who think they can flatten these ravens to farm. You think they would stop at their first failure!

and then we have ther farmers who think they can farm muskeg, pouring thousands of dollars per acre to clear, trench and tile. Some of it is working, some of it isnt. 

All this kind of work is directly related to the value of the land, and that value is directly related to the amount of dollars farmers can pencil out on it. SO ya, in a round about way farmers who make too much money start spending too much money trying to make more of it


----------



## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Perhaps a _ravine. _



> *ravine *[rəˈviːn]
> A deep narrow valley or gorge in the earth's surface worn by running water.
> 
> http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ravine


----------



## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

thats it, ravine , not raven, sorry


----------



## pahvantpiper (Apr 25, 2006)

Farmers in the states have been overpaid for the past several years. Ever since the government started subsidizing ethanol. That's why everything is going into corn which in turn hurts the beekeepers. Our food prices have also soared since this started. I don't blame the farmers. I'm sure most beekeepers wouldn't complain if the government subsidized the turning of honey into fuel and it went from $2.00/LB to $6.00/LB either. Beekeepers would get rich but it wouldn't be good for anyone else.


----------



## mnbeekeeper (Jun 30, 2010)

pahvantpiper said:


> Farmers in the states have been overpaid for the past several years. Ever since the government started subsidizing ethanol. That's why everything is going into corn which in turn hurts the beekeepers. Our food prices have also soared since this started. I don't blame the farmers. I'm sure most beekeepers wouldn't complain if the government subsidized the turning of honey into fuel and it went from $2.00/LB to $6.00/LB either. Beekeepers would get rich but it wouldn't be good for anyone else.




thank you for agreeing the farmers are over paid. 

i dont blame individual familys that farm. i just think the whole idea of such mass farming has gotten outa control. 

would it be so bad tho if beekeepers were over paid. i mean what would our bees destroy if there were to many bees other then staving themselves to death. thats the big difference. bees are good for mother earth. mass farming is not. 

most beekeepers that i know, well if they had the land and the money that the farmers around here had, they would let it all grow wild with flowers and creatures. and that would be so wonderful. 

i find myself often driving around the countryside wondering what this great land looked like when the first settlers showed up. what a beautiful place this must have been. now look at it. how do others not think the way i do. do you people not see this is not going to work out. none of it is sustainable.

i do agree there is good money to be made in beekeeping, like keith said. 

but there is no balance. its getting so hard to keep bees. who will do it in the future. most of my friends would never work this hard. my generation is the make a fast buck and dont lift a finger type. and bees dont stay alive with that business model.


----------



## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

I share those veiws Ian. Two years ago I lost all my hives but three, devestating. I can't say what the main reasons for it was but if I was to compile a list, agro sprays would be on it. 

For the last 10 years out of the 26 years I've been keeping bees, I've been doing pollination. During these years I've always seemed to have higher losses with 20% my lowest and 65 my highest. In the fall of 11', I knew I was in trouble and in the spring I had 3 hives left of the 100 hives, 97% loss. I have learned my lesson, I am going back to my roots of honey proctuction. I've brought my 3 hives up to 72 hives in this past year and a half and I'm extracting a wonderful ammount of honey now. Last winter only saw a 5% loss wich is what was normal for us through the 90's. 

I wouldn't say that I wouldn't pollinate anymore, but my fee is the cost of replacing a hive, lock,stock,and barrel. exubrant enough that they don't even want to look at me, which is the way I like it. honey prices are going up anyway.

The current agricultural system is heading for a melt down. It will buckle. the land will only take so much abuse before it says 'Screw you, human race' which is why, in part, we are looking to homestead and very soon.


----------

