Gone are the holidays. No more Christmas pajamas. No more ugly sweaters (thank goodness). No more Christmas cookies. And no more Mariah Carey singing “All I Want for Christmas.” I’m okay with that. Are you?
It’s time to roll into January and embrace a fresh new year.
Now, I can’t say I’m a New Year’s resolution sort of guy, but I won’t knock anyone who is. After all, resolutions are generally good things… right?
I’ve never heard a person say that their New Year’s resolution was to take up smoking or eat more double chocolate cake from Portillo’s… although, that doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
Resolutions are quite the opposite—like visiting old Granny in the nursing home more frequently, donating to the Save the Whales Foundation monthly, or, of course, everyone’s favorite: exercising more, which is the number one resolution.
By the way, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, only 46% of people who make New Year’s resolutions are successful. That means over half of those who set goals for the new year will fail!
You might find it surprising that the top 10 resolutions list includes things like traveling and saving more money, but oddly, “to be a better beekeeper” is not on the list. Strange, right?
So what does it even mean to be a good beekeeper? I think we need to put time into perspective to answer this question. As we all know, times have changed.
I’ve listened to many episodes of HoneyBee Obscura with Jim Tew, where he shares stories from yesteryear. Back when he first kept bees, being a “good beekeeper” just meant maintaining bees in solid equipment, adding supers when needed, and checking on them at the end of the year to harvest honey. And that was about it.
Fifty years later, if you followed the same agenda, you’d most certainly be in the category of a bad beekeeper—doomed for failure.
In today’s world, being a “good beekeeper” means keeping colonies alive by managing pests like small hive beetles, wax moths, and the infamous varroa mite, which causes all sorts of problems leading to colony collapse due to disease. And let’s not forget about pesticides that contaminate the brood comb, resulting in smaller, less healthy brood.
The game of beekeeping has changed. It’s a bit like the old-time boxer, whose physic might seem pretty “pillow-soft” compared to today’s muscle-bound, mighty man who trains for hours a day and has a very unique skill set to defeat his opponent.
Beekeeping today requires dedication. When Jim Tew was young, I bet he visited his hives a couple of times each season. Today’s beekeeper visits each hive probably 30 times a year to stay on top of any issues—being proactive in helping the bees succeed with management techniques such as testing and treating for mites all season, knowing when to do a split to prevent swarming, or spotting when a hive is “not right” and knowing what to do about it.
So, if I truly believed in New Year’s resolutions, mine would be to be a better beekeeper—prepared to fight for my bees like that modern-day boxer, becoming more informed and to ready to jab back at challenges.
Number 10 on the official top 10 resolution list is to read more, and that would be a great start for all of you—especially with our vast library of books to choose from. Our past newsletters give plenty of reviews if you’re not sure what to check out.
Today’s meeting could help us all to become better beekeepers. Dave and Fran and company will be sharing some insights, new tools, and other informative tidbits from several conferences they attended earlier this year.
So, let’s get to it.
Patrick
