Mike palmer: The sustainable apiary

[prakel]

This is a link to the first of two videos of a talk given by Mike Palmer (a highly respected beekeeper from Vermont) the other video is also available at the same place. These videos give plenty of 'stuff' to think about and pick through.

http://vimeo.com/23178333

[prakel]

It's just occurred to me that it might be nice to briefly outline why I think people reading the Scottish Beekeepers Forum might be interested in a talk by a commercial beekeeper from the US.

-Palmer raises 1500 or so queens each year (some for sale and some for himself) in an area with harsh winters -he says himself that there's no point in starting queen rearing until around about the 10th of May.

-He's at the forefront of an unofficial movement to encourage people to produce their own locally reared queens rather than buying in from the Southern States.

-Actively pursues a method of rearing queens (and nuclei) in the summer to overwinter and then use/sell the following Spring.

Any of this sound like the sort of beekeeping that you pursue/wish to emulate?

[gavin]

Any of this sound like the sort of beekeeping that you pursue/wish to emulate?

Oh yes!

[Neils]

Thanks for the elaboration prakel, it sounds interesting and I'll check it out later when I'm back in mission control.

[drumgerry]

Watched it this morning at 5.30am - nice fast internet connection, I wonder why! I thought the talk was superb - full of info of relevance to we who keep bees in northern climes. Some of it re package bees doesn't apply but this is a guy who knows his stuff and doesn't push airy fairy hippy b****x. Highly recommend watching it.

[prakel]

another couple of Mike Palmer videos (yes, he is a great influence on the way that I now approach my beekeeping):

Building cell builders.*
http://youtu.be/uUSMXpeuUFE

Part of a class at the 2012 Eastern apicultural Society Convention.
http://youtu.be/E_AcGcQFc9w

*edit: to fully appreciate the trick behind the 'shaker box' used in the 'Building Cell Builders' Video, watch:
http://youtu.be/I7OsNW1XsQU

[Pete L]

-Actively pursues a method of rearing queens (and nuclei) in the summer to overwinter and then use/sell the following Spring.

This is exactly what i do, and truly believe it to be a good way forward, also read most of the posts by Mike on other fora.
He was quite interested in coming over to the UK to do few talks, be good if he would.
Sent him a couple of pounds of heather honey last year, he sent back some fresh maple syrup...very nice stuff.

[prakel]

This is exactly what i do, and truly believe it to be a good way forward, also read most of the posts by Mike on other fora.
He was quite interested in coming over to the UK to do few talks, be good if he would.
Sent him a couple of pounds of heather honey last year, he sent back some fresh maple syrup...very nice stuff.

It would be great to see him here in the UK and I'd certainly be in the audience no matter how far I needed to travel.

[drumgerry]

I was totally inspired by Mike's video - the first in this thread. So much so I split my least productive colony into nucs each with a queen I had grafted from my best stock - pretty much what he advises. Now all being well I'm going to have 4 nucs to sell this Spring.

Need to watch the others now - thanks for posting the links Prakel.

Pete - what fora does he post on?

[Pete L]

Pete - what fora does he post on?

The main one with some very interesting posts is Beesource.

[Neils]

Thanks for the bump, I'd forgotten about this one, finally watched the first one last night and it's refreshing to be directed to an internet vid that isnt a load of old baloney. He talks a lot of sense I feel.

I started overwintering Nucs last year and it worked out pretty well although I was caught out by the miserable weather last year. But I have another Nuc on the go this year and it was bouncing along when I went up to do the OA that I think I'll be wanting to put it in a full size hive at the earliest opportunity.

He's certainly given me some food for thought feeding into this years plans so I've bookmarked the vids so I can watch them again.

If he does make his way to the UK and someone spots it, please stick a post on here and I think I'm also minded to make the trip to wherever he crops up.

[Pete L]

It would be great to see him here in the UK and I'd certainly be in the audience no matter how far I needed to travel.

I had a pm from Mike Palmer earlier, which led onto a telephone conversation a little later in the day,and the good news is, he will be doing a talk at the national honey show in October, all being well, plus spending a couple of days on Exmoor i hope.

[prakel]

Excellent news. Thanks for the heads-up.

[fatshark]

Has anyone managed to watch the Mike Palmer Vimeo video recently? It never starts playing on my iPad ... I can watch other Vimeo offerings.

[prakel]

Has anyone managed to watch the Mike Palmer Vimeo video recently? It never starts playing on my iPad ... I can watch other Vimeo offerings.

Just had a look, playing fine for me.

[prakel]

I had a pm from Mike Palmer earlier, which led onto a telephone conversation a little later in the day,and the good news is, he will be doing a talk at the national honey show in October, all being well, plus spending a couple of days on Exmoor i hope.

Looks like he's going to be busy with a series of interesting sounding lectures

http://www.honeyshow.co.uk/lecture_convention.shtml

I can already imagine the blood pressure of a few extreme-insulators rising at the thought of 'Keeping bees in frozen North America' being presented to the British public.

[Michael Palmer]

I had no idea folks in the UK were watching. Wonderful!

If you are attending the National, do say hello. I'll be there the entire time. Will also be addressing beekeeping groups in the areas of Somerset, Shropshire, Worcestershire. I hope to gain an understanding of beekeeping in the UK.

Mike

[prakel]

I had no idea folks in the UK were watching. Wonderful!

If I can just say, Welcome. It's nice to see you post here.

Will your talks to the local groups be based around specific material from the NHS lectures or have a flavour of their own?

[Michael Palmer]

Not really sure. It depends on what they want. I plan on talking about nucleus colonies and/or raising queens, and take it from there.

[prakel]

A new, nicely polished version of the talk, courtesy of the National Honey Show:


http://youtu.be/nznzpiWEI8A

[Pete L]

One of the talks given by Mike at the National honey show

The sustainable apiary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nznzpiWEI8A&feature=youtu.be

As Pete's new thread on this was duplicating Prakel's I've fused it with the existing one.

[GRIZZLY]

Brilliant talk - thanks for posting it Pete.L (and Prakel)