In this podcast episode, Veronica Culberson, owner of Honey of the Hill Apiaries, shares her journey into beekeeping and educates listeners on the importance and complexities of bees. Growing up with a background rich in scientific curiosity and outdoor life, Veronica delves into how her fascination with insects and gardening challenges led her to the world of honeybees. We also talk about the therapeutic benefits of bee stings and the practical steps individuals can take to support pollinator health.

Transcript:

Veronica: My name's Veronica Culverson and I own Honey of the Hill Apiaries.

Marcus: I'm really glad to get you on the podcast. I know we spent some time together last week, which we'll get together or get into here in a minute. Right. But, um. I wanted to get you on to kind of educate people, but also, share your story, so, okay.

Yeah. But before we get started with the bee stuff, why don't we start with you telling us a little bit about yourself. Like, where are you from, you know. Okay. All that.

Veronica: Uh, well, I grew up right here in Mobile. I was actually born in New Hampshire, but all the families here, my parents were up there, uh, while my dad was doing his graduate work.

So I grew up here, uh, in the eighties, nineties, outdoors all the time. pretty much just a wild free childhood. Mm-hmm. Uh, lots of cousins. my early childhood was, um. Just like I said, out outside all the time, uh, playing in the woods and when the lights come

You better get there. Yeah. But, don't, don't be farther than you can hear, you know, somebody yell and, but otherwise, yeah, we were, we were free to roam and, um. I like to think of my, uh, how I grew up as we were poor but privileged. So like, I didn't know we were poor looking back. I know my parents were really struggling hard.

Yeah. And, but we had, uh. They were solid. They were, you know, we had stability. We had a lot of good family time. We went camping. We did, we were in scouts and, uh, you know, we had very, helpful, uh, extended family grandparents sent us to summer camp and, and all that. So we, we had all the privileges. S you know, that our friends have.

But at the same time, everything was, was tight and Yeah. So, you know, so we didn't do a lot of like, uh, fancy vacationing. Like I said, it was more like camping and stuff. Yeah. Stuff that kept me outside. So, um. My dad's a scientist. Uh,

Marcus: what's his back background? 'cause there's obviously some, some, you know, correlation there between what you went into.

Absolutely.

Veronica: so my, my dad's a very science and outdoors natured. he teaches at Spring Hill College, uh, big focus on, on biology and, uh. When I was little before he was teaching, he, he was in research at South and so we would do things like, he'd have us up there when he was dissecting rats or things, things like that.

Yeah. So we were always, you know, hands in doing stuff. And, so with him being sciencey and my mom was super earthy and, and all that stuff, so we were just always. In the thick of it and, and lots of kids and lots of cousins and, and playing with things and testing things out. So, so I've always been comfortable with insects and, uh, then, you know, later in life, um.

What led to beekeeping, what we talked about was, uh, some, some gardening failures. So we had, you know, once, I started having children with my husband and, and they were little, we wanted to show them how things grew and all that. So we started doing some home gardening and, um. Couldn't grow squash, couldn't grow watermelons.

things that needed real pollination. Right. Just, it wouldn't happen in our little backyard garden. And we live in this, in this city, which mobile's a great city as far as green spaces. A lot of the, uh, there's a lot of nature around. We're surrounded by trees and plants. Yeah, trees everywhere. we live in a

Marcus: rainforest.

Veronica: Right, exactly. And our, our city's management of it is. Such that it, promotes those green spaces. So that's really good. I've got no complaints about that. but we do live in an area that's surrounded by neighborhoods and, and human life, right? So, um. We thought, well, we'll get honeybees and, and solve these pollination problems.

'cause we were growing the plants and they would have the flowers and they were great. Right? And then the fruits would just shrivel up. So we got honeybees. And then, uh, we very quickly learned that honeybees are not real interested in your backyard garden. They are. uh. They live in the big family group called a colony, and so there's like 60,000 of them in there at a time, and they need to collect food for all of 'em.

So when they're looking for food, they're not looking at little plots of Right. You know, your little backyard gardens. They're out in the woods looking for all the trees or out at the park where they haven't mowed and there's clovers and

yeah.

Veronica: So that got me interested, well, what's, what do I do for my squash?

You know, because honeybees didn't do it. So I learned, that that's the job of, of your native pollinators, and those are everything from the. Uh, other, you know, 20,000 species of bees in the world that we have to wasps and, uh, beetles. Beetles are the biggest group of insect pollinators.

Marcus: Yeah. You told me the other day and, uh, I do wanna pause for just one second.

Yeah. And say, you know, the other day you were kind enough to suggest that I come out and help you check the hives. Right. Which, uh, I'll show some footage as part of this, of Yeah, yeah. You know what, what that was like. And, uh, I guess the, the, the pausing for just a second. I, at first I feel like I should just thank you because I've never had an experience like that.

It's fine. Yeah. And I want to, it was really kind of nerve wracking, you know, beforehand. 'cause I was like, you know, I'm, I'm not, I. You know, I'm, I'm not super interested in like insects or anything like that. Bees have always had this kind of like healthy, you know Yeah. Respect for them and stuff. The idea of walking up to a hive was just insane to me.

And so when we got there on, on Site, I was just kind of looking over and you said something about, yeah, they can sense fear. And I was like, well, I guess I better get rid of that. And so I had to change my mentality of like. Hey, this is really cool. Instead of, oh my God, what am I about to do? And the minute that I did that, it became a completely different experience and I just, it was just so amazing.

Yeah. It was really just such a cool experience to, to be able to stand there that close to these bees. And I. I didn't get stung once.

Veronica: Yeah. Yeah. Now I get stung all the time. I know

Marcus: that. But I didn't get stung once. I mean, it was just kind of like, it was just a really cool, you know, thing. So, you know, that's, thank you for, you know, for making that happen because that was not,

Veronica: yeah.

I love to introduce people to, to the bees and I, before I got into bs, like I've always liked insect, but I didn't. Seek it out. It wasn't, you know, something I went out to do, but once I got into the bees, that just increased sort of that realm of my life. And, so I am much more observant now of the other insects and things and, and, and just how it all plays together.

All the food web. All that, you know, we all sort of need each other. Yeah. Sort of situation. But yeah, once I, once I figured out that the honeybees weren't my solution, by then, we were, you know, neck deep in bees and I was in love with 'em. And that just. Sort of kept growing and growing and growing.

Marcus: So I have to ask the question though.

Yeah. Like, what did your neighbors think about you getting honey?

Veronica: They love it. Yeah. Yeah, they're great. uh, I've gotten, I've convinced a few of them to forego their monthly spraying, you know, in the yard and things. Um. A lot of 'em, uh, leave more wild spaces now instead of just mowing the whole, everything flat lawn.

So it's good. I bribe 'em with honey, you know, it works.

Marcus: If it's any, uh, if it's any indication of what you gave me, it was, it's a good bribe, you know, I mean, like, it was, uh, absolutely delicious. So, well,

thanks. It's natural.

Marcus: So, you know, I'm gonna guide us here a little bit because I, I think, you know, it's interesting and you've talked about how you first got into it.

I mean. There and there wasn't anything previous to this. It was just kinda like, Hey, will you have some squash and watermelon that aren't growing? And so well, besides just being outside and,

Veronica: no, I mean, we had been, we had been talking about it. my dad's getting older. He was sort of a, you know, semi-retirement plan kind of idea.

Keep him active. Yeah. That kind of thing. so we do the beekeeping together and, uh. That's been phenomenal. Just, to share that experience as an adult with my father, you know, so that's been a lot of fun. Um. I'm sorry, I, I lost No, it's lost track with that.

Marcus: Yeah, I was just totally, and I was asking about, you know, if there wasn't any previous experience with beekeeping or any, like, anything like that.

Oh, yeah.

Veronica: No, no. So we had talked about it and just were like, didn't know

Marcus: anybody that was a beekeeper, just went, no. So how did you get started? Because you made it, you just glossed over that whole thing. Like, yeah, I just went out and got these and it didn't work and we're gonna move on. But it's like, yeah,

Veronica: I did.

Yeah, we, you know, wait a second. It's, there's a big learning curve and, uh, I suggest to anybody who's interested in it, yeah. Find somebody to shadow for a day.

Yeah.

Veronica: Make sure it's something you're really into because there's an investment, there's a lot of equipment, there's a lot of, uh, learning involved.

Beforehand, enduring, I'm still learning all the time with things. Yeah. and we've been doing it 10 years, but, watch the YouTube videos, uh, follow the people on Facebook, read the beginner books, any of the beginner. Textbook style books are gonna have the basic information that you need to get started, and then yeah, find somebody local because, it really varies on location, uh, the climate, there's different needs, you know, so somebody

Marcus: will be able to shortcut a lot of the issues that you might have.

Yeah,

Veronica: a lot of, a lot of the things we, we just fumbled into it. I mean, we took, we went. We went and took a beginner beekeeper course, which was like a one day, four hour thing, and it was great and we learned a lot, but it was sort of, I mean, it. Barely brushes.

Yeah. The

Veronica: surface. but you really learn by doing.

And so, you know, if you can follow with somebody a little bit or also, my dad and I do the beekeeping together, it really helps to have a partner because we've got two brains in there. And if I say something stupid, he can go, oh no, that's not right. What about this direction? You know? So having, I'm glad

Marcus: I could be so much help to you The other day when, when we were doing this, I was not any help at all.

Let's be clear. You're a great

Veronica: help. But, but like you mentioned about the fear thing, when we, when we first started keeping bees, I was always nervous. I was nervous that I was gonna get stung, which is just part of it. I was nervous that I was gonna mess up, which is also just part of it. Yeah. but it, it reflected in the bees when we would open a hive.

They'd all come up to the top and go, you're anxious. We should be anxious too. What's going on? And when I open 'em now, I'm, I know, you know, now more what I'm doing. I still might screw up.

Yeah.

Veronica: But, uh, if I do it, it'll be okay, we'll move on. You know, so when I open 'em now, they just go on about their business because I'm not feeling threatened, and so I don't seem threatening.

Marcus: Right.

Veronica: You know, and it's just like with other animals, dogs, and. Sharks, probably

Marcus: 100%. Yeah. Now you and I met at the botanical gardens. Right? But you have how many hives around him?

Veronica: I have, uh, around 50 or 60, around the county on friends' properties. Yeah. like I said, I'm, I'm kind of obsessed. I'm a crazy bee lady.

Collecting bees. Collecting bees. Yeah. Uh,

Marcus: now there's been a lot of news over the course of the last, you know, I would say even decade. Right, right, right. You know, bees and how much we depend on them and. You know, there was a lot, there were a lot of issues because we're just, you know, spraying, you know, insecticides freely, you know, everywhere and killing everything.

Right, right. And, you know, how are we doing now? Because I'm hearing that it seems like it's somewhat changing, but you know, I.

Veronica: good and bad. We're in a rough spot and the overall insect decline is enormous and it's now affecting other things like birds and small animals, and we are all part of that same food web, but we are also sort of in a good spot because there's there's a, information is so available and people are ready to.

Learn and make changes. And, there's a big interest in doing things naturally and you know, and looking to our environment for our health and things like that. So I feel like, I feel like we're headed in a good direction in that there are a lot of teachers and a lot of teachable people. And, you know, we just all have to make the right moves.

Yeah. And, and work for the same goal, which is Yeah. Move in the right direction. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. Us all existing here together.

Marcus: And how about locally? I mean, is it, 'cause I know we have a lot of agriculture here and I don't know how much that really matters as far as bees go. 'cause it's not, they're not really depending.

Well I guess they are. They're depending on the bees to pollinate their Yeah.

Veronica: And, and we don't wanna think about just the bees because the pollinators are. Such a, a, a broader spectrum than just bees. but bees are the canary, so to speak, in the coal mine. So they, they're, they're an indicator of how things are going and especially so because they're financially beneficial.

Mm-hmm.

Veronica: so, you know, we monitor things that, that make us money. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, honeybees make money on, on both ends to the. To the beekeepers and to the farmers too, right? So, so locally, I don't know. Like I said, I think we live in a, a spectacular environment here. the, the delta and everything, it's great.

Okay. And our city's really good about their management. Uh, but overall, like I live in the, in the same place I grew up in. Yeah. And, the, it's an older part of town. There haven't been new neighborhoods, there haven't been new stores. There's no real changes, right there next to the botanical gardens.

Mm-hmm. So there's a lot of, lot of green space just in my time that I've lived in that house, not my entire life, but. 35 years or so. Um. I've seen a huge decline in, in the insects there. I mean, I grew up there catching fireflies.

Marcus: Yeah, I was gonna say, you don't, you don't see fireflies much in this area and I'm, I'm from Northern Virginia and Right.

Used to seeing more than,

Veronica: right. So a lot of that is everybody bags up their leaves and sends 'em away and that's where the fireflies have their babies and lay their eggs. And so if every few weeks or even every just season, you're bagging all those leaves up and. Sending 'em away or burning 'em. You're getting rid of your pollinators and your fireflies.

Another thing is soil health. those firefly eggs hatch from those leaves and they go into the ground. The larva spend their first two to four years, depending on the species,

Marcus: two to four years. Two to four years. Oh my gosh.

Veronica: Depending on the species of firefly. Before they emerge as an adult to do their few nights of blinking to find a mate.

Yeah, because

Marcus: they're not around for that long. I mean, it's like a week. No, they are, they're just

Veronica: this little grub looking thing in the ground that you don't see. Soil health is really important. of our 20,000 beast species in the world. Think of honeybees. They live in those big families. There are others that live in colonial type of situations.

Bumblebees are one, but the vast majority of 'em are solitary and live nest in the ground. So if you've got a sandy area and you see the little holes mm-hmm. If you sit and watch 'em, a lot of times a bee will come in and out.

Marcus: Interesting.

Veronica: Yeah.

Marcus: Well, so tell us some, because you had some interesting facts the other day about bees.

Like why don't you just kind of educate us on some of the things that you like to use in your, your classes and stuff.

Veronica: Okay.

Marcus: You know?

Veronica: All right. I do, I do children's classes. Mm-hmm. I go to schools, I'm a child and all that stuff, but I also do adult classes. Now, what I was gonna get at is there. Not very different.

Yeah, I was gonna

say they're not very differentt. Have to change it for me.

Veronica: the adult classes I get into a lot more into the doom and gloom. Uh, you know, pesticides, habitat loss, you know, we're all gonna die if we don't save the little bugs because they're feeding us, you know. But the kids' classes are a lot of fun.

I. My favorite B fact is that bees have five eyes. I think I told you that one. You

Marcus: told me that. Yeah. Yeah.

Veronica: they, uh, I'll, they have their two big compound eyes that see sort of similar to how we see, but in a different color range. And then on the tops of their heads, they have three little simple eyes, and those are light sensors.

And you remember what I told you about that?

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Veronica: Yeah. So I always ask the, the kids and a lot of times. S here lately, they've actually been, yeah, been getting it pretty good. But usually around third grade, they start picking up on this, what are those light sensors for?

Mm-hmm.

Veronica: And it's to detect predators,

right?

Veronica: So when a bee is out flying around the sky above it's bright, and as soon as the shadow comes over. Then it casts a, you know, knows there's a bird or something. There's danger there, right? Yeah. And so I tell the kids this because this leads to, well, you can avoid being stung if a bee lands on you by simply not casting a shadow over it.

Yeah. So if a bee lands on you, they don't wanna sting you, they know they're gonna die. so if it lands on you, if you can just be patient, she'll. Catch your breath and fly off. And if you can't be patient, come from the side,

kind of

Veronica: not move. Move above. Yeah. Not from above. And remember, like you said, stay calm.

Yeah. Because they can, they can sense your, you know, most people just run flailing in a different direction. I run flailing in different directions from time to time. Yeah. Yeah.

Marcus: Well you also mentioned, you asked me, uh, if I liked Chocolate Uhhuh. And you know, you told me something interesting about the whole chocolate.

Veronica: So. Well, different types of pollinators. One of those groups is flies. Uh, flies are a really great pollinator group. They actually can function in colder temperatures than bees and butterflies and things. Mm-hmm. So for those northern plants, flies are real important and, and the fly family is mosquitoes.

And a lot of PO mosquitoes are terrible. And they're, they're. Bad for, they're not the greatest, they're not great, but they are pollinators. Yeah. And of the roughly 140 different types of mosquitoes in the world, only about 30% of those actually drink blood of those, it's only the females in their reproductive phase when they're trying to have babies.

other than that, they're all pollinators all the time. And so then I go, well, do you like chocolate? Mm-hmm. Uhhuh. Yeah. And everybody goes, yay. I like chocolate. And I go, well. You know, the chocolate comes from a plant and it's the cacao plant and its primary pollinator is mosquitoes. Type of mosquitoes.

Yeah. So, yeah, if we lose all the mosquitoes in the world, not only will we lose birds and bats and things that depend on them for food, but we'll also lose chocolate.

Marcus: Yeah.

Veronica: Nobody wants to lose chocolate.

Marcus: No. Nobody wants to lose chocolate. No. And I, you know, it's, uh. There are certain bugs that you certainly would love to eradicate.

You know, we were talking about the black, you know, grasshoppers. Yeah. 'cause there's just no good use for, you know, for those. Right, right. But, but no, I mean, it, it's, uh, you know, it's hard for us to think. When we're, you know, doing this because we're getting bit or whatever, stung, you know, it's hard to think, wait a second, like this thing is gonna, you know, make an impact or

Veronica: this

Marcus: class of thing is gonna make an impact.

Well, the class

Veronica: of things, swatting mosquitoes on your body. Yeah. I'm not, I mean, it's not a problem when you go to wipe out, you know, just this broad, I'm gonna kill every bug in my environment so I never have to experience a bee. I mean, a.

Marcus: A bug or mean a bug or

Veronica: a mosquito or a bee or anything on me ever.

That's just kind of outrageous. Yeah. You know, live in a bubble. So, but yeah, my main, my main point with my education is, uh, that we need diversity in, in our environment and diversity in every aspect of life. so, but especially so for our survival. Yeah. You know, if you want strawberries and bananas and chocolate, well, they all have different pollinators and, and we need to.

Defend them.

Marcus: Yeah.

Veronica: Uh, so that we can all continue to function.

Marcus: So what are some things, you know, I mean, what are some things that people can do? Like I know that if you're trying to attract pollinators, planting certain plants and you know, things like that, I mean, what are some things that they can do or even not do that, you know, would help this along,

Veronica: uh, shrink your lawn.

The, the grass lawn, the actual actual grass portion of it. Yeah. Your actual grass lawn does nothing for the environment. It's, it's a drain on resources. It is

Marcus: literally the worst thing that we could possibly ever do. And I, I hate it. You Yeah. It's a waste of money. It's a waste of resources, a waste of time.

Like

Veronica: just keep shrinking it until you have just this little patch and Yeah. You know. But, yeah, as much wild space as possible. Uh, a lot of the bees and things nest in, in stems. And it takes, you know, maybe a year after. So if you, if you've got a flower bed and the flowers all die over winter, and then so you've got all these stems and dead things sticking up and we're really tempted to, to pull all that out.

But if you just deadhead the flowers and leave the stems, then it still takes like a year for those. Maybe not a full year, but depending on the density of the wood, but those thin, those stems have to, to die and become thin enough for the bees to burrow. Mm-hmm. And then they'll do their, you know, lay their eggs in there and their life cycle.

So, I mean, it's like another full year you're looking at. So it is limited of. You know, removing of that stuff as you can. Yeah. and then leaving, leaving some piles of leaves and some corners for your fireflies to, and bugs and, and things. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. and then really protecting the soil. You want moist soil.

You don't wanna put chemicals on it. There's a lot of things that nest in the soil. Yeah. Just it's all, you know, they seem like a nuisance when they're buttoning into your head, but they're not a nuisance when they're pollinating your food. Right. So, you know, you just gotta look at both sides of the picture and, and we've gotta have balance.

Marcus: Yeah. We've, uh, we've kind of lucked out. We've talked about this, you know, when we got together, uh, the property that we have is surrounded by woods and we also have some ponds. Mm-hmm. Some water in the area and stuff like that. And even though we're kind of in the middle of the city, we have this ecosystem that surrounds us.

And I actually didn't mention this when I came home from visiting with you the other day. I was laying on our bed looking out the, the window and it was, there was a tree, and I just kept seeing all these bees around this tree. We have a beehive in this tree and I didn't even realize it. And so, you know what I mean?

But we're, we're surrounded by all these, uh. Uh, these great environments for these bugs to, to live in. Right? And we've got, you know, all kinds of dragonflies and, you know, bees and, you know, bumblebees and unfortunately a lot of wasps too. That's the one thing that I'm just like, I don't care what you say, I'm getting rid of all the wasps.

Get rid of all the wasps. Yeah. So wasps

Veronica: are, wasps are incredible. They serve a multitude of purposes. They're pollinators, they're predators, they're part of the cleanup crew. I mean, I just don't want 'em on my back porch. You. Yeah, but there are ways you can, you can prevent, um. Things from nesting right on on your house.

Yeah. So, and if you have a lot of real natural environment around, then they prefer that, you know, but, you've heard of the people hanging, like the paper bag puffed up. Yeah. That works. Uh, does that work for

Marcus: was too? It works for, okay. Yeah,

Veronica: it works. The, no, the flies is the plastic bag or something where it's

Marcus: a plastic bag with water in it.

Yeah. So what were you saying there? No, so

Veronica: it's a, you take a paper bag, like a grocery bag. Oh, okay. Puff it up and you stick it up in the corner. Tape it up in the corner of your porch. Okay. And they see it when they're coming to nest and go, there's already a big wasp nest there. And so they don't want em go somewhere else.

So yeah, they might go to the other corner of the porch, but Interesting. Yeah. So if you wanna keep 'em right outta your space, same like with the, carpenter bees. Nobody wants carpenter bees nesting in their house.

Right.

Veronica: Uh, the problem with that is. Carpenter Bees are headstrong and once they're already in there having babies, they're not leaving unless you kill 'em.

So, but you can take advantage of their lifecycle. They have a limited life cycle. And, and in the winter, the only, the queen survives and she hibernates elsewhere. And in the meantime, those previous nest sites are, are vacant. Okay? And you can go and fill 'em over winter. Early spring, you can spray something smelly when your first carpenter.

Bees are first starting to look for nest sites. They have a really short period to find a nest site, and so if they come to your house February and March and it smells like oranges or almond or whatever, super smelly thing. You spray out there, they're gonna go immediately find someplace else. Right. So a little bit of prevention at the right time of year and, and it's, they're not a problem, but people, people just don't know.

They, you know, and we're, we live in such a, a, a right now, immediate Yeah. Society that we just want our problems, you know, solved right now. Right. And.

Marcus: So what would you say to somebody, like if they're having a party or something like that and they wanted to make sure, like, oh, I don't want any, like, I can put some bags up, you know, and stuff like that.

Well, yeah, I mean that's like, as far as mosquitoes go, putting ciella as mosquitoes as

Veronica: if you, if you are gonna have a party. Yeah. And you need to, um. Do like a one time fogging or something. Yeah, that's reasonable. But this constant,

Marcus: like every couple of weeks,

Veronica: constant, every few weeks, every month, people getting sprayed here and here and here.

Then there's always poison in the environment, and a mosquito's life cycle is like roughly about a week. So in the time that they're poisoned, those ones that didn't die are able to recover three times before. The mosquito person comes back and sprays again and in that time, all of their predators take months to years to recover.

Good point. Yeah,

Veronica: we we used to spray before we got the bees and that obviously ended that. 'cause you don't spray poison in your yard if you have bees, you're trying to, to keep alive. No, but so we, we quit spraying and, slowly saw the predatory insects. Come back in and we do have mosquitoes. We live on a swamp.

All of mobile is a swamp.

Right.

Veronica: but I see dragon flies and I see birds and I see wasps and things that, you know, bats and things. Mm-hmm. So I really feel like, if we sort of lean towards nature's favor of the balance, things work out better.

Marcus: Yeah. I think, you know. One of the things that I've heard as a suggestion is attracting those things that you know eat.

Oh, absolutely. So bringing in plants and things that are attractive to, you know, bat houses, birds, bats, and things like that. A

Veronica: small pond with, as long as it's got fish or, or frogs or something that will eat the mosquito larvae. I keep in, I have a greenhouse and I keep, uh, just during the. Summer, I keep a 10 gallon aquarium in there with just some minnows from the pond and the mosquitoes come there 'cause it's a convenient place to lay their eggs and the fish eat 'em.

And so, you know, I've even

Marcus: heard I was researching this 'cause I was trying to find some way to control the mosquitoes and I've even had, uh, read that there was a suggestion of. Filling a five gallon bucket with a little bit of water and putting one of those dunks in it. Mm-hmm.

Veronica: Mosquito dunks. And

Marcus: then there was, they, they suggested, I think they suggested putting some sort of like lid on it, but having a hole in it so that they could get in.

Right. But other things can't necessarily, but that they would lay it in, kill that. And also

Veronica: they, the, some sort of lid gives them, I use a screen. Yeah. Over my aquarium. So the mainly, so the raccoons. Don't eat stuff. I got stuff waiting it down. Yeah, but it's it's really a metal grate. It's not a screen so the mosquitoes can go in it 'cause they.

Crawl. Like squeeze their body down into it. Yeah. But when they're flying back up, they just bump against the top. They get get out. So they do, they get trapped.

Marcus: Oh, cool.

Veronica: Some of 'em I'm sure get out. Yeah. But you know,

Marcus: and cuts the population a little bit. So

Veronica: Yeah. I mean something, at least the eggs they're laying aren't going to develop into anything, you know?

Yeah.

Marcus: Well, what are some resources, if somebody's interested in getting started in behi uh, beekeeping, what are some resources that you'd point 'em to? Organizations or places where you can get supplies locally, even too, if there's somebody Right.

Veronica: They're, definitely the extension office. The out on Schillinger Road has, uh, offers a class a couple of times a year.

They've got a lot of really good resources. There are some local beekeeping clubs, uh, like on Facebook. There's one for Mobile County, there's one for Baldwin County. that's a really good way to get started is just to start reading and seeing what other people are doing. the beekeeping changes throughout the year, so there's a lot of paying attention to the, the climate and the seasons and what's happening next.

so just learning those cycles. Yeah.

Marcus: Paying attention to the weather cycles that are coming through and stuff. and now you. Am I correct in you sell the, the honey and stuff like that? I

do some, yeah.

Marcus: Okay. And do you wanna plug that or do you want to,

I mean,

Marcus: it's not really that important to you.

This is something that, because I know folks, this is just a passion project for her. She's not, you know. Yeah.

Veronica: I'm, I'm obsessed. I do, I do get honey. I do. Pull a lot of honey. Yeah. And and people do call me to get it true. So yeah, hit me up on Facebook. Yeah. That's the best way. Okay. honey Hill on Facebook or Honey of the Hill?

Apiaries is on Facebook also. Okay. Just send me a message. and I'll see if I can help you get some honey or tell you something about bees that you didn't know.

Marcus: Yeah.

Veronica: Uh, they fla their wings 11,400 beets per minute.

Marcus: Yeah. And there was, I was trying to remember all the different facts that you, you told me about the queen bees mate once and mm-hmm.

And fertilize the egg. When they're actually putting it into the cell, when they're, yeah.

Veronica: And this is, so this is really cool. another one of my favorite BFAs, uh, so a queen bee after she emerges as a young adult bee, she, spends about a week maturing, and then she leaves the hive. For one of only two times she'll leave the hive, uh, which is her mating flight.

And so she'll go out mid-afternoon on a nice sunny day like today and meet up with 15 or 20 local boys. And, uh,

Marcus: there's a joke in there, but it's a family show. I'm gonna leave it alone. So

Veronica: then, the, they expire, the drones expire upon mating and she flies home with their genetic material, uh, to lay eggs the rest of her life.

But how her. Body is set up, her reproductive organs, she has, uh, where her eggs are stored and she has where she stores the genetic material, the sperm. Yeah. And as she releases an egg, she can choose whether or not to fertilize it at that point. But the coolest part of that is that she doesn't make that decision.

The workers make that decision for her.

Interesting.

Veronica: She actually is. Is essentially just the reproductive organ for the colony, which is considered a super organism. Okay. so when they want boy eggs to be laid, which are the unfertilized eggs, right? They direct her to a certain area where they have cells built the size for boy babies, and then she.

Fills it out and sees what size it is and lays the appropriate egg. And they want female eggs, which is most of the workers, mostly what they need. that's all the workers, excuse me. So that's most of what they need is the female eggs. Then they send her there and she lays the appropriate eggs. So,

Marcus: and they, you also said that they can make, is that the wrong word?

A new queen if the queen dies or something happens to her, right?

Veronica: Yeah, they, they'll make a new queen for a variety of reasons. if she fails at laying, if she, even if she's freshly m it, if she comes back, if she didn't get appropriate genetic material and she starts making bad babies or doesn't lay enough eggs, they'll go ahead and, and Wow.

And offer and replace her. Yeah.

Marcus: Well, and you mentioned that there was something, is it the royal jelly that mm-hmm. Okay. And, and talk to me about that, because there were, there's a number of people, actually, not a number of people, but there's, there's a lot of people that. Use that as a supplement. Yes, and I've always been curious about it because I was like, what the heck is this royal jelly stuff?

It's

Veronica: fantastic. Yeah. It's a super nutrient rich. Be super food essentially. the young workers, the nurse bees, uh, have particular glands that they excreted from. Yeah. And, they'll crawl down into the cells with the, the eggs and put it in there to feed them. That's, it's what the youngest babies and the queen eats.

Okay. And, like I said, it's super nutrient rich. People eat it. It's good for wound healing. Well, the

Marcus: funny thing is, I was talking to my dad, and I hope he doesn't mind me saying this, but he's taking the, he said the, the stuff that they used to seal propolis, that was what it was. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That he's been taking that for, you know, quite some time.

Yeah. I don't remember what it, what it's for, but you know,

Veronica: everything inside the beehive is edible.

Marcus: It's wild, isn't it? Yeah.

Veronica: Yeah. People eat. People eat the larva.

Marcus: Yes. You know,

Veronica: see there's actually been, I'm trying to convince some people to do it for me. There's been, you know, scientific studies about the nutrient content and the, the different things in the beehive.

And, you would think the world jelly is the most nutrient dense, but it's not. It's not. It's the, uh, the drone larvae at like the day they get capped or something. The drones and the queen larvae are the most. Full of, have you eaten one? All these amino acids? Yeah. Maybe accidentally, probably not. I've eaten a good bit of royal jelly.

Marcus: I was gonna say it's got

Veronica: sort of a sour funy kind of taste. It's interesting. Yeah.

Marcus: That's wild. Because you would think it would be sweet. Like the, like the, uh, it's it's

Veronica: got sweetness to it too. Yeah, but it's. It's, it's sort of, that's, but you put it on a, a, a wound, like a burn or something, and people do honey too, but you put royal jelly on it, put a bandaid on it, the next day it's like half gone.

Wow. That, that stuff's really good.

Marcus: Well, and just in case somebody hasn't, you know, heard this, like if you have allergies, bee honey, local bee honey is the best thing that you can do for it because it'll actually introduce those, uh. What are the, the pollen? Yeah, well the antagonizing, you know, uh, me mechanism into your body in a safe way.

Right, right.

Marcus: And you know, so it allows it, but you also mentioned something about, uh, the anti-inflammatory capabilities of the stings. Of too the stings.

Veronica: Yeah. Yeah. so a lot of people have heard that bee stings help with arthritis and things like that. And if you read. Any Chinese medicine, anything about beekeeping around the rest of the outside of the Western world?

be venom therapy is big business. Uh, so, the main. Way that I describe it is that the bee sting triggers your immune system to fight inflammation, but it's not specific just to the sting. It's throughout your entire body. So if you are being stung weekly or even monthly, then your body's immune system is constantly being triggered to fight inflammation.

Interesting. So if you have. Problems like arthritis or, it's used in for Lyme disease and things associated with that. Mm-hmm. A lot of different, different reasons people do it for.

Marcus: well, there's more and more that's coming out now and I'm a, I'm a biohacker, I'm, yeah. Like that. And, there's more and more coming out now about inflammation being the true cause of a lot of our issues.

Mm-hmm. Whether it's heart disease or. Alzheimer's or Right. Cancers, whatever, cancer. For sure. And so, you know, it's just interesting to me that we're now finding the, these natural ways that, you know, we can fight that inflammation. And a lot of it, of course, just stems from our environment and our foods that we eat and stuff like that.

Veronica: Well, you may think also, you know, a couple of hundred years ago when we lived much more outdoors life, we would be stoned. We would get stone more often. Yeah. Yeah. So you'd be climbing around and you'd step on something or, or whatever. So. Uh, it may be that we're missing out on something that we always had up until industrialization.

Yeah, for sure. So, and then there are other aspects of the, not the bee venom itself, but beekeeping, being around the bees. They do, once you get over the fear factor, they do have a calming effect. And we talked about they hum in the. Key of sea. Yeah,

Marcus: you mentioned that. Now, I don't know if I was cognizant enough to be able to like figure out what key of sea was and whether they were humming at that, but I mean, it was just, it was, it was really cool because, but this is what I've

Veronica: read.

I don't know either. They were

Marcus: just chill. I mean, like they, they did, they just kind of chilled out. Yeah. You know, and, and the humming, the one thing that got me and just like made my day well, besides seeing a queen was the butt wiggle. Yeah. 'cause you see videos of it online, but it's just so funny to see them on the hive, like wiggling their butt.

And it's the way that they, you know, they're telling something. One, they communicate. Yeah. They're, they're talking like, Hey, there's a human looking at us, be cool. You know? Right. So

Veronica: act normal. Yeah,

Marcus: act normal. But, I. But no, it's just, it's interesting to me that there are different, so many different facets to, to bees that we don't really even think about.

It's one of the reasons why, well, the main reason is I just want an excuse to be able to go and see your hives.

Yeah.

Marcus: But you know, the, one of the reasons why I wanted to get you on is to talk about, you know, how, you know, incredible. They are as kind of a. I mean, they aren't just an an insect, it's like a, like you said, a living organism and you know, like how helpful they are to us, how important they are to us.

Right. And you know, especially nowadays with so many people spraying things, you know, everywhere, you know, just kind of like, Hey, let's counteract that just a little bit. Just tone.

Veronica: Just tone it down. Be more aware of the bigger picture. It's not just your yard. You know, I mean, when we're talking about like, honeybees can travel miles, but most of your, your little pollinators in your yard, they never leave your yard.

A lot of 'em don't travel more than 200 feet or so, and that's to find forage and also to find mates. And so if you. Are cutting down all the food and, and all the nesting sites. Then not only, you know, are they starving, but they're also, they're lacking the genetic diversity needed to keep those populations.

Yeah. So it just, you know, we're not, we're not all independent little columns or pedestals or whatever where we're

Marcus: all connected. Yeah. Yeah. We're all connected for sure. So,

Veronica: you know

Marcus: now, well, I, um. Anything that you'd like to add about, you know, beekeeping or anything? No, I just, you know, I, I appreciate you coming out and, and, you know, talking to us about this.

I was just kinda looking through the, the questions and seeing if there was anything else that, you know, I wanted to, uh, talk to you about. But,

no.

Do you want, you said Facebook if they wanna find you on Facebook?

Veronica: Yeah. I'm Honey Hill on Facebook.

Marcus: Okay.

Veronica: and it's a like a person profile. It's not like a page. Yeah. Yeah. And then, I have my Honey of the Hill Apiaries page, that can be followed. Uh, I have a website, honey of the hill.com.

Okay.

Veronica: it's pretty stable.

I have received some emails through it. Yeah. Uh,

Marcus: and so you. Speak, uh, in front of classes Right. For kids and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. If somebody wanted to get in touch with you for kind of like an educational moment or something along those lines, they, that would be appropriate as well. I'm just trying to, yeah.

Oh yeah. Definitely. Think of like how people might definitely,

Veronica: through email, uh, honey of theHill@yahoo.com. Okay. Forgot my email for a minute. and then, the, the bees are fun. Uh. Uh, the little bit of honey that gets sold pretty much goes into more equipment so that I can collect more bees. and, but my, my community outreach, uh, is really beginning to develop and I, I think that's really probably my bigger picture.

Mm-hmm.

Veronica: because I, I feel like, like I told you, when I learned about this squash bee, I was like, well, you know, if I spent my life outside with bugs growing up. Playing with insects and, and I really enjoy this thing and I'm, I'm educated and I have all the availability of all the information in the world.

Yeah. I didn't know this. Yeah. Then surely people who aren't interested in this at all don't know any of it, you know? Yeah. So, I don't know. I have, I have a real drive to. To just inform my community of what's, what, what we need to do. Well,

Marcus: yeah. Like I told you the other day, I, I consider myself an educated individual.

I know about bees. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm a. I'm a biohacker kind of minded guy, but there were at least a dozen times where you, things came out of your mouth and I was just like, what? Yeah. You know, I'm just like, like, that's exactly

Veronica: how I felt when I learned 'em. And I, I want to share that when I go do kids' classes, like, you know, they look at me like I'm a lion tamer.

Yeah. It's great. You know? Well they are bees. They are scary. Yeah. The adults look at me like I'm nuts. And the kids are like, wow. Yeah. You know, so it's, it's a lot of fun. I've really enjoyed, how things have developed. I just wanted to grow squash and you, you know, and you weren't on podcast talking about these and I'm right.

And I get to go to all these great places. my dad and I do the adult classes together. We also do beekeeping instruction, and. Very beekeeping related classes. Like a, we did a history of beekeeping class that was really fascinating. our, you know, our relationship with bees goes back before we could read and write and we were scrubbing on Yeah.

Walls, cave walls and things. Yeah. So, and there's documentation of it. There's tools, there's, you know, there's things, there's, they found recently, the, the, not couple years ago, the oldest honey. In existence, 5,000 years old in a, in a tomb of a noble woman in Georgia.

Marcus: Wow. The,

Veronica: the country of Georgia not, yeah.

Marcus: Yeah. No, I figured it not next door. Yeah. No, it was interesting because, uh, I, and I may have mentioned this to you when we, when we got together, that there's a YouTube channel, and if you're watching this and you haven't, uh, looked at this YouTube, YouTube channel, when you finish this, go find it. But, there's a group of guys, they have a channel called Yes Theory.

Mm-hmm. And the whole premise is like stepping into, um. Stepping into experiences that we wouldn't necessarily have, you know, before. And I just, yeah, just say

yes.

Marcus: Figured that, that, you know, this is one of those, for me, this was one of those experiences. And it's interesting because I think you stepped into one of those experiences years ago, and it's turned into something very, very different for you.

You know? Well, I'm

in one right now.

Marcus: Yeah. Well, that's true. Yeah. So. For sure. So,

yeah. Well, I

Marcus: do want to thank you for, uh, coming on the podcast. Anything just to close up, any final thoughts or comments you'd like to make?

Veronica: yeah, I, if you're, if you're interested in, in trying out beekeeping or something like that, give it a shot.

'cause you don't, I mean, you don't know where it's gonna go. Yeah. I didn't know I would be able to go to schools and tell kids about bees. I didn't know I'd be here. I didn't know how it would. Ingrained me in my community.

Yeah.

Veronica: so I really feel, you know, connected with people. I have people that, that trade me eggs for honey, and, you know, that's big money right there.

Yeah. Might not wanna

Marcus: say that. We'll cut that out. So the IRS doesn't come looking for you, but yeah, no,

Veronica: don't, don't send us to the I rs. no. But yeah, people, I, I get people's canned things that they've made, their spaghetti sauce, their stuff, and I love it because I don't have to do all that stuff. But I get to benefit from it and I get to make these connections and

Marcus: yeah.

Veronica: So it's,

Marcus: there's something very distinctly different about local honey, so I just, I, you know, I think it's cool too that you're, uh, you know, you're sharing that with the community as well because as we discussed, you know, outside Yeah. The flavors are just so, so different.

Veronica: Yeah. And a lot of good things about local honey.

honey in general, you should get. From your, your lo it's like a farmer, you know? Right. So, the honey you get at the stores, especially the big box stores, it, the labeling laws, it's just sweetener are No, well, yeah, it's sweeter. It's just sweetener. No, I'm saying it's just a sweetener syrup. It's not gonna have any, they can, yeah, it can be up to like 30% high fructose corn syrup.

Oh, wow. And it doesn't have to be on the label, but beyond that, they can feed those bees. Sugar water and call it honey because the bees have processed, converted it

to the honey. Yeah.

Veronica: You can put the word local and it can be from Argentina. 'cause local is a relative term.

Oh wow.

Veronica: Local. Local to earth.

Yeah.

You

Veronica: know? Yeah. Yeah. So the, the stuff you get at the store is questionable. Go to a farmer's market. Uh, look on Facebook. There's a lot of beekeepers on marketplace. Soon as the honey season hits trying to sell honey. Honey season. Honey season. Yeah, honey. Are we in the

Marcus: midst of that right now? We're

Veronica: right about to hit honey season.

I showed you the ones where they were filling it.

Marcus: Yeah. Yeah. And

Veronica: as soon as they get it all capped off covered, we wax. So yeah. The next couple of weeks the beekeepers will be starting to put out the honey that'll, that'll last through golden rod bloom. Okay. Which is September, October. Probably, long as the weather's good.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So,

Marcus: well, Veronica, I really appreciate you coming on and, uh, you know, if anybody needs to get ahold of her for, you know, speaking engagements or just to maybe ask a question or two Yeah. Please don't, you know, waste your time. But I do really appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me and through me.

Yeah. You know, our audience. Thanks. and if there's anything we can do for you, just let us know.

Veronica: Okay. Thank you for, well take care of the bugs. Yeah,

Marcus: definitely. So, all right. That's it.

Veronica: Thanks. Okay,

cool. This is, uh.