Letters to the Editor
Letters to the Editor – April 2023
Need advice on hive monitoring systems
I have been exploring the value of various hive monitoring systems for my two hives. I was given a BuzzBox Mini for a present and proceeded to install following instructions, in fact repeated the various steps many times only to get fault messages. I have reached out several times to the makers but unfortunately no response.
Would be interested to hear from other users of this product and their experience regarding performance and support to see if it is worth pursuing.
Secondly would be very interested to hear from genuine end users of the various monitoring systems available in Australia
Thanks,
Murray
Western Australia
murraym@wn.com.au
Thank a Commercial Beekeeper
This first appeared as a post on Facebook in February.
If you enjoy these nuts, then thank a commercial beekeeper. You might not aspire to be a commercial beekeeper and truck your hives across the country pollinating the crops of the U.S., but that doesn’t mean that we are bad people or don’t care about our bees. My bees are pollinating almonds as I type and California produces the majority of the almonds that feed the entire WORLD.
I just got back home to Kansas City from California where I spent the last month placing over 15,000 honey bee colonies into multiple crops including peaches, plums, pomegranates, blueberries, apples, and almonds. Do you think commercial beekeepers like being 1800 miles away from our families? Do you think we aren’t scared that a farmer will break the rules and spray our bees? Do you think we aren’t on pins and needles when we load up our source of income and livelihood on to a semi and hope and pray it makes it out there safely? Being a commercial beekeeper is a sacrifice to not only a few bees but also beekeepers and their families. I get to see my children cry on the phone so that your children get to eat.
Can it be hard on the bees? Yes … when you drive on a rough road and you wished it was smoother don’t you wish a road crew would work on that 160-degree asphalt in the middle of summer breaking their back so you have a more comfortable ride in your AC? Yes, those road workers make sacrifices for the good of mankind. So bees aren’t the only things in society that have to sacrifice some to feed your children. I wish we could make enough food to feed 7 billion without commercial agriculture practices but unfortunately we can’t so bees and beekeepers will continue to sacrifice and risk so that your kids can eat.
I also want to add that commercial bees are the healthiest they can possibly be, because if they aren’t strong and healthy then farmers won’t pay for them to pollinate their crops. Therefore commercials take extra special care of their bees so that they are healthy as possible so that they can produce enough income from those bees to feed their children, my children. So yes I do get a little p—-d when people hate on people like me when I just got back from being away from my kids for over a month so that their ungrateful mouths can eat the literal fruits of my labor.
People, the internet is full of uneducated opinions, and you are entitled to that, but please before you hate on commercial beekeepers or any other profession at least know what you are talking about. I know I would never shame a soldier after all the sacrifices he made even if I didn’t agree with the war. We all wish the world was different but this is what we got and we are trying every day to make it better. So unless you don’t eat any …
