Bee Love Beekeeping... presented by Mann Lake

What do Picasso paintings, bee dance-offs, and a swarm living on a greasy crane have in common? They’re all part of the wonderfully weird world of honey bees and beekeeping!
In this episode of Bee Love Beekeeping, we head to San Diego to meet Hilary Kearney of Girl Next Door Honey, who has turned 16 years of beekeeping experience into a creative, full-time business.
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We also explore the unique challenges of keeping bees in San Diego, where year-round brood means year-round Varroa and some colonies can have seriously spicy personalities.
Add in bee news from Texas and Virginia, and you’ve got an episode packed with fascinating facts, laughs, business inspiration, and plenty of reasons to appreciate the incredible little creatures at the heart of beekeeping.
YouTube VIDEO VERSION

Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mann Lake! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
Mann Lake discount code: MLBEELOVE10 for $10 off your next order.

Follow Us: https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/follow/
https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/
Eric@BeeLoveBeekeeping.com

Hillary Kearney: https://girlnextdoorhoney.com/

Get ready to meet your match for Africanized bee expertise: third-generation beekeeper Monica King joins Bee Love Beekeeping host, Eric Bennett, to talk about wrangling "killer bees" in the 110-degree heat of southern Arizona.
Monica shares her beekeeping secrets for night-time hive removals under red lanterns (bees hate white light and love drama). She explains why "hangry" honey bees get meaner during droughts, and reveals her go-to trick for spotting varroa mite infestations by popping open drone brood cells.
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$10 off your next order! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
• Discount Code: MLBEELOVE10
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Bonus points for the chicken-and-bee symbiosis system she's engineered on her 14-acre off-grid homestead.
Things get truly wild when Monica breaks out her craziest beekeeping stories — including the time she pulled 18 virgin queens out of a single swarm, and a bizarre cutout where four mated queens were living together in one melted, catacomb-like hive... until the bees ruthlessly picked a winner overnight.
Between water-hauling homestead hacks and gutsy mite-testing tips, this episode is equal parts survival guide and beekeeping soap opera.
VIDEO VERSION

Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mann Lake! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
Mann Lake discount code: MLBEELOVE10 for $10 off your next order.
Follow Us: https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/follow/
https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/
Eric@BeeLoveBeekeeping.com
Monica King: https://www.monicamking.com/#/

Forget everything you thought you knew about swarm removal!
This episode is a full-on myth-busting session with SoCal's own Bee Man Dan, a rescuer who's handled over 21,000 colonies and trained in Beekeeping the unconventional way: through his Kung Fu school, under Daoist and Buddhist monks.
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$10 off your next order! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
• Discount Code: MLBEELOVE10
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The internet gospel says "find the queen, box her, and the rest will follow." Dan says nope. After years of hands-on Swarm Removal, he discovered bees actually chase the brood ("the babies"), not the queen — she just wanders in eventually, sometimes last.
No bee vacuums, no frantic queen-hunting, just capped brood, patience, and a little pheromone magic doing the real work.
The conversation rolls into Africanized bee hybrids, sketchy 50-foot ladder rescues, and the messy legal reality of bee ordinances across SoCal cities.
VIDEO VERSION

Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mann Lake! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
Mann Lake discount code: MLBEELOVE10 for $10 off your next order.
Follow Us: https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/follow/
https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/
Eric@BeeLoveBeekeeping.com
Bee Man Dan: https://wesavebees.com/

What is "RNA Interference" and why are beekeepers calling it birth control for Varroa?
In this episode of Bee Love Beekeeping, we're buzzing into two topics that every beekeeper should know about. First, we tackle the sticky subject of glyphosate (Roundup®) and what the latest research says about its surprising effects on honey bees—from disrupting their gut health to changing the way they forage.
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$10 off your next order! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
• Discount Code: MLBEELOVE10
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Then we welcome Adam Pachl of GreenLight Biosciences to talk all things Varroa mites and introduce Narroa, an innovative treatment that doesn't kill mites—it simply stops them from starting the next generation. Think of it as birth control for Varroa!
Along the way, we dive into when (and when not) to use Narroa, how it fits into a smart mite management plan, and why testing your colonies always beats guessing.
Adam also shares hilarious stories from his days as a state bee inspector, including the heart-stopping moment he found a queen bee taking a stroll across his beekeeping suit.
Whether you're a first-year beekeeper or you've been keeping bees for decades, you'll come away with practical tips, a few laughs, and maybe even a new favorite tool for keeping your colonies healthy.
VIDEO VERSION
Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mann Lake! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
Mann Lake discount code: MLBEELOVE10 for $10 off your next order.
Follow Us: https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/follow/
https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/
Eric@BeeLoveBeekeeping.com
https://norroa.com/

This week's beekeeping adventure takes us to Byron Bay, Australia, where Flow Hive co-inventor Cedar Anderson gives us the buzz on life after Varroa mites invaded the continent.
After a failed containment effort that saw thousands of hives burned, Australian beekeepers battled a brutal one-two punch of Varroa weakening colonies and small hive beetles finishing the job — sound familiar, fellow beekeepers?
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$10 off your next order! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
• Discount Code: MLBEELOVE10
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The good news: things are stabilizing. But Australian beekeeping comes with its own wild twist: bee-eating cane toads that camp out at hive entrances all night, gobbling up bees like an all-you-can-eat buffet.
We also get into rainbow bee-eater birds, Africanized bees creeping into the southern U.S., and a hilarious near-miss where Cedar got chased by angry bees while a New York Times reporter had his back turned — talk about a close call.
Toss in some jaw-dropping bee-communication stories (turns out their waggle dance is way more precise than science gives them credit for) and a peek at Cedar's new book, and this episode is a must-listen for anyone who loves bees, beekeeping, and the delightfully chaotic world of managing them.

VIDEO VERSION
Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Mann Lake! https://www.mannlakeltd.com/
Mann Lake discount code: MLBEELOVE10 for $10 off your next order.
Follow Us: https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/follow/
https://www.beelovebeekeeping.com/
Eric@BeeLoveBeekeeping.com
Cedar Anderson: https://www.honeyflow.com/