Beekeeping

By Mike Oscar Hotel on April 15, 2012 in Animals, Chickens, Do It Yerself, Family, God, Prepping, Self-Sufficiency, Survival, Trees, Videos

Today in the News: Check out our Etsy store. We’ve done a fair amount of business over the past month. I’ve lowered prices on everything in an effort to move some of our inventory. As you can see we’ve branched out on our items and now offer pieces that will appeal to both men and women. I’m really enjoying the Etsy business and I hope to be offering more second hand axe heads soon, as well as antler-handled knives. As you can see from our feedback, we ship quickly.

Beekeeping

My neighbor, Eeyore, is a heck of a guy. Eagle Scout, Christian and MacGyver are good descriptors. He’s the guy that we all go to when we need knowledge about something. He knows a little about a lot and a lot about what you need to get done. He’s a throwback to the way that I believe people were pre-1950. He is a man of his word.

On Easter, he mentioned that he was going to get into beekeeping. We had discussed it in the past and our largest barriers have been equipment and bears. Bears around this part of Colorado are largely trash bears and remain unchecked by hunting due to the fact that we live in mountain suburbia, as much as we would like to deny it. We discussed making a cage to protect a hive, but never really got the plan off the ground.

During Easter brunch he informed me that he has a friend who, due to age, is scaling back his beekeeping operation. This friend made room for Eeyore to have a hive. Eeyore has invited us along for the ride. He is just that type of guy.

So I’m working on a suit and the cash to start a colony. Anybody have a safari hat to sell me?

I became interested in beekeeping after reading several articles on colony collapse. I believe that there are people or organizations out there that have really screwed with agriculture and all things that relate to it. We, as a whole, are having a negative impact on the world around us. I don’t mean that in a peace-loving-hippy sort of way. I just mean that our efforts to make things easier for us have effected essential players in the Earth game. Believe it or not, our society would have a very difficult time eating without bees.

The articles that I read about colony collapse were hit home during a conversation with Gordie LaBoom. Gordie isn’t really into agriculture or global awareness. He’s just a normal guy trying to make his way in the world. He called me one day and told me that he went to a birthday party and was the first to arrive. He sat by a guard rail in rural Maine, texting back and forth with a friend. Gordie noticed a ladybug traversing the guard rail on that hot summer day. He watched the ladybug and noticed a very disturbing pattern. About two seconds before each text that Gordie received, the ladybug would open its wings and make them flutter. The pattern was substantiated over the course of a ten minute text conversation.

Sounds like a Carl-worthy conspiracy, doesn’t it?

Check out this article.

We’ve spent the last hundred or so years making vast strides in technology. I am not a believer in the theory that the Earth is hundreds of millions years old. Heck, we used to think that the Earth was flat. However, I do believe that mankind has been around for some time. A majority of our time was spent living simply. No electronic gadgets, no easy fixes. It was primitive. Tim Smith, founder of Jack Mountain Bushcraft, once stated that the word primitive does not mean lesser; it means original. We need to go back to some of those original ways, lest they be forgotten or overrun for the sake of false simplicity.

Take the time to think about your life. Take the time to think about how you can become more self-sufficient. If you’re reading this blog, you obviously believe in self-sufficiency on some level. What can you do? Can you raise bees? Can you raise a few chickens? How about a few rabbits? I live on a half-acre in a 1,200 square foot house with three kids, a wife , a mother-in-law, a dog, 25 chickens, five rabbits and a garden. It is possible, folks. Live in a condo? Look into off-site options. That’s what we’re doing with the bees. Nothing feels more rewarding than looking over at the egg bowl on my kitchen table and knowing that I only have to walk twenty feet to get another egg. Chickens are really easy.

Make an effort and, in that effort, attempt to involve someone else. That is the only way that we will turn this freaky world around.

In the meantime, check out some videos. It’s better than thinking about work on a Monday morning, I can assure you of that.