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    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Default Mike palmer: The sustainable apiary

    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.


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    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    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?

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    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by prakel View Post
    Any of this sound like the sort of beekeeping that you pursue/wish to emulate?
    Oh yes!

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    Quote Originally Posted by prakel View Post
    -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.

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    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pete L View Post
    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.

  6. #6

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    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?

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by drumgerry View Post
    Pete - what fora does he post on?
    The main one with some very interesting posts is Beesource.

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by prakel View Post
    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.
    Last edited by Pete L; 28-02-2013 at 12:39 AM.

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    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Excellent news. Thanks for the heads-up.

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    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pete L View Post
    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.

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