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Apiary Chronicles is the podcast where the world of beekeeping comes alive. Hosted by Cal Hardage, this show explores the personal journeys, challenges, and triumphs of beekeepers from all walks of life. From backyard enthusiasts to commercial apiarists, each episode dives into the unique stories and invaluable insights that make beekeeping both an art and a science.
Discover tips on hive management, pollinator health, and honey production while learning about the dedication and passion behind each beekeeper’s journey. Whether you’re an experienced apiarist, a beginner, or just curious about the buzzing world of bees, Apiary Chronicles offers inspiration, education, and community.
Join us weekly as we celebrate the people and pollinators shaping a sustainable future, one hive at a time. Subscribe now and step into the world of Apiary Chronicles!
On today's episode, we
talk about getting started.
The high flow hive.
And Swarmed, the website for
reporting swarms and Catchings forms.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: So for the fast
five, first question, what's your name?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
My name is Matteo Kaiser.
I'm a beekeeper from
Mountain View, California.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: All right.
Do you, do you have a
name for your apiary?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Not really.
I guess we, we name our honey
mostly after the street we live on.
And so we call it our view street
honey.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, very good.
Very good.
And you said you're located
in Northern California.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
So nice mild climate for the
bees.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh yes.
Cal: Welcome to Apiary Chronicles, where
we dive deep into the world of beekeeping
and the people who make it all happen.
I'm Cal Hardage your host
and fellow bee enthusiast.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: And what
year did you start with bees?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: At
this point it's been four or five years.
I got started basically right at
the beginning of the pandemic.
Oh okay, yeah, and it's amazing that.
Um, The pandemic feels like just
yesterday, but when we start counting
how it was, it's been a little
Now I realize.
Yeah.
Yeah.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: And
how many colonies do you manage?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Right now in my small suburban
backyard, two and a half.
But the most I've ever
had, I think was 10, 12.
When I put that together with the bees
I had in my college had a bee garden at
home and and an apiary up at my college.
And so we had more space
and more bees there.
But I've got a couple of
neighbors who have bees as well.
And in our small backyard.
We have two, two hives and then a little
custom nucleus colony that I, that I built
myself that, that I try to run as just a,
just a five frame nuke which is doable in
California.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912:
oh very good, very good.
So Mateo, why bees?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
I got into the hobby pretty spontaneously.
It was not something
that I'd ever planned.
I, I grew up in suburbia, did
not think that this was something
that, that I could get into.
I, I think I, as far as beekeeping
was on my, on my radar, that was
sort of something that farmers did.
And, not, not something that,
that I would do in the suburbs.
And, and really got into it
coincidentally, and we, we
can talk about that as well.
I, what kept me with beekeeping
is, I think, the same thing
that a lot of people talk about,
right, is amazingly meditative.
I can't think of a pet that is as
low maintenance, as interesting
to talk about smells as good.
Produces as, as delicious and wonderful
byproducts as, as honeybees do.
And so I think I, I recommend
it to, to most people I talk to
I think is a really nice hobby.
And, and I'm a, I'm someone who's
all over the place working on
five different things at once.
And so the time when I'm most
focused and, and most relaxed
is, is when I'm beekeeping.
And I always enjoyed doing something
hands on, and I think beekeeping
is wonderfully tactile, right?
You can feel it, you can
taste it, you can smell it.
And, and so it is really nice to, to.
be doing that and it was nice to
get into during the pandemic and has
remained something that I really enjoy.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: You know, I
I never think about bees as, as pets.
I use, I come from a farm background.
I think livestock.
But that's one great thing
you bring up about them.
They're not, they don't
require your attention.
You don't have to feed them every day.
You don't have to go water them.
And that's, beekeeping really fits
my personality for that because
I get distracted and then I go
do this, then, then I'm off task.
But then when I can get to
the bee, or the apiary, I can
focus and really be in there.
And It's so, when you've got
bees flying around you, it feels
like it's just you and the bees.
No one else is out
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah, I
will say I don't think it's the same thing
as having a pet, but when I talk to people
who might, they usually have dogs and
cats and that's what they compare it
to, and, and they're, it compares very
favorably I think to, to how I can
travel, I can do all these things and,
and of course it's a little bit more
like shepherding the bees but I think is,
is, is of course take some work and take
some learning to do but it's saying that.
That I didn't realize that was something
that you could totally get into, right?
That wasn't as hard as you might think
or as obscure as you might think to get
into.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: I do, I do agree.
I like the analogy of a pet, because
that's something a lot of people can
associate with, they know immediately
what you're talking about then.
Yeah.
They're just not quite as warm and fuzzy.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Debatable, right?
I think some people like to get,
like to get up close and personal.
Yeah, I'd to really get in there.
But the, when I started out, I was
definitely full suit, pretty nervous.
Right.
Try not to get stung at all.
And, and I think pretty tense as well.
And then now It took a long
time for me to graduate to no
gloves and just to just avail.
Took a while, and the more I
do it, the more I enjoy getting
closer to the bees that way.
It gets more tactile, right, you can
feel the bees run over your hands,
right, I think is very special.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Right.
I completely agree.
When you got started with
bees, did you have a mentor?
Did you have a bee club you went to?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah,
so I'm a, I'm, well, now I'm a graduate
of a master beekeeper program, but
originally was, was a graduate of YouTube
University.
had, right, got started during
the pandemic and so there was
not really anyone to talk to in
person or work with in person.
But I had a lot of time on my hands.
Caught a swarm sort of spontaneously.
Just happened that a neighbor who had
bees without, was sheltering out of town.
I was just right at the beginning
of the pandemic when sort of
everything ground to a halt.
And so I grabbed, grabbed that swarm,
brought him home in a cardboard
box, and started learning on YouTube
what to, what to do with him.
I had done some kind of preliminary
research, but really got, kind
of got thrown into the deep
end once this swarm appeared.
And so that's what got me started and
then had the time to watch hundreds
of hours of YouTube videos and, and
get, right, and kind of learn, follow
the questions into, into, into what,
what what I needed to know, right?
And so got started with that and now
have kind of moved towards more science
based beekeeping and, and getting kind
of more solid footing in, in some of the,
the theory here and some of the biology
here doing a master beekeeper course.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: With your YouTube
learning or YouTube university, were
there some channels that really stuck
out that you found really beneficial?
Yeah.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
Initially, I enjoyed the Flow Hive videos.
They make some really nice, pleasing to
watch videos, and really relaxing, and I
think they're very good at explaining how
this is something that you can get into.
But I think, when Flow Hive launched,
I think there was some criticism
that they made it seem too easy.
But I think I do think they've,
they've made up for a lot of that
with the really, really rigorous
educational content they put out.
Right, I don't know how many hundreds of
videos they've produced at this point.
To me it was more than just the attitude,
like the idea that this was something
that I as a beginner could learn, right?
That there's no wrong, that you're not,
that there's no barrier to entry that
can't be, that can't be surmounted.
And so I started there and then
got into some of the more niche
beekeeping YouTubers, Cayman
Reynolds a lot of Fred Dunn.
And so, yeah, there's a
couple other channels.
Got more and more into it, right,
and getting towards some of the
more niche questions, right?
First, you're just trying to learn.
How do you do an inspection?
And then after you're looking at
niche, different might treatments.
And that's one of the things
that I really enjoy, right.
Is I think for me, any good hobby,
there have to be gadgets and there
have to be sort of infinite amount
of information to learn, right.
You have to be able to keep going deeper.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Right.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
I think beekeeping satisfies
both those things really well.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Right,
I agree because you can really go
really deep with beekeeping, like,
like you're going probably with
your master's beekeeping course.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: There's
a rabbit hole, and you can keep going
down it, and I think that's really nice.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah.
Yeah.
When you brought that first set of
bees home, did you have any equipment?
Did you borrow some equipment?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, actually, lo and behold we had
a beehive sitting in the basement,
and I think this is something that
happens to a lot of people, or at
least happened to a lot of people when
the Flow Hive Kickstarter came out.
My dad saw that and thought, wow, that's
cool, And bought the Flow The original
Flow Hive from the Kickstarter, and
then it sat in our basement for a year
or two, right, then we kind of realized,
well, you actually, it's not just honey
on tap, or you have to, you actually
do have to, to get into this, and life
happens, right, you don't have the time
to get into it, and then when life slowed
down in the pandemic, it, it, There
was the time to, to really get into it.
And so had been, actually been
working at my university with,
with a group of students who wanted
to, wanted to get BS on campus.
And so we, we were doing some of the
re the research there and, and trying
to figure out how are we gonna do this?
And then right as we were gonna
pull the trigger in spring, we all
got sent home for the pandemic and.
I was sitting at home with some
preliminary knowledge, a beehive in
the basement that was not being used
and then all of a sudden the swarm came
along, right, and then did have the
basic equipment to, to get started, yeah.
So I was very lucky that some of the
building blocks were already in place
there even though the start was very
spontaneous.
Right.
So, what, what'd you do to get started?
that, um, swarmed and you got
them hived in that flow hive.
What was your next step?
Yeah, I had done my research and, on
what, on watching these videos about
what you do when you catch a swarm and
so I dove right in with, with my first
mite treatment, doing an oxalic acid
dribble, Right over the swarm where
they have done a brood and so it was a
good time to do the oxalic acid dribble.
And then honestly I had my first sort of
beekeeper wake up lesson, when the next
morning there were what to me at least
seemed like a lot of dead bees up front.
Right, and I a lot of beekeepers
report that, right, like oxalic
acid can be pretty tough.
And so, What I thought was a ton of
dead bees out front and I actually think
the bees actually did end up replacing
their queen, and so something didn't go
quite well with the Oxalic Acid Dribble,
and so my fur immediately right off
the get go, sort of a bit of a stumble.
But then of course the, a week later,
seeing the beautiful starts of the
comb being drawn out there were,
it was working and then the bees
rallied and, and it, it worked out.
I think the, queen did lay some
eggs before, before dying or before
managing or being superseded.
I, I think at the time was not in a
place to know what was exactly going
on there.
But so it got off to a bumpy start.
But.
Bees do well in California and we had a
nice spring and of course I had the time
to, to sit there, watch the bees for
hours on end, and think up questions,
right, look up answers to my questions,
and, and probably over, be, be overly
attentive to what was going on in my hive.
When did you expand beyond that one hive?
Yeah, probably a combination
of when my family got used to
having the bees in the backyard.
I think at first was a little bit, there
was a little bit of reluctance to have 60,
000 honeybees in our, in our
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yeah.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: But
then now they're a right now they're
a much beloved part of our house or
our garden, but I think at the time
getting two colonies seemed unthinkable,
but pretty quickly realized that
actually two colonies is the way to go.
At least two colonies, right,
is the best way to start.
Because otherwise you have no,
you have no comparison, right?
You have no reference.
And so now we always try to
have at least a small backyard.
And so, and like I said, there's a couple
of other beekeepers in the neighborhood.
And so I don't want to have too
many bees and kind of overload our,
our local, our local ecosystem.
But I think two colonies is nice.
And, and now that I'm not home so often
and my parents are taking care of the
bees there, I think, yeah, works, works
nice to have two colonies, and, and right,
you're able to move resources from one
colony to the next, and, and use them to
support one another, and also to compare,
right, where, where each colony should be.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yes.
Yeah.
With having, uh, bees in
your in, uh, Suburbia.
Did you run into some issues?
Was there any regulations
you had to be aware of?
Did you have any concerns from neighbors?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, to be honest, there were
Well, I guess we didn't really tell
the neighbors when we got started.
It was sort of a ask for
forgiveness, not permission, right?
I think, I, I, I see this a lot
from beekeepers when this gets
talked about in forums, right?
Like, should I tell my neighbors?
And, and, it seems to be a lot of times
the consensus is if they're, if you
don't think they're going to notice
on their own, no need to tell them.
Or, tell them when you bring them
a glass of honey a couple months
later.
Right, and break the news,
break the news to them that way.
My city had some local ordinances
around placing the hive away
from the property line, but other
than that, there were no rules.
And so, place the hive in kind of a
corner, we even faced it, I think this is
a little trick that sometimes is useful.
We originally faced the bees towards the
fence, and so the, the, the, the entrance
was facing the fence, right, which of
course pushes the bees to fly up much
faster and so we have the kind of a
narrow backyard, and so we didn't want to
have this sort of swath of bees flying,
right, that kind of, the bee highway
going in and out of the hive, having
that go across our whole garden but after
the first year, we actually turned the
hive around because it's, it's so much
more fun to watch the bees come in and
out, right, And, and now that we're
Now that we're used to them and
now that we like having them in
the garden and, and, and know that
they're a nice cherished part of
the garden we haven't turned around.
But originally we tried to kind of push
them into a smaller space by having them
facing the fence.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh,
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
so far no problems from neighbors
I think one neighbor's noticed,
the other neighbor hasn't noticed
and so everyone seems happy.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Well, yeah.
And that's the important part right there.
Everyone's happy.
It's going
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, exactly.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Now with your,
your first hive, you had that flow hive.
When you expanded, did you go
ahead and get another flow hive?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, I think we opted for like
the super basic Kickstarter
version,
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh,
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
That's not, that's not what
they have on their website now.
It was like the really
stripped down version, so it
was actually just three flow
frames, and so it was,
it was the bottom, right?
Every, all the hardware down below, I
think maybe was even from them, I think
we may have even bought that from someone
else was a totally normal eight frame brew
box and, and, and screen bottom board,
and we just dropped this flow hybrid.
I think they still sell a hybrid
model with just three frames.
And then on each side,
two regular frames for
honeycomb,
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh,
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: for
comb honey, or I think in the first
year, we harvested those frames and just
did the sort of, the scratch, scratch
method, right, of just scrape it all
out and then, and then run it through
a sieve, but now we harvest comb honey,
right, so now we still have, we still
have the flow hive and so we do three
frames of the flow hive honey, right,
and that goes in, in bottles or in jars,
and then the, the, I Yeah, four frames of
regular comb honey that I really enjoy at
least, and I think makes a nice gift too.
Right, doesn't get any
purer than comb honey.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah,
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, so I think it's a nice way to
balance, but I think we the rest of
the boxes were actually regular, yeah,
regular A frame boxes from our local
beekeeping store.
And so it was no problem,
no problem to expand there.
Although now in California, more
and more I'm realizing that single
brewed boxes is the way to go.
The bees do quite well with the single
brewed box rather than double deep.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: And is that
why you have double deep 8 frames?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah,
now I have an 8 frame and a 10 frame
but each run each running with a single
deep brood box with a super on top,
right?
And of course the flow super the flow
super is a deep super and the 10 frame
hive just has a regular medium super on
it, yeah.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yeah.
I remember the Flow Hive coming
out on Kickstarter and the
controversy that that caused.
They did look very fascinating
to me, but I've never had the
opportunity to mess with one.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: yeah.
You hear all sorts of things, I I
can say it's worked for me right?
I you hear stories about
it not working for people.
It's, it's worked great for me.
I, I had, I had one at,
at, at my home, right?
And a couple at the college apiary,
where there it was actually really
cool to be able to share this
with, with more people, right?
Because you make honey harvesting
so much more exciting, right?
We'd have a hundred people come
out to watch us harvest honey.
And there it actually is the sort of
fun novelty to pass pieces of, right,
crackers under the stream of honey and
pass them on to people to try the honey
literally straight from the hive, right?
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yes.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Of
course, some of the criticism about
kind of honey on tap I, I think probably
merited, but I think they've definitely
made up for that with the amount of
educational work they've done now.
And I can, right, I say this as
someone who is, you know, Sort of
drawn into the hobby by the glitzy
Kickstarter video as well, right?
Like
I watched this video and thought,
holy crap, this is something
that I could do.
Right.
And so some people I'm sure watch the
video by the Flow Hive and leave it
in their basement and never use it.
But ours came out of the basement and
is now, now turn into a whole thing.
Right.
And so I'm very grateful to, to.
Some of those are
trailblazing that they've done
there.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yes,
sometimes those, those new ideas
or new Um, I can't even think of
the one with the idea Hive, maybe.
I'm, I may have that wrong.
I know Fred Dunn was talking
about it, that he's getting one.
Sometimes those things are,
the old established beekeepers
are like, this is another fad.
But, it draws people in, because hey,
and um, and then if you, that sparks
your interest and you follow it,
and then you're able to build your
knowledge, that's not a bad deal.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
I mean, Flowhive, I think is
celebrating their 10th anniversary this
year.
And so they've been around
for a while now, too, right?
I think we all remember the Kickstarter,
but they've been around for quite a
while now and have sold a lot of these.
I don't remember the exact same
number, but they've sold quite a few
of these hives and built a, I think,
a pretty cool community of beekeepers,
a lot of new beekeepers, right?
After now, after 10 years, Some of
these are pretty seasoned beekeepers,
right, but were brought into the hobby.
So they sort of spawned this new
community, which I think is very exciting.
But of course I see a lot of
the criticism out there as well.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, what's that?
You know, you talk to 10
beekeepers, you get 12 opinions.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah.
Now, you said, I think you said you've got
two and a half hives or colonies in your
backyard.
You've got also a nuc you manage.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
Yeah, I like to tinker.
And I've been reading a little
bit about managing nucleus
colonies in a nucleus year round.
I was curious to try that out and
wasn't trying to get a whole new
hive, was catching some swarms.
I usually give away the swarms
that I catch to other beekeepers,
right, since I'm not trying to
grow my, my apiary too much.
But had a small swarm that was sort
of raising back to health in the,
in the little hive, and wanted to
try out some interesting stuff.
And so I, I Drew inspiration from a
couple of different tools out there.
I read some interesting stuff
about Hardwood right using using
rough edge planks that have a
rough texture.
So the honeybees put way
more propolis in there.
Exactly Yeah, so they're putting
in way more propolis the hive So I
took some old fence boards and kind
of roughed them up and put them in
there as the inside wall What else?
Yeah, I wanted to try building a built
in feeder And so it's got sort of a, the
nuke is kind of extra long and has a,
a little feeder tank built in the back.
It's got a nice little copper slanted
roof, which I wasn't saying that I, I
saw on the market to buy and so kind of
made it, right, it's all, it's sitting
in my, it's sitting in my backyard
and so I wanted it to look nice.
The, the entrance is actually a copper
I want to say it's like a irrigation
gasket, like it's a little It's a, it's
an attachment for a hose that I bought
at the hardware store that makes, it's
nice and hexagonal shape, so it's a
nice little hexagon, round opening
for the bees to come in and out of so
it's, a lot of it's aesthetic, it's
got a little, actually, it's got some
succulents growing on the wall on the
side now too, so it's a whole thing
the last thing I think I built in too
was, Oh, actually, I'll mention two
more things, because I really went
down the rabbit hole with this one.
There's a copper wire stretched
across, it's a very fine copper wire,
where I was drawing from the Bee Gym.
I don't know if you've seen that product,
that it's been out there for a while now.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: I
am not familiar with that.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, when I first saw it, I almost
laughed to myself, a Bee Gym?
What, like, what is that supposed to be?
And I have no idea if it
honestly really works but it
seemed cool, and I bought one.
It's a little plastic thing that goes
on top of a It goes on top of a screened
bottom board and it has some, it has
some wires and it has some little plastic
flippers and the idea is that the bees
can, it encourages hygienic behavior in
the bees, that they're able to scrape
mites off of themselves and they show a
video actually where, they have a video
where a bee actually scrapes a mite off
of itself using one of these flippers,
right, so the bees are able to kind of
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yes.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: and so,
I was curious if that actually worked, and
well, I thought, well, I can, I can build
this in, no problem, and so there's some
little wires and little things, basically,
for the bees to scratch themselves on to
basically pop mites off, and then they
fall through this green bottom board out
of the hive, onto a sticky board and so
that's one thing, and then the last really
obscure thing that I built into this, is
I read a article that pseudoscorpions,
These tiny little insects are actually
predi they prey on varroa mites.
There was one, one academic article
on this, that, that they could
serve as bio as like a biological
control method.
And so I did some, did a little bit
of research dove into some communities
of people who actually raise these.
These look, they look like
scorpions, but they're tiny.
And occur basically everywhere
and try to build a way for them
to sort of also live in the hive.
And, saw some interesting resources
around, so I actually did a little
cardboard stack, a little of
basically pieces of cardboard.
And they go and they live in the
grooves there right where the bees can't
access them, and the, the, scorpions
are technically able to live in there.
Who knows if any do in my hive, but In
the research, they were talking about
how old fashioned straw skep hives that
had way more crevices provided habitat
space for these, these chelophers,
those, I think the Latin name but these
pseudoscorpions to live in these grooves
and kind of coexist with the honeybees
and actually prey on varroa mites.
And so.
I did a little bit of reading about
that, wanted to try it out, and so I
have this little, little nucleus colony.
So you probably got more than
you bargained for asking about
that, but it was a little test, a
little press, test project for me
there.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: those are great.
Now, did you purchase some
pseudoscorpions to put in there?
Or is the thought that they'll
find it on their own?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
you know, I wanted to couldn't find
any and, like, I, I don't know,
I, there may be laws here about
not shipping them, I don't know.
I think there's also not a huge market
for them, but there's an enthusiastic
online community of people who, who
catch these, and so, um, actually I've
seen them, since this project, I've seen
them more and more often when I garden.
I've started
noticing them right now that
I know what to look for.
But at the time, I just took my
cardboard, got a bunch of leaf litter,
and kind of let the leaf litter and the
cardboard sit together for a couple days.
With the idea that there are
maybe pseudoscorpions in the leaf
litter, and they may be moving
to my cardboard, and when I move
the cardboard back into the hive,
they'll be there.
I'm not vouching that this is
proven or tested, but this is a
little, little project for me.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912:
That's very interesting.
Um, And you mentioned two things
there, the pseudoscorpions and the
BGM that I'm not familiar with.
You know, I mentioned earlier, I
think before we were talking about it,
how beekeeping sometimes it's on the
background, sometimes on the forefront.
To be honest, I have not really focused
on my apiaries since the pandemic started.
Really, some other focuses there and
the bees have And, um, with mimmel.
Interaction with me.
But also when I return I'm
looking at catalogs and stuff.
I'm just shocked by how much things
have changed in the last five years.
Just new products out there that
I'd never seen before and this bee
gym is one of those I'd never seen.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
That's one of the things that I enjoy
writing in, and I'm sure there's
plenty of gimmicks out there but I
think for a good hobby, there have
to be fun gadgets to try out too.
And so I enjoy trying out all sorts of
different things, and, and testing new
tools, right, so I've, I've Whenever
I travel, I always try to look for
the beekeeping store wherever I am.
And so I visited beekeeping stores in
Croatia, in Bosnia, in Bulgaria, talked
to beekeepers there, found really
interesting different tools that they,
right, like different tools that they
use and brought those home with me.
And so I, I like the, I like
to collect different beekeeping
tools little gadgets there.
And there's, like you
mentioned, there's all kinds
of different stuff.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh yes.
Yeah.
Being able to talk to some beekeepers
from other countries, what's been
something you've brought back home
that you thought I've got to do
or or it's improved your practice?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, you know, to be honest, I
haven't used it yet, but it is sitting
on the shelf waiting to be used.
It is a queen isolator.
And actually, I, I, I learned
about this in Croatia.
Brought it back to the U.
S.
and wrote up, and they gave me this
whole instruction sheet in Croatian.
And so went about translating it.
Of course, a lot of the kind of
technical language didn't translate
well, and so did a lot of the
kind of hand translation there.
And posted that and shared it with
some beekeepers and I actually heard
back from beekeepers that this is
something that some people in the U.
S.
are familiar with, but that
I had never seen in the U.
S.
it's usually metal, but this is a plastic
box basically a bit of queen excluder
mesh that fits around two frames and so
you can, what you do is you constrain the
queen to just two frames, right, so she's
laying all of her brood in just two frames
of the hive and then the idea is, and you
could also maybe, and they talked about
also maybe doing this with drone frames.
The idea being that the queen would then
lay all of her eggs there, all the mites
move into the brood on those two frames.
And then you, you then release the queen
again, and then you throw out the two
frames that are now mite bombs, right?
That you, you give them to your chickens
or whatever and get rid of those two
frames and do some rotations like that.
Variations of this technique,
it turns out, are used in the U.
S., but I came across this for the
first time meeting these, these Croatian
beekeepers who were super excited to
show me this technique that I guess
is very, very popular in Croatia.
And is an interesting one for a
treatment free approach, right?
You're sort of doing a brood break
while still allowing the queen to lay.
Yeah.
Haven't tried it yet, but it's on
my to do list to give it a try.
Maybe this spring.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Actually, as
you're describing it, I'm thinking,
Oh, I've got a metal one in my box
of beekeeping stuff I haven't I,
um, heard someone talk about it,
I'm assuming at the big bee buzz
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: You
see them at the conferences sometimes.
Yeah.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah.
and I bought at least one, I just
saw it the other day and thought,
Oh yeah, what was I doing with that?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, I've been seeing Since I
learned about it, I've been seeing
them more and more often, yeah.
But to me, at the time,
it was totally new.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah.
Now you mentioned earlier, you got
your start because of a swarm, and
then I think you mentioned a little
bit later, you catch some swarms and
you give them away because your apiary
is the size you want for right now.
Do you do a lot of swarm catching?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
You know, not as much as I'd like to.
I really enjoy catching swarms.
It's how I got into the hobby, but it's
also super fun to meet people, right?
I think for people who report a
swarm, they've usually never had
this happen to them before, right?
So this is a really exciting moment
Talk to people about bees, right?
I think most beekeepers like to talk to
people about bees and so I'm always
very excited to, to go out and help
someone pick up the bees, get them myself
and talk to them about the bees, right?
And, and what's going on here since
usually they have no clue and I like
that it's always different, right?
Like the, you don't catch the same
swarm twice, it's always a different
challenge in some way, and, and always
pretty magical and very interesting
to, to tackle each challenge.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: It is,
and catching swarms will sometimes
draw a crowd, like you said.
People are
interested in it, and um, fascinated
by it, and a lot of times it's
their first experience with it.
Do you have like a swarm kit you have
in your car so you're ready to go?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
yeah, yeah, so I've got one
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: what's in it?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
yeah, so I've got one of those five
gallon buckets, right, that sits in
the, sits in the trunk all spring.
What's in it?
Yeah, bee suit, gloves, pre loaded smoker.
One thing that I just started
this year is, is making sort
of pre prepared smoker loads.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh yeah,
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: right,
so I use pine needles in my smoker dry
pine needles, but of course, there's a
major breakthrough for me to realize that
I could just, you know, Pre wrapped, I
could wrap them in some twine, right,
and make this sort of perfect bundle.
They just pop into the smoker and
go and I don't know why I haven't
seen that before more often Or I
don't why I didn't come across that
earlier So I pre loaded smoker.
Yeah, bee brush.
My number one tool is New thing I got
from China Ordered it on Aliexpress
or something because I don't see
any vendors in the US that sell this
But it is a pretty great tool is my
extension pole swarm catching net.
And so it's a Yeah, so it's a it's a
canvas bag right on a on a little little
metal arm And so when I pull on the
string the bag shuts and catches the bees
And put that to good use this spring.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: oh yeah.
Sounds interesting.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah
worked I bought it to see if it was if
it worked or if it was bad quality and
wouldn't work And the canvas is a little
flimsy, but overall works really well,
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh yeah, that's
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: So
now yeah, so now I'm able to reach
swarms right 20 30 feet up without
without a ladder, which is pretty
sweet
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912:
Oh, that would be.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cause getting that ladder and carrying
equipment up a ladder is never any fun.
Or maybe going up's not
as bad as going down.
I don't know which it is yet.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, yeah.
And, and, yeah.
So it's nice to use I think in precarious
situations it has saved my butt and so
it's a nice tool to have in the arsenal.
I've thought of some
ways to improve it too.
The one thing is that bees stick to
canvas, like the bees really hold on.
And so honestly something like
a garbage bag would probably
work even better, right, that
the bees can't grip
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh yes.
Yeah.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: I could
just strap a garbage bag in there rather
than this, this sort of nice looking
canvas bag might work even better.
But it's a nice tool and, and I
wish there were better versions of
it available, available in the us.
Right.
So I, I kind of risked it and waited
a month for it to derive from, from,
from China and turned out fine, but,
but would've liked to have a better
version out there.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh Yeah.
Yeah.
Mateo, before we move to our beyond the
buzz section, let's just talk a little
bit about the future for your apiary.
Where do you see it going?
Are you thinking it stays
just that little backyard?
Would you like to grow it some?
What's your plans for the future?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
I'm at a, I'm at a point in my
life where I'm moving around a lot.
I, I, I travel a lot for work.
And so more and more of the bees are
a little bit in the care of my parents
who have been dragooned into the hobby
now, so they are also now beekeepers.
But right, and we spend so many
hours talking about bees over
dinner that they've long since
become beekeepers anyways.
But are now taking care
of the bees quite often.
Once I settle down more
permanently somewhere else,
there'll definitely be bees again.
Now, basically, wherever I am, I
work with beekeepers as I go, right?
So I volunteer at a local botanical
garden with their bees so do all kinds of
different things to, to stay close to the
hobby, even though I travel around quite a
lot.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah,
yeah, travel does make that a little
bit tougher, but that's a great
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
It's not super portable,
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: in touch
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: the big
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: to beekeepers
there or volunteer where you can.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Mm hmm.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Mateo, let's
switch gears just a little bit and go
to our Beyond the Buzz, and we're going
to talk about your Beeswarmed website.
And first off, tell us just a
little bit about it, and then
we'll dive into why you created it.
So what is Beeswarmed?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: yeah,
so Swarmed is a tool for beekeepers
to hear about swarms faster, right?
So I spend my spring collecting swarms
and spend a lot of time refreshing
Facebook, refreshing Nextdoor.
Waiting for someone to post about a
swarm, And trying to see, trying to make
sure I catch them fast enough, right,
before they call the exterminator,
before the bees move on, whatever
trying to make sure that I'm quick
enough and is, is, is quite a drag.
And I think there's so much to be
improved here, especially in how
associations manage swarm lists, right?
I think this is one of the few
places that you still see phone book
directories.
And so as I was testing this out, I
actually, I, I called my local associate,
I went to my local association swarm list
and just called my way through the list.
As if I was going to report a
swarm right to see who answered
and I'd say half the numbers.
Nobody picked up of those.
Another half was were disconnected.
Anyways of the beekeepers
actually did reach right where
they're busy too far away.
No interest.
And when you do reach a beekeeper,
they always they always ask
the same questions, right?
And so.
What I built Swarm to do is that
the public can go to a website that
is, that they're finding in the
right places on the internet, right,
because I think most people, when
they see a swarm, they're Googling, be
swarm, what do I do, right, be swarm
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh yeah.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
swarm removal, that sort of thing.
And so making sure that
they're finding the website.
in that kind of critical moment
where they're scrambling for a
solution to this, at least what
seems to them as like a crisis,
Right.
When people see a bee swarm, I think
a lot of times they, they, this, this
sort of panicky element and I can't
tell you how many odd times I've
gone to a pick up a swarm and the
first person who was there was the
police, right?
They called the police first
and the policeman says, what
am I supposed to do about this?
And leaves, right?
And it's wasting public resources.
And of course, if you call the
exterminator, they're paying money
for that and we're losing the bees.
And so you want to be reaching
a beekeeper, but reaching a
beekeeper is not that easy.
And, and it is, So there's no place
to go to find a beekeeper reliably.
And so the way the system works
is they report a swarm, they
answer the kind of questions that
you want to know as a beekeeper.
How high, how high up are the bees?
How long have they been there?
Submit a photo, and then that notification
gets sent out via text or email to all
the nearby beekeepers who are signed up.
And the first beekeeper to respond then
is able to claim the swarm, get the
phone number, and get the exact address.
Right, so you see, like, there's a
swarm two miles away, but then you
get the exact address, you're able to
go, right, that way too, that you're
not wasting your time going to a swarm
that another beekeeper's already to.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh yeah.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
more densely populated areas
that happens quite often.
And so you're going there and you're
able to respond really quickly.
And so in a lot of areas now,
at this point, I can't get
swarms to my own website because
other beekeepers beat me to it.
And so this is working really, really
quickly, which I think is what the
public wants in this situation, right?
They want to hear from a beekeeper
quickly, be able to help guide them
through that situation, and of course
the beekeeper wants to be there quickly
so they can get the bees before they
move on.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Right,
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
there's sort of a win win here.
And so, yeah.
Had this idea for how this could work
and put it together into a website
to see if there was any traction,
if anyone would want to use this.
And that's gotten a
surprising amount of traction.
And so now we're entering our second
spring of, of running this and it's
grown and grown into what is now
probably the largest database of
beekeepers, catching swarms in the
us
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yeah.
So, how many swarms were
caught on it last year?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, I'd say close to thousand 500.
Around, yeah, I'd say about 1,500.
And so.
We're seeing swarms all across the
US and one of the things that I was
really happy with is the number of
swarms that found a beekeeper, right?
Of course, there's there's still
sometimes as someone will report a
swarm and the system won't find anyone
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yeah.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
And so I was very happy that pretty
quickly We were usually able to
find a beekeeper for someone even
in yeah all across the US, right?
It's not that easy to quickly put
together a network of beekeepers large
enough Right now we've thousands of
beekeepers signed up who are able
to respond wherever you are, right?
And so they're they're help nearby
or at least within 20 miles of
you, Able to respond.
Yeah.
So I keep close eye on basically where
are swarms being reported and not
being claimed by beekeeper, right?
So that means that we need to find more
beekeepers in that area and then I go and
I reach out to the beekeepers associations
in that area, try to see if I can get
some more people, right, spread the word
there and get some more people on and
that way we're able to ensure pretty
good coverage pretty quickly, right?
Since otherwise it would have
taken a long time to build up the
kind of coverage to make this a
workable system.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yes.
Yeah.
So, when a person goes on there, I
just pulled it up on the screen here.
They enter their address, size of it,
where's the swarm located, how high
it is from the ground, duration, how
long it's been there, and additional
information, and then, you know, include
a photo, which I love the photo aspect
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah,
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: so often
you Not so often, but occasionally
you go out and it's living inside
the trunk of the tree, and that's
different than a swarm out on a limb.
Those are big changes.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
And of course there it's a
lot of times the beekeeper is
the best person to judge that.
It's hard to expect from the public that
they're able to differentiate between a
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Right.
Right.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
There are some ways, for example, if you
type in, if you select that the swarm has
been there for a week or more, a little
notification pops up saying, hey, look,
this is probably a removal, not a swarm.
We'll try to find your beekeeper.
This may cost you, right?
This is a service that beekeepers
tend to charge for, right?
Basically just saying this is not the same
thing as a swarm, since especially in the
fall we do get a fair amount of removals.
And so has turned into right
for beekeepers who do removals
as part of their business has
turned into a useful resource for
them as well.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912:
Oh yeah, I could see that.
Now, I think you mentioned this a little
bit, you know, someone finds a swarm, or
sees a swarm, they're a little panicked.
That's typically the way they react.
Then if they um, is that the way
most of your traffic's coming?
They do a search, swarm in tree, or
bees in trees, and they're able to find
your website from those search results.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: I'd say
about half the traffic comes from that.
The other half comes through partners.
And so for example, the pollinator
partnership, I think the, the largest
pollinator protection nonprofit
in North America use this on their
website, in their B Resources page.
And so of course they own, they own
the domain pollinator.org, right?
And so that domain is, is
way up there and the Google
results.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh,
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
And so a lot of people are
finding it that way, right?
And so, do partners, and a
lot of places do associations.
Because of course, if you type in bee
removal in Oklahoma or near me, right,
Google is giving you the, the really,
the, the geographically proximate results.
And so by working with
regional associations we're
able to get that information.
Be there where the person's actually
responding and, and basically be there
in those, when they're, when they're
looking up when they're looking for help
online, making sure that they find it,
that, that way that they're, that they're
either coming to us through the website
itself or through a partner organization.
Some people just link the URL or other
associations who we work more closely with
actually embed the form directly in their
website, and so it has their logo on it.
It looks like it's built perfectly into
their website, but it's actually our
system running the back end and sending
notifications out to their members.
Some associations will choose to limit
that to just their members, right?
If it's reported through that
association's website, it's staying
with just their members, and
the swarm is staying with them.
But other people like the Pollinator
Partnership, they're sending that out
to beekeepers across the US, right?
So they don't have beekeeper
members per se, right?
But they're they're doing they're
working to protect honeybees And so
they send out those swarm reports to
anyone across the US who's able to
pick those up.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yeah.
And, just to clarify, I think you
explained well, but, uh, Association, if
they only, if they want the SORM reports
that's gone through them to only be sent
to their members, they're able to do
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, exactly And a lot of the
growth of the project came from
feedback from beekeepers, right?
These are things that I wasn't
thinking about when I built this,
but then I had associations reach out.
I think that feature came from the
Sacramento beekeepers, who at least they
claim to be the swarm capital of the U.
S.
with over a thousand swarms and so they
are using the system this spring and
One of the key things there is that they
were, they were like, they were saying,
well, if we're putting this on our website
there's a reputational risk for us, right?
We're vouching for the beekeepers
who are responding here.
And so we want to be, Sure,
that we're providing a really
good service to our community.
And so we wanted to be
just our beekeepers.
And so they, I asked for a suggested
donation for that sort of thing.
Since at that point, you're right,
that association is really benefiting
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yeah.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
from this.
And of course, I need to be able
to pay for this in some way.
And so, Sure.
They're able to restrict
that to just their members.
And the interesting thing there too, and
this is now something that I'm working
on for next spring, is we're pulling in
all this interesting data too, right,
about, about where are storms being
reported the weather conditions, who's
catching them, how fast, that sort of
thing, and so putting together some
interesting dashboard for associations
has been one of the things that I've
been working on now over the winter.
When things are calmer.
So now we're looking at, well, can
we actually predict when a swarm is
going to happen or can we predict where
a swarm is going to happen, right?
So I've had beekeepers who are interested
in placing swarm traps based on where
swarms are reported historically, right?
So if you can say, well, this is
sort of a hotspot in my area in
this kind of neighborhood, right?
Then maybe you want to put up a swarm
trap there and catch the swarms before
they settle in someone's chimney or before
they settle in someone's attic, right?
And so some interesting things to do here.
There's some interesting research
implications here too that I'm only just
scratching the surface on but really
trying to think too about like, there's
all this interesting data we're pulling
in about, about, about swarms and how
can we make that useful for beekeepers
to, to beekeep more efficiently or,
or more insightfully but also use that
potentially to, to support some honeybee
research.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yes.
It's a lot of interesting data being
pulled in there, like you said.
Now, this is free for the end user,
the consumer who's spotted a swarm.
Is it free for the beekeeper who's saying,
hey, yeah, I want to go get that swarm?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
So this is all powered by donations
in a small online store and so one
of the goals for this was to Have
it be a free community service.
And so this runs, yeah.
So I asked for a donation
when people report swarms.
And if it, if the swarm capture is
successful, I asked for a donation,
that sort of thing, but there's
no actual cost to using this.
And so far I've been able to cover the
cost of maintaining and improving the
service.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, yes.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
So there's been, I think for me,
it was a prerequisite for their.
to be enough community interest and enough
engagement and for people to actually
want this enough that it could sustain
itself through, through donations.
And also I sell a, on the online store
there's a I guess a check, like a hive
inspection checklist that the beekeepers
can buy a printed copy of and that also
helps to support the, the project exactly.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Now,
this is a little bit off the topic
of bees, but are you writing and
maintaining the code for the website?
Are you doing all that?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, actually at this point I have a,
I have a developer who's helped out.
I've had some beekeepers actually who've
also reached out and so I think the,
the sort of open source citizen science
approach is really interesting here.
And so some of the first data that
we got to, to, to sort of train some
of the, like, to, as we were trying
to see, well, can we actually predict
where peak, when peak swarm season will
be, for example, in a specific area?
Using some data from,
from iNaturalist, right?
Using citizen science data
to make those predictions.
And so that's something
that we're working on now.
But basically this is all
done by volunteers, right?
So when I first published this, or
when I first got this out there had
a lot of beekeepers reach out saying,
hey, look, I have some coding skills.
I think it's an interesting idea.
I want to be a part of this.
How can I help?
And so it's built by myself and a couple
of other beekeepers who pitched in to help
with their own expertise, since I do not
come from a computer science background.
And so I had to teach myself a lot
of the basics here, but I've had some
development help along the way as
well.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, very good.
Yeah, so, so for beekeepers out
there, they ought to go sign up for
it if they're interested in getting
Catching swarms.
If you want to just help support
the swarmed mission there, you can
go donate, or you can shop at your
store, which I've got it pulled up.
You've got a few things here,
like you said, your beekeeping
logbook, and colony tracker.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's some affiliate links
to, to the beekeeping products
that I think work the best and the
sort of swarm specific beekeeping
products that I think work well.
And yeah, those are some of the ways
that we keep this as sort of a free
community service for people, yeah.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: What
kind of growth have you seen?
And I know we're really early in the year.
I mean, the calendar just flipped, so you
don't really have good data on this yet.
But are you seeing a lot of interest
ramp up as we get closer to spring?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah,
I think the closer, right, and especially
once fall, kind of winterizing wrapped
up, right, beekeepers start to have a
lot of time on their hands and start
thinking about next season and so now has
been the time to, I've been working with
a lot of associations, right, pitching
them on, on how this can improve on, on
how they have their swarm set up right
now, how can this work better than a
traditional swarm list how can this.
Be a new incentive for members to join.
How can you be doing
exciting things with this?
And so I've been pitching this
to associations, getting this set
up, building the new dashboard.
This all takes, all takes a lot of time.
And so there's been plenty for me to
do over the winter, but now I've been
seeing too is, is more and more interest
of people as they start to think about
swarm season and to now in the next couple
months, I'll be shifting too towards less
development work and less kind of So,
I
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah.
And we kind of talked about that
supporting it, the coding, and
an important question I didn't
ask was, you know, it's free
for a beekeeper to sign up.
Then, are they just working from the
website and they get a push notification?
Is it an email notification?
Is it an app?
How are they notified there's a bee
swarm that's been reported in their area?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
wanted to be super fast.
And so, I'd say about 95 percent
of beekeepers opt to receive a
text.
And so you get a, when a swarm
is reported, you get a text
message with a link in it.
And when you click on that link,
it opens the swarm report, and then
you can actually claim that swarm.
Right, so it's two clicks, and
then you're able to claim it.
Building mobile apps is pretty
time consuming and a little
bit outside of my expertise.
And so, it would take a
lot more money, right?
I'd have to monetize this in some
way or crowdfund it in some way
to really be able to do that.
And so, this was the most efficient
and most affordable way to make a
really fast swarm reporting system.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah, I really
like the, the text delivery of the
notification as opposed to getting wrapped
up in all the other notifications I get.
And like you said, amp, amp,
amp, sorry, app development
is a whole different beast.
And
Yeah,
so I
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: I will
say I try to encourage email as well
since text messages cost me money, right?
Every time I send
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh,
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
message that cost money email is cheaper.
And so I try to do a little incentive
for beekeepers to get emails is that
if you, if you opt for an email, you
actually see the whole swarm report in the
email, right?
You see the photo, you see all the
information about it in the email.
With a text message, you actually have
to click on that link, right, since
I'm limited for how much I can put in a
text message.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: But
of course, text is the fastest way to
notify people, and I'd say about 95
percent of people will choose that.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: yeah, it is.
Of course, with email, you could
set up some alerts and stuff so that
when you get an email from this,
it shows right up on your screen.
Yeah, because like you said, the texts are
going to cost more money than your email.
Yeah, well, very good.
Mateo, I'm interested to
see how it goes this year.
I'm going to have to sign up
for and um, great job this year.
I'm
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
yeah, I hope I can get you some swarms.
Yeah, like I said, working hard
now too to make more of those
connections, get more, get to more
associations, get the word out there.
I think more and more as I gather steam,
right, this sort of thing takes some time
to get going, but I was, I was already
happy in the first year to get a couple
thousand beekeepers join, get a good
network going to be able to find swarms a
home quickly and as quickly as possible.
And I think now I'm looking to be able to
grow that as much as possible and spread
the word and, and have about a lot of
beekeepers really advocate for it, right?
And have beekeepers step in and, and
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh yeah,
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: A lot
of times the best recommendation you can
get or you can get from someone is when
they recommend it to a friend, right?
And so I'm very happy how many beekeepers
have brought in their friends or have
brought in their association, right?
And said, look, I've been using this and
I think we can, we can use this as well.
So I think that's been, that's been very
helpful.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah,
and it's just going to improve the
overall experience for everyone
involved the more people you have
because it's a critical mass thing
you've got to get a certain number of
people in there.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
So I'm working hard to grow what
we already have and make sure
to be able to make this really
successful for the spring.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Matea,
before we wrap up this and move
to Famous Four, is there anything
else you want to add about Swarmed?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, I think the number one thing
I would say is that, of course,
I encourage anyone to join.
Right.
Like we talked about it's,
it's free and I think.
It's something that most
beekeepers want, right?
I think most beekeepers are
interested in getting more bees.
I think, especially, right, I was just
reading this year's loss survey where the
University of Auburn is, is projecting
something like a 50 percent loss rate, and
so there are a lot of beekeepers out there
looking to add some more bees to their
colony, right, and, and, or their apiaries
and so this is one way to do that.
And of course I encourage
any associations too, right?
If they've been sitting on a kind of a
traditional phone directory style swarm
list, that there's, I think, a really
compelling way to do this and this does
not have to be super complicated, right?
I think a lot of times in building
this I was thinking about what's the
simplest, easiest way to do this that
makes this less of a headache, right?
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Right.
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
for associations to manage, less of a
headache for the public, for beekeepers
and so I think we've landed on a
pretty, pretty nifty solution here.
So I encourage associations
to reach out and we can talk
about how that works for them.
And a lot of times too, I'm happy to
do some sort of tailored solution.
I think a lot of associations
have different ideas for
how they want it to work.
And so I've been able to accommodate
some of those, some of the suggestions.
And a lot of the ideas from associations
too have now gone into the service, right,
have been sucked in and made it a better
tool.
Yeah.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yeah.
Wonderful, Matea.
It's time for us to shift gears and do
our famous four questions, same four
questions we ask of all of our guests.
Our first question, what is your favorite
beekeeping related book or resource?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
I pretty recently, or actually now
a couple of months ago, read Dr.
Sealy's Honeybee
Democracy.
See?
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh,
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Super
interesting book and other than Dr.
Celia, I've not seen a ton of really
concrete research and at least not
presented in as compelling as a way
that he does about swarms and, One of
the things that I really enjoy reading
about, about honeybee research is that so
many, so many, so many of the experiments
are so intensely practical right, like
they, they put together these really
ingenious experiments that you or I could
recreate in our backyards if we were,
if we were inspired to do so, and so
really interesting to see how he's gone
about testing and his, his hypotheses
about, about how swarms behave, building
on research from, I guess, now 80 years
ago I learned a lot about the history
of, of how we even figured out how
swarms coordinate what they do and, and,
and how they move through the world.
And it was really, really interesting
and, and added a lot of background
to my knowledge of swarms.
And I think had the sort of superficial
knowledge that every beekeeper has
about catching swarms, but now came
away from that book with some really,
really interesting, well, interesting
honeybee swarms are, are working.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Yes, his book's
a tremendous resource, books, um, and if
you're interested in swarms or catching
swarms, I think it's a required reading.
It is a great book.
Our second question, what's your
favorite tool for the apiary?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913: Yeah.
Well, I mentioned my, my swarm catching
Extension pool is a, is a, is a
consistent, or I guess a new favorite.
My five gallon swarm catching
bucket, also an, an, what is it, an
underdog in my beekeeping toolkit.
Let's see,
yeah, let's see, what else do I have?
Well, actually a big, I'm a big fan,
and this won't be super helpful to
people, because there's another tool
that I picked up overseas somewhere.
Is a plastic mite testing jar.
And it just sort of, it looks like a,
it looks like a protein shake maker.
Like, it's like a, two plastic
halves that you screw together.
And I've seen similar things but this
one's just made of really robust plastic.
And, right, so it's for doing an alcohol
wash or a sugar shake of your bees.
And testing, it's made of clear plastic,
and so you can see the mites really well.
It's actually, it's even
got spikes on one end.
And this is an interesting
thing that I hadn't come across.
It's got spikes on one end, so that
you can test the health of your bees.
By actually looking at the brood comb and
poking it with the spikes, so basically
damaging the cells in a specific area,
and then watching how the bees deal
with that, and how they clean that up.
And so using that as a tool, but I
mostly use it just for the mite checks.
Yeah, it's really high quality and
works, I think, really solidly.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh, very good.
A few wonderful tools there.
Our third question, mateo, our
third question is what would you
tell someone just getting started?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
I mean, other than that, this is
totally something you can get into.
If you, if you take the time and
are able to take the time to learn
it, this can be done on a budget.
This is, this is something that you
can get into with very little space.
I've seen beehives on people's balconies.
And that is totally doable.
I think the number one kind of concrete
piece of feedback I tell people is
get two hives right to start with.
Right.
I think that seems daunting.
But that's my biggest regret is not
starting with two hives Because there's
so much more to be learned when you're
able to compare between two different
colonies use resources from one to support
the other To me now that is a no brainer
But it wasn't something that I heard
often enough in the beekeeping videos
that I was watching when I got started
And I think is a very useful concrete
tip that I think I recommend everyone to
get
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Oh yeah.
Excellent advice there.
And Mateo, where can others
find out more about you?
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, probably the best place to go
is straight to the Swarmed website.
The guy who owns Swarmed.
org or Swarmed.
com wanted 10, 000 for it, so the
website can be found under Beswarmed.
org.
And so I would encourage
people to check that out.
There's a little bit of
information about me.
Mostly the important stuff is
about the website and the kind of
useful service that it offers to
beekeepers, and a little less about me.
cal_1_01-03-2025_150912: Well, very good.
Mateo, we appreciate you
coming on and sharing with us
mateo-kaiser_1_01-03-2025_220913:
Yeah, thanks for having me.
It was a pleasure.