Marc Hillen_mixdown === Brent (2): [00:00:00] So Mark, what kind of lines are popular in Norway? What kind of lines are bees? Marc: Uh, we have, uh, Buckfast, uh, we have, uh, uh, Canolian and we have the black bees and I had a questionnaire on Facebook for a couple of years ago. And I asked the bee keepers, what kind of bees do you want? And 75 percent of the, of the, uh, uh, honey producers who has a company, uh, 75 percent answered, we want Canolian. Marc: And, uh, a lot of hobbybee keeps keep, uh, Buckfast. And there's a small group, uh, that wants the black bees back to Norway. We have, uh, uh, uh, some areas in Norway where we have the black bees and they are [00:01:00] protected in those areas. But, uh, we had, uh, European faul brood for, uh, 14 years ago and it killed a lot of the good stock. Marc: So they are, they are struggling with, uh, getting back to good stock and nice kind bees. Brent (2): So what do you think the advantages of Carniolan over the Buckfast? There are in no way. Marc: I started with Buckfast a couple of years ago. And, uh, after a while, I, uh, wanted to try, uh, Canolian. And I had them at the same place. Marc: Uh, I wanted to collect heather honey. And that summer, it was terrible. It was, uh, 2018, 2018, and it was a dry season. And I had the Buckfast and the Canolian, uh, besides each other. And I was stunned because the canolian were empty for honey and the Buckfast had a lot of honey. And I asked my mentor, I don't understand this because the canolian supposed to be a good bee, but they are empty for honey, [00:02:00] but the Buckfast have honey. Marc: And he asked me, are you sure the canolian are not getting robbed by the Buckfast? And I drove up and I looked at the bees and studied a little bit. And I saw the Buckfast flying straight ahead into the, into the canolian hives and steal the honey. Really? Yes. And after a while, it, the honey flow stopped and I had to feed the bees. Marc: I put, uh, fondant on top of, uh, both the Buckfast and the Canolian. And after a couple of weeks, I came back. The Canolian ate about 100, 200 grams, almost nothing, while, uh, the Buckfast, uh, ate 2. 5 kilos. So they, they, they, they need a lot more food than carniolan and that's why I, uh, got, ucarniolannon. After that they eat less and they, they, they maintain themselves more. Brent (2): Mm-hmm . And listeners, uh, might remember what I did in episode with, uh, Willie Robson a couple of months ago. He said the same thing. He said that, uh, the Buckfast bee compared to his bee, which is a [00:03:00] a, a more native strain in England is Mm. Uh, they, they just. They just consume a lot more of the honey and of the sugar syrup and he said that you even have to feed them sometimes during flows. Brent (2): They're that demanding. Marc: Yeah. I, I suppose the, the Buckfast bees can be a good bee in warm, warm climates with a steady flow of honey or nectar. Absolutely. Brent (2): So Mark, you use mainly AI queens in your production colonies. Do you want to talk us through why you do that? Marc: Uh, like I told you, we have, uh, we have in the area where I live, there's no protected area, so everybody can choose their own bees, BFAs, black bees, or carniolan. Marc: And I try to mate, uh, my carniolan bees, uh, in my apris, but the, the results are terrible. Uh, angry bees, uh, uh, no, no study. Uh. Uh, how do I say it? Uh, the different, uh, there's a big [00:04:00] difference in the attitude and how they behave. And then, uh, I decided I wanted to learn, uh, instrument, uh, instrumental intonation because then I, uh, can choose my own drones from the Canolian and I will get a steady base with bees. Marc: And I can sell those, uh, uh, Canolian, uh, inseminated queens to other people so they can breed from those again. So they will have a clean, uh, clean stock of bees. That's, that's why I wanted to learn, uh, instrumental, instrumental insemination. Brent (2): Hmm. And that makes a lot of sense. Do you find that it's a very large time commitment? Marc: Yes, it is. And, uh, I mainly use my time, uh, to instrumental instrumentation. Uh, I, I noticed that the time I spent inside the forest with, uh, collecting honey is getting less and less and my intention, my Time is going more and more to instrumental instrumentation and making a good stock. Brent (2): Yeah. I was talking to some people [00:05:00] in the Philippines last year, and they were telling me because of this one particular bird they've got in the Philippines, it's called the blue bee eater. Brent (2): Um, The, the bead is they go and, and eat the queens when they're going out to mate and they eat the drones. And so the way that they solved their problem is by doing a hundred percent instrumentally inseminated, um, um, apiaries. So every production colony is in, in the apiary is in instrumentally inseminated queen. Brent (2): So it's that. Is that similar to, you know, what you're doing, the whole, the whole inseminated? Marc: Yes, yes, because it's, uh, it's too time consuming to get, uh, to mate them, uh, in a normal mating station. And, uh, the resource is, is different each time and, uh, you have no stable stock and I want to cut out, I want to, uh, Uh, jump over that, uh, bit of, uh, [00:06:00] mating. Marc: I don't want it because it's, I have to make a nukes and I have to put the queen in and the results are terrible anyway. Brent (2): Do you notice any difference in production, honey production from an instrumentally inseminated queen and an open mated queen, and I'm not talking about. the instrumental in Seminary Queen having better genetics, just in general, do you think that the bees perform any different? Marc: Not in honey production, but in, in, uh, in kindness they are. And, uh, if I look at the frames with brood, there's a lot of brood. They have brood from, uh, from one edge to the other edge. So they produce more brood. You get the more even results. Brent (2): Because there's some people that have the opinion that Open mated queens are a stronger queen than an instrumentally inseminated queen. Brent (2): Yeah, Marc: it's, it's not a difficult question, but it's [00:07:00] a difficult answer because, uh, Susan Colby had, uh, had, uh, research and, uh, she has proven that, uh, instrumental intimate the Queens, uh, as good as, uh, normal method, Queens may be better, but, uh, the difficulty is with introducing the, the Queens into the, to the hive or a nuke into the base. Brent (2): And that's, that leads me to my next question. So one of the things you do is you first introduce them into one of these small Polish mating cage, not mating cages, one of these small Polish instrumentally inseminated cages. Um, and for listeners, for listeners, I'll just explain what they look like. Brent (2): They're look like about the size of a large cigarette packet, I guess you could say, and they have a little, a little cartridge at the top that provides sugar syrup. And do you want to explain how those work, Rock? Marc: Um, the way I do it, you can do it in two different ways. [00:08:00] Uh, either you can put in a cell, a queen cell, and bees. Marc: Uh, bees from the same, same cell builder as the cells were in. You put the bees in, you put the cell in, and the cell hatches inside the cage. Uh, the, the bees will, uh, feed her. They look after her. And. After seven days you uh, use CO2. You take out the queen and inseminate and you put her back in the same cage. Marc: And they will look for her and feed her and clean her. And it's better for the, it's better for the ovary position. Uh, so the, the queen gets an ovary position and start laying eggs. And after 48 hours, I look if the queen's still alive. If she has no uh, Uh, infection, and then I put her in a small, uh, beehive, uh, with, uh, closed brood or not even with brood, only, uh, bees. Marc: And, uh, when she's starting laying [00:09:00] eggs and the bees are hatching, the new bees are hatching, you can, uh, put her in a bigger hive or you can put the, the, the same bees and the same queen in a bigger hive. So they, they get, they are used to her and start developing. So it's, you use those small cages to, uh, to protect her and kind and to have, uh, a bigger, uh, control with her in the first 30, 48 hours. Marc: So Brent (2): once again, the timeline is you take the cell out. At 14 days old, something like that. Marc: Yeah, I use an incubator. So, uh, I take them out after they are closed. I put them in incubator and then you can put them in the cage after, just before hatching, you can put her in a, in a small cage. Brent (2): Right. So you take, you take the, the cells out, um, after they're sealed, put them in the incubator and then on day 14, 15, you put them into the Polish, uh, AI cage with bees, with [00:10:00] bees from the cell builder. Brent (2): She hatches out. Then you take her for insemination, uh, and then after insemination, uh, she's back in there for 48 hours. And this whole process happens in your incubator? Marc: Yes. Brent (2): More or less. How do you find her in the cage? Marc: Uh, you, uh, seduce every, all the bees inside the cage. And I, after she hatch, uh, it, I used a little bit different, uh, uh, uh, met her this year, uh, because, uh, this year I let them hatch in the incubator. Marc: Yep. I mark the queen and put them in the cages. Brent (2): So when you say, so you use, um, carbon dioxide to, yeah, that makes sense. Really interesting. So that, that's the, the Polish method, isn't it? Marc: Yes. Some, some of the Polish people use them. Uh, there's a, I'm not sure about his name, but there's a Polish professor. Marc: He used this, um, he, [00:11:00] he uses it, them, right. Brent (2): And it was someone, someone in Poland that taught you how to use them, wasn't it? Marc: Yes. Yes. Yeah. Right. Brent (2): Really interesting. Marc: I went on an insemination course in Poland in 2022 and learned in my insemination in Poland. Brent (2): Excellent. So once you've, um, introduced them into a small hive, what do you think your acceptance rate is from that point onwards? Marc: Oh, it's difficult because, uh, two years ago I almost sold all of my queens because everybody was asking for the queens. So I had a few left myself. Uh, last year was terrible. Yeah. Uh, they killed a lot of queens. I don't know why, but, uh, on all the beekeepers complained about the same thing. They, uh, they made queens and they, and the bees killed them. Marc: Maybe it's the weather. I dunno. But last year I had a terrible acceptance. Uh, I probably have 20% left, uh, after this year. Not last year, but this year it was difficult. [00:12:00] Mm-hmm . So it's, it's terrible. Brent (2): So what percentage of queens that you. Um, instrumentally inseminate, make it through to, um, in a production colony. Marc: I'm not sure. I never measured, but, uh, you should have a 70, 80 percent rate. Brent (2): That's fairly high. Yeah. Yeah. Marc: Yeah. Yes. It is. So, but it's. Uh, the beginning of the process after she's intimidated and you put her inside a hive, that's the most difficult period. Uh, yes. So it's important that you have the right hive, uh, no open brood. Marc: It should be closed or no brood, uh, small colonies, uh, three frames. And yeah, you need a hive that you can expand. Um, I use, uh, some, uh, MiniPlus. I don't know if you, uh, know the system in, uh, Australia, but it's a six frame hive can put the divider inside. So, [00:13:00] yeah, so I can put three frames in with the divider. Marc: Um, Expand after, after a little while. Brent (2): Right. So you are not putting your instrumentally, inseminated queens directly into your production hives at all? No. Marc: I tried, but uh, I tried, but it's difficult. They kill her. Okay. If they can. The killer her. Right. And this year, this year she start, they started laying eggs. Marc: They kill the queen and make a new, uh, queen sets. So it's, uh, it has been difficult. Brent (2): Yeah. So if you need to requeen a production hive, do you have to break that hive down completely into smaller mutes? Marc: Right. Yeah. That makes sense. That's really interesting. Yeah. Because, uh, you know, if you have a normal mated queen, Instagram mated queen, if you have a production hive and the queen disappears after a while, sometimes they go, it goes one week, two weeks before you notice. Marc: And you have to put a new queen and the bees are all the angry, so it's very difficult to put a new queen in [00:14:00] anyway. No matter if she is necromated or inseminated, it's difficult. So it's, I think it's much better to make a small colony and build it up, build strength on it. Yeah. Brent (2): Yeah. I've heard that before. Brent (2): There's a few people that I know, instead of requeening their hives, they just, uh, create new nukes. Yes. Let the nuke build up over a season and then have two good production seasons and at the end of those two seasons, they'll then completely break that colony down into nukes again instead of requeening. Marc: Yeah, it's less work and it's, it's more satisfying. It's, uh, it's not so frustrating as putting a new queen in, inside the production hive because the acceptance rate is bad. You know, in Norway, we have a lot of bad weather. So if we get, uh, bad weather 14 days after I put in the queen, I'm sure they will kill her because, uh, uh, they are bored. Marc: They don't have any, uh, nectar flow. Uh, they are sitting inside the hive and they are bored. They will kill her. Killer. [00:15:00] So, it's less work if I make a lot of small nukes and build them up full strength. That's the reason I put the ring. So are you using five frame nukes? I use a mini plus, they are six frames. Marc: Oh, sorry. Yeah. You're using the mini plus for that. Six frames. Yeah, it's, uh, I think it's the one frame is the half of the length of the long straw frame. Yeah. So if you put two mini plus together, you have one in the long straw frame. So if you have six frames in one mini plus, you have about three, uh, long straw frames, complete long straw frames in size. Brent (2): Right. So if you're, if you're putting them into mini plus and you want to eventually build them up into a full colony, how do you go from mini plus to full frames? Marc: I can put that in a, in a, in a spring, I put a new hive with drone. com and I put all the bees, but I shake them in and give them some food. Marc: Yeah. Brent (2): Yeah. That makes sense. That's really interesting. Yeah. Fantastic. So how long, how long does it take you [00:16:00] to inseminate a queen? Marc: It's a difficult question, but, uh, what is insemination? Is it the whole process? Is it just inseminating the queen? If I just inseminate the queen, it's done in one minute. But, uh, there's some, there, there's some, uh, research and, uh, Wojka, it's, was a Polish professor. He wrote down everything and the whole process from, Uh, catching drones and, uh, collect semen in Smith Queen takes about 20 minutes. Brent (2): Yeah. Okay. So you, I suppose you would do a run of a, you know, a bunch at a time. And so in a, in a, in a session, how many would you do? Marc: Maybe 20, 25, something like that. Brent (2): Yeah. Yeah. That's in that. So how long would a session like that take? Marc: A couple of hours, I will guess. Uh, Yeah. Yes. It's a little bit, uh, you know, uh, the method they use in [00:17:00] Poland, they collect, uh, drones. Marc: They intimidate two Queens, they collect more drones, intimidate two Queens. Uh, the way I did it, uh, I collect a lot of drones. I collect a lot of semen, about 100 microliter, and it's enough for 10 Queens. And then I start collecting again. Brent (2): That's really interesting. Marc: Yeah, but the, there's a little bit of risk because if the semen is contaminated, you will contaminate 10 queens. Brent (2): Okay. Yes. Marc: Now the risk is low if you use a low batch, a small batch of semen. Uh, and if you use a big batch, then it's a bigger risk. Brent (2): Yeah. It's really interesting. You get Marc: some mucus inside the semen and then you have to start all over again. It's terrible. Brent (2): Right. So you're saying in Poland, they'll, they'll do two queens and then they run out to their Avery, a few more drones. Marc: They do it different ways. They have a big drone cages. They have small drone cages and they can collect a lot of drones with the nurse [00:18:00] bees. And then they, they can take a break for one hour if they want because the nurse bees are taking care of the drones. But if they use the small cages, you have to collect after 30, 40 minutes because the drones, uh, they are collapsing. Marc: They are, uh, they don't, they don't, uh, uh, they don't handle with stress. So 30, 40 minutes and they collapse if you don't, if you have the small cages. So you need to go outside again and collect new ones. Brent (2): Yeah. Interesting. Um, what type of equipment do you use? Marc: I have, uh, I don't know if you know the company Swinti. Brent (2): Yes. Yep. Marc: Yes. I, uh, the first instrument I bought was from Swinti. It was very expensive. And the reason I bought it is because, uh, uh, it has joysticks and you can rest your arms on the table. Uh, and I ins intimidated 12 Queens my first season, the first, uh, I went to Poland in 2022. Learned the insemination, came home and, uh, ins intimidated, uh, 12 or 13 queens. Marc: Uh, that was, that was the first [00:19:00] season, uh, the season after the first queen I ins intimidated and the instrument collapsed and got, got broke. The, during one of the joy six, uh, loosened, the glue loosened and the needle when inside the Queen and I had killer. And then I was sitting in my garden, I had about 100 queens in the incubator and I need some new equipment. Marc: So I bought myself, uh, uh, Slade equipment. Yeah. I called, I called Peter in Germany. I told him my problem and he sent a new one after two days. Brent (2): Okay. Yeah. Marc: It was good stuff. So I have two instruments. Brent (2): Yep. Okay. Excellent. Hmm. Yeah. I swear to you, they're, they're the company that make the Minipla Sunday. Marc: I don't think they make it, but they have, uh, probably a license to make them. Marc: Uh, you have different, uh, I bought mine in Belgium, Belgium. Uh, it's not a mark and you can buy them from 20 and, uh, uh, the son, the son, the Polish [00:20:00] company make them. And I like to use those because they have, uh, it's another kind of styrofoam. Uh, they have a standard, uh, divider board inside and you can buy them with the frames and you can buy them with, uh, and the feeder on top of it. Marc: And every, uh, it's, it's, uh, made like you can use, uh, three frames on one side or three frames on other sides without that the bees can contact you. So it's a good system. Brent (2): Yeah. That's really interesting. Well, so have you enjoyed the process for the last two years, um, switching to this method? Marc: Uh, I, I liked it. Marc: I like it because, uh, the last three years I had, uh, 2022, I went to Poland and I learned about it. Uh, 2020. 23, I went to Poland and this year, 2024, I had a small internship in the, the April in Poland where they breed a lot of queens. And, uh, I learn a lot of small tricks and, uh, small things that's important. Marc: And I try to, [00:21:00] uh, I try to do it the same way as they do because they make 35,000 queens in one season in four months. I know, uh, what they do work. I don't want to try anything else because they make it work. And I know I can make it work with the same system. So, but it's a, it's a lot of work. So whereabouts do you sell your queens back? Marc: Do you sell them through all of Europe? No, because, uh, Europe is difficult because we have, uh, rules. I can't sell them to, uh, Germany or Holland. If I'm not, uh, uh, I don't know if you know the system traces, uh, approved, you, you need to be traces approved. It's a system they have in Europe for tracking all the live animals, cow, sheeps, everything. Marc: So if I want to sell to Germany or Holland, I have to apply for a license and I don't have that license. I'm too small. I'm too small, so I sell my queens, uh, locally and the [00:22:00] rest of Norway, but, uh, like you talk on your program a lot about Varroa, we have, uh, several regions in Norway and I can't sell my queens. Marc: Uh, I have Varroa. I can't sell my queens from one region, uh, where I'm living to a region where they don't have Varroa. So it's, it's difficult. It's difficult whether I can sell way or not. So, uh, if I, if, if a customer ask me to sell him a queen, I have to go on a computer to look where do you live and what region do you live? Marc: Do I, am I allowed to sell to you or not? Brent (2): Right. So are there regions there that don't have varroa? Marc: Yeah. Yes. Yes. What are they? Islands. No, no, it's main, main country. But uh, uh, it's getting less and less. Also, the varroa is getting more and more, and the regions, uh, that are free for UA are getting less and less, so the varroa is expanding their territory. Brent (2): Right, okay. I understand. Yeah. Mm, yeah. Okay. [00:23:00] So, so how long has VARROA been in your particular region? Marc: I think the, the first world all was discovered in 1994 or something like that. Wow. So. Brent (2): So there's been Varroa in Norway since 1994, and it still hasn't gone across the entire country. No, Marc: no. Wow. That's pretty amazing. Marc: Yeah, because I think the, the, the, the government stopped them. They make those regions just in time so they can stop the Varroa expanding. Brent (2): So 30 years, and it still hasn't managed to get all over the country yet. Marc: Yes. That's impressive. Yes. And you know, we don't, uh, we are not allowed to use any chemicals to, to treat the varroa. Marc: Uh, the only thing we have, uh, can use is, uh, formic acid or, uh, oxalic. Oxalic acid. Wow. Brent (2): So, okay. Wow. Marc: That's the only two things we, we can use. So you're not Brent (2): allowed to use [00:24:00] ametrose. Marc: No. No. Wow. No, because the, the VAR is building up a resistance, uh, against the var varroa, uh, the against RAs. And, uh, RAs will get in, uh, in inside the honey and inside the wax. Marc: And, uh, we are, uh, the co-op, my co-op is always testing the wax. When I sell them, them, the wax, they, they test it? Yeah. And until now, it's, uh, chemical free. The, the, the wax in Norway. Okay. Brent (2): So if you're not allowed to use amateurs. What's your treatment regime, um, over a season? Marc: The way I did it before is, um, um, you have the spring and summer. Marc: I don't do anything. Uh, I may come to the Varroa, uh, a lot of people are, uh, cutting away the drone brood. They remove the drone brood. I don't do that. I think it's too much work. Um, I did it, uh, with oxalic acid in December, uh, when there's no brood, I treat [00:25:00] them once a year. And then no more. Okay, so you only, you only treat with Brent (2): oxalic acid in Marc: the winter? Marc: Yes, once a Brent (2): year. And that's it? That's enough to stop parole? That's Marc: it. Yeah, that's it. And, uh, this year I did it different because I was watching a, uh, a YouTube film of, uh, Black Mountain Honey. Yes. Yes. And yeah, he's been on the podcast before. Yes, exactly. And I think he's a really good beekeeper and he's no nonsense beekeeper. Marc: And he started to treat them, uh, treat his hives with, uh, formic acid in August after, uh, after the summer, uh, flow. And this year I did the same as him for testing if it makes a difference or not, difference or not. So I'm very curious next year if, uh, the count is low. Brent (2): So from now on, so from now on, what you're going to do is do formic acid after the summer flow and in the middle of winter oxalic acid. Marc: No, I cut away [00:26:00] the oxalic acid. Oh really? Brent (2): Okay. Marc: Only the formic. Yeah. Brent (2): Okay. So why, why is it that you want to cut out the oxalic acid? And the reason why I'm asking so much is you may be aware that I don't have Varroa yet, so I want to learn as much as I can. Marc: The reason I only do it once is because we don't. Marc: We are not allowed to do it twice or three times in Norway. If, if I, yeah, that's one rule, but, uh, somebody, uh, some people don't care. They treat them twice. But Brent (2): the law in the country is you're only allowed to treat once per year. Once. Marc: Yes, Brent (2): exactly. And so you can choose to either do oxalic acid or formic acid. Marc: Yes, and we use lic acid. Uh, if it's the count, the VA count is low and you can use, uh, formic acid. If the VA count count is high and you want to kill the, uh, the VA inside the cells also, then it's a, it's a, like, it's a, how do you say? It's, uh. Emergency treatment. If, [00:27:00] if you find that count is high, you can use phonic acid because it goes through the cells, through the wax and kills the, the inside the cells. Marc: But, uh, you know, as I told you, I'm a test person for the Norwegian Beekeeping Association and I have to send in my bees and they will count, uh, VA on, on the bees. And for one week ago, I get the resource back and the resource were no, uh, zero on every hive. No count of awa. Wow, Brent (2): okay, and that's after doing formic acid. Marc: Yes, but I did formic acid last year in the end of November and I collected the bees in, I think it was June, June or July this year. So six months after in the high season for Varroa, no, no Varroa counts at all. Brent (2): Yeah. I wish I could ask, I think if someone who had more experience with Varroa was doing this interview at the moment, they could ask more questions about that, why my knowledge is very limited, but that sounds like a much better system than what I've [00:28:00] heard. Marc: You know, uh, I listened to, uh, some other, uh, other podcast of you and I talked to, uh, Fleming, the Danish beekeeper. I talked to the Norwegian beekeeper, Bjørn Dahle, and they all, they all tell me the same. Um, if you treat a lot, the Varroa is getting more and more and more. And that's, that's what they tell, uh, told me in a, in your podcast also, if you treat a lot with, uh, chemicals and the varroa was getting more, uh, stronger and stronger every year. Marc: So yeah, they build up, they build up a resistance. Brent (2): That's right. Yeah. I have had a few guests on and they've said that, yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay. Well, thanks a lot, Mark. That's really interesting. Now, how could people find you if they want to buy one of your queens or some of your honey products? Brent (2): Thanks. Thanks. Marc: Uh, you know, they can, I have a, a Facebook site. Uh, I'm not very active on Facebook, but, uh, sometimes I put things on Facebook. Uh, it's ley honing on Facebook, [00:29:00] or I got a website, ley honing, uh, uh, dot com. And I, I assume you will put it in a, in a, in your text. Yep. I'll put it in the show notes. Marc: So if Brent (2): anyone in Norway wants to, uh, purchase one of your queens, they'll know how to get there and, uh, really appreciate your time. Is there anything else you want to talk about before we wrap up the podcast today? Marc: I will thank you for reaching out. It's, it was interesting and I think your program is a really good program because, uh, you get to hear, listen to a lot of, uh, good beekeeps, but a lot of, uh, experience and, uh, yeah, it's to the point. Marc: It's, uh. Yeah, it's good information and it's important information, I think, a lot of them. Brent (2): Yeah, well thanks Mark, appreciate you saying so. Brent (2): Okay, well how interesting was that having a chat with Mark? Instrumental insemination. Hard to believe that he runs an [00:30:00] entire production apiary with aye aye queens, and I only say that because in Australia, instrumentally inseminated queens are over a thousand dollars, so it's really really hard to believe that someone would use one for, or use them for their entire apiary. Brent (2): But really cool idea, and I found that episode really interesting, I hope you did too. What about at the end there when we had a chat about Varroa, could you tell I didn't really know what I was talking about? Um, yeah, I struggled through. I've been doing a lot of research in the last couple of months about Varroa because, as you probably know, we recently got it in Australia. Brent (2): It's been here for almost three years. I haven't got it personally yet, but it has been detected two hours down the road from me, which, in Australia, it's a very vast place, so two hours down the road is very close, so I'm trying to learn everything I can. And I'd actually really appreciate your help if you're listening to this and you know a lot about Varroa and raising queens, then I'd really appreciate your advice. Brent (2): A lot of the information you get is about commercial [00:31:00] producers or hobbyists. There's not a lot of good information for queen raisers. So, I don't know how it works with Medinukes in particular, so yeah, if you've got some advice for me, I'd really appreciate it. Now thanks everyone for being patient, it's taken me a while to get back into the podcasting this year. Brent (2): The main reason for that is my wife and I have recently welcomed a new child into our family. And that's been a lot of fun. We've had some great family time and spending time with the other kids. So, we've had a really, really nice time and thanks for being patient. Um, this is the first episode for this year. Brent (2): We had a big year last year. We released an episode every month. But we've had a little family break and it's been fantastic. So, I hope you enjoyed this episode and I've got some fantastic episodes this year to come. And I think you're gonna really love them. So, I'll catch you next time.