Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 88: Killer Bees Attack ft. Clyde Steese | Ear Biscuits Ep. 88

Episode Date: April 3, 2017

The stigma of paddleboarding, bee sting stories, what would happen if bees went extinct and more on this week’s episode of Ear Biscuits. Featuring: Clyde Steese (https://billsbees.com/) Credits: Ho...sted By: Rhett & Link Featuring: Clyde Steese (https://billsbees.com/) Executive Producer: Stevie Wynne Levine Managing Producer: Cody D'Ambrosio Technical Director: Benjamin Eck Editor: Meggie Malloy Graphics: Matthew Dwyer Set Design/Construction: Cassie Cobb Content Manager: Becca Canote Logo Design: Carra Sykes To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 This, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we have Mr. Clyde Sties. Yeah. He is the co-owner of Bill's Bees. I was gonna say he's a good friend of ours, but,
Starting point is 00:00:24 he's one of those guys that you, after you have one conversation with him and now we've had two, you just feel like, man, this guy's a great friend, I wish he was my granddad. I wish he was my resident beekeeper. Whoa, hold on, he is. He is, essentially. We met him when we filmed the episode 10,000 Beebeard
Starting point is 00:00:44 where we put the beebeard on Link. What was that series called? Which was a life. It was the GMM series called Backup Plan. Yes. And that was a life-defining experience for me. Right, and so he works with. Because I didn't die.
Starting point is 00:00:58 I got, out of all those bees, I only got stung by one. The very last one, pretty much. It hurt a lot. And Bill of Bill's Bees works with Clyde, and Bill is the one that was actually in the video quite a bit, but Clyde was kind of behind the scenes and we talked to him and he was a character and had a lot of crazy bee stories.
Starting point is 00:01:20 So we decided to bring him on to Ear Biscuits and he's gonna tell us a little bit about some of the crazy things that happen to a beekeeper such as himself. I think some life saving advice is gonna be coming your way. This podcast could save lives, the lives of bees. This podcast could save the world. It could. I'm gonna go that far.
Starting point is 00:01:42 No and this is no exaggeration. Yeah but let's just leave it at that. Let's not build it up too much. Yeah, I don't wanna say anything else. But let's just nonchalantly say this podcast and what Clyde had to say could save the world. Yeah, right. But we're not gonna build it up.
Starting point is 00:01:56 I mean, you don't have to keep listening. I mean, it would be your loss as a worldlian. Never heard that term. I am so thirsty at the end of this day. I know you're resistant to this but. I am thirsty anyway. I know you think it's because we went in the ocean. We went in the ocean this morning.
Starting point is 00:02:15 And I'm not saying that doesn't have an impact. I'm just saying I don't seem any thirstier than I normally do. That's why I am so in touch with my personal hydration and don't deny it. Don't deny that you're in touch with your personal hydration and don't deny it. Don't deny that you're in touch with your personal hydration? Yes, I'm not trying to make this confrontational
Starting point is 00:02:29 but I know that you're a hydration denier. I would just say that. I am so in touch with my personal hydration that you should listen to me. That's the charitable way for you to say that you're very sensitive. When I, yeah. You're sensitive to hydration.
Starting point is 00:02:45 I am sensitive to my body's sensitive to hydration levels. To temperatures. Well let's not bring, this has nothing to do with temperatures. This could be a good thing. I mean it can be annoying but it could also be a good thing. Are you now making a list of things
Starting point is 00:02:57 that you're annoyed by that I'm sensitive to? If one of these days we're in a situation where like there's a killer and he's controlling our hydration and he's slowly decreasing our hydration and that's how. I'd be like, you know what, he's killing us slowly by dehydration. You would be a great asset there because you would be the one that knew
Starting point is 00:03:12 that we were having less water. I'm just saying I'm not sensitive to that. I'm not gonna tell you that I'm thirsty. I'm just gonna drink the normal amount of water. And you know what, Rhett, I don't expect you to be and I will gladly be that for you. But why don't we just tell them. And I'm being that today by saying.
Starting point is 00:03:24 Why you're thirsty and why we went in the ocean. Because we got in the ocean and I've been thirsty all day and I think that's just my point. You get in the ocean, your body. Maybe you have a leak. I mean honestly, maybe it's a skin issue. Maybe there's like a hole in you somewhere. Maybe you've got a hole somewhere that you.
Starting point is 00:03:42 So I don't know it but I think that scientifically, I mean and maybe it's because. What if you have another orifice? Listen, have you looked at every part of your body? I'm not gonna inspect myself for orifices right now. I go to the dermatologist every six months to have them do a full body check for. For an orifice?
Starting point is 00:03:57 For other moles and if there's another orifice, he will see it. He's never seen it. He's seen every square inch of my body. Doc, just give it. Places that I've never seen, places that I've never ventured to look at in front of a mirror or with a video camera.
Starting point is 00:04:11 Just give it to me straight, do I have another orifice? But sometimes you can see a big mole and you might be tempted to think it was an orifice until you got close enough to it. If it's dark enough. Hey man, we're in total agreement. And what I'm saying is you may. We're like having one of those arguments about nothing.
Starting point is 00:04:26 You may have an extra orifice and what happens when you get into the ocean is the salt comes in and the good water goes out. And that orifices has been leaking? Yeah but you could just caulk it. You need to get some like dermatology caulk. That's probably a thing, they probably got some. Next time, in fact, I've gotta go to my dermatologist
Starting point is 00:04:47 in about three weeks. It's like shoot it straight, man, you got caulk, right? You got caulk for unexpected orifices. Hey man, I'm here for one reason and one reason only. Caulk for days. I want my orifice caulked. The one, that one orifice. I don't know how that happened.
Starting point is 00:05:05 So we went to the ocean and I think it's because my body's not used to being in the ocean water and I was, yeah I was. And that extra orifice. We went surfing, I'm not gonna say paddle boarding because there's a stigma. There's a big stigma. Even though that's really what we did
Starting point is 00:05:18 but we were surfing waves on paddle boards but let's just say we were surfing because there's no stigma, it's cool. And I'll say, aside from. For the first time in over a year. Over a year. And my body wasn't, it was, I think it was acting as if I was in a pool and not the ocean.
Starting point is 00:05:36 And it took in way too much salt. And I didn't know how to tell it. You didn't close the orifice. This is gonna be saltier than you're used to. And I gotta say, the main reason we haven't been is because I injured myself over a year ago and I kinda re-injured my back. And I'm afraid to go without you.
Starting point is 00:05:51 And you're afraid of sharks. Well it's a long drive and you gotta get up at like 5 a.m. and put boards on a car and you need like friendship accountability. But I haven't been able to go. I haven't been able to go and you know that if there's a shark attack, they'll probably go for me first because I'm bigger. It's like they go for the big seal first.
Starting point is 00:06:06 Right and you're always. They call me big seal. You're always got, you're bloody. And you've got that extra orifice that probably confuses sharks. It's like an octopus with some sort of ink hole. Ink doesn't come out of it. Really?
Starting point is 00:06:17 So you know where it is now. So I got you. You've got one. You got me. You've got one. And speaking of the stigma, I will say, I was thinking about the stigma because of our recent conversation with our friend
Starting point is 00:06:29 who we're both getting to know, who will remain nameless. You don't want me to name her, him, whoever? But when we told him that we were stand up, well first of all, we found out that he was a lifelong surfer, grew up in Santa Cruz, lived in Malibu for a while. I still go to the boo every Sunday morning. And he's like a legit surfer. He referred to his collection of surfboards as a quiver.
Starting point is 00:06:51 I mean this dude is for real and we were sitting there and we're becoming friends with him and I was like, the funny thing is is you didn't even wanna tell him. That ain't funny. But I just felt like you wanted to hide that from him but one of these days he was gonna see the big SUP on top of your car or in the garage or something. Well I mean it's a fledgling friendship.
Starting point is 00:07:13 I don't wanna invite judgment. I wanted to break the seal during our like you know third or fourth interaction because I didn't want that to wait and become awkward because I know how surfers feel about stand up paddle boarders. I don't know if you know this but they hate us and they call us kooks and they think that we're dangerous
Starting point is 00:07:30 because we are because we have basically large boats that we're standing on that can kill people and we don't really know what we're doing. I have nearly killed myself four times and other people at least three times. Is that where the other orifice came from? Yeah. Was it accidental? I gave myself an orifice in a near death experience
Starting point is 00:07:50 on a stand up paddle board. But what I will say in defense of us is that we know that we're not good. Now we're a lot better than that. We made a video one time as part of the Mythical show the very first time we ever went on paddle boards. That's on the internet and we were horrible. In fact, so many people, we were so bad, people thought that we were doing it
Starting point is 00:08:07 on purpose, we were jumping off for the comedic effect, and no, we just sucked so bad. It was like the board was totally steady, and then it was all just like. Yeah, and we've gotten much better than that. But we're still very cognizant of the fact that we're not liked out there and accepted, so we go to places where it's more acceptable
Starting point is 00:08:25 for stand up paddle boarders. There are other stand up paddle boarders and we kind of stay in our lane so to speak. And I gotta say you look good today. You caught something, now I did look back there a couple of times and saw you losing your balance in the middle of nothing and just falling over so it still does happen.
Starting point is 00:08:40 And then while you notice that, then you lost your balance in the middle of nothing. Once you see the other guy fall, it's like, yeah, you lose all perspective. But I feel good about it. It was a soul-fulfilling experience and we gotta do it more, man. We gotta do it more.
Starting point is 00:08:58 There's a zen-like quality of, I mean, I'm not gonna go so far as to be like the electricity, there's electricity involved. But there is, I mean there's electricity in everything. Okay so you are going that, and then the one, what's the next step? That there's a connection? I don't know, but I'm just saying,
Starting point is 00:09:14 I'm not, that's not what I'm talking about. You're not gonna go with a cosmic connection with the ocean, like it's a living thing, but it is, it's full of living things. I saw a Ziploc bag bag but I also saw a dolphin. Yeah, I saw lots of trash, man. So I'm somewhere in the middle. There's so much trash.
Starting point is 00:09:28 I saw like a black piece of bag and I saw a harbor seal. I saw a Cracker Jack box. And you saw a what, a fish? A rock. A human. Well I mean we see all these types of things. So there's a tension here. But there's a zen-like quality to being out there
Starting point is 00:09:51 that it just, I mean all day I've felt well dehydrated but also just like I just have more space. I have more space in my life. Well it's the water that you leaked. I have more space. I think, you know. You've been filling it up all day. But I feel like beekeeping, and we'll get to that,
Starting point is 00:10:19 you know, whenever we talk to Clyde, well we already talked to him, but in that conversation I just feel like this guy has a little bit of zen. He's got space, because he works with bees. And there's a resonance to it, or something. So are you, is this leading to, you're gonna take up beekeeping?
Starting point is 00:10:35 Because that doesn't sound like, that sounds like the kind of thing that I would try to get you into. Well try to get me into it, I'm very susceptible. You want me to get a hive? If you want me to get a hive, If you want me to get a hive, then you. Then I get a hive. Yeah, get a hive and then you know.
Starting point is 00:10:50 I get a hive, you come over. Three years, I'll have a hive and you won't. Take the hive home. Then you won't care about it. Yeah, I'm open to that. I feel like beekeeping is the kind of thing I'm gonna do in my old, old age. You know, like if that's. In the meantime we need to surf, but what if there was a surfboard beekeeping is the kind of thing I'm gonna do in my old, old age.
Starting point is 00:11:06 In the meantime we need to surf, but what if there was a surfboard that had bees in it? Like you know, there's a, if you walk up to a hive like we did at Bill's, and I'm spitballing here. I can tell. You can, there's a resonance to it. There's a, I mean, he, you know, Clyde talks about dropping a mic in there and what he experienced when he like listened to it
Starting point is 00:11:31 on headphones. What if that was in a paddle board? You mean there's a hive inside the board? Yeah, yeah. Well I think that's a problem when you get in the water. I don't think the bees would be excited about that. It's breathable from the top. Don't let the. Well how do they get in the water. I don't think the bees would be excited about that. It's breathable from the top. Well how do they get in and out of it?
Starting point is 00:11:49 Don't lick the stripes off my candy cane, man. Listen. Personally I still don't. Can you imagine being on, I mean people do yoga on paddle boards. It sounds more like an art project, honestly. It doesn't sound like a sport. It sounds like maybe something you'd put up in the backyard.
Starting point is 00:12:04 It's like. I don't need you for this. I've got a surfboard that I've hollowed out and I've put beehives in there. I don't need you to buy it. People love it. I'm not selling you one. I'm doing it. And honestly, it kind of.
Starting point is 00:12:16 Me and Clyde are doing it. It sounds like a high school art project. He's already in. It doesn't even sound like something that would be accepted at the Modern Art Museum. I'm texting him, he's texting me now. I just felt a vibration. I saw his phone, I don't think he texted.
Starting point is 00:12:31 And he's saying, I've got the boards, I've got the bees. Clyde literally had a landline telephone in his pocket. That's not text. But don't you want him to be your granddad? I do but the. Did you sense that there was space in his life? For a grandchild? He seems really peaceful.
Starting point is 00:12:51 A man child? He seems very peaceful. I think anybody who is in touch with nature in that way, maybe that's what you're getting at, the resonance of nature. I mean sometimes the only thing, the closest we get to nature is the wooden tables that we do shows on.
Starting point is 00:13:06 Flush in the toilet. You know? Man, that can be a natural experience. It's like a white water rafting experience. Well good luck with your art project with Clyde. We had a great conversation with him. It's not an art project. But we also wanna let you know,
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Starting point is 00:15:17 by going to ZipRecruiter.com slash ear. One more time, to try it for free, go to ZipRecruiter.com slash ear. I am ready to get into some bee conversation. Create some space in your life for Clyde and us. Yeah. It's gonna be amazing. It might save your life and it might save the world.
Starting point is 00:15:42 Here it is. and it might save the world. Here it is. So you were showing them pictures of you sitting there, beginning and during the time you were getting the bees on you, and standing back here going, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mutilating, mutilating. I was actually curious, well you know that they work here,
Starting point is 00:16:05 so they're required to watch all of our videos. Well, kinda, the one young lady said she hadn't seen it yet. Yeah, we're adding, we add people to the Mythical crew, and I'm joking, we don't make them watch everything. That would be like thousands of videos. They'd still be watching. Why not? But that's the one I should make them watch, because that's the one where I seem like a rock star.
Starting point is 00:16:25 Yeah. And that doesn't happen many times. Well, I told him, you don't see it on film and everything because you got it back here and you cut and put things together. But I said, one of the memorable points was he's sitting there and the bees are going on him. And I says, you know, he loves to chat a little bit. And he's going, well, I says you know he loves to chat a little bit and he's going well I says and I remember him stating so clearly tell me a story take me to a happy place
Starting point is 00:16:54 I said I was waiting for him to spring from the chair and run away but he didn't he stuck it out but I said that was so memorable. Well you told me not to run because then I would have been like ripped to shreds by these bees potentially. Yeah, that's when you make them aggressive, right? Yeah, but that filmed great. I mean, bees devouring. Yeah, that would have gotten more views
Starting point is 00:17:20 if it would have killed me. It was pretty epic though, it was also one of the best 20 minute sessions of my life because Link was completely quiet for the entire process. Yeah, I couldn't talk. Because they were, the bees were trying to. They were literally trying to get into your mouth. Yeah, I could feel their little fingers trying to pry my lips apart.
Starting point is 00:17:37 I don't think they're fingers, are they fingers? Do they have fingers? Legs, fingers, yeah. What's on the end of the leg? Actually, you can't see it with the naked eye, but there's actually little spurs on there. I know, but I could feel it. You call those B-fingers. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:50 The B-fingers felt like little spurs, and they were prying my lips apart to get inside of my head. Yeah, yeah. For the moisture or something, right? Well, that, and it's just a natural thing for them. They see an opening, and they want to investigate it. They're curious. That's why you had the nose plugs on as well. Yeah, we had your ears plugged.
Starting point is 00:18:12 And my ears were plugged. Every orifice is inviting. Yeah, that's why I kept my pants on. You had your belt cinched really tight. Have you done the B-Beard before? Was that? Yeah, we've done it before. There was a short-lived TV show on it.
Starting point is 00:18:33 No, but have you put it on yourself? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's on a short-lived television show? Yeah, they had this dating program where a boy meets girl. You were the boy? It would have been nice but this was oh shoot we have a young lady here uh and this was and plenty of them listening but well this is one typical silly girl that was silly silly and silly silly, she just made so many.
Starting point is 00:19:09 She acted more like a 14-year-old that was going on her first date or something. But you were not a contestant on a dating show. The dating show came to get bees from you to put in a date? Yeah, well, the boy and girl were dating. He was a beekeeper. Was it that naked dating show? You know that one. Yeah, yeah. Dating naked. That's a freaking. Was it that naked dating show? You know that one. Yeah, yeah. Dating naked, that's a freaking show.
Starting point is 00:19:27 Naked and dating? Yeah, it's like, they're not even afraid. It's not even naked and afraid, it's just naked dating. I think afraid is implied. Well, I think I would be afraid too if I saw, people look better with clothes on. Well, it depends on who they are. Okay.
Starting point is 00:19:45 Of course, man. Okay, so you just applied the bees. Yeah, we just applied the bees. To a fully clothed woman who acted like a child. Yeah, well, you have done it. About halfway through it, she sits there and tells the director, the producers, and everybody, and we're standing there, and she goes, I have to go to the bathroom. Well, that's not a possibility.
Starting point is 00:20:06 I said, I looked right directly at her, and I says, you've got to be joking. She goes, no, I've got to go to the bathroom. I says, tinkle in your pants. I says, we can't stop. She goes, oh, you must, you must. I says, they cooperated. You raked all the bees off of her? Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:20:26 You were giving her a bee beard on a date. I still don't understand. Well, he was, premise was he was a beekeeper, and he brought her out to the bee yards to show him what he does every day and everything like this. And that was how he was going to show her, which is stupid. That's not how you get a second date. Let me slather your face with 10,000 bees
Starting point is 00:20:46 and I don't even tell you to tinkle first. Yeah. It was all explained to her before the cameras started rolling. I pee before everything that we do. Multiple times. I just peed. Well.
Starting point is 00:20:59 Like when we were on Fallon, I mean, there's like a nervous pee that happens. You went more than me this time. Oh, I did three or four like a nervous pee that happens, and you went more than me this time. Like five times? I did three or four nervous pees. Three or four. Your body naturally evacuates everything. It's like a fight or flight thing.
Starting point is 00:21:12 Get everything out so you can be light, you can be spry, you never know what's gonna happen. And you don't wanna wet yourself on a dating show. Or on television. As long as it's filmed above the waist, you don't have to worry about it. That's why we sit behind a desk. But I was worry about it. See, I mean, you know. That's why we sit behind a desk.
Starting point is 00:21:27 But I was. We're constantly, we're like NASCAR drivers, we just urinate whenever it hits us. Do you know about the NASCAR drivers thing? They have like a, it's like a external catheter thing. Yeah. That goes to the bottom of the. Yeah, they have a drawer.
Starting point is 00:21:40 And it goes right out. A drawer? Yeah. Well, the one that we saw was an external catheter that went down, which is basically like the thing that I wore on the show, the pee bag thing, we tested a product where it was for like when you're at the stadium and you don't wanna get up and go to the bathroom
Starting point is 00:21:55 and you have a literal like bag on your leg. Stadium pal or something? Yeah, yeah. And I had such a difficult time relaxing. Yeah. And like while just sitting there next to people and doing that. But NASCAR drivers, those guys that do the Baja 500, they do it but it comes out a little tube and just goes through a hole in the floor of the car. Well, yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:17 No, that's the part. That's the part. See, with everything he says, there's a part. No, no, no. Where you gotta be like, that's the made up part? That's the made up part. And that was it. I mean, it's like a oil slick for Earnhardt Jr. trailing you.
Starting point is 00:22:32 Yeah, it's like a Batman tactic. Yeah. And my urine is very slick for weaponized purposes. Look at 200 yards ahead for the wet spots. That's where we go. It's a trail. But you can weaponize bees. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:48 Right? Yes. You know how to do it? I don't even know what that means. I've heard of, like, weaponized bees, but is that like you strap missiles on a bee? No. I don't know what it is. Okay.
Starting point is 00:22:58 Here about 10 years ago in that neighborhood, a very intelligent gentleman out of the University of Montana and some other places developed a process of training bees. So you train the bees like a dog, like a horse or anything like this. But they trained them to the scent of gunpowder. And they would put gunpowder. Train them to do what to the scent of gunpowder? They would follow gunpowder. And they would put gunpowder. Train them to do what to the scent of gunpowder? They would follow gunpowder. They would go to it. They would go to it. Like tracking a, like a dog tracking a scent. Correct. So they will track that gunpowder. It takes quite a long time and you add a little bit more and more until they start doing it. Then you take it out in a field
Starting point is 00:23:43 and you put gunpowder down on the ground or something like that. You release the bees and they will fly around and instead of going to the flower, they go to the gunpowder. So why, okay, and what's the application of that? They explode? Okay, now the fellas are setting over there.
Starting point is 00:23:59 They light it. Yeah, now the fellas are setting in wartime and they're in Afghanistan and all around. And they got these landmines up and afghanistan and all around and they got these landmines up and down the roads and all around like that so they've taken these bees and now they release them they fly down the road and they will hover over these landmines landmines so they're these are like a okay so like there's guns there's so that gunpowder in a landmine or the same type of stuff, same type of stuff. And they pick up the scent. And so you're driving down there and you're all looking.
Starting point is 00:24:36 We have one in the middle of the road. We have one over here, one over there. Put the brakes on. Stop. Get back. People can go up, take care of that situation, or drive around it. We're looking for bees to make honey, and we're delicious. They're beneficial to the military on that. Do you know how they're training them specifically? How do you get them to like gunpowder? Yeah, how do you get them to like gunpowder or be attracted to it? Do you know?
Starting point is 00:25:03 Well, let me guess. I'd say you put it in a flower. You get like a little flower. Very much that. A dummy flower. From what I've understood, you start off with honey itself, a little drop of honey. You add like peppering the honey with a little gunpowder. Like a little salt bae?
Starting point is 00:25:24 Yeah, a little salt bae. You know little salt bae? Yeah, a little salt bae. You know about Salt Bae? You know who he is? Yeah, yeah, but I mean you turn around and you. I know you don't. Let me tell you who he is if you don't know who he is. Who is he? Some dude.
Starting point is 00:25:38 He's a Turkish butcher. And he. And he's famous for putting salt on things. He cuts meat, he's a butcher that is a performance artist on the internet. He sprinkles the salt and then at the end it hits his elbow and goes all over the meat. Oh he's a Julia Childs.
Starting point is 00:25:55 Yeah, he's the modern day Julia Childs of meat. Yeah, yeah. See so you didn't know who he was. Yeah. That was your thing. But it's always best to say you do. I'm not much in Turkish meat. Turkey comes at Thanksgiving.
Starting point is 00:26:14 Yeah, right. But, you know. Turkey meat. My wife puts turkey meat in the meatballs, and I've eaten it. And then I'm like, well, you know, there's turkey in there. She's like, well, thanks for telling me. Oh, she tells you? Afterward.
Starting point is 00:26:26 Yeah. Well, it could be worse. I didn't mean to derail us. But you did a little bit. They put a little honey. Sprinkle it in there. They add honey, gunpowder, and then they just continue. Gunpowder and honey.
Starting point is 00:26:37 Yeah. The bees will naturally go to the honey. Fantastic. Now. Why did the bees go to the honey? I thought they made the honey, but why are they also attracted to honey? Because I thought they were attracted to pollen They are attracted to pollen
Starting point is 00:26:49 They are attracted to the nectar that's in the flowers They want to go to But the bee has never learned to not make honey She will go to anything sweet Just like she'll go to you guys We talking about the queen? Yeah They go to the queen. We talking about the queen? Yeah. They go to the queen, too.
Starting point is 00:27:06 They go to the queen. They'll go to pop cans, soda cans, because they're sweet. So they know if they put honey there, the bee is going to come there, put the gunpowder with it, and they come there. But what does a bee do when it encounters honey? If I just took honey and just. Hoodies? Not a hoodie.
Starting point is 00:27:26 They don't care about hoodies, man. But if you just put honey on a bench, all of a sudden you can have bees all over it? You can, you sit out there. What are they thinking? Or a soft drink. Are they like, this is what we need to use to make what we need, it is the thing that we need to use
Starting point is 00:27:40 to make the thing that we have. Right, right. You know, they go to the easiest source. So you have it sitting here on the bench, a tray or whatever, and there's honey there. Why should I drive five miles to get a little bit when I only have to go a couple hundred yards? Right, because they're just making honey to feed all the people. Yeah. So they fly over there.
Starting point is 00:28:02 They pick that honey up just like they would pick up the nectar. And they come buzzing back to the hive and they go back over again and again. They don't discriminate. It's not like, ah, we didn't make this. They don't care as long as it's sweet. And then how do you get the bees back into the hive after they spotted something? The bees will collect themselves when the sun goes down. So you just leave them where they're at But if you remove the mine
Starting point is 00:28:29 They're not going to gather around that anymore Just leave a collection box there With what they're familiar with Gunpowder When it gets dark, they all collect right back into that box You could be making all this up and we wouldn't know. Don't tell him that. No.
Starting point is 00:28:47 That's like opening a door. No. Somebody's going to hear this and they'll go, he's flying. Well, okay. And here's the interesting thing. You're right. I know this from Bill explained this to us, that you guys have also been used as like consultants on freaking movies. Yeah. Weren't you used as consultants on freaking movies. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:05 Weren't you used as consultants on the B movie itself? Yeah, with Mr. Seinfeld. Yeah, I'm not making this up. They needed B consultants for the B movie, and you were the guys. Did it go well? It went fantastic. Was J.R. asking you questions? No.
Starting point is 00:29:25 Elaine, was she there? No. These are J.R. asking you questions? No. Elaine, was she there? No, we worked. These are characters. Yeah. That's also his real name, though. Yeah. We directly worked with the sound men, camera men, and people like this. I was super intrigued when the sound man came out, he sat there and or stood there I should say
Starting point is 00:29:47 and he puts mics inside the hive we know that the bees make different sounds at different times of the day we know they make different sounds at different levels in the hive and this was one of those very few times in my life I'll ever ever again, I was able to put a headset on and listen as he recorded the sounds of those bees at different levels. It's just overwhelmingly exciting. That was the best thing, the best sound you've ever experienced? One of them, one of them, one of them. Boy, you had to think there for a second.
Starting point is 00:30:22 What's another one? Well, when my wife said, yeah, I'll marry you. Okay. That's good. That's sweet. That's a sweet one. Coming from the honey man. Yeah, and this last year, she said, yeah, it's been good.
Starting point is 00:30:39 After 50 years, I think we'll make it a little bit longer. 50 years, man. Yeah, so, yeah. It's a good milestone. You're bringing home the honey. Yeah, well, you bring honey for your honey, and you'll be happy, happy, happy. She likes that, honey.
Starting point is 00:30:56 Clydes, honey. Yeah, you know what? Why don't you just think those things? Trying to make it weird. But wasn't there, like, some major detail? I think I remember Bill telling me this. There was some major choice that they made. Yeah, Bill was like frustrated about something. That was like wrong.
Starting point is 00:31:12 Wrong. Like one of the characters was a female and it was actually, or a male. Yeah. They, we gave them the 101 class teachings about bees. And when the final episodes are all colored up and put together, they got drones flying out there. And the world becomes blossoming again. And honey is being made.
Starting point is 00:31:37 And it's happy, happy time again. It was great. Inaccurate? Drones don't do anything. They don't make any honey. They don't do any. don't make any honey they don't do any they just walk around and eat and the worker bee the lady bee does all the work according to them mom just sat in the house and made supper and knit it and took care of the kids. Well, a point, yes, but when all those drones line up like soldiers and
Starting point is 00:32:08 re-evaluate the whole earth in colors and everything, I sat there and I went, no! That's the exact opposite of what happened. Opposite. Seinfeld's character, who was a drone because he was a dude, he should have just sat there and ate
Starting point is 00:32:23 the whole movie and that would have been accurate and it probably would have been a better movie he was a dude, he should have just sat there and ate the whole movie, and that would have been accurate, and it probably would have been a better movie. Well, that, and he should have been looking like, wow, where is there a beautiful young lady around here that I can mate with? I'm looking for them. That's all they're good for, mating. Well, that could have been a different kind of movie.
Starting point is 00:32:41 Let's be honest. Maybe we should call Seinfeld. You got his number? 1-800-something-something. Okay. I think he gave you the dummy number. Yeah, I don't think that's it. But, you know, you can say it isn't accurate, but it worked out very well.
Starting point is 00:33:00 We made money from it. They did, I should say. Well, yeah, yeah. I mean, you got paid something. I mean, there's got to be some money in bee consulting. Don't answer that. That's a thank you. Don't tell us how much money you make because then we have to tell them how much money we make.
Starting point is 00:33:13 Yeah, well. That's not fair. They were very reasonable. Okay. Very. Okay. Tell us if you want to tell us. No, don't tell us.
Starting point is 00:33:20 Cheap. Were you stung today? Yeah, I was. Three or four times this morning. Really? Yeah. Really? I got out of the truck to put my bee suit on, and before I knew it, I had a tap in the back of my neck and a couple on my hand, and I said, thanks, ladies. You welcomed me here today.
Starting point is 00:33:39 I appreciate that. What's the average? What's the average on a day? There's days I've worked and not had a sting. There's days that I've worked and had a dozen. But I seem to remember you hanging around with no bee suit on. Of course, I had a beard full of them. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:55 And I was not protected while you were doing that. But I also will say something we learned when we were there is that that particular hive was at a certain stage where they were like the least aggressive that bees can get. The beebeard bees are not your typical bee. Yes, we selected. We hand-selected those out. Because different, well, you selected a different, like a certain hive. That was very gentle, very mellow.
Starting point is 00:34:24 You know the personalities of a hive. Yeah. You ever had any nasty run-ins with a nasty personality hive? Oh, yeah. Tell me a horror story. Well, a couple years ago we were working the hives, and I knew this one hive was fairly aggressive, mean. We referred to it as an Africanized hive.
Starting point is 00:34:47 We knew that. And I wanted to find the queen, destroy the queen. Destroy the queen. Killer. This is like a movie, man. This is like Narnia. But Africanized, tell us what that means right quick. What means from Africa?
Starting point is 00:35:00 Yep, they're from Africa. Or they've interbred with African bees, and it's a new thing. It's a new thing, yeah. They're not African bees. They're African eyes. African eyes. We had some people that were geniuses, so they got bees from Africa, took them to Brazil, and they're going to make the super bee.
Starting point is 00:35:20 Not the super beetle, but the super bee. They ran out of funding. They said, okay. And they packed their clothes and they left. They left everything set there. Including the bees. Including the bees. The bees are fairly aggressive already.
Starting point is 00:35:34 How long ago was this? 20 years back, at least. What would a Super B have been? That was the question nobody knows. But they got mean in Brazil. They got mean in Brazil. No, they got mean. They migrated. They crossbred with the bees in Brazil and everything, and then they started traveling.
Starting point is 00:35:52 And they just traveled from Brazil right up to Central America, right up into the United States, and they're here in California. What would they do? I mean, what's their M.O.? What makes them so mean? Are we talking like wedgies? Indiscriminate wedgies? Yeah, they could get that bad. They could kill people, though. Yes. That's what they call them, killer bees, man. Don't you remember the 80s? Yeah. A lot of documentation where animals, people have died from it. Like how big of an animal? A horse? Yes. Three years ago, we lost two horses down in Temecula.
Starting point is 00:36:31 So they're not any more venomous. Oh, yes. They are more venomous. They are. Their venom is a little stronger. But the main thing is they're more aggressive and easily agitated. Very easily agitated or like what is it? Something very easily agitated. You can walk by him, knock on the high box, the tree or the building they're in, and they will come. They come by the thousands.
Starting point is 00:36:55 And they follow you. They follow you. They can go with you up to a half a mile. In order to attack you. Attack you. They attack. Attack you. Attack animal. Attack you. They attack. Attack you, attack animal, attack.
Starting point is 00:37:10 I have literally, I wish I had taken pictures of it. I was using a motorized weed eater, cutting weeds. The grass and things hit a Africanized hive. In the ground? They were in a tree. I didn't know it. You weed-eaten a tree? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:28 If you do it for long enough, it'll come down. Yeah. Like Paul Bunyan. Anyway, I realized it. I left the motor running and laid it down on the ground, and they hovered over it, literally hitting the manifold and frying themselves. But they are that aggressive. They didn't care.
Starting point is 00:37:47 That was genius. You left a decoy, like a— Yeah, excellent. What's it called? Like a red herring or— Yeah. Not a red herring. It was a decoy.
Starting point is 00:37:55 A decoy, yeah. You were right the first time. Yeah, I mean, you know, you go— A diversion. It was a diversion. A diversion, yeah. So you could run away, and they all attacked your weed eater? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:05 I mean, you stood there, and you just went like, you're committing suicide. But they didn't care. That noise, a lawnmower and things like that, a tractor driving by, a car, can set them off. It made them so mad. Yeah. But you had a run-in. So what happened with the hive? Well, I went in that hive, and so—
Starting point is 00:38:26 And was this like you were being—this was an Africanized hive that had gotten into, like, hives that you were working on? One of my hives. One of my normal hives. Oh, it took it over. It took it over, correctly. Well, I had a full bee suit on and everything and my gloves, so I'm working and I'm working and I'm working on it, and I'm getting stung. I mean— Through the suit yes you know it's one of the cute things in life is uh when you buy a b-suit you open it up you say oh i have a nice new suit here but they give you a little piece of paper on
Starting point is 00:38:57 it and it says this suit will not protect you from stings and i always go then why did i buy it you know i don't remember being told that as I was putting on the BC earlier in that episode. I'm feeling totally safe. Yeah, well, you know, some things you don't need to know. So I was working there, and I was getting stung. I got getting stung and getting stung. And I walked over to Bill, my partner, and I said, Uncle, I quit. Get me out of here.
Starting point is 00:39:24 I'm done. I can't. He goes, what's wrong? I says, man, he goes, oh, my God. At this said, uncle, I quit. Get me out of here. I'm done. I can't. He goes, what's wrong? I says, man, he goes, oh my God. At this point in time, I'm hot. You've had a sunburn. That's the hot I had. I was blistering hot and I was wringing my hands because they burned through the gloves. He took me down the hill from where we was working, took me over to the Verdugo Hospital. At that time, we were in the parking lot. I take my B-suit off. I'm in my T-shirt and shorts like I normally are. I'm beet red. Everywhere. Everywhere. And you're burning. Burning. Are you in other pain? Not pain, just hot. You know,
Starting point is 00:40:03 how many stings do you think you'd experience at this point? Well, when I finished up with all this, Bill and the doctors out there, they counted over 350 stings on one arm. On one arm? On one arm. And I had them on arms, backs, and chest and everything. So you strip down to just your shorts and shirt in the parking lot, and then you stroll in there, and you're like, I'm like a beat in the emergency room. Yeah. And the young lady says, I said, I've been beast on. I need to see a doctor. And not just once.
Starting point is 00:40:36 And she said, very well. You know, you didn't have to give him any paperwork. Gentleman walked out, and he said, follow me. I pulled the big lotto numbers because I walked to the next door and the doctor standing there, he had just come back from Central America after six months studying of what African bees and the bee stings will do to the human body. And he looked over at me. He says, you've been bee stung, my God.
Starting point is 00:41:04 He says, 250 milligrams of this 250 milligrams of steroids and i goes my wife's gonna be happy he goes no it's not that within but you're not gonna bulk up yeah no i was praying so uh they hang bottles they stick you with these things and tabs you with that and i I jokingly to him, I says, oh, you're bringing in the microwave to serve lunch. He goes, and the nurse says, oh, no, that's the cardiac resuscitation. I goes, oh, well, we don't need that. At this point in time, I said, gee whiz, I feel tired. I'm so sleepy. She says, you've had 300 milligrams of some sleeping thing. And I said, oh, okay. I went to sleep. Occasionally they would wake me up. About 10 hours later,
Starting point is 00:41:55 I'm waking up. I'm thirsty. I'm ready to go. My body is cleared out and everything. And they go through the rigor of telling me how things went. And they said, it was this way, that way. We gave you a shot of this, and your blood pressure started to come down, and this started to happen. And I says, whoa, fantastic. The doctor says, whatever you do, continue it. I goes, well, I hope to. He goes, no.
Starting point is 00:42:28 He says, I've seen men, women, children, 30 years younger than you, your age, and they came in within minutes, they were dead. Whoa. I never realized it was that serious. I goes, you're kidding. He goes, you've had bee venom within your body. It must be pretty decent. We cannot explain the exact why. But he says, you've got a guardian angel. And he says, keep him happy because he's keeping you happy. And I put my shoes on and I left that day. And my biggest fear.
Starting point is 00:43:02 And you never had anything to do with bees again. Right? No, that was my fear, that I would become highly allergic to it because that's what happens. Okay, that is what happened. It isn't like you get some sort of immunity to it if you get a lot of venom.
Starting point is 00:43:17 You actually become more susceptible. More susceptible. Many beekeepers have worked for many years and they use Benadryl and things like this to help but they've become highly sensitive and they had to quit the industry because of that. So we waited a couple two or three days. I went down. Bill and I took some bees. Stung me a half a dozen times. We stood there. You conducted a test? Yeah we had to find out what was going on. Right.
Starting point is 00:43:46 You got to know if you can keep your job. Yeah. You're like a flatliner, man. Yeah. I mean, you know, there was no science to it. Just getting stung by bees.
Starting point is 00:43:56 Say that again. You know, okay, if you keel over, I'll put you in the truck, take you to the hospital again. But nothing happened and we looked at each other. I said, I'll get my bee suit. Let take you to the hospital again. But nothing happened, and we looked at each other. I said, I'll get my bee suit, let's go to work, and that's been it.
Starting point is 00:44:08 Really? And what's the worst incident since then? Worst incident since then? Oh, gosh, we've had numerous funnies, excitement things, dumping bees on the ground at 2 o'clock in the morning and then trying to set them up when you've got 300,000 bees flying all around you don't just spill on the ground like like um you know like well bill was serial yeah bill was picking up a pallet that had four hives on it and he turned and all four hives fall on the ground and he turns to me and says stack stack them up, I'll get the rest of them. And now you have bees running up your pant legs and all over you.
Starting point is 00:44:50 No bee suit in this situation. Well, I had a bee suit on, but they weren't a happy bunch of ladies that got dumped on the ground from 20 feet in the air. If you set everything back up, they just come back together? Yeah, they came back together. You got to use a broom? No, I just used my hands, picked them up and put them into different boxes and prayed that everything would work out. We delivered some bees here last summer up in the high desert up to the alfalfa fields. So you're delivering these bees in order to—
Starting point is 00:45:20 We had two processes there. One was to make alfalfa honey and also do pollination for the seed. Right, because all the farmers use the seeds. Oh, yeah, yeah. So it's late at night, after midnight, something like that. And we hadn't told the farmer that we were coming in, but we had been doing this for eight, nine years at his place. We pull in, get out of the truck,
Starting point is 00:45:44 and his truck comes flying up there real fast, jumps out of this thing. He pulls out a gun, and I went, whoa, whoa, hey, what's going on? What's going on? He goes, oh, I thought someone was trying to steal my hay. Well, he had a problem with that, and we didn't know it, and I'm standing there. Well, at one o'clock in the morning, you stand there, and headlights are in your face, and a man's got a gun pointing at you. You about to tinkle in your britches. I was about to say, did you?
Starting point is 00:46:11 Because I've always thought, I've never had a gun pointed at me. But I just, you know, you see the movies, and there's the one guy that gets the gun pointed at him, and then he pees himself, and I was like, I wouldn't be that guy. But I think I might be that guy. Fortunately, I wasn't that guy. I kept going. I'm going, it's me, it's me, it's me, it's me. And he goes, oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:32 I went, yeah. Wow. And he relaxed. And I stood there and I looked over to my partner, Bill, and he goes, I says, huh? He goes, yeah, right. I mean, we had about 12 octave higher in voice, and I said, that's enough of this. But it was. That guardian angel.
Starting point is 00:46:52 Yeah. You keep having brushes with death, man. Well, I mean, you know, eventually it's going to happen, but I'm kind of prolonging it right now. I'm just stretching it out a little longer. I hope, anyway. Now, these. I don't think you're at risk to hear tonight. These Africanized bees, I want to talk about that a little bit more because I was actually hiking just in a trail in the Verdugo Mountains,
Starting point is 00:47:18 and I get a little bit worried sometimes, especially when I'm with my kids. I'm like, kids. Yeah. I'm like okay, and we meet somebody on the trail and they're like about a mile up, we think we heard a rattlesnake, so be careful. Oh yeah. So you're thinking about rattlesnakes,
Starting point is 00:47:33 and then I'm thinking about, well hey, I know the ticks have Lyme disease around here now, that's something that's starting to happen. So check yourself for ticks, and then I'm starting, maybe, we might run into some killer bees out here, some Africanized bees. You were thinking about that? I was.
Starting point is 00:47:47 I think, I worry about these things. Well, I'm going to now. Especially when I've got people that I'm responsible for, like my eight-year-old son. is there,
Starting point is 00:47:56 could it just be like a hive just out in the mountains and on a trail somewhere? Like, are they everywhere now? Everywhere. From Texas, Southern California, your, far north is Fresno, the last reports are.
Starting point is 00:48:11 And if you see a beehive in a tree, you don't know. Could you look at the hive and know immediately which one it was? No. Okay, so it's the behavior of the bees. The behavior of the bees is their first indication their second indication if you want to take the time and i don't know of anybody that has you can catch a handful of them and check the measurements of them yeah they're a little they're they're smaller and darker in color i doubt i'm gonna have time to do that that's me too i uh but okay i'm gonna be really vulnerable do that. That's me too. I split.
Starting point is 00:48:45 I'm gonna be really vulnerable with you here because Shepherd and I started having this conversation. It was my eight year old son Shepherd and I and our dog Barbara. Okay. And he was like. Barbara? Barbara, yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:56 She's named after Barbara Mandrell. And my son was like, dad, what are we gonna do if we run into one of these hives of killer bees? And I was like, well, the thing is is they will follow you. And I told him, I said, I think they'll follow you for like up to a mile. So I was a little bit off on my math. That's okay.
Starting point is 00:49:13 And I said, but the thing is is we have to run because you can't just stay there, because we gotta run. And I read in that worst case scenario handbook that you can't just go and like get under water because they'll just stay above the water until you come back out and keep stinging you. So then Shepard and I started talking about
Starting point is 00:49:30 at what point would we leave the dog behind? You know because when it comes to me and my son and Barbara, I mean I'm sorry, I love Barbara to death but if somebody's gotta go, it's gonna be the dog. But I said. Barbara's a lot lighter than Shepard. But I told Shepard, I was like Shepard, it would have to be the dog. But I said... Barbara's a lot lighter than Shepard. But I told Shepard, I was like, Shepard, it would have to be, I would have to know that you were in mortal danger
Starting point is 00:49:49 before I would leave the dog behind. Like, it would seriously be like a moral equation where I was like, I have to lose the kid or the dog, I'm going to give the dog up. Well, as you're running down across there, your son's going to pass you up because you're going to be reaching for the dog and he's going to say, bye, Dad, I'm gone. And he splits, you know. But is that what we're supposed to do? Just run like
Starting point is 00:50:09 crazy? You cannot. It's not like a black bear where you just get real big and go, and they run away from you. 90, 95% of us aren't in any kind of physical shape to run a mile and any, at any speed. Uh, we could jog maybe a mile, but to go full blast out and run full out for a half mile or a mile, we'd probably get about 200 yards, and then we're on our knees panting like Hootie. So, yeah. Like Hootie? Yeah, like Hootie, yeah. Hootie and the Blowfish?
Starting point is 00:50:42 Yeah, I mean, and you're done. But, no. But how does Hootie, yeah. Hootie and the Blowfish? Yeah, I mean, you're done. But no. But how does Hootie pant? You're talking about Darius Rucker? I've never heard the saying. You haven't? No. Oh, I've used this for years.
Starting point is 00:50:56 Panting like Hootie? Panting like Hootie. You know about Darius Rucker, though, right? Yeah. He's in the country now. Yeah, yeah. Don't say yeah if you don't know, though. Well, I listen to the music. Okay. He does know.
Starting point is 00:51:08 But is that who you're talking about? When you say hootie... Well, it's a very polite way for me to not use any other language that's offensive. Thank you. So I add hootie to something where somebody would say mm-hmm, and okay. I like that. Thank you. I'm going to start doing that.
Starting point is 00:51:29 I haven't thought about Darius Rucker in a minute. Yeah. So it works real well. Okay, so you'll be panting like hootie, and they're stinging you because you're not far enough away. Yeah. So what do we do? You stay away. If you look what do we do? Stay away.
Starting point is 00:51:45 If you look up there in the tree, you see bees flying around, take another avenue of hiking. So you're saying that as long as you don't do something to directly agitate them, it's unlikely that you will have a problem. If you don't agitate the wife, everything is happy, happy. Okay. If you come in there and you agitate, you know, it could be a whole week before it calms down. Okay. 50 years, man. All right.
Starting point is 00:52:08 50 years of wisdom speaking right there. A lot of wisdom. Well, practical knowledge. Either that or just carry a running weed eater with you at all times as a diversion. You shouldn't do what we did as kids, which we would find a hive and we would throw a stick at it. Oh, yeah. And then run. Across the Cape Fear River. Oh yeah. And then run. Across the Cape Fear River.
Starting point is 00:52:27 Hornets nest. And then up, yeah it wasn't bees, it was, I guess we knew because we could see them. It was a hornets nest. Like one of those big paper hornets. And it was in the crack, it was in a hole in a tree. And I took a stick and threw it and it wedged right in there.
Starting point is 00:52:43 But what you would do is, we were all ready, so we would creep up and you know, it was like 30 minutes of planning. And then it's like, there's a countdown. A little overkill though, you know. And then it's like, all right, here we go. And then, one, two, three, pow. And then you throw it and then we ran, we bolted.
Starting point is 00:53:02 Yeah. Nobody got stung. No, we didn't. Me, you, and Ben. Hornets are mean and the sting hurts worse. You did the one, two, three. You lost all the thrill. You should have just stuck around for another five minutes.
Starting point is 00:53:14 Before five and six. Yeah, and say, ah, and then go home and tell mom and dad, look at me. I'm dimpled all over from stings. Help! Calamine lotion all over my body. So what, now, you like Honey Nut Cheerios? Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:35 But just because they got a B on the box, you're going to talk about Honey Nut Cheerios? Do you eat them every day? No, no. You got them on the shelf at any given time? Yeah, they're there a couple times a week maybe. Couple times a week. Now, do you think if you weren't a bee man,
Starting point is 00:53:51 you'd eat them? Oh yeah. I like them. They're just good. That's it, I like it. So they came first. Yeah. They came before the job.
Starting point is 00:53:59 So they're doing this thing now, they don't have, the bee's gone. The bee's not on the packaging because they're trying to tell people about all the bees that are disappearing. Right, uh huh. Well what's there if there's not a bee there? It's just a space.
Starting point is 00:54:12 It's a white space where Buzz, I didn't even know this, I didn't know his name was Buzz, did you know the bee's name was Buzz? Yeah, he was Buzz. We almost did a, we almost had them as a sponsor but they wanted us to do like a rap with a Cheerios rap and we weren't in a position to do that. Hold on, wasn't like Ludacris involved in this?
Starting point is 00:54:31 No, it was Nelly. Nelly made a Cheerios rap. Nelly had a Cheerios rap, yeah. Why didn't we do that? No, I could. We could have collabed with Nelly. Yeah. So they're doing this thing.
Starting point is 00:54:45 Still love Cheerios, though. So they don't have Buzz on there because of the plight of the honeybees, and they're doing this thing where if you sign up, and we didn't do the sponsorship deal with them. I'm just saying this. I know about this. And we're not currently doing it. And it's still not sponsored by them.
Starting point is 00:54:58 Neither am I. They'll send you wildflower seeds because they want to plant like a million whatever wildflowers, 100 million, something crazy like that. So I'm sure you're studied up on this bee problem. Like what's happening? Well, it's affecting every bee and beekeeper throughout the United States. We're minimum, we're losing 35% of our hives every year. Some areas of the United States are a little higher than that. The bees just die? They're dead, gone. We, as progressive people, we have learned insecticides and sprays. And the EPA has re-identified things that killed, now they
Starting point is 00:55:50 don't kill, where they would kill insects and things like this. They re-identified them this past year and said, no, they won't do any harm. Well, that's correct. It doesn't kill the adult bee, but the spray they use, then the bees bring in the pollen and nectar, and they store it within the hive. And these neonicotinoids that they were using and fungicides, they are into honey. They feed the pollen and that to the growing larva. They die because they can't— they have no resistance to this. These are sprays that are like insecticides, weed killer type of stuff, fertilizer? And the fungicides like-
Starting point is 00:56:36 They probably like originally tested them on adult bees and they were like, oh, they're fine, but they didn't realize. And this has been going on for years. Yeah. but they didn't realize. And this has been going on for years. Yeah. And one of the greatest things in the world is you're a chemical company and you want to sell your product. So you do the testing. They did the testing in their labs, in their facilities, and they came up and said, no harm. Yeah. And they're not biased. No, they're not biased. We're cool. They're cool. They're cool.
Starting point is 00:57:05 So they did all that. And then they filed their paperwork, and the folks all read it, and they go, oh, the chemist at Monsanto and Bayer, they said this is just perfect. And they go, okay, go ahead and use it. No outside labs have ever – and when the outside labs or universities test it, they come back with opposite results and you're seeing anecdotally or locally you're seeing your bees die yeah it's happening everywhere all throughout the united states because you guys get together all you beekeeper yes like a convention uh yes we beekeepers i I didn't mean to sound derisive. Is that even a word?
Starting point is 00:57:45 I usually say derisive. You always come up with those. Is that? Is this righteous? Or is that righteous? He's a righteous man. No. You bet your hootie.
Starting point is 00:57:55 We have conventions throughout the year. I just picture everybody rolling in with a beard full of bees on. Like, hello, Bill. Hello, Clyde. Yes. And, you know. Hello, Tina. You know, beekeepers are.
Starting point is 00:58:09 Nice looking beard, Tina. Yeah. We're very casual guys. So, I mean, 50 miles in, you say, yeah, that guy's a beekeeper. And you go, how do you know? He's driving that flatbed truck towing a forklift. Yep, he's a beekeeper. When you get there, you're sharing your stories that this is not good. This is not
Starting point is 00:58:26 good. We're in dire straits. You know, we have professors, scientists that are coming in from throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe that are informing us of the studies that they're doing on these different insecticides that are used. It is ironic when you look four years ago, approximately, they had the same problem going on in France. The farmers and beekeepers of France went to their government. It was a matter of weeks. Weeks. They took a vote in their parliament and said, fine, the products are banned in France immediately. Take them out of the country. Haul them away. Get them out. And what happened? The bees came back? The bees are starting to come back much better. Because let's clarify,
Starting point is 00:59:21 if that doesn't happen here, what are are the ramifications well and before you even answer that why is it not happening here like is it because of the big the big money and like big AG like Monsanto they lobbying and like keeping people from like the legislation for going going through is that what's happening well that and the pen is mightier than the sword whatever you can write on paper and make it look documentatively correct, it goes through better. Monsanto was the whipping post for many, and they have come on board with several different people in the last few years, and they're changing their attitude, and they're actually putting their checkbook in
Starting point is 01:00:05 to play and starting stronger investigation. Bayer hasn't really jumped on the bandwagon yet and they are the biggest guys in town. Really? Yeah. So they, we got to get them on board. We've got to get them on board. Will we? By we, will the industry get them on board? Wow. We do not have in the beekeeping industry the power of money that they have. Well, you've got Cheerios.
Starting point is 01:00:36 You've got Cheerios. Every little bit helps. Well, Cheerios is on board. Yeah. But it could not be Cheerios. You know, Honey Nut Cereals and all that. You know, only 30% to 35% of the honey that is produced in the United States is actually sold here. 70% or just less is imported from outside of the United States. So the Honey Nut Cereals and the Honey Granola bars and all that would not be a bit surprising that that honey came from Pakistan, India, Australia, Argentina. 70% of that honey that we have in the store we consume came from outside of the United States.
Starting point is 01:01:24 It is ironic. it's just ironic. It's not bad. And what would happen? What would happen? What would happen if this problem isn't corrected? Well, it's been stated by very intelligent peoples that if no bees, no food. They say that the Earth would probably last
Starting point is 01:01:44 three or four years. I don't want to test the possibility over the theory of that. We would have to go into being grain and grass eaters. And I don't think our bodies can digest my front yard. I've tried it a couple times. We would go into decline. And it wouldn't make any difference how much money you have in the world or what your position in life is.
Starting point is 01:02:08 If there's no food to eat, there's just no food to eat, period. So what can we do? What can our listeners do at this point to help? It sounds maybe too simplistic. Sponsor the local beekeeper. Go to his store, go to his farmer's market, and purchase his honey. That will help him maintain his business. We are losing, like I say, 35 percent or better of our hives, but we're losing something even more important. That is beekeepers. Beekeepers
Starting point is 01:02:47 that have been in the business for the second or third generations. They're saying, gee, dad, you and mom can retire. I'm 40 years old. I'm going to go find another job. They're getting out of the business. That is even a bigger loss. Well, here's to that, because I think we've proven that beekeepers are pretty cool. And you know what? I think we've got some of your wares here. Pull it out, man.
Starting point is 01:03:12 We should be toasting honey, man. Let's do it. You brought some, right? Yes. And it was like, it's like warm. It's like it came out of the, it's not as warm now, but I don't know if it came out of a, came straight out of a bee.
Starting point is 01:03:23 Before we came down, or I came down to do, I bottled this up, just freshly bottled up. So fresh. Yeah. This is collected today. Yeah, we ate some of this before with Bill, and now we're gonna do it with you, man. It was cool to hang out with you that day.
Starting point is 01:03:38 It was. And it was cool to hang out here, so. Oh, I have the, I have the spoons. Support the local beekeeper. Support the local beekeeper. Plant some wildflowers. Plant wildflowers. Yeah, get out there and plant wildflowers. Educate your family and friends
Starting point is 01:03:55 out there that you want to get the local honey. Like we're eating right now, this very nice local honey. It's excellent for those who have pollen allergies. It's sad to know that the bees had to die to make this. Because it is the bees' blood, right? It's the bees' blood, right?
Starting point is 01:04:11 It's just the nectar from the flower. No bees died? Didn't they make any of this honey? No, it's just like the TV show and the movies. No animals die at the filming of this show. I'm glad we clarified that. Oh, yeah, me too.
Starting point is 01:04:26 I mean, I couldn't keep up with them. That's good. I like that. You're not going to be able to convince me that's not bee blood, but I still love it. Bee blood? Bee guts? Something. You know, bee blood is actually yellow.
Starting point is 01:04:38 Yeah, just like that honey. That's kind of a brown, amber. That's good. Yeah, it is good. Yeah. It'll put hair on your chest. I'm good there, thank you. Yeah, well, I agree.
Starting point is 01:04:51 What, you seen his chest? That's why I have no hair in my head, it fell down. Thanks for coming in, man. You're welcome, thank you guys. Hope you enjoyed our conversation with Mr. Clyde Sties. You can pick up the honey that Clyde extracts from the honeycomb over at BillsBees.com. It's good, we just ate some.
Starting point is 01:05:19 And support your local bee-est. Yes, you should eat local honey. I mean, that's important. You're supposed to do itist. Yes, you should eat local honey. I mean that's important. You're supposed to do it for the allergies and stuff. So do both of those things. While we're at it, asking you to do things, leave a review on iTunes for this podcast. That's extremely valuable to us.
Starting point is 01:05:38 Comment on SoundCloud if that's where you're listening or on YouTube if you're listening and watching here. Your feedback is always valuable, Mythical Beasts, so use hashtag Ear Biscuits wherever hashtags are found. And if you're watching on the This Is Mythical YouTube channel, we always appreciate a subscription. It's free. Man, all that talk about cereal, man.
Starting point is 01:06:00 Hungry. Honey nut Cheerios does sound good right now. You wanna go get some? Well, I'm also thirsty. Well, there's milk in there. Got to hydrate.

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