Bob's Bees is a business

Hello readers,

It has been a while since I made time to post something new here.  This has several reasons...

Combining 2 courses, work, getting in immunotherapy and starting up my beekeeping as a secondary occupation are some of them.

On youtube (or underneath) you can find an hour long video where I talk over some footage I shot earlier this year.  I'm not commenting on the video itself, but rather talking about what I did so far this year.  (Not half as much as I'd like to have done.)

I'm not going to cover all my steps from 2019 here again, if you really want to find out, you'll have to listen to me for an hour long :-p

Immunotherapy

In the previous blog post I mentioned being allergic to bee venom.  As it is I'm 8 weeks into immunotherapy.  The dose I get injected with has been gradually increased and this week will be my first full dose.  I don't seem to have problems adjusting and only get a small swelling and some redness around the entry point of the needle.  I also feel very tired after the injection.

The day after the injection the erea around where I got injected itches.  But that's it.

I have two more consecutive weeks to make the trip to the hospital and if my reaction  to the venom doesn't get worse the intervals between injections will increase.

The nurse that gives me the injections is a very nice person and very professional, the hospital and the doctors she works for are very lucky to have her, and so am I.

The Courses

One of the two courses (Imkersbond Deinze en omstreken) has already come to an end.  My friend and I both took the final 'open book' exam and are (still) awaiting the results.  I have never been really good at predicting the outcome of my tests, but I have a good feeling about this one.

The course was only theory, the practical part is yet to come in the form of small voluntary sessions given by the beekeeper that is in charge of the provincial educational apiary.  As far as I'm aware, only two sessions have passed and I was only able to attend one, so looking forward for more sessions.

The other one (De mandelbie) is halfway and has a more practical approach.  With the educational apiary on site under supervision of the chairman of the local beekeeping club that's organising the course.   The chairman is also teaching most of the classes, but allows other teachers to use the apiary.

For both courses most of the sessions so far were given by different teachers and as it is with beekeepers, the opinions on some matters are as far appart as can be.  But overall there is respect for the opinions of everybody even when there is disagreement, some matters are put to rest before things get overheated...

My Friend

I asked my friend if he'd mind being in some video's with me, he didn't mind at all.  So the handsome dude in there is him (I'm the bearded ugly one, but I have the advantage of being younger).  He goes by the name Ives.  Expect to see more of him in the future.

What else is new in Bob's Bees 

I'm really pleased to tell you guys I'm 'in the buzzzziness'.

I started the business mainly to be able to charge for my interventions.  It's too often I get called out for bees that turn out to be bumble bees or even wasps.  I don't charge for collecting swarms, I do for trap-outs and depending on the situation I'd do a cut-out.  I also charge for milage, since I don't have a vehicle that operates on water ...

For all the flemish speaking readers that come here, you can find me here, and on google.

I plan on growing as a business and maybe one day I'll get to be a speaker with something to say...  Hoping to start of in schools where I can introduce the world of the bees to the youngsters.

So that's it for today, I'll be writing up another blog post right after this one with my plans for my next inspection of the bees!

Bob Out!