Busy, Busy, Busy

Another nice warm day, albeit a bit windy... And the girls were out in force!

I was considering looking inside the hive just to see how things were doing. If it was less windy I probably would have, but when I saw all the activity I thought there was little point. Tons of pollen is being brought in. I may throw on some sugar mush but I think things are looking just fine for now

I will look soon, early March most likely!

Trivia Night!

The local Elementary School had it's annual Trivia Night on Friday. The theme was "Party Like a Rock Star" which in some way goes to explain wy I'm dressed like Freddie Mercury!

Anyway, I donated two "Bee in a Bonnet" honey baskets. Clear and Set honey, beeswax and a massage bar. Amazingly I raised $85- which I am very proud of! OK so I have some way to go to beat Bill Turnbull's record of about $7,500 for a pound of his honey!

Spring Preparations

I now feel spring is on the way! Last weekend saw the annual EMBA seminar and this weekend I made a new hive stand in a neighbour's yard just down the street. This new stand will be for my relocated bees from the city. I think I will try to move them in the coming couple of weeks.

I must also think about ordering new queens for my current hives.

Beekeeping Insurance - painful and pointless

I was contacted just before Christmas by my insurance agent over the fact I keep bees in my back yard.  I have a suburban lot in Kirkwood, Missouri, (a suburb of St. Louis) and I have two hives in my back yard.

My agent apparently did a routine inspection of my house (I guess as a result of me refinancing my home) and saw the hives and decided this was a risk they could only cover by putting my home on a small farm policy. Coincidentally this cost three times my household insurance policy!  They claimed they were concerned about the elevated risk of people suing me due to stings and possible allergic reactions. Thoughtfully they did add that my future policy would also cover me for selling products that might later make someone ill! I was assured that research had been done with several insurance companies to see if there may be policies that can cover me for keeping bees.  Apparently, I was told, none do! My insurance is currently was with American Family Insurance.

My initial reaction was that this was simply opportunistic.  When asked, my agent told me that most people when confronted with this issue give up keeping bees on their property!  So I can only assume that people who do keep bees in their yards do so either unaware, or in contravention of their insurance policies or they have never had their properties 'inspected' i.e. what the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve for! 

I was hugely irritated by the assumption that I am (or rather my bees) are assumed to be the guilty party if someone gets stung. My agent said that if someone gets stung in my neighbourhood they may be able to sue me without proving the sting came from one of my bees.  The logic is that because I keep bees I have an elevated profile, so I am assumed to be the party responsible! It seems strange that I would have to prove it wasn't one of my bees in order to avoid being sued.  I think proving one way or the other would be extremely difficult. Anyway, I live in an area where there are several backyard beekeepers living within a small radius  - perhaps 200 yards. 

I decided to contact someone about this.  My beekeeper friends didn’t know much - they don’t have insurance! So I put an email into Kim Flottam at Bee Culture, and got a very prompt reply! Unfortunately he could not supply a name of a company or organization but he expressed his interest in finding out what I ended up doing, and he published my account of what happened initially in the letters page of the February issue of Bee Culture.

Armed with some moral support I embarked on my own research, calling up local contacts, other brokers and Texas Insurance and Financial Services who advertise in ABJ. TIFS (like most companies I called) were more used to dealing with company insurance not insuring the hobbyist / backyard beekeeper. But they nevertheless looked into my predicament and were surprised by my insurance company's approach and sympathetic to my plight!

It turns out that the insurance policy is was offered in Missouri (coverage is different across the states) is basically a farm insurance! Not sure why it has to be a farm, but hey, what do I know! The cover includes for third parties (passers by, trespassers I guess) and also covers my liability with respect to the products I sell (up to a ceiling of $2,000). If I sell more I become a business, albeit a small one I guess.  However, the documentation I have received does not include any mention of beekeeping! The only thing I have is a note from the insurance company in an email which states:

"State Auto has not excluded coverage for beekeepers. The key is: Is it a hobby? If it is a business, it is excluded by form. If it is a hobby, coverage is automatic."

Pretty key I'd say!!!

So this left me asking "What have I learnt?". Well, basically that:

1. Insurance companies are still generally greedy, opportunistic racketeers and have no scruples - my early view has not changed much!
2. The risk of keeping bees is low as is borne out by the rarity of anyone ever being sued for negligence - I challenge you to find any!
3. That if your insurance company doesn't specifically exclude beekeeping you're good!
4. If you are challenged by your broker, tell them to show you exactly where in your policy beekeeping is excluded.
5. If you feel you need insurance cover call Texas Insurance and Financial Services - Allison Moseley was very helpful.

Now the dust has settled I find that, overall, my insurance costs have not significantly increased from before I was "outed" as a backyard beekeeper. In fact I now gave a better auto insurance policy, mainly because I was damned if I was going to keep any business with American Family Insurance!  Finally, and possibly the biggest lesson, was learning you should regularly review your insurance for the best deal and don't just assume your broker is doing their best for you!  All they want is easy money and there is nothing easier than sitting back waiting for your clients to renew their policy without thinking, or helping them!!! 

Did I just do an Inspection?

It seems the start of the beekeeping year gets earlier and earlier!  The next couple of days here in St Louis are going to be a lot warmer than normal, so it's a great opportunity to go and take a look at the hives and check on signs of life!

I just got back from visiting my city hive .  I wasn't sure whether this colony would survive as it was light on food going into the winter. I tried to feed it up in the Autumn but I wasn't sure if the bees has put enough stores away to get them through.  If truth be told, I wasn't sure I wanted them to get though either, but that's another story!

So today I took advantage of near 60F weather to take a peek. Lots of bees flying in front of the hive. Although I didn't see any pollen or forage going in it was good to see them so active, most probably cleansing and cleaning.  I was quite surprised to see the activity. Anyway, I quickly popped the cover to check inside and I could clearly discern a cluster in the middle of the hive.  It was a bit spread out but I put that down to the warm weather.  The hive still seemed pretty heavy, but I still took the opportunity to add a pollen patty under the inner cover - that can't do any harm!

I mustn't get complacent. There's still a long way to go before we can really say winter is over, so I can't be 100% sure this hive will make it, but the early indication is that it will and hopefully do well this summer. 

My plans?  To move the hive back to Kirkwood before the spring. However, I first need to build a hive stand in a friend's garden, then I'll wait for a cold day and move the hive.  That won't be too difficult!  Reckon I'll be doing this in February!

Creating a Green Holiday with the Fransiscan Sisters!

I have to give out a big thank you to the Fransiscan Sisters in Kirkwood and to Diane Hippert in particular for inviting me to an evening on how to create a "Green Christmas".  I was asked, along with Susan, to man a booth about bees; to answer any questions and to sell a little honey and other stuff if I wanted.

It was an extremely interesting evening!  The Key Note speaker ran a single stream re-cycling facility that deals with Kirkwood's recycling as well as a whole lot more from other areas.  If you ever wanted to know your recycling goes, how it gets recycled and why you should recycle, this was the evening meeting to go to!

Why a single stream and not separete ones?  Well because the technology and automation now enables it to be done this way - optical sensors, electro magnets, eddy currents etc. etc.

And the honey sales were great too!  Most of my stock sold and the massage bars sold like hot cakes!  I just have to market and sell more!  If anybody is interested, contact me through the blog and I will try and get some to you before Christmas!

Giving Thanks!

It's been a while since I blogged last, and today is Thanksgiving!  So what did I do to give thanks today? I Made some massage bars, that's what!  Stunningly simple and whilst I haven't yet popped them out of their molds they feel lovely.  So here's the receipe...

"Honey, rub me all over!" Massage Bars...
1 part beeswax
1 part Cocoa Butter (I used 100% organic, but I don't suppose it really makes a difference)
1 part fractionated coconut oil.

Basically you melt the beeswax, drop in the cocoa butter until it melts, add the oil, mix and make sure it's all melted then chuck it into some molds.  Easy! Here's the link to the receipe.... Oh, I understand if you eat it it won't harm you!