Bee Trip!

[aggienaut]

   A day after coming back from Flagstaff I was off again, bound for Redding, CA w the bee boss Dave & his friend Prof Thoenes (an entomology profressor from Tucson, his parents had owned Southwestern Bee Supply).
   Our mission was to purchase some beehives up in Redding. Dave was itching to get back in the beekeeping business because (A) we'd gotten so much crap lately from certain people in the OC Beekeeping Assn about being nothing but "bee killers" and (B) he also just felt like getting back into it for fun. Dave had previously owned Sundance Honey Co, an apiary he had bought from someone else but eventually folded up because bee busting was a lot more profitable in OC and took all his time. Dave still owned the name though so our new hives will be under that name again.
   The guy we were buying the hives from (Ed Allen) used to have 1,500 hives, but one of his coworkers got careless with a smoker and burned down a neighgbouring forest. Ed Allen subsequently got sued for $6.5 million and lost all but about a hundred of his hives. Now he's like 88 and just lost two more fingers so he's looking to reduce further down to just hobbyist levels.
   So we bought 102 hives. Mr Allen's even letting us keep them where they are for now, and after almond pollination Dave has another friend up there who's got some land we can move them to.

   Almond pollination, btw, is the most profitable thing one can do with a hive. One can get around $145 per hive to put them in almond orchards from Feb 1st through April 1st. Considering we bought the hives for much less than that it looks like we're pretty likely to turn a tidy profit already within just a few months. We've already talked to a Bee Broker (yes there's such a profession - they get $3 a hive to coordinate between beekeepers and almond growers).
   And almonds, incidentally, I think may be the most profitable crop in the central valley. Its one of the few places in the world they grow for some reason. Since everyone growing other things is seeing that their neighbour is making twice as much growing almonds, there's a lot of new almond fields being planted. Looked like the number of almond orchards are set to increase by at least 20%, judging by all the newly planted fields we saw. (And since it takes bees to pollinate them, this is good for the bee industry!)

   Anyway, the first night we stopped in Davis. I showed Dave & Steve (Dr Thoenes) G Street Pub & we ate at Woodstocks. Hanging out and talking about almond orchards and bee diseases, I actually rather felt like an "aggie" for once. Then I met up with my friend Allan Rae, who works for monsanto.
   In the morning we stopped by the UC Davis Bee Research Facility real quick before heading up to Redding.
   After concluding our business in Redding we headed on down to Chico where Dave had gone to school and his nephew Thaddeus currently goes. There Dave felt like going to a steak place, and he paid for it, so I got a $27 steak =d! The benefits of travelling with Dave. We also stopped by the Sierra Nevada Brewery that is there, and I had Sierra Nevada Scotch Ale (I've never heard of Scotch Ale before?!) and it was quite good. Tasted like almonds. ;) And we visiting some Chico bars.
   The next morning we came back.

   Arriving home I found all these movie set trailers on my street. Apparently Disney was filming something at one of the houses. d= Hollywood sure loves OC these days.

Comments

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

2 MORE fingers!

[daemonllama.livejournal.com]

Entomology or etymology?

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

oops thanks fixed, yeah, the one that studies bugs.