While I’ll never claim the title of Beekeeper myself (since I don’t personally own bees right now), I fancy myself as being quite knowledgeable about beekeeping and our friend: apis mellifera. That being said, as I’ve begun to travel to more national beekeeping events, participate in beekeeping clubs outside of my local region, and pay more attention to international beekeeping groups online… I’ve noticed something, …beekeeping practices and beekeepers are not all the same!

I bring this up for two reasons. First, as a beekeeper, it’s important to keep up with new developments in beekeeping and try to broaden your exposure to beekeeping practices outside your local area. There are new challenges coming (new bee parasites as one recent example) and new solutions on the way (bee vaccines as one new example) that will impact all beekeepers. It’s also useful to learn what others are doing differently in other places to get ideas of new ways to look at your own practices.

For Apis Tactical, keeping up with beekeeping all around the world is essential. Just the differences between beekeeping in North Dakota (where I work most closely with my brother’s bees) and Southern California (where I spend the winters) is considerable. I have also begun to develop closer relationships with beekeepers out East as well as in the Southeast of the US where they have a completely different set of practices and concerns. After seeing videos of Brazilian beekeepers dealing with very aggressive bees… I have a new appreciation for how important safety is in our product development as another example.

I’m also beginning to realize just how varied the types of beekeepers are. Hobbyist beekeepers have different needs and concerns from large commercial beekeepers. Those who do bee removal and relocation services have an even more extremely different set of requirements. The importance of being connected to all of these different members of our beekeeping community cannot be overstated.

Of course, it’s important for Apis Tactical to foster and deepen these connections in order to innovate and develop better beekeeping products. More importantly, I want to encourage you as part of the beekeeping community to push yourself to reach out ever further to explore the richness of beekeeping in other places. I know my life has been richer for it, and I’m confident that yours will be as well.