A Fieldtrip

 Scot Bischoff is a commercial beekeeper in the Marsh Valley. His family use to

live here in Malad and I remember when we first moved to Malad in 1999 his

daughter was the first person to want to be Sundi's friend.

I knew that he raised bees, I didn't really know how big his business was, but I

saw him in Thomas Market, here in Malad and asked if I could ever go with

him when he worked with his bees.

I was so excited when he said I could at the end of April when they split the hives.

I came home to tell Troy and my mother and Troy says,

"He asked if you have a birthday suit?"

"NO, a bee suit"

 Scot had 4000 hives, he lost 1000 hives this winter. A normal winter he would

loose about 600. He has 80 different locations that he transports his hives to.

The area that we went to is where his hives come off the semi,
treated for mites, split and re-queened.

I followed them on a dirt road and when we came around the hill there were 

numerous blue colored hives.

I immediately saw bees all around the car.

As soon as I opened the door I could hear a constant hum....the bees.

A twing of nervousness hit me.
As they started opening the hives the bees really began to be agitated,
so many bees were swarming around my head.
I could feel them hitting all over my suit and I had a slight panic,
but I stayed calm and then I began to relax.

 His 19 yr old son, Brandon has his own 100 hives.

They sprinkle a "Bee Gone", an acid in the lid of a box and place over an open hive,

the fumes make the queen and bees go down into the bottom hive
so they can place the queen excluder.

They helped me recognize so many things that help me to
determine the strength of the hive.

He was talking to me and I asked him a question, he said,

"Let me finish"

I told him, "My mother says that to me all of the time"

Scot wanted to take a 10 min. break and that meant all three of us piling into the
cab of his truck (me in the middle).
They took their head piece off to eat cookies and drink their Brisk teas,
I took mine off and decided to put it back on when Brandon got stung in the neck.
I sometimes wonder how I get myself into odd situations;
I had never spent any time with these two people but there I was squished
between them (they weren't small guys) with a bee suits on,
bees flying around us and talking about bees.

 Scot was excited to see my enthusiasm and fascination of raising bees.

His father was a beekeeper and Scot bought his fist hive when he was 16 and

when his brothers were spending their money on cars he was buying more hives.

His father retired 5 years ago and Scot bought his hives.

In August I will watch them extract the honey.