The Monk and the Honey Bee (Brother Adam)

[little john]

The Monk and the Honey Bee (Brother Adam)

If anyone's interested in the above video - someone's uploaded it (in five parts) onto YouTube.  Links:

Code: [Select]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4j9tSneoL4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF0fvNLrT7c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQdbOb4bg0A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmGN5n9Z9Zs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOe4_HfjSv0
You'll need to copy and paste those links - I've put them in that form, otherwise they'd have taken up a whole webpage. :)
LJ

[eltalia]

Hey LJ... any guess as to total MBytes for the package?
I got that clue on downloading to work but still need to plan
acccess to fit with our offpeak time - 2:00AM.
Ta..

Bill

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Hey Bill, Hey Lil John:

Excellent videos, yes I viewed all videos, just excellent.  Thanks Lil John for posting the links.
Some cool facts about Buckfast obtained from the videos:

Worlds largerst Honey producer, 700 pound of honey from a single hive.
Unique breeding:  first, years of open breeding select queens with feral drones,,,, then years breeding in isolated remote area void of feral colonies,,, finally, fine tuned with instrumental insemination.  Decades of breeding to create this unique ?Buckfast? bee: gentle, great Honey producer, disease resistant.

Brother Adam lost his entire Apiary of dark bees to disease, only his itialian cross survived and this cross was the genesis of the Buckfast honey bee, after decades of breeding.  Traveling the world, selecting the best queens from a given region Brother Adam devoted his life to bees and his faith.

Absolutely great videos, thanks again Lil John.
Blessings

I should add, in the videos Brother Adam, pets, gently strokes his honey bees bare handed.  It has been said, Brother Adam had a relation with his bees, he was gentle and his bees responded accordingly.

[eltalia]

Your post could've held a "Spoiler Alert" header Brian... heh :)

"Worlds largerst Honey producer, 700 pound of honey from a single hive."
That is some claim.. around 318kg, beats anything I have ever witnessed
or even heard of in a single season, like a 360day season. Taipo... or
hearing aid squelch?
No wonder the Arabs are into them :-)))))

Soooo.. what was the whole payload in megabytes Brian?

Bill

[little john]

Hey LJ... any guess as to total MBytes for the package?
I got that clue on downloading to work but still need to plan
acccess to fit with our offpeak time - 2:00AM.
Ta..

Bill

Total for all five is around 320 Mb - in .MP4 format.
LJ

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Bill, each video is about average 18 minutes except for the last short video.   Well worth the time, Buddy.
Blessings

[eltalia]

"Total for all five is around 320 Mb - in .MP4 format."

Great..!..done deal. I'll get into it over the weekend, thanks LJ :)

Bill

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Bill, regarding 700 pounds of Honey: the video did not say in a single season.  For all I know, it was years old, the video just said ?a single hive, world record.?  I wonder if the hive was combined, I doubt it, Brother Adam was an honest man.

[jtcmedic]

Thank you for this link i want to read his books next.

[herbhome]

Thanks lil John,

I have bookmarked these to view later.

[little john]

Bill, regarding 700 pounds of Honey: the video did not say in a single season.  For all I know, it was years old, the video just said ?a single hive, world record.?  I wonder if the hive was combined, I doubt it, Brother Adam was an honest man.

Hi Van.
Re: those figures.  They can be heard in the 3rd part, at 11 minutes onwards.

The narrator comments that the Buckfast Abbey colony which had just been inspected returned less than 20 kg (44 lbs) - which is described as being 'average' for that location.

The narrator then goes on to comment that in 1983, a French 'Buckfast' colony produced 230 kg  (506 lbs), and in 1985 one Danish 'Buckfast' colony produced a record-breaking 350 kg (770 lbs).

The honey crop is always dependant on nectar availability - which is why I measure my own honey crop in teaspoonfuls, rather that kilogrammes ...   
LJ

[little john]

Thanks for the thanks guys -  I think you'll enjoy watching that movie.  It does come across as something of a sales-pitch for the Buckfast Bee at times, which I guess is to be expected - but that's more than made-up for by witnessing a highly dedicated 90-year old guy trekking across Africa in search of an elusive insect.  Inspiring stuff, even for those who might disagree on principle with the importation of genetics from foreign habitats.
LJ

[Van, Arkansas, USA]

Good afternoon buddies, just thought I mention, I just purchased the book ?Beekeeping at Buckfast Apiary.?  I was inspired by the videos and the dedication of Brother Adam.
Blessings

[eltalia]

All please accept my comments as intended, impartial informed observation only.
First, my sincere thanks to whomsoever ripped the movie in that format and uploaded it.
A professional piece of work, and trust me I know my video stuff more than well enough
to comment. I will be ripping the pertinent info from it for my own purposes - not for
distribution.
Thankyou Little John(LJ) for the links.

I confirm LJ's pointer to the stats, they begin at 21:45 and are truly
astounding, moreso for the box type deployed and the location(climate).

Some here and elsewhere do take umbrage at my comments on the repetitive
 reference to "old Masters". I have had to learn to leave much
of that "flak" be as those so inspired to post the comment on my comments
are well steeped in that Library and it is not up to me to educate them.
"Brother Adam" is one such oft haven of refuge as rebuttal to a differing view.
Buuut just take a close look at the fella through the prism of that film. A film
which is indeed largely a "fluff piece" for a sales pitch by the Buckfast Company.
For those that know what tbey are seeing there are very very few new bits of
information in any of it. Certainly there is no defined pathway
described on how BA arrived at Buckfast lineage nor how it is maintained
if indeed it is, today. A few isolated apiaries utilising AI is not the answer, it's
wishfill propaganda by an industry.
You look at BA in his story and what I see is another beekeeper, no different
to many I have met personally, and no doubt the very same stereotype reading
this post right now. BA paid attention.
That and funding by the Benedictines is what made his story, BA's role
was to create something unique to sell - over and above the heather honey it
all began with, and that not quite enough to keep him out of the chapel
on his knees. Though it has to be said it is a brave man that wanders the hillsides
shown in tending to randomly placed hives, how his knees survived to at age 90
go tour that Mountain in Africa is beyond belief in sheer stamina!

BA wrote a book, many write bee focused books, and do signings.
I read books, eagerly... but I do not live by their teachings to the letter.
I do test, I do recognise what I read that works, yet I still have little time for
bee 'ravings' of an individual so inclined to publish bound volumes holding
backstop references to ancient(?) works of beekeepers, b'keeps no different
to those today so inclined as to pay attention.
There are some clues in that film, just as there are many many clues in
those ancient Skep films... but "buy the book"(???), I do not think so.

However if someone chooses to scan it and upload the PDF I'll be glad to
critique that too ;-))))

Thanks for your time in reading.

Bill