Thomas J. Mani - Beyond the Ordinary Dot Net

~~~ Thomas J. Mani ~~~

Thomas Mani was born in Switzerland and came to the NorthWest in 1999. He and his wife Karla currently have a Landscaping business and are beekeepers. When we discovered Thomas was going to provide classes for new beekeepers we jumped at this opportunity. He is very knowledgeable and experienced on the subject and has a profound respect and admiration for nature, and for the importance of honey bees. We have begun our first beehive colony and it's so wonderful we had to share this with you! Thomas has kindly agreed to add BTO to his busy schedule with a series on Bees, and Beekeeping.

Why do we think this is important for you? Why are they disappearing? How can we have a luscious garden as we have been urging you to have (even on a balcony) without pollination? Is it only an individual action? No, being a beekeeper is a social act, as a study on pollination shows how the community benefits more from the bees than the beekeepers themselves. You will learn about this concept in his talks on BTO.

Interested in learning how to keep bees? Your hosts were definetly game for this new adventure! It was quite a thrill for us to transport a box full of bees and by ourselves, following Thomas' intructions, install them into the new hive and keep them fed for over a week before Thomas arrived for his first program with us. After the program we took him out to inspect the new hive and watched him slowly and expertly remove the frame of bees with the queen for us to see. He showed how to recognize the cells for storing honey from ones that hold the queens eggs, and we saw a drone which looks quite different from the worker bees. Then he closed the hive with the greatest of care not harming one bee! This is all done with bare hands and no face nets, beginners are encouraged to wear protection until they get used to the bees. We will add more fantastic photos after future programs! Different hives, wild hives, swarms, and more!

Thomas Demonstrates:

The first hive has been assembled (glued, nailed, and painted) then the slow and careful transfer from the nuc (white starter & transit box) of the bees on their racks into the hive where food awaits, There's syrup in the black container. Then Thomas hits the nuc to get the remaining bees into the hive... he says "it's the part they really don't like" then he 'smokes' them so they will go in and the top can be put on.

An arrow on a photo points to the queen who has red dot, and in the last photos there's a close-up of the queen, Thomas shows how to remove a stinger, and last, Beyond the Ordinary's first hive!

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Listen Now	April 8th, 2008 "Bee Hold God" For Thomas, 1999 was an exceptional year. He found RSE, began beekeeping, and married Carla who he met at his Beginner's Retreat. What are bees all about? We found Thomas to be a superb teacher not only in the how to but also the love and appreciation of bees, their intelligence and huge contribution to our lives. His series of classes in Yelm yielded 38 new beekeepers, including your hosts, for a total of 86 new bee colonies! It's his way of contributing to the return of the bees. Why are they disappearing? He explains the difference between commercial beekeeper's monocultures and why they are more likely to vanish than with individual beekeeping in more natural environments with variety. "Habitats are being destroyed, and the 'lots of grass-no wildflowers' new landscaping is deadly for bees, not a good food source." Being a beekeeper is a social act as a study on pollination shows the community benefits more from the bees than the beekeepers themselves. He knows by their sound what kind of mood the bees are in, "bees are insects, not the kind of pets you are used to, so learn about them and see if you like these incredible creatures." Interestingly, bees and the wind are the driving forces for cross pollination which creates bio-diversity and the big agra and chemical companies don't want that! They want control of the seeds and so bees and wind are messing up their business. "Cross pollination is a very important contribution of the bees to the evolution of nature" --and why the honey bee is absolutely the most efficient pollinator of them all.