EPISODE 11 – Carol Legg Of 4 The Boys Farm

BG Hamrick 0:13
Hi, everybody, BG Hamrick. Welcome back to another edition of the Local Impact Podcast. And this week, we have the privilege of speaking with a lady by the name of Carol Legg, Carol is with us to talk about all that she’s involved in, in her local farm. Carol is a she self describes a mom, a wife, a Mimi, a farmer, and a beekeeper, who is, you know, passionate about all the things that she does. And I’ll let you tell more about that Carol, as you introduce yourself to the folks but first of all, just Welcome to the podcast today.

Carol Legg 0:50
Thank you so much. I’m honored to be here.

BG Hamrick 0:53
So let’s do that. Let’s talk about the history of, you know, where you came from, maybe a little bit about your family about your farm, just kind of give us a little biographical insight into Carol Legg today as we get started.

Carol Legg 1:07
I’d love to, um, well, I was Texas born and moved from Texas. My dad worked for Dow Chemical and we moved quite a bit so moved from Texas to Arkansas to Michigan and then I ended up here and been out in California a little bit. So I’ve been a little bit everywhere, but ended up settling down here in West Virginia, I fell in love with it the first time I came here. So um, that’s a little bit about that. And then, when we moved in ’99 late ’99 early 2000, I struggled with trying to find you know, some place where my passions would, you know, fit in with with a career and worked at different areas, you know, and ended up managing a feed store locally, which was great because it fit in with with my agriculture heart. So I enjoyed doing that for about 10 or 11 years. And then about I don’t know I think we’ve owned the farm about six years, maybe seven years now and work working full time at the feed store didn’t really have a chance to you know, focus on the farm as much as I wanted to. So decided to go ahead and retire quote unquote, from the feed store and focus on my passion which is mainly beekeeping and, we grow ham and I have goats and just a little kind of a homestead type of situation I’m not completely to the homesteading you know degree but that’s kind of the direction we want to go. But that’s kind of where we’re at. But I’ll tell ya retiring…It’s hard work

BG Hamrick 3:28
You get busy when you retire. I know that can be. Hey before we get too deep into you know what you do on the farm. Can you tell us about the name 4 The Boys Farm? And I thought that was an interesting interesting concept.

Carol Legg 3:44
The, 4 The Boys Farm was actually thought of by my youngest daughter. We had at the time four grandsons. And now we’ve got five. So the number four was for the four grandsons at the time and then little little Wells came along and they were like, Oh, no. We’ve kind of kept that because you know I’ve kind of branded it a little bit but I’m not sure how we’re going to how we’re going to fit the fifth little grandson in the in the name of the Farm but I’m still trying to work on that.

BG Hamrick 4:27
Yes, I guess 5 The Boys Farm doesn’t quite… Yeah. Maybe 4 The Boys Farm Plus one or something.

Carol Legg 4:36
4 The Boys Farm plus, plus Wells. We’re we’re trying to figure that one out. But this is what we this is what we wanted to do. We wanted to leave something for our grandkids to, to have when we’re gone and we’re trying to build that up. You know, so that, that they can, you know, hopefully continue on with with that legacy. So, um, that’s the story behind that.

Whitney Barnhart 5:14
That’s so cool. So how many bees which are hives or however you, you know, measure bees, many bees do you have on your farm and what does it take to like take care of them and be a true beekeeper.

Carol Legg 5:29
Currently, I have 12 hives, which they’re all in the same apiary on the corner of our field, and it’s a little intimidating at times. Because there’s, luckily and so we’ve got some strong hives this year, there’s a lot of bees in every one of the hives, so it’s a little bit intimidating to have them all in one spot because I was noticing a week or so ago that I have a little spot next to my apiary that I just kind of sit and chill and you know, watch my bees and I was noticing at certain times in the afternoon like between two and three o’clock all of the forger bees seem to come back in at the same time. Like they’ll be out collecting pollen and nectar. And they seem to all come back into the hives at the same time. So in front of the hives, you have this big traffic jam of bees, and they just kind of you know, circle and wait for their turn to enter the hive with their you know what they’ve selected. But it’s a really ominous sound really.

You know, it’s like, there’s just all of these bees at once right there. But it’s, it’s really phenomenal to watch. And, and I, it’s, it’s and that’s what brought me to beekeeping really as I started reading and researching about their world, and it really is they they have their own, you know, it’s their own little world in there, they’ve got their worker bees, they’ve got, you know, nurse bees, they’ve got clean up bees I mean every every bee has a job. So it’s just a really fascinating

I don’t know if you want to call it a hobby, but

so it’s a fascinating world, that they that they are that they it’s just, I try to, I try to actually limit how many times I get into the hives. Because I I kind of want them to be as natural as possible.

But I mean, I do, you know, I do get into them.

Maybe every other week, I try to

just to do little spot checks on, you know, if there’s any queen cells, there’s any insects bothering them. Because it’s, it’s it, it’s hard. I mean, they they are, there’s so many things against the bees. It’s just, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s environmental, it’s other, you know, insects, it’s, you know, mites since you know, moths just, they’ve got a lot against them. So I try to limit my time but yet, still try to get involved when needed.

BG Hamrick 8:57
I love that I love that you’re trying to keep a balance between you know, keeping the bees and also letting the bees be the bees and let them do what they they need to do. And I’ve read like you over the years a lot about the society that that bees build for themselves and how they’re so interesting about all the parts and roles that they play that you talked about. Let’s go a little bit deeper and what you talked about there a minute ago about how important bees are to you know, to our world. I mean literally without them we could not survive we would not see

our world continue because of the pollination and all the things that they do for us Can you speak a little bit more about I know your passion was to kind of study the bees in their in their world but I’m sure you’re also drawn to the fact of the importance and urgency that we have as a people to protect these these hives and to and to continue to let the bees bees to thrive and and do what they do. Can you talk more about what is threatening the bees

And why it’s important that if we can maybe we choose a hobby like this also.

Carol Legg 10:05
Absolutely. Like I was saying, there’s there’s so many that the main thing

Well, I don’t know if it’s, there’s, there’s two main things that are against, you know, the

honey bees and you know, the first one being environmental

I have if you were to come to my farm, it’s the people my neighbors probably think I’m nuts because I have all these signs, you know, no spray zone, beekeeping, you know, I’ve got all these signs put up, and but

there’s so many people and I don’t know that it’s lack of awareness, maybe that they, you know, use chemicals to, you know, kill the weeds in their yard. And, you know, it’s little things like that, that people do that. And, you know, I’m

I’m the type of person that likes to give people the benefit of the doubt, maybe it’s lack of awareness that they don’t know that those you know,

BG Hamrick 11:15
Sure.

Carol Legg 11:16
You know, killing those dandelions in the springtime, you know, is they don’t have maybe they just don’t know, but, you know, I would like to get more awareness out there for sure for that. And then there’s, you know, the

varroa mites are horrible. That’s one of the main you know, varmints so to speak, that, that go after the bees and, you know, like I was saying, I try to keep them as natural as possible, but they can’t, if they get a bad infestation of varroa mites, they can’t defend themselves. A few of them here and there. Yeah, if you’ve got a strong hive, they’re able to, you know, stave off the mites, but

if it’s not a real strong hive that they’re gonna get taken out. Yellow Jackets is another predator, they will take out a hive in no time. If you’ve got a weak hive, they just they decimate it, they go in they, they take all that they rob all the honey, they kill the larva.

They they just decimate the hive as well as wax moths wax moths is another enemy that I absolutely despise. I’ve lost so many hives to those things, but

the main thing that I’ve learned is if you have a strong hive, you’ve got a better chance of of defending, you know, so I try to keep my hives strong. And I try to you know, I wish I could like keep my bees on my farm.

Because I know that you know, we’re all organic. I don’t use anything. Even with you know, growing my cut flowers and hemp and produce and stuff we don’t we use all natural, you know, fertilizers and pesticides. So if I could keep my bees on my farm might be a little be a little happier. I’ll rest a little bit better, but I don’t so.

I just try to make my neighborhood and surrounding area aware that I’m a beekeeper so please don’t spray.

Whitney Barnhart 13:41
Yeah.

BG Hamrick 13:42
Right. Thank you for that.

Whitney Barnhart 13:44
So, where do you get your bees from? Do you like keep them from year to year? Do you go out and collect hives that are kind of like I’ve seen this girl on tik tok that she always like she’s like, goes out to these bees that have swarmed a truck or a fire hydrant or whatever she just scoops them up into a little hive and takes them off like do you do stuff like that too?

Carol Legg 14:05
Yep, absolutely. Um That’s how I’ve gotten let’s see two I went got two swarms this this spring

and I get my bees different ways I’ve got I bought two Nucs this spring just because I want to try and right now I’ve got sassafras bees and cornellians and I’m trying to like convert all over to the carnies because they’re, they’re a nice, hardy bee. They’re, they’re more equipped, they’re real good with cold weather, you know, temperatures so they they do really well in the wintertime.

And then I I split my hives

in the in the spring, you know, to add more to add more colonies. So I get them from several different ways. But you know, I’d like to be it’s so weird around here and I’m sure it is, you know, in other counties and other states too. But when somebody puts on like social media, there’s a swarm over here, you would not believe the amount. It’s like, if you’re not like, right there. I mean, beekeepers are like they like they day is the charge to

BG Hamrick 15:26
Like storm chasers.

Carol Legg 15:29
It’s like, Oh, my God, okay, five minutes that was on Facebook. And already there’s 50 beekeepers on thier way. So you’re not quite there, which is fine. You know, at least you know that the bees are getting saved. But there was, yeah, there was one that was a few weeks ago, I was contacted by a local girl that had inherited her family’s old farmhouse that had, like, literally been in her family for years and years and years, and she had a huge colony of bees inside the walls. And unfortunately, I have not done that’s what’s called a cut out. And I haven’t done those before but I would like to learn I’m actually got in contact with a local beekeeper in my area that does them. And he said next time he does one he’s gonna give me a call, so I can go and Watch and learn. So, but yeah, I mean, it’s different things like that. But you know, I’d like to be I’d like to be you know, more active as far as that when people see swarms, I’m the first person that they think of, you know, so, it’s, it’s, but that’s, you know, I get my hives and you know, those those different ways I you know, I buy Nucs I try not to buy I’m trying to get to a point where I don’t buy anymore. I just make my own bees from swarms. So yeah, I’m up to 12 hives now and I probably could do another couple of splits and but I will see

Whitney Barnhart 17:19
okay, that’s so cool. Because I’m super interested in bee farming and beekeeping and you know, making sure all the bees are are safe and because we need them so desperately but let’s also talk about your hemp farming a little bit too how does that work? I know that I’m sure there’s a ton of regulations and things that you have to have to maintain so what does all that entail?

Carol Legg 17:52
With the new farm bill, it got a little more nightmarish. But it’s I mean, it’s not it’s not that bad. We’ve grown hemp we took it we’re kind of on a hiatus with that this year only because number one we we listed our house that we live in now it’s it’s sold we’re building a house a straw bale house up on our farm and the house is nowhere near done. So we’re going to be probably sleeping in a tent for a little bit. But so they thought with all of this stuff we’ve got going on right now. We kind of took a break I went I went ahead and got my license to grow hemp this year. But uh, we kind of took a break from it but we still have plenty of product left from last year’s growing season. So I’m good there but it’s. I started. I started using CBD oil probably about eight years ago. And the reason I started using it was because I I suffered with anxiety for probably 30 years like crippling anxiety. And I discovered CBD oil. And it worked. It worked better than prescription medicine that I was using for probably 28 years I was using prescription medicine and try the CBD oil work and it worked. Not only with with with the anxiety but with my old age. Arthritis and everything else. I just noticed an overall you know better feeling. So that’s you know, again, I research like crazy. Everything that I go to do or try I research it. So when I was researching that You know, I you know, I found out so many interesting things. And then when I tried it and realized that it worked, I was like okay, I got to get in with this and then when it was, you know, passed that you could grow it, I jumped on it. So we we grew this would be our third season. So we’re super excited to get started again next year with our growing but like I said, I still got product now. So we’re actually going to be releasing we’re launching a new product which is CBD infused chocolates, gourmet chocolates. That I’m like super excited about those. So that was done collaboration with another hemp farm join in half universal kind of a we’ve been working with them for a couple years they’re great people. But we kind of collaborated together and came up with these gourmet chocolates and I think people are going to like them

BG Hamrick 21:18
I think that you know people don’t always research enough to find out things are about before they have their misconceptions and judgments. I think what we don’t understand we fear a lot. What are some misconceptions, Carol of hemp farming that maybe we could debunk today and talk about you know, this is not what you may think this is not a marijuana crop. This is not a this is not this is not a drug crop. This is this is uh, this is something totally different. Can you explain the difference in kind of calm some of the wild fears out there and misconceptions of people’s you know, misunderstandings.

Carol Legg 21:59
Sure um, it is it is it is cannabis but it’s it’s not marijuana. It’s technically as far as like the farm bills concerned and all that it’s not technically marijuana until it goes up the total THC legal total THC and that’s one of the the regulations you know, that they’ve been very strict about with making sure that your total THC stays under the .3, you know, .3% so if it goes over that then in their regulations, it’s hot, and you have to destroy the crop. It does not get you high. I’ve had people you know, like I can’t take that I don’t want to get high and I’m like okay, okay, you don’t get high from it. There’s our product yes has the THC in it, the legal amount of THC, it’s below. But in my opinion, the THC, it’s a cannabinoid itself. So if you take that THC completely out, you’re missing parts of the of the plant that you need. So the THC needs to be in there in order for it to work how it’s supposed to work. And the cannabinoids, all of the cannabinoids work together and help. I can’t say heal does not heal anything helps to restore and replenish what your body needs. So, that is one huge misconception you do not get high from it.

So that I guess that’s the biggest one is, you know, you’re not going to get high from it.

Unknown Speaker 24:06
I think that’s important because a lot of people do do misunderstand and I think what you’re doing is, you know, you’re talking about not being able to say it doesn’t heal, but it definitely promotes health in our lives. And it definitely keeps us you know, helps our bodies to do things that maybe it’s lacking or or or needs Yeah.

Carol Legg 24:21
It’s a supplement. It’s it’s used as a supplement, it’s to be used as a supplement. It’s just it’s and I tell you know our clients that that that first start taking CBD oil, they’ve never taken it before. Use it as you would take in your vitamin C in the morning and your vitamin, you know, such and such at night. If you don’t take it consistently, it’s not going to help you this isn’t a one and done take a pill. It’s not it’s a supplement and it’s supposed to be used as a supplement and if you use it correctly, it will help you

Whitney Barnhart 25:00
You’ve mentioned products that you have several times, including your new gourmet chocolates, which are super cool. What other CBD products do you have? And how can people get ahold of those products?

Carol Legg 25:12
We have 500. Well, we’ve got 250 milligram pet oil, which I wish more people knew about that because it, the pet oil has helped my pets personally. I had a dog that had seizures at a very young age as a pup. And as soon as I started, you know, learning about CBD oil, I started giving it to that dog, and she stopped having seizures period. Yeah, so we’ve got the 250 milligram pet oil, then we’ve got 500 milligram oil and 1000 milligram oil. And we will soon have 1500 milligram oil. And we do have vape cartridges, I don’t sell a whole lot of those, because I don’t, I don’t really promote them as much as I should, but they have a lot of people are into the vape thing. So we do have those. And right now, that’s about it along with the chocolates. Unfortunately, um, we have to like, take it, you know, we have to reintroduce our products kind of slowly, because with the new regulations, it’s it’s cost quite a bit to, to get your product out there. Because not only do you have the cost of growing it and processing it and all of that, now you have to have full panel testing done, and you have to register each product. So there’s a lot of costs involved for one product, you’re looking at just the testing and registration alone could be right at $1,000 per product.

BG Hamrick 27:08
Wow.

Carol Legg 27:09
Yeah. So it’s we’re having to, you know, kind of ease ourselves into that one because that, that that’s a that’s a chunk of change for each product to work out. But we’ll get there.

BG Hamrick 27:25
Where can people get these products? And where can they and how can they reach you if they want more information about those products? And I have another question. If you want to answer you may have already answered this in your 1500 milligram product that’s on Facebook, you’ve got a new product coming out. I don’t know if that’s something we could scoop today. Or if that was that 1500 milligram product it’s on it’s on its way out.

Carol Legg 27:42
Yeah. 1500 milligram and the the chocolates those are the the new products that we have on our Facebook page, you can hit those shop now. And that’ll take you to our Etsy shop where we, we sell off of the Etsy shop or you can contact you know, message me on on Facebook. And a lot of people just do that because I for some reason they don’t. They don’t want to, you know, I guess they like the more personal which is fine. I don’t like I don’t care either way, you know, I get it. I’d rather deal with somebody personally myself, but then there’s a lot of people that that will hit that shop now but that’ll take you right to our Etsy shop and you can shop there.

BG Hamrick 28:30
Excellent.

Carol Legg 28:31
Yeah.

Whitney Barnhart 28:32
How can people in the community help you continue to you know, save the bees and have your farm and do all the great things you’re doing for the community? What can we do to help support you in that endeavor?

Carol Legg 28:44
Um, I guess the biggest thing that I’ve had problems with is literally that just local support.

I’ve got a few local people that shop with us, but I should would like to have more. A lot of people with the CBD products, they think it’s better to go to your local gas station and pick up some CBD products there. Which are complete yuck. Don’t do that. Number 1 you don’t know where it’s coming from. Number 2 you don’t know the purity of it. I wouldn’t want to do that. You’ve got a product that I have all our testing. I’ve got our potency testing. I’ve got our full panel test that tells if there’s any pesticides, microbials, you know, and our tests prove that we are fully organic. So you know where it’s coming from and you know it’s pure. As far as the beekeeping, I guess the main thing with that is just be mindful of the pesticides and what you put on your lawns and. Let those wildflowers grow. It’s okay. Let the dandilions stay there for a little bit. Believe it or not bees forage a lot off of the trees when they’re starting to bud. Locus is one of the first things that’ll come out. Maples in the springtime. So, don’t cut so many trees.

And our honey, I have got a list for our honey. I don’t have any issues getting rid of the honey. Right now I’m not focussing so much on honey production. I’m focussing on building my hives up. We do take a little bit of honey. I took some yesterday that will be some good springtime honey. For those springtime allergies. But

right now, like I said, I’m not I’m not focusing a whole lot on on honey production, I will get to the point where I’ll, I’ll choose certain hives, you can, I’ll be able to tell which hives are going to produce more honey, and which ones are going to produce more bees. So I’ll get separated, you know, and I’ll have my honey producing hives and my bee producing hives, and it’ll, it’ll all come together.

BG Hamrick 32:07
That’s great. Carol, this has been really good. It’s so good to know you and get to get to get to understand what you’re doing. And I hope that the message that we get today from all of this discussion is that there are farmers like you that are all around our tri state area that we should support and we should embrace, you’re doing good things for our environment, you’re doing good things for the community. And I understand that we need to have regulations and safety for people to get products from just anywhere we understand that. But to support you and to bring business to you and a shop local with someone like you is, is going to just help all of us in our local community, it’s going to help you to grow and thrive as a farm. And it’s going to help you know our environment to grow and thrive. And we just appreciate so much of what you do. And it was good to get connected with you. We had a little challenge getting this scheduled. But I’m glad we finally did and we stuck to it and figured it out. Because this is really, really interesting. And I hope that the 4 The Boys Farm, just you know, becomes all that you want it to be and it grows and becomes all that you want to leave as a legacy to, you know, your grandchildren and the four plus one.

grandchildren, I think it’s just a fabulous legacy to leave. It’s in and we embrace what you do. And we do want to care for the bees, watch the flowers, watch the trees, those daily lions as the first food for those bees every spring. So keep them out there for a little while. And for the hemp. Make sure you understand or research and understand what that’s about and CBD oil and what it can do for for folks. And just I would just encourage people not to rush to judgment, but to embrace and encourage and support farms like you. And I appreciate again, you being on the podcast today.

Carol Legg 33:51
Thank you so much for the opportunity. And it was great to be able to get my my message out there. And if people have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to reach out. I want to educate people as much as I can. Because that’s what it’s all about. That’s that’s what it’s all about. And the more our farm is supported, the more we can give back to the community.

BG Hamrick 34:17
Absolutely. And we’ll make sure that all of your contact information is in our show notes, and on our Facebook and other social media platforms. And anything that’s new or coming up along the way. If you’ll just keep us on your list of people you reach out to to let us know what’s happening at the farm and what new things are are going on. We’d love to share it with our audience as well. And we’ll let you know when the podcast is live and you can share it out with your audience also.

Carol Legg 34:42
That’s going to be awesome. Thank you so much.

BG Hamrick 34:44
Thank you, Carol. Thanks, everybody for watching. Thanks, Whitney for being a part of this. I didn’t even introduce you at the beginning of the show as though you’re like a prop or something. It’s I’m gonna

Whitney Barnhart 34:52
That’s Okay.

BG Hamrick 34:53
No, no, you’re a big part of

all your help always on the podcast and we’re coming

really close to the close of our season this year, but we’re looking forward to a new season in October or September or so, when we launched the next season of the Local Impact Podcast, if you know anybody who’s making a great impact or is a really cool,

encouraging person to our community that we could just highlight and talk about, please let us know. You can always nominate somebody to be on the podcast and we’d love to consider all those nominations as as as guests and we’ll get to as many of them as we can, as we see that they’re really doing some great wonderful things to actually impact where we all live. So thanks again for watching and for listening to the podcast. We’ll see you next time. Have a great week ahead. Bye, all.