There are bee keepers and there are honey producers. I never wanted honey. I was a 25 year old computer programmer when I started noticing flowers. Then a science book by Gould and Gould hooked my facination with these tiny creatures. I could hardly believe all the mysterious gifts for memory, navigation, and learning that they demonstrate. I started noticing crawling honey bees on the street and would pick them up and study them.
I have trained wild honey bees to a feeder on my window sill. One certain bee I will never forget came every morning for many weeks, and I found her dead inside my room on the window sill, as if she meant to die there. If she had been trapped by the window, I would have heard her buzzing. That really blew my mind. Then I knew that the honey bee has a heart and that the honey bee knows love.
My first hive was destroyed by carpenter ants in 2003. After that, I started drinking. I became an alcoholic. But I kept on training the wild ones and visiting a local bee yard regularly. Last year, I decided to get sober. Six months into my recovery, I put another hive together with a Georgia queen and two honey supers covered with workers. After only 5 months, I witnessed my first swarm. It was a nuc swarm, so it was a small swarm.
I am pleased to find others in this forum who are more interested in bee keeping than honey producing. That is to say, more sensitive to the needs and even the preferences of the honey bee, rather than only what they can get out of it. I bet there might also be a few here who cringe at the thought of artificial insemenation of queens, chemical treatments and such. And that's probably enough of my story for now. Thank you.
I think you are going to be alright smallswarm. Any start is a good start.
Welcome, and thanks for sharing your background. Congratulations, good luck and come often because there is a lot of stuff to learn. If you can, drop by in voice chat and say hello.
Bees make honey?
I may have to try that sometime. ;)
Welcome to the forums. We welcome Florida beekeepers, We have to have someone to talk to while everyone up north has the bees in winter mode.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
QuoteWelcome to the forums. We welcome Florida beekeepers, We have to have someone to talk to while everyone up north has the bees in winter mode.
That about sums it up. Welcome.
Quote from: likes2grill on May 02, 2007, 11:17:04 PM
QuoteWelcome to the forums. We welcome Florida beekeepers, We have to have someone to talk to while everyone up north has the bees in winter mode.
That about sums it up. Welcome.
:'( :'( :'( :'( :'( hey watch it :-D
Welcome smallswarm. I started noticing honeybees when I was 4 y.o., my mother keeps telling the story of how I defended a tired worker bee from her death blow when I was that age, I told her not to kill it, that it would not harm her. My parents indulged me and by the time I was 10 y.o. they helped me to get my first hive. I've been beekeeping ever since (now 50 y.o.).
More than 90% of the honey my bees collect I just feed back to them. I have never lost a hive, I intensely micro-manage, and I've never used any medicines or chemicals to treat my bees, yet they do just fine.
What a cool story!
I showed it to my son and he loved it.
This could open up a whole new world for some computer nerds.
who u calling a computer nerd "sniffle sniffle" :-D welcome aboard smallswarm.
Joseph Clemmens. keep on keepin' on , I am happy for you. Best of this beautiful day, Cindi (to all those who spell it with a "y", it is spelled with and "i" :roll: Cindi.......
Quote from: Cindi on June 23, 2007, 03:35:37 AM
Joseph Clemmens. keep on keepin' on , I am happy for you. Best of this beautiful day, Cindi (to all those who spell it with a "y", it is spelled with and "i" :roll: Cindi.......
I hear ya, Cindi, many put an 'e' at the end of my name ;)