I spent this afternoon with a commerical beekeeper in a neighboring town. I met him last week at a meeting where he was trying to revive the Central GA Beekeeping association. After a tour of his hive shop, we went on a field trip to get me a queen and to check some of his nucs and hives. He has his hives leased to cantalope, cucumber, and squash farmers just to name a few. He gave me lots of free lessons. I saw first hand how to find and identify the queen, eggs, larva, and mites. He also had a frame with brood fowl and showed me what to look for. In addition, he gave me a fat laying queen from one of his nucs to reign over my queenless hive. I read a lot, but nothing beats on the job training from an experienced mentor. I got home just before dark and introduced her majesty to her new servants. Now if we can just get a little rain, we might make a little bit of honey. What an afternoon. Steve
Now that is a great way to spend an afternoon. Careful you might learn something. ;)
And have some fun at the same time.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
Great story, glad you were able to find someone close to you with that much experince.
great to hear that
big/commercialy orientated people in general usually aren't so--good hearted.
Lucky you - I had a similar experience running in to Bob Binnie in a beeyard in the mountains last year - nothing is better than watching someone who really knows what he/she is doing. So glad you got that experience.
Linda T in Atlanta
Brood fowl? Do you mean Foul Brood? American or European?
If american then be careful about using any equipment from him, it can be a problem.
Sounds like an interesting and informative afternoon!
Rick
Yes, I do mean foul brood. And yes it was European. He talked about American foul brood. He tried to show and explain symptoms and checks. I do remember the treatment was a hot fire.
Thanks for the correction, Steve