Hi!

[Skylark]

Hello there, I'm a newbie to the beekeeping world and got my bees this year!

My dad and I share responsibility for them, but we've come across a few issues (along with our darned smoker...) so hopefully we can get them sorted out on here  :-D
About me: I keep snakes, dogs, cats, fish, lizards, a budgie and now bees, it's a mad house lol. I'm just a teen, so don't expect me to grasp everything immediately, I didn't know we were even getting bees until early this year so I've been struggling to fit all the information into my head along with exam revision... Other than that I'm pretty friendly and always open to new ideas.

Anyway, looking forward to participating in the forum!

~Sky

[tefer2]

Welcome to the forum Sky, jump on in any topic and enjoy yourself.

[Joe D]

Welcome to the forum, Sky.  If you have any questions just ask, someone can probably answer it.  You may see if there is a local bee club also.  Good luck with your bees.

Joe

[AllenF]

Welcome to the forum.

[specialkayme]

Welcome to the site!

[dean0]

Sky,
I can tell that you are an intelligent teenage because you admitted that you are struggling to fit all this information into your head.  I have 3 grown step-daughters and when they were your age, they already thought they knew EVERYTHING; I couldn't them them anything.  Now that they are in their 20's they finally realize that they didn't now everything and that Dad was right.

When I start my smoker, I start slow to get some hot embers in the bottom.  I keep adding material slowly until the smoker is about half full and smoking good.  Only then do a fill the smoke with material, in my case, pine needles and I force as much material in there as I can.  I find that slow constant pumps on the bellows works better than fast pumps. I also use a trigger ignition propane torch to light the smoker.

Good luck with you bees.

Dean0