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Author Topic: Greetings from Floyd, Virginia  (Read 5937 times)

Anonymous

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« on: May 06, 2006, 10:17:38 pm »
Hi Everyone:

I have been a lurker for about month now and finally took the plunge to join the community here.

Some info about me:

I am a Christian and self-employed and live on 2 acres in Floyd County, VA. We moved here from central New Jersey 6 years ago. I am joyfully married with 6 children: 3 boys and 3 girls.

I started beekeeping last year with one hive. They survived the winter and now I have 6 hives. I am considering expanding more next year. I enjoy beekeeping and love the challenge. I am a city boy by upbringing and have learned alot since moving to the country. Managing my bees is teaching me a lot about working with the things of nature. Its a lot different and more difficult than working with man-made things like computers but I think I prefer the "disorderly-ness" of the country rather than the sterile environment of the cubicle.

Looking forward to participating on this board.

Offline beemaster

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2006, 11:27:20 pm »
Brian:

It's a pleasure to have you and as a Jersey fellow, I long for a few acres in a quiet area where I can be me and my neighbors can be a short car ride away :)

Sounds like you are doing something wright in your bee yard, so keep up the good work.

Glad you lurked and finally jumped into the forum - I try my best (as we all to) to have an enviroment that you would feel safe to bring yourself and family to. Seems like you have enough experience already to answer many questions, but to those you are need of help with - you surely will find assistance here for those.

Best wishes, and welcome.
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Please enjoy the forum, and if it has helped you in any way, we hope that a small donation can be made to support our FULLY member supported forum. You will never see advertisements here, and that is because of the generous members who have made our forum possible. We are in our second decade as a beekeeping forum and all thanks to member support. At the top right of every page is a donations link. Please help if you can.

Offline bcarpenter

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« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2006, 12:45:33 am »
Hey John:

Thanks for replying and for the welcome. For some reason my account was deleted which is why my above post is now posted under guest instead of bcarpenter. I had to recreate my account. Just to let you know. Strange.
Yours in Christ,
Brian

Offline Rabbitdog

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2006, 09:00:37 pm »
Welcome to the site.  I have been playing with bees for 4 years now.  This site has taught me alot.
We are on 4 acres just outside of Lynchburg, trying to be as self sufficient as possible and happy homeschoolers of 4.
Best wishes!
"Born Po, Die Po" ........ just need to feed myself in between!

Offline TwT

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2006, 09:10:59 pm »
Welcome to the site, as you have probably seen there are a lot of knowing beekeepers here and a few above the rest, ask anything and you will get a answer.... see you in the forum ;)
THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 MONTHS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

Never be afraid to try something new.
Amateurs built the ark,
Professionals built the Titanic

Offline beemaster

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2006, 10:48:22 pm »
BCarpender:

I take all fault for any deletions that occur - I'm the only one with the capabilities, I probably got you in a pile of spam-members (spam-bots) that I started clicking on to get rid of and clicked the button one too many times - sorry about that, but WELCOME BACK and welcome aboard again!!!!!!

What can I say than this is a wonderful group of people from every corner of the globe (almost literally) and your lurking sure will pay off - I'm glad we passed your month long test, that says a lot for our group :)

You may have read a swarm moved into a hive which died off this past Winter (actually died early Spring) I cleanup up the hive, must have done a good job - after a few days of scouts and forager robbing, the whole swarm moved in and they are gentle as a kitten - 90 thousand sting-ready kittens  8)

So, being back in the bee business is great - I'm only a hobbyist and the host - I try to help as you must have read along the way, but you will find GREAT BEEKEEPERS ready, willing and able to help!!!

Talk soon.
NJBeemaster my YOUTUBE Video Collection

Please enjoy the forum, and if it has helped you in any way, we hope that a small donation can be made to support our FULLY member supported forum. You will never see advertisements here, and that is because of the generous members who have made our forum possible. We are in our second decade as a beekeeping forum and all thanks to member support. At the top right of every page is a donations link. Please help if you can.

Offline bcarpenter

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #6 on: May 17, 2006, 10:59:29 pm »
Thanks for the friendly greetings!

Hey Rabbitdog:

I am the happy homeschooler of 6 children.  :shock:

Good to know homeschooling and beekeeping mix.
Yours in Christ,
Brian

Offline randydrivesabus

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #7 on: May 18, 2006, 07:13:03 am »
bcarpenter....i'm from Floyd Co too. indian valley.

Offline Summerbee

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #8 on: May 18, 2006, 04:39:22 pm »
Rabbitdog and bcarpenter, I've been homeschooled along with my sister  for the past 6 years... I know two beekeepers that homeschool locally, too.  Homeschooling and beekeeping mix pretty well I suppose.

 6 kids, wow.   :o
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IndianaBrown

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #9 on: May 18, 2006, 07:58:18 pm »
My wife and I are homescooling out 2 children, ages 3 and 7.  We are involved in a homescooling 'coop' in our local area.  The bees have been a big hit with it so far.  :D

Offline bcarpenter

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #10 on: May 18, 2006, 09:55:13 pm »
Hey randydrivesabus:

I live in Willis. Not far from Indian valley. How many hives do you have?

Hi Summerbee:

How many hives do you have?

Having six children has been a blessing. It seems a lot of people wonder how we do it. The secret is loving discipline. Our goal with our children is to raise them to be godly and responsible adults and to have the ability to govern themselves. Our parenting is also assisted by not having our children in public school AND not being trained by whats on television. I have always wondered why parents have children in order to send them off for 8 hours a day and then have them spend the remaining time in front of the one eye dictator.

Hi IndianaBrown:

How many hives do you have? I am starting to sound redundant here.

Bees are a great learning tool for homeschoolers. Not only do you learn alot about the bees themselves but also a lot about the surrounding vegetation in your particular area and some fundemental business principles if you plan on selling honey in a small way. Hive management is a great way to keep bored children busy.
Yours in Christ,
Brian

Offline randydrivesabus

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #11 on: May 19, 2006, 06:33:04 am »
I have but 2 hives Brian. This is my first time trying beekeeping. so far i like.
theres a lot of home schoolers in this county. i sent my kids off to the public schools however. my youngest graduates high school this year.

Offline Summerbee

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #12 on: May 19, 2006, 08:12:59 pm »
bcarpenter, I have uno hives.  With luck two soon.
People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first.
- David H. Comins

http://imabkpr.blogspot.com

IndianaBrown

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #13 on: May 19, 2006, 11:24:59 pm »
One hive here, although I have the 'bug' and plan on experimenting with at least one more next year.  Over the winter I hope to build a top bar or combo-long hive and fill it with empty frames to see how natural comb works (see http://bwrangler.madpage.com/bee/gcom.htm as well as Michael Bushe's articles: http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm )

My kids will get to help me plan and build it.  My little guy loves to handle the plastic frames I started with and explain to anyone who comes around all about how the bees will live here and make honey :)

Offline bcarpenter

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Greetings from Floyd, Virginia
« Reply #14 on: May 20, 2006, 08:20:53 am »
I now have 8 hives.  :shock:

I started with 1 hive last year. Well this year that hive has swarmed 3 times with the latest being yesterday. I caught all of the swarms. One swarm was pretty small and I combined it with another hive.

My intentions was to have 5 hives total this spring. Its funny how your plans go awry with bees. Next year, Lord willing, I plan on starting 10 more colonies. I got permission to place hives on a 100+ acre property up the road from me. The property owner has a 60 acre pasture that is filled with clover. Clover honey!! Yummy!!
Yours in Christ,
Brian

 

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