BeeFest 2021 canceled

[BeeMaster2]

My wife and I have talked about this and decided that we will not bee able to do BeeFest this year due to COVID.
Hopefully next year we will bee able to do it.
Jim Altmiller

[Bob Wilson]

Glenna and I understand completely and support you, but we regret it. Beefest 2020 really helped us as new beekeepers, and we were looking forward to it. We had a wonderful time last year. You were lovely hosts, were very generous, and were a great encouragement in our beekeeping.

[BeeMaster2]

Thanks Bob. We enjoy having BeeFest.
Jim Altmiller

[JurassicApiary]

Understandable but sorry to hear nonetheless.  I hope to perhaps join you all at a future BeeFest.

[Bill Murray]

Sorry to hear that Jim. Marley and I were looking forward to it. It was nice to get different perspectives on things. My takeaways from last year were this. 1) after many years im back to marking queens again.Well see if I keep that up after this season.  2) I built a bunch of double screen bottoms out of old feeder lids, used them for fall splits, and was happy with the outcome. 3) This year I am grafting queens instead of letting them make their own.  Allows me better control, I think? 4) Am running 11 frames in all brood-nests, that was an interesting change. Between Marley and beefest  I found rebooting is a good idea once in a while.

[The15thMember]

How many years have you guys been doing BeeFest, Jim? 

[BeeMaster2]

Our first BeeFest was in March of 2018. We held it in 2019 and surprisingly we also held it in March of 2020 right after COVID-19 started.

For more information and photos of each one, look in the gatherings thread for each year.
Jim Altmiller

[BeeMaster2]

Here are the links to all of the BeeFests

BeeFest 2018
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=50636.0

BeeFest 2019
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=51097.0

BeeFest 2020

https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=53173.0

Jim Altmiller

[Michael Bush]

I was planning on coming, but I was afraid I might get stuck in Florida if Biden stopped the airlines from flying there...

[BeeMaster2]

We were holding out hoping we would be able to have BeeFest. It takes over a month of prepping to get everything ready. Becides COVID, we have had more rain this year than we had in a very long time. Our driveways are nothing but deep mud paths. Vehicles are slipping and sliding and that is with just family traffic. The tracks into the back of my hay barn is over a foot deep.
If the weather doesn?t drastically change we would have serious problems with BeeFest traffic. All of the fields that we use for parking and camping are all muddy as can bee. After another inch of rain last night most areas are holding water.
Hopefully we can have it next year.
Jim Altmiller

[Bill Murray]

Yea Jim my front yard looks like a lake. But on a bright note this is good for the gallberry bloom this year.

[BeeMaster2]

It would really help the gallberry. Problem is that the forestry is prepping most of the forests around me to do controlled burns. Gallberry and palmetto both burn like they are flies with gasoline so by the time they would be in bloom it will be all gone. My bees will have to fly long distances to find unburned areas. One good thing is that we probably won?t have very many commercial hives around here.
My best year for making honey was when none of the commercial beeks put their hives in this area due the the massive Buggaboo fire that started in the Okefenokee Swamp and burned all the way to south of I 10.
Jim Altmiller