I'm fond of posting my anniversary every year here at Beemaster because I owe such a debt to everyone here. The 16th begins my ninth year of keeping my beekeeping blog. I felt so supported when I started beekeeping and found this place where people were willing to understand and agree with the way I wanted to work my bees (no treatment, nothing artificial).
This forum is also the reason my blog has been so long-running.
When I started the blog, I put up photos so my family in Mississippi wouldn't think I was totally crazy for raising bees. But then I'd have a problem, and instead of calling my fellow club members in Atlanta (at that time almost everyone in the club treated their bees and NOBODY did crush and strain for honey harvest), I would come here and ask my questions. I would put a link to the blog post where there was a photo to show the problem I was asking about and people here would go just so they could be helpful in answering my many, many questions.
I relied on Michael Bush, Brian de Bray, Cindy, Kathy P, JP, Robo, Iddee, Understudy, Annette of the red umbrella, and many others of you to help me along the way to know how to take care of my bees. And all of you have been so, so generous and helpful.
Now my blog has a life of its own. Many people run blogs on beekeeping today, but mine has been going on for so long that it is high up in the search engines and it gets almost 1000 hits a day during the May - September period of time. I've posted almost 1180 posts and made many videos and slideshows. My blog is listed on websites across the country as a helpful place to go for beginning beekeeping questions/answers. Because of it, when I go to places like EAS or the treatment free conference in Leominster, MA, people know who I am (shocked as I always am by this)
So all of this to say thank you to you, my original beekeeping family and support group. You've been patient with me and so supportive over all of these years.
Love,
Linda T in Atlanta