Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: Yet Another New Beekeeper On Board  (Read 4537 times)

Offline gsferg

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 56
    • http://www.sweettimeapiary.com
Yet Another New Beekeeper On Board
« on: May 17, 2005, 07:00:27 am »
Hello All-

George Fergusson here, a brand new beekeeper from Whitefield Maine. I picked up 3 NUCS last night and set them on top of their future homes- My wife and I plan to hive them later today- here in the northeast at least, it's been a pretty crappy spring- cold, windy, and very wet... today looks to be about the best weather we're going to see for a while.

I'm expecting 2 more NUCS any day now... I was originally planning on starting with just 3 hives but built my hive platform to include some room for ah... future expansion... and of course, managed to find a few more hives and another source for bees. I guess I had too much time on my hands!

I've been reading on this site for a few days and I'm quite impressed- looks like a good crowd of people here. I'm looking forward to getting more involved.

Sorry for the silly "gsferg" moniker, I was pondering clever names but I've been gsferg on the internet since 1985 and I'm used to it.

Cheers,

George-
-------------------------------------------
George Fergusson <gsferg@gwi.net>
"So long, and thanks for all the fish"

Offline Miss Chick-a-BEE

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 300
Yet Another New Beekeeper On Board
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2005, 07:41:45 am »
Welcome aboard!

I think I'll personally call you George - if you don't mind. :) My head couldn't pronounce what you had for a nic name. LOL

How many hives are you hoping to have? You started off with a good lot, but that's good. It gives you others to either compare with, or take brood from, or what ever else. It was a smart move.

Good to have you here..... join in the talks anytime.

Beth

Offline gsferg

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 56
    • http://www.sweettimeapiary.com
Yet Another New Beekeeper On Board
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2005, 09:52:19 am »
Hi Beth!

Thanks for the reply. You can call me George :)

I don't know how many hives I'll have... but I've been telling folks in a couple of years "I'll either be done with bees or I'll have a hundred hives." I doubt I'll be done with bees- it's been too long in coming and I'm way too much into it already to be calling it quits anytime soon.

I'm going to try to make a business of it. My wife is into the project too and that is nice. I spent the first 20 years of my working-life involved in the Land Surveying profession and the last 10 years getting chewed up and spit out of the computer racket- so much road-kill on the information superhighway. I was a programmer and unix system administrator until I got downsized last August- in retrospect, the best thing that's happened to me in years! Since then I've been poking around looking for work but haven't found anything that interests me- least of all computers... until now :)

I'll be 52 this summer and I'm moving hell-bent towards this next phase of my life. I don't expect to ever get rich at beekeeping and it will be a while before I'm making anything like money so I'll be looking for part-time work (doing anything really) to get by, but in time I hope to support myself keeping bees. Right now I just want to have fun, learn about bees, and make honey :)

George-
---------------------------------------------
George Fergusson <gsferg@gwi.net>
"So long, and thanks for all the fish"

Offline Miss Chick-a-BEE

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 300
Yet Another New Beekeeper On Board
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2005, 06:11:02 pm »
There are a few beekeepers on here that do this as a business. Most of us are hobby beekeepers, and a few make just a little money even as a hobby.

Maybe you can see about chatting with some of the one's here that have a business, and learn a few things. Either way, it's something really enjoyable. I was wondering. Is your wife planning on going in the "craft" direction with all this? There's always the other products that come out of a hive that can be incorporated into it all.

Beth

Offline Horns Pure Honey

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 148
  • Gender: Male
Yet Another New Beekeeper On Board
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2005, 10:11:06 pm »
HEY, Great to have you aboard! I am a hobby bee keeper working on turning it into a business. We can talk if you have yahoo or aol IM. Talk later :D
Ryan Horn

Offline gsferg

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 56
    • http://www.sweettimeapiary.com
Yet Another New Beekeeper On Board
« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2005, 09:29:06 am »
Um... As a matter of fact Beth, my wife is interested in the crafty-side of beekeeping- last year she made candles for christmas gifts and she's thinking of going in that direction with the business. We'll see.

Another thing I'm interested in is raising bees for sale, but that will take some time- research and experimentation- I've got to learn to a lot before I get too carried away. I'm convinced from what I've learned so far that raising bees in Maine is feasible and my experience so far with local bee sellers and out-of-state bee farmers leads me to believe there is a viable market for healthy, locally-raised, winter hardy bees.

Ryan- I'm on dialup at this time, so I haven't gotten into AIM but I'd love to get together with you to chat sometime- perhaps we can link up on the chat server here (there is one I think).

Thanks for your interest and encouragement!

George-
"So long, and thanks for all the fish"

Offline Horns Pure Honey

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 148
  • Gender: Male
Yet Another New Beekeeper On Board
« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2005, 09:35:06 am »
There is a chatroom on here. http://www.beemaster.com/chat.html I have dial up too, yahoo and aim works pretty good on them becuase you are just sending messages, cant wait to talk, well off to school, bye!!! :D
Ryan Horn

Offline SherryL

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 241
Yet Another New Beekeeper On Board
« Reply #7 on: May 18, 2005, 10:02:08 am »
Welcome George!

My bees are in a cold winter climate too - far N. Wisconsin.  I was just up to visit them this past weekend, the dandelions are just now blooming up there - about 3 weeks behind us here in N. IL.

I started out with 2 hives last year, one swarmed, I captured the swarm and started a 3rd hive.  Only 1 of the 3 survived the winter (the 2 starved), I just yesterday split the remaining hive, so I'm back to 2 now.  Hope to either split or pick up another hive's worth this summer to try to go thru the winter with 3 strong hives again.

I saw your post about the ?chaulkbrood? ... I don't have an answer for you either, but please keep us all posted here, I'd be interested in knowing what you find out.