Urban Beekeeping yahoo groups launched

[Tyson Kaiser]

I’d like to take a moment to announce the creation of the Urban Beekeeping discussion group in Yahoo! Groups. We are aware of the lack of a diverse central discussion forum for topics important for the growing urban beekeeping movement, and have decided to put together an intelligent and informed resource available to expert and newcomer alike. Urban beekeeping has ballooned from a small hobbyist pastime to a diverse and far-flung movement spanning hundreds of cities around the globe. From Los Angeles to Sydney to London people are realizing the importance of the honeybee in urban ecology.
Still, urban beekeeping lacks legitimacy in the greater community of beekeepers, especially those that have invested their livelihoods in fostering bees in rural or agricultural areas. Part of the legitimacy problem stems from a perception that urban beekeepers are uninformed or simply trendy and can be dismissed as not serious about keeping bees. The Urban_Beekeeping forum intends to change this perception through non-dogmatic and mature debate, thoughtful discussion and helpful advice from seasoned beekeepers. The aim is to mentor the newcomer to the world of beekeeping, focus on the needs of urban beekeepers and the challenges they face, and work to sustain feral bees as reservoirs of genetic diversity as a resource for all beekeepers.
You are invited to take part in the discussion and lend your voice. Join us! Please take a moment to subscribe at: urban_beekeeping-subscribe@yahoogroups.com 
Once you have subscribed you can change your notification settings to suit your needs. If you have a particular question or criticism you can contact me, the list owner, at urban_beekeeping-owner@yahoogroups.com , I’ll be happy to hear from you.
The Urban_Beekeeping forum is intended to be relatively free from the ad hominem abuse and newbie-belittling common in some forums. Brow beating and grandstanding are discouraged, as this is a space that welcomes mature conversation. If you experience a problem, use the above email.
We welcome you to the Urban_Beekeeping Yahoo! Groups forum, and hope that your experience is insightful! :)

[edward]

Sounds like a good idea for an own topic here at beemaster  :bee:



mvh Edward  :-P

[beemaster]

Member suggested forums are always weighed for usefulness and category. Let me see where we can best place a sub-forum for the most logical placement and ease of locating.

Tyson, welcome to our forum at Beemaster.com, I hope you see there are nearly 7000 members here and almost 2000 on Facebook making us a leading beekeeping community on the Internet. Currently ranked on Google as the number one find when searching Beekeeping forums, we keep our members coming back because it is a fun place to hang with friends, a great place you can come whether you have a question or know an answer. All the other topics allow members to express themselves in a way others get to know them as people, not just as beekeepers. Not ditzing Yahoo Groups, but as large as urban beekeeping is (and I have seen many shows on television on the topic - as well as you are not alone here in the forum) so having a site as large as ours with a devoted section to Urban Beekeeping is a very nice benefit to an group.

I chiefly design the layout and placement of forums (one of my few jobs) - I take every chance to acknowledge our other administrative members for the often unrecognized day to day member oversight and always expanding technical achievements) but I try to keep the layout flowing from one topic to another.

The multiple topic sections we have offer a great way for members to learn more about each other outside the world of beekeeping. We have an annual member meeting in Macon, Mississippi and it is filled with beekeeping events from swarm catching and management to queen cell grafting, removal of swarms from walls and setting up first time hive boxes, all topics that interest the new beekeeper are instructed by people who are experts at these steps.

So Tyson, I first ask you upgrade you profile to include your location, it is important to members to help you if you have questions, but also you'll be surprised at how many people live near you, no matter where you are.

Give me a day or two to add an urban forum. I have been thinking about consolidating categories, scrolling through pages and pages of forum categories to find what you are looking for isn't ideal, but sometimes necessary - but if you do it right, finding things can be easy and nearly effortless.

Keep an eye out for the URBAN BEEKEEPER forum, but do your part - let your group members know that it is here, along with dozens of other beekeeping topics. A one stop place to find beekeepers communicating with posts, images, voice chat, and any way technology allows.

[Tyson Kaiser]

I do appreciate the effort and consideration you've given to improving resources for the urban beekeeping movement. As I stated there does appear to be a gap in the knowledge base for urban beekeepers and most of the advice offered to the aspiring city beek is tailored more for agricultural beekeeping. Adding the topic to your format will be quite welcome.

I'll update my profile, but I am located in Los Angeles which enjoys a very robust if illicit beekeeping community.

I'll continue with the Yahoo format, for all it's faults, because I've seen that many people have a difficult time keeping up with their knowledge base when it isn't delivered to their inbox. Life is complicated and messy for many, and not everyone can follow forums such as Beemaster.com, as valuable a resources as it is to some of us.

I'll be sure to point people to the Urban Beekeeping subsection when it arrives. Thanks!

~Tyson

[beemaster]

TY and just FYI, we do have a Twitter feed and if you choose to be notified on topics, you do get mailings here as well. Also, extremely active is our Facebook page with 1780 members to date I believe. So we are very available to the smartphone crowd, one of which I am. I totally understand too that home is where you hang your hat, wouldn't want to steal any Yahooers away, just showing there is an alternative :)

Just as a mini-triumph, just yesterday our 4G network went LTE and I am getting portable speeds of 15MBS now, even at work 8 miles from nowhere.