Hello!

[deseret]

Hello everyone

I am a data analyst, and beekeeping enthusiast. My father-in-law has a few hives that I sometimes have the opportunity to help out with, and my wife and I have been talking about getting a hive of our own. We have an interest in possibly building our own supers and frames. I also think it would be a lot of fun to make an extractor.

I am doing a pretty basic study on the relationship between beekeeping and mental wellbeing. Depending how that goes I may look at conducting follow-up studies that explore the connection beyond a corollary level.

I'll probably lurk for a while, there is such a wealth of information here, and most questions I think I will have are already on here a dozen times over. If I do wind up making our own hive, extractor, and other tools I will probably share details on those builds.

If you are interested in my Beekeeping and Mental Health survey it is here on google forms: https://forms.gle/g3ffAsexX1BgckMTA
I am asking basic questions about your beekeeping experience, standard screening questions for depression and anxiety, and basic demographic information. No personal information is collected, and the results will be published on kaggle under an MIT license when the survey is done. I am going to use the results of the survey to compare rates of depression and anxiety among beekeepers against the same rates in the general population in an attempt to demonstrate a possible correlation with beekeeping and improved mental health.

[BeeMaster2]

Welcome to BeeMaster Deseret.
Feel free to ask all of the questions that you have. We love to answer them. Doesn't matter if they have been asked before.
Jim Altmiller

[The15thMember]

Welcome to Beemaster, deseret!    I took your survey.  I personally believe beekeeping has very much improved my mental health, which I definitely struggle with at times. 

[Ben Framed]

Hello deseret, Welcome to beemaster!  In My opinion, for your wife and yourself to acquire a hive together would be a great bond builder between yourselves!  I say go for it!  .  How long has your father-in-law been keeping Bees? Is he by chance a member here ?
I am interested in your project but have not opened your link. What may I expect to find within it?
Are you doing this research as a Freelance Project or possibly working for a research company of some sort? Are you Government funded?
Thanks for sparking my interest! 


I did see that you may be posting your findings under a MIT license. What is your affiliation with MIT? 

I lurked here for a while myself before obtaining my first bees. As you I  found a wealth of information here at Beemaster Forums. If I can be of service please call on me or any member! As was said we are eager to help!
Thanks for sharing your interest with us here at Beemaster!

Sincerely,
Phillip

[Kathyp]

I am doing a pretty basic study on the relationship between beekeeping and mental wellbeing.

I always said my beehives were like an outdoor fish tank     It's amazing how long you can sit there and just watch them fly in and out of the hive!

Welcome to Beemaster.  There are lots of things that might appeal to you including sections on building things.  One of our Australian members Lesgold builds all kinds of things and has pics and descriptions in the equipment section. 

Lurk away and welcome to Beemaster.

[deseret]

Thank you all for the welcome!

Welcome to BeeMaster Deseret.
Feel free to ask all of the questions that you have. We love to answer them. Doesn't matter if they have been asked before.
Jim Altmiller

Thank you! I feel better about asking.

I am doing a pretty basic study on the relationship between beekeeping and mental wellbeing.

I always said my beehives were like an outdoor fish tank     It's amazing how long you can sit there and just watch them fly in and out of the hive!

Welcome to Beemaster.  There are lots of things that might appeal to you including sections on building things.  One of our Australian members Lesgold builds all kinds of things and has pics and descriptions in the equipment section. 

Lurk away and welcome to Beemaster.

Thank you! When we visit the in-laws I'll take the kiddos to go watch the bees. We love watching them. I will lurk on over to the equipment section and try to find Lesgold. I'll have to brush up on my Australian 

Hello deseret, Welcome to beemaster!  In My opinion, for your wife and yourself to acquire a hive together would be a great bond builder between yourselves!  I say go for it!  .  How long has your father-in-law been keeping Bees? Is he by chance a member here ?
I am interested in your project but have not opened your link. What may I expect to find within it?
Are you doing this research as a Freelance Project or possibly working for a research company of some sort? Are you Government funded?
Thanks for sparking my interest! 


I did see that you may be posting your findings under a MIT license. What is your affiliation with MIT? 

I lurked here for a while myself before obtaining my first bees. As you I  found a wealth of information here at Beemaster Forums. If I can be of service please call on me or any member! As was said we are eager to help!
Thanks for sharing your interest with us here at Beemaster!

Sincerely,
Phillip

My wife's only hesitancy is that building everything would be yet another thing on the to-do list. I think I was also supposed to build a picnic table last year. Maybe it was the year before?

I think my father-in-law is close to ten years in. It started out as keeping a couple of hives for a friend while they were traveling, and he just never gave them back! He doesn't spend much time online, so I doubt he is on here. I will ask him though.

Project is completely independent. It is not funded, nor am I seeking any funding or affiliation for this project. I got laid off from my regular employment back in March and decided to reroll my career as a data analyst. The finalized project will go in my personal portfolio to demonstrate a basic ability to design a simple study, collect, and analyze the results. I will publish the data and results of the survey on kaggle.com and the analysis will go on my own portfolio on github. Both will be published under an MIT license and will be publicly available for anyone and everyone to see and use as they would like. The MIT license grants anyone who wishes to use the data the ability to do so, similar to a creative commons license. Anyone can use the license, and there is no affiliation with MIT.

If you were to click through to the survey you would find questions asking how many hives you keep, how long you have kept bees, how much time you spend each week on beekeeping related activities (forums totally count), the amount of enjoyment you get from beekeeping, and then I have two standard sets of questions taken from the PHQ-9 and GAD-7, which are used to screen or assess the severity of anxiety and depression. (these can be found on https://www.phqscreeners.com), and then there are basic demographic questions asking age, sex, your country, and a field asking for additional comments. No personally identifying information is collected and the results are anonymous.

Thanks for the welcome! I am eager to explore the forum!

Welcome to Beemaster, deseret!    I took your survey.  I personally believe beekeeping has very much improved my mental health, which I definitely struggle with at times. 

Thank you! I have a pretty solid guess what the outcome of the survey will be, but I am going to try and remain unbiased for as long as i can! :) I am glad to hear beekeeping has been a help to you!

[Michael Bush]

https://bushfarms.com/beeschangeyourlife.htm

[The15thMember]

Thanks for responding, deseret.  We have had people who are doing research or working on product design come on before, and usually they just drop their survey in and are never heard from again.  Most of the time they aren't even really interested in beekeeping personally.  It's cool to see someone doing research who also has some personal investment in the subject. 

As Jim said, feel free to ask any and all questions you may have as you start on your beekeeping journey.  Don't worry about repeating a question or duplicating a thread.  Every situation is different and we love talking about bees. Even if it's something we've discussed before, we are more than happy to discuss it again!