Hi Everyone:
It is funny how we all were talking about Beekeeping for Dummies and my photographic work with that fine book - well the author Howland just wrote me yesterday and he asked me for usury rights for the cover image for the update to his bee-commerce site, he really sees the power of the cover image's recognition to the Dummies Book and how it can acquaint a pre-customer base to better sell his goods at his site.
All is well with Howland Blackiston, who I have known for 6 years. He is a real gentleman, quiet and smart and a go-getter. I'm saying all this because he surely could be a mentor for many of us who great ideas and lack the daily energy to get it done"
Our member PDMattox is a wonderful example, he has gone from a newbee with a dream to a commercial beekeeper literally before out eyes. He has used mentors both locally to him and here in the forum to escalate his yard and enter migration for most pollen and nectar to force growth in his yard - he works hard and now mentors and starts-up new members as they enter the beeyard. We are lucky to know these people.
Howland Authored Beekeeping For Dummies, we colaborated for many months and he spoke of a second rewrite - I hope to be a part of that in some way too. His update will surely cover CCD and other new issues we need to live with. I also was promised that our site and forum will make the next rewrite, that will be cool.
For now, he has generously given me a $300 gift Certificate for ANYTHING through his website, this comes at a great time when I want to prepare my hive for building up and keeping mostly medium supers to fill so this aging back can handle - but I have a 2 frame deep Filled with 70% capped honey and not a bee, so I'll be working at getting bees ASAP now that everything is looking brighter.
I'm here with a new video-cam with macro-focus, mega-pixel cam built in and a youtube account to put a series of films to share with everyone. Wow am I almost ready :)
I've been practicing too at editing and narration, although the films under NJBeemaster at youtube are not edited, they are a start - from now on, full screen NOT wide-angle "(it just looks weird at youtube. And I promise to put great inspection, install, etc, videos there for everyone.
so, off I go shopping with $300 - not a bad day, and though Howland's site is known for being a bit more expensive than many most others - I assume it is a buying in bulk issue, he just doesn't have the power of larger resellers.
Three hundred spent wisely can really get me a super hive which should have a chance going into next Winter with.
P.S. Howland had total loss in his yard (around 6 hives) all he loudly proclaims was CCD in the North East. He too has no bee to count and this is from a guy who knows his stuff, has unlimited resources and all appeared fine just a month ago. We are in scary times, to some people saying CCD is like saying Global Warming, they just think it is a bunch of hog-wash. That is until 1) it happens to them or 2) it is too late to do anything about.