Dear Beemaster Members:
Many of you have never seen me post in the forum, it's been many years since I was active in beekeeping because of both heath and restrictions imposed in my state of NJ. The law has been changed so that you need at least ONE ACRE of property to keep bees. Health issues existed before this law went into effect, mostly back pain and torn rotator cuffs exclude me from lifting.
But to be totally honest, beekeeping is something I did since the age of 14 and quit nearly 8 years ago. Since then, many hobbies which I could easily do filled the beekeeping void. Some of you have seen I do online cooking, astrophotography and other things as I am now retired and enjoying time with my wonderful wife, who I hope retires within the next year or so.
Beemaster.com was originally a site where, using basic drag and drop software I was able to put a beginners website for information on equipment, techniques, contained a long and detailed logbook of daily activity with the bees. It served as a nice "Basics" and many people said it helped them into the hobby. But, I was not learned and my site had limitations. Thus it evolved into the forum it is today.
I need to thank so many people who made this forum possible, many who have come and gone in the 17 or so years it was beemaster.com - NONE of which more than ROBO who literally took us through several software versions, always tweaking and bettering the code and functionality of the forum you see today. Rob I am forever grateful.
To all of you I have met through the forum and in person, and to all who have contributed content and funding, it has been an honor to have known you and had you active all these many years. It?s wonderful to have such a huge crowd to still be active in our community.
But, so many moderators who spent countless hours keeping the walls fortified from those who seek chaos and arguments among the membership. So many people who join, read the rules and then disobey them, knowing they'll be booted. Every forum has those and moderators are always on the look out to keep this a family friendly community - to everyone, over all these years, your behind the scenes work has sustained the forum in a time where social media has become the norm. Even with Beemaster's International Beekeeping Facebook Page, the forum has kept 11,000 members and still grows.
Today, I began transferring possession of the beemaster.com domain to Jim, SAWDSTMKR, our Global Moderator from Florida, who has shown great moderation skills and a deep passion for the forum. He graciously accepts the forum with the promise to keep it family friendly, commercial free and always in the spirit of share and learned knowledge.
As the new owner, all current forum contributions will be transferred to him and future monetary gifts will directly be made to his control for paying the cost of forum expenses - online content storage and backup storage are the costliest.
Needless to say, the forum will be in very good hands with both him and Robo taking the forum into the future.
It has been amazing the 17 years as Beemaster.com and the 4 years I had as a beginner's intro to beekeeping site prior to Beemaster - but my contribution has long ended and it is only fair to have someone with the passion to continue. Jim is that person and I know he will continue to grow Beemaster as a premier site for beekeeping and community.
God Bless you all, and continued health and prosperity.
John Clayton
Beemaster