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Author Topic: I am all ears, give us a rundown please  (Read 18772 times)

Offline Acebird

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #20 on: December 31, 2010, 05:01:07 pm »
Quote
...the only thing i would recommend against in your account is rotating the hive. with a little experience you will see that the bees structure the inside of the hive in part based on the location of the sun. changing this after they have made winter preparations doesn't seem wise to me.

Trust me I hesitated when we did it in the fall.  It made sense at the time because of the woods there is only two sides that see sun.  In the growing season the hive faced east to catch the morning sun.  Now it is facing more north so the black side can get the warming benefit.

The problem is there is no real way to determing if the decision is beneficial.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2011, 11:13:20 am by Acebird »
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Offline rdy-b

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #21 on: December 31, 2010, 05:37:33 pm »
  ah have a candy cane instead- 8-) RDY-B

Offline AllenF

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #22 on: December 31, 2010, 07:33:52 pm »
 ah have a candy cane instead- 8-) RDY-B
:lau:

Offline iddee

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #23 on: December 31, 2010, 08:05:45 pm »
Please take this answer as gospel.

Writing on a forum does not convey a person's attitude and intention as speaking does. You must be very careful how your words come across when facial expressions are not present.

People like me and Bjorn, who have met and become friends, can joke and cutup with each other. When you don't know the person, the same thing can anger someone quickly.

Please read your posts as a stranger would and see how they sound.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline rdy-b

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #24 on: December 31, 2010, 08:16:13 pm »
Please take this answer as gospel.

Writing on a forum does not convey a person's attitude and intention as speaking does. You must be very careful how your words come across when facial expressions are not present.

People like me and Bjorn, who have met and become friends, can joke and cutup with each other. When you don't know the person, the same thing can anger someone quickly.

Please read your posts as a stranger would and see how they sound.
  ARE you angry--venting is Heathy thing -and promotes growth-no lines have been crosed-have a smiley face- :)

Offline iddee

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #25 on: December 31, 2010, 08:37:44 pm »
No, but some of your replies to acebird seem to hint that you may be.

Along with a few others.
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline Kathyp

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #26 on: December 31, 2010, 08:45:59 pm »
 :ninja:

not me.  just have to wonder sometimes if info is wanted, or an argument.  as you say, hard to tell on here sometimes.
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline backyard warrior

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #27 on: December 31, 2010, 09:02:53 pm »
My feeling is if you want to be a beekeeper then you  should at least know the basics of how to take care of them  such as swarming and pest management at the top of the list.  Bjorn knows his stuff along with many others i feel i fit into the newbee catergory with quite a bit of knowledge of todays beekeeping by reading and following the new trend but i am far from a specialist i ask lots of questions im forever bothering bjourn on the phone he takes the time and he is funny and friendly and i do believe some of us on here get carried away and get nasty and take things the wrong way lets face it we are here for fun :evil:

Offline rdy-b

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #28 on: December 31, 2010, 09:34:14 pm »
No, but some of your replies to ace-bird seem to hint that you may be.

Along with a few others.
  Ace bird and i have been bating the ball back and forth for a couple of days
     he has come to a place of knowledge-and experience- and he will be the better for it and it is my impression he is used to learning the hard way
BUT we as keepers have been down many paths that lead us to success's so
 take it or leave it dont try and retrain the ones that help you along the way-they come and they go as is the way of life-
 
   :) RDY-B



Offline FRAMEshift

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #29 on: December 31, 2010, 11:25:17 pm »
my question to you is what are you learning?  if you expect to be handed knowledge here or by others, it won't happen.
Yes, I think this is the key point. You have to be out there bothering your bees in order to figure out what the questions are.  The fine beeks on this forum can help with the answers, but you have to figure out what questions are important to you.  And you won't get it all at once.  It is an iterative process.  If you are reading books, looking at your bees, asking question here, reading more books, looking at your bees again, etc. you can learn at a fast pace.
"You never can tell with bees."  --  Winnie-the-Pooh

Offline Acebird

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #30 on: January 01, 2011, 10:53:37 am »
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Ace bird and i have been bating the ball back and forth for a couple of days
     he has come to a place of knowledge-and experience- and he will be the better for it and it is my impression he is used to learning the hard way


Well you definitely got me pegged there.

I rarely take offence at any one liner unless it is a relentless pounding.  Now I have to admit my ignorance, I didn't get the joke anyway and maybe it is not worth the explanation because the elapse time might have ruined the punch line.  I also tend to forget real quick who said what unless the feeling are obvious. 

English is by far my worst subject.  My lack of communication skills have many times enraged people when I did not intend to do so.  I think most will agree that winter is the slow period when it comes to beekeeping so I got a couple of months to learn what I can so I can decide what I am going to do next season.

Oh, I probably should admit another thing while I am in the confessional,  I hate books, but I love the internet.  Books give you a few ideas in several thousand words.  The internet can give you several thousand ideas in the same amount of words.  As far as I am concerned books are obsolete.  The best you can get is one opinion.
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Offline Acebird

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #31 on: January 01, 2011, 11:01:58 am »
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Yes, I think this is the key point. You have to be out there bothering your bees in order to figure out what the questions are.


I respect your opinion but I don't believe it for one minute.  A book can be outdated before it is published.  The internet is now and anyone can be a publisher.
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Offline AllenF

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #32 on: January 01, 2011, 11:35:14 am »
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  The internet is now and anyone can be a publisher.

And some of what's out there on the internet is a big load of poey.   And 2 different opinions can both be right.  But the internet is a great tool for communication.

Offline Acebird

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #33 on: January 01, 2011, 11:49:58 am »
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And some of what's out there on the internet is a big load of poey.

I don't want to mention any names, but read through these forums and certain people are saying the exact same thing about books.
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Offline Tommyt

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #34 on: January 01, 2011, 12:24:08 pm »
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And some of what's out there on the internet is a big load of poey.

I don't want to mention any names, but read through these forums and certain people are saying the exact same thing about books.
AceB..... are you Rambling   :lau:
"Not everything found on the internet is accurate"
Abraham Lincoln

Offline skatesailor

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #35 on: January 01, 2011, 12:40:55 pm »
As one of those "old guys" some of you are kicking around my experience with bees is that its like any other kind of farming. I've never had a "normal year" in any aspect of farming. Things change continuously(weather, enviroment, practices, etc) and so they have an effect on what you are raising. If you want to stay in business the best you can do is use your experiences, if you have them, and keep yourself updated on changes in practice. From there, as someone said, use your best judgement. Because things change you are never going to get one answer on "this is how it should be done". Also on this site you are talking to people all over the world so what works for one may not work for another.
If you are new at beekeeping I understand that you don't have experiences. You have two choices. Use other people's experiences by having a mentor or reading books or the internet, or you can go at it alone and learn by hard knocks. My advice is to find the middle ground on that, but never stop learning. Farming is about experimenting each year to find out what works best for the conditions thrown at you. If you can't take losses you are not cut out for it. Some years no matter how hard you work at something it is not going to be a good year. Example: One bitterly cold night I had a lamb born. When I found it it was going downhill. Stayed up all night warming it and feeding it until at daybreak it was strong enough to take care of itself. Exhausted I went to bed. When I went out to check later I found it had been so strong that it had jumped into the water bucket and drowned. I had done what I thought was best, but there were other plans for that lamb. Accept the fact that there are going to be losses and that next year will be better.

Offline Kathyp

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #36 on: January 01, 2011, 01:24:12 pm »
ditto that skatesailor. also, judgment sometimes comes down to trusting instinct.  even when you are dealing with something new, instinct will often tell you what is right and what is wrong.

had a colt born once where everything went wrong from the start.  colt got stuck, mare wouldn't let it nurse, thing developed pneumonia, and it turned out the colt had a hole in it's palate so that it was continually aspirating milk into it's lungs.  after two months of nursing this colt along, i figured he was not meant to be.  as a last ditch thought, i pulled him off his mom.  turned out that  when he was not tipping his head up to eat, he didn't get fluids in his lungs.  on hay and mash,  he did fine.  he's 12 now and still blows food out his nose, but he hasn't had a sick day since.  :-)

there was nothing wrong with the vets advice.  there was nothing wrong with the treatments the vet advised.  thing was, i was the one watching him every day.  i had to make the decision even though it was not one she agreed with at time.
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline Jim134

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #37 on: January 01, 2011, 02:20:24 pm »
  he's 12 now and still blows food out his nose, but he hasn't had a sick day since.  :-)




LOL


   BEE HAPPY Jim 134  :)
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Franklin County Beekeepers Association MA. http://www.franklinmabeekeepers.org/

Offline Acebird

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #38 on: January 01, 2011, 02:30:43 pm »
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Farming is about experimenting each year to find out what works best for the conditions thrown at you. If you can't take losses you are not cut out for it.


Ain't that the truth.  Boy, you nailed that one.

Quote
turned out that  when he was not tipping his head up to eat, he didn't get fluids in his lungs.


I think I would have tried an upside down utter.
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Offline annette

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Re: I am all ears, give us a rundown please
« Reply #39 on: January 01, 2011, 04:00:13 pm »
"ditto that skatesailor. also, judgment sometimes comes down to trusting instinct.  even when you are dealing with something new, instinct will often tell you what is right and what is wrong."

I wanted to jump in and say just what Kathy has written. With all the books I have read and all the forum posts, it still comes down to trusting ones own gut feelings lots of the time. I truly think that beekeeping is a science and an art as well.

You can read all you want, but when the time comes, you need to sit and watch them, you need to observe them and listen to them. Many answers came from inside of me.

I still consider myself a new bee although I have gone through many seasons with the bees. I visit the bees only when I am in a calm state, when I have something to offer them in the way of good vibrations and peaceful manipulations. Unless I cannot avoid it for some reason, I never visit the bees when I am agitated or off in some way.

I know you are probably thinking this sounds very new agey, but this is how I am.

You will learn your own way acebird and I wish you well. Sometimes I believe that to much thinking about something can be very detrimental. I tend to trust my instinct more than my mind.

Sincerely
Annette

 

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