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Author Topic: Bee scientist from Florida  (Read 4039 times)

Offline smallswarm

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Bee scientist from Florida
« on: May 02, 2007, 07:18:14 pm »
There are bee keepers and there are honey producers. I never wanted honey. I was a 25 year old computer programmer when I started noticing flowers. Then a science book by Gould and Gould hooked my facination with these tiny creatures. I could hardly believe all the mysterious gifts for memory, navigation, and learning that they demonstrate. I started noticing crawling honey bees on the street and would pick them up and study them.

I have trained wild honey bees to a feeder on my window sill. One certain bee I will never forget came every morning for many weeks, and I found her dead inside my room on the window sill, as if she meant to die there. If she had been trapped by the window, I would have heard her buzzing. That really blew my mind. Then I knew that the honey bee has a heart and that the honey bee knows love.

My first hive was destroyed by carpenter ants in 2003. After that, I started drinking. I became an alcoholic. But I kept on training the wild ones and visiting a local bee yard regularly. Last year, I decided to get sober. Six months into my recovery, I put another hive together with a Georgia queen and two honey supers covered with workers. After only 5 months, I witnessed my first swarm. It was a nuc swarm, so it was a small swarm.

I am pleased to find others in this forum who are more interested in bee keeping than honey producing. That is to say, more sensitive to the needs and even the preferences of the honey bee, rather than only what they can get out of it. I bet there might also be a few here who cringe at the thought of artificial insemenation of queens, chemical treatments and such. And that's probably enough of my story for now. Thank you.

Offline shakerbeeman

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Re: Bee scientist from Florida
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2007, 07:36:00 pm »
I think you are going to be alright smallswarm. Any start is a good start.

Offline pdmattox

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Re: Bee scientist from Florida
« Reply #2 on: May 02, 2007, 07:36:59 pm »
Welcome, and thanks for sharing your background.  Congratulations, good luck and come often because there is a lot of stuff to learn.  If you can, drop by in voice chat and say hello.

Offline Understudy

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Re: Bee scientist from Florida
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2007, 10:50:24 pm »
Bees make honey?
I may have to try that sometime.  ;)

Welcome to the forums. We welcome Florida beekeepers, We have to have someone to talk to  while everyone up north has the bees in winter mode.

Sincerely,
Brendhan
The status is not quo. The world is a mess and I just need to rule it. Dr. Horrible

Offline likes2grill

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Re: Bee scientist from Florida
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2007, 11:17:04 pm »
Quote
Welcome to the forums. We welcome Florida beekeepers, We have to have someone to talk to  while everyone up north has the bees in winter mode.

That about sums it up. Welcome.

Offline buzzbeejr

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Re: Bee scientist from Florida
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2007, 10:38:16 pm »
Quote
Welcome to the forums. We welcome Florida beekeepers, We have to have someone to talk to  while everyone up north has the bees in winter mode.

That about sums it up. Welcome.
:'( :'( :'( :'( :'( hey watch it  :-D
MMMMMMMMM!!!!!! Doughnuts.- Homer Simpson

Offline Joseph Clemens

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Re: Bee scientist from Florida
« Reply #6 on: May 06, 2007, 11:38:02 am »
Welcome smallswarm. I started noticing honeybees when I was 4 y.o., my mother keeps telling the story of how I defended a tired worker bee from her death blow when I was that age, I told her not to kill it, that it would not harm her. My parents indulged me and by the time I was 10 y.o. they helped me to get my first hive. I've been beekeeping ever since (now 50 y.o.).

More than 90% of the honey my bees collect I just feed back to them. I have never lost a hive, I intensely micro-manage, and I've never used any medicines or chemicals to treat my bees, yet they do just fine.

<img src="http://banners.wunderground.com/weathersticker/miniWeather06_both/language/www/US/AZ/Marana.gif" border=0
alt="Click for Marana, Arizona Forecast" height=50 width=150>

Joseph Clemens
Beekeeping since 1964
10+ years in Tucson, Arizona
12+ hives and 15+ nucs
No chemicals -- no treatments of any kind, EVER.

Offline Beemistress

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Re: Bee scientist from Florida
« Reply #7 on: June 13, 2007, 10:39:05 pm »
What a cool story!
I showed it to my son and he loved it.
This could open up a whole new world for some computer nerds.

Offline buzzbeejr

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Re: Bee scientist from Florida
« Reply #8 on: June 21, 2007, 11:34:33 pm »
who u calling a computer nerd "sniffle sniffle" :-D welcome aboard smallswarm.
MMMMMMMMM!!!!!! Doughnuts.- Homer Simpson

Offline Cindi

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Re: Bee scientist from Florida
« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2007, 03:35:37 am »
Joseph Clemmens.  keep on keepin' on , I am happy for you.  Best of this beautiful day, Cindi (to all those who spell it with a "y", it is spelled with and "i"  :roll:  Cindi.......
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline reinbeau

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Re: Bee scientist from Florida
« Reply #10 on: June 26, 2007, 11:32:06 am »
Joseph Clemmens.  keep on keepin' on , I am happy for you.  Best of this beautiful day, Cindi (to all those who spell it with a "y", it is spelled with and "i"  :roll:  Cindi.......
I hear ya, Cindi, many put an 'e' at the end of my name  ;)