February 1, 2001

I ended January with a photo of this colony, which is just assembled for photographic purposes. I like the look, very log cabin like. Tracey suggests I make small imitation windows and stick on the hive. We'll see. Today I worked about 2 hours staining 4 more boxes and setting up all the different boxes and accessories to add to this On-Line Digital Log. This was one of the photos, showing the pollen trap sticking out between the top and bottom hive box. If this hive were in use, I would have the bottom board entrance fully blocked to force the bees to enter through the pollen trap. I can't wait to see how much pollen I collect, check back in during the Spring for that one.
Today I also added new photos to the TOOLS SECTION and started work on the update MY APIARY pages. Currently, my Last Apiary page is designed to show you what a devastating season can do to your bee yard. I lost everything is a rather long Winter and I new it was time to start with 100% new equipment and even more important, take YOU along for the ride. Hopefully together we'll both learn easier and more successful beekeeping techniques. But more importantly, we all need to share our hobby with others. Please tell your family and friends about Beemaster.com and they can experience over 30 other topics including beekeeping.

February 2, 2001
Pretty cold day here, so I mostly took photos and worked on the website. Check all hive boxes and everything looks and smells fine. More tomorrow.

February 3, 2001
I was thinking last night about how many colonies I hope to have this year. I have thought three all along, but the details of each hive have been sketchy. Here is a preliminary Bee Yard for the year 2001:

The main hive COLONY ONE ( C1 ) is scheduled to be a two queen hive. The bottom box will have a queen excluder separating it from the next super which will be for honey storage. A second queen excluder is placed on top of it and then a brood box and queen are added to top off the hive. The goal of this prolific adventure is to quickly build honey for the following Winters store. I highly doubt that I'll harvest any for my own needs, but we'll see. But with two queens and a pollen trap in place, I assume that: 1) this colony will swarm the first season 2) the center box will be for honey only and it will fill quickly 3) Excess brood from this colony will be used for all experimental nucs.

Colony Two ( C2 ) is going to start only One Super high and quickly work into a Two Box Colony with the top box being introduced as the bottom box reaches 60% capacity. I'm trying a few experiments this year and C2 will be my "Hive of Standard" It will be treated as a normal hive in the average new beekeepers yard. Only adding  a feeder, queen excluder and medication when needed. 

All other colonies are Experimental, that is - Expect strange things to happen throughout the season, such as Advanced Queen Rearing, Drone Cell Forcing, force pollen collection, mating and insemination. This is going to be a photographic journal of great proportion. I'll have Nucs, Observation Hives and incredible Macro photography of eggs, larva, Superceedure, and so much more.

February 9, 2001

Well... we've had terrible weather here in New Jersey all week, until today. But I've been on Day Watch all week and by time I get home from work, it's too late to do the hive treatment I've wanted to. But a lull in the weather has given me time to think of a new look for my Beekeeping Section. I can't say that I dislike the current look, but I'm hoping to reduce the length of the page using some image maps and mouse over tricks - stuff mind you, that I've never done before.
 

February 16, 2001

Well, it's been a week since I wrote in the log. Been nasty weather still except for one incredibly beautiful day that I took advantage of in other ways than beekeeping. Hopefully, a break in the weather will give me a few good days soon to Urethane my hive boxes.

Mind you, I don't want to seal air from the hive. I just want to treat the wood in a way to greatly improve it's life and also the visual aspect in the yard. Bees don't need much air and even closed up tight they will do well. Not to forget that bees will extract any propolis they have packed in corners to prevent air leaks if quality of air becomes an issue.

Still playing with the revised look of the Beekeeping Course homepage. I want something that is functional, yet attractive and quick loading to my visitors. When dealing with images and image mapping, fast is usually a term used seldom. But, I think with a little hard work and manipulating the images carefully, I'll have something that keeps everyone happy.

February 21, 2001

Well, 4 to 6 more inches coming tomorrow according to the weather channel, we'll see. Meanwhile, back at Beemaster.com's Desk, I have the NEW ISSUE of American Bee Journal. If you remember back when I ordered the equipment, I also subscribed a year to the Journal. It is a wonderful publication and I recommend it to anyone with beekeeping interests. 

February 25, 2001

Today I worked on my March Newsletter. And we are still under 8 inches of snow from a second snow fall on the 23rd. I keep telling myself it's only February - I'm just anxious to get this Season under way. By the way, over 1400 of you will receive the Newsletter in March and more people signing up every day.