January 18th, 2001

The Virtual logbook for the year 2001 begins this date. I will cover beekeeping from my prospective and in as much detail as possible. Including purchasing, inventory, building and assembling of hives and every event including information and photos added to this website. You will get the detailed story of the season of 2001. I hope it is a learning experience for all of us. Expect dozens or even hundreds of wallpaper sized image  and just as many demonstration images this year throughout the Beekeeping Course. 

Beemaster fans have asked for it and finally I can keep a 2001 log. I beg you not to expect daily updates. I work on my entire site, all the time and the logbook will get updated as beekeeping tasks are performed. The objective is simple, I need to order and setup two colonies, rear queens, catch swarms and harvest honey - all while documenting every aspect for the website. 

This date, I received the new Dadants Catalog. It is better than every with great images and instructions for all aspects of buying and setting up a year.

January 22, 2001

Ordered from Dadants, Wavery, NY the Following. Should be Shipped THIS DATE.

• 3 Complete Assembled Hive Kits ( $234.25 )
• 5 Assembled Hive body with Assembled Frames ( $196.25 )
• 2 Wood Framed Queen Excluders ( $21.00 )
• 1 External Pollen Trap
• 3 External Feeders ( Jars Not Included  - $7.05 )
• Renew Subscription to American Bee Journal ( $19.95 )
• TOTAL COST OF ORDER - MINUS SHIPPING - $507.50 )

January 26th, 2001

Update on Shipment from Dadants. I received a priority letter from Dadants in Waverly, NY. They said: John please call us, we must have copied the wrong credit card information and can not ship until we correct this matter. Sorry for any inconvenience. Well, I called them and not only was the credit card number copied incorrectly, so was the expiration date - and they never took my phone number, thus a lengthy delay waiting for a letter while I thought I was waiting for my supplies. 

Lucky no hurry on the equipment. Glad I don't have 20 pounds of bees waiting for a bunch of homes. I promise that I'll be writing Dadants to complain some. I'll probably include the letter and response here soon too. You know me by now, I'm a stickler at detailing the important stuff.

January 30, 2001

Complete shipment of beekeeping supplies arrived today. 13 boxes with everything neatly packed away. First thing I did was open each box and inspect for shipping damage. There was quite a few frames where the foundation had been separated from the frames. They easily slid back in place and I resealed the boxes and played with other items shipped.

I unpacked the queen excluders, pollen trap and entrance feeders. I was quite surprised to see the overall size of the pollen trap. It comes with  2 long support slats and 2 narrow slats that form a square frame and placed between hive boxes and then the pollen trap is placed into the open area of the frame. The idea is to make the bees enter the trap and by walking around to find the entrance, the pollen is grabbed by the mesh wire and the pollen falls to a large collection box.

Here is a completed and stained hive assembled. The smaller box hanging like a belly bag is the pollen trap. It rest in a large rectangular frame that is placed between the top and bottom box. I wrote Dadants concerning several issues. Email is a powerful thing. Write someone, put their email in your address book and build a clientel with that person. There is no better way to get satisfaction with your order.

The first was the shape in which I found my foundation and frames in several boxes. I paid for completed hive kits ( total order listed above ) and many frames had their foundation just laying free in the box, instead of being secured in the frames. This either happened in storage or shipping. Either way, I suggested they double check all complete kits before shipping.

I also wasn't pleased with the pollen traps entrance spacing. I was nearly closed off and not tweaked so that the bees has unrestricted access. I went into the mess and pulled and shaped it using needle nose pliers. Look at the pollen trap photo to see the spacing the bees walk through when either entering or exiting the hive. So, not only was I unhappy about popping my foundations back into half the frames I ordered ( the just slide and snap into place. The frames and foundation become ridged as the wax is pulled out and the plastic center ( coated by real bees wax with a cell pattern embossed ) are very strong and will survive many years of extracting.

All in all, the equipment came quickly ( once the errors in credit card info were corrected ) and except for the shipping knocking a few foundations out of place - everything else was fine. Now... I need to start painting the boxes and somewhere find a storage space for these 13 boxes. Coming soon a photographic tour of tools of the Beekeeper.

January 31, 2001 ( end of Month Summary )

Closing January 2001 with a bang. Armed with my New Beekeeping Equipment, Megapixel Camera, Notebook Computer and new mini tripod, I'm ready to take on this new year. I decided that I'm going to lightly stain the boxes and a protective coating of urethane just like the one shown above. I want a natural wood look this year because white hasn't been my lucky color lately. Of course, I have a few months to do all this, but I was up to trying one hive JUST to see how it looks and I am very pleased.