Newcomers: You need to read back TWO or THREE MONTHS to catch up with everything. At least read Mays Log before you start below. This is an on-going adventure and you need to be familiar where we are before you know where we are going. Thanks. 

July 4th, 2001

Hello all from the hospital bed - ugh. I need to let you catch up with my week since our vacation to Baltimore Inner Harbor. All of my Newsletter Gang received an update concerning my stay today and I received over 600  "Get Well Emails" from you and it gave me something to read while I sat in the hospital bed. But first an apology to about 400 of you who received my update earlier which didn't have all then senders BCC: Blind Carbon Copied - in other words, you could read each others emails addresses. Blame my fever or a simple screw-up on my part, I never share my newsletter members addresses with each other or with anyone, I just forgot to hide the addresses this time. The other 4600 members of the listing DID NOT share their email addys. If you received any addresses attached to the email I sent on the Fourth of July, please delete the email and do not pass on these addys to anyone else. Thank you all for understanding.

Well... Here is what happened. On Thursday the 28th a few hours after returning from Baltimore, I began to get a low grade fever and chills. I had thought it was possibly food poison or maybe sun stroke. A fair skinned Irishman like me practically gets Moon burns, so anything was possible. Mind you, I had notice on Tuesday of our trip that I had a rash on my upper right thigh which looked to be a heat rash from walking so much. Hindsight would tell me later that the rash was something VERY different.

So I ruled out food poison when I still felt like crap the following day, but I waited until Saturday morning to call the doctor. He seemed skeptical that I had Lyme Disease, he never saw the symptoms so closely follow the appearance of the rash - which had taken on a whole new look and appeared like a multi ringed bulls eye by then. He did prescribe antibiotics and said to come in Monday to start testing.

June 30, 2001

Later Saturday evening, my temperature grew to a whopping 103.8 and I made it to a cool tub while Tracey called for the First Aid. A half hour later I was in the Emergency Room. Note: I never had morphine before :) but I must say, it lives up to the claims. I had a blinding neck and headache which was all but knocked out after 4 mils of Morphine. The effects only lasted about 40 minutes, but it was a peaceful 40 minutes - lol. After drawing many vials of blood and being hooked up to an IV, I was rolled to a room on the fourth floor.

July 1, 2001

I sat chewing Percocet with an ice bag under my neck and on my eyes. It really felt like I was rear ended at 40mphs and then the driver whacked me with a baseball bat just for the heck of it. I was noise and light sensitive and still ached all over.

July 2, 2001

Today the temperatures were under control, as were the body aches. The head and neck thing wouldn't quit and I had a neurologist visit who scheduled a Spinal Tap. Now... I never had a Spinal Tap either, I liked the Morphine better :) But Meningitis was the concern because of the relentless neck pain. The rest of the day I laid still and ate more Percocet. 

July 3, 2001

As promised, here is the photo from the AirScoop article about Beemaster.com. I'll put the article and image in larger format soon so that you can read everything. Kathy, the Editor of the AirScoop did a great job and I thank her here.

Today was better. Less pain in the neck and I turned the lights on for the first time in 3 days. I ate better too, both hospital food and home cooking. I had Tracey bring in the camera for the photo above. The name on the board was added later using Paintshop Pro. I wore my hat and it turned out to be a good conversation piece. I've never needed help talking about myself, the gift of gab is a wonderful thing - but the hat was fun to show off.

The Neurologist verified Aseptic Meningitis, a virus effecting the menages of the spinal column PROBABLY brought on by Lyme Disease - although the tests on Lyme are still not conclusive and may not be for several weeks. All I knew was that I was feeling better and I would be home soon.

July 4, 2001

I had Tracey bring in the computer after finding out that MANY people use their notebooks in the hospital. The only OFF LIMITS thing are cell phones. It's pouring out, so I'm not missing any fireworks anywhere. I did miss a cook-out with good friends, but we'll make it up soon I'm sure. Tracey also picked up four DVD movies to watch on my laptop, so time flew by this day. I wrote to all of the Newsletter Members and received nearly 400 responses by midnight. Thank you all for writing me, it was inspiring to read your words and for finding my way into your prayers.

July 5, 2001

I finished up with my IV antibiotics around noon and I was released with a list of meds to take and schedules for several shots over the next few days. I will miss the 85 year old room mate that kept me company for the entire stay and several of the nurses who helped me get through these trying days. This day, I received another 200+ emails from all of you and I'll write you back when I can.

So that gets us up to date. Tomorrow I hope to at least peek into the colonies to see how they are doing. I CAN tell you that C2 is taking in over a quart of sugar water daily which is a good sign of wax production in the hive. I also know that C1 has made its way into the THIRD BOX that I installed last Thursday. I conclude this because they are no longer clinging to the outside of the colony at night or when the days are hot. So see... lots of beekeeping can be done through casual observation by family members. It's not what they look at, but what they see.

July 7, 2001

I've rested well, even sat out in the shade enjoying a Dean Koontz book on Audio Cassette. The story is From the Corner of His Eye. I'm now on tape 6 of 13 and the main character is still only 6 months old - ugh. The other characters are interesting enough to keep the tale going, but grow up already Bartholomew!

I even cleaned the yard a little where I'd like to move C1 and C2 to in my back yard. The bees are flying low across the sidewalk and anyone passing in their path are getting whacked by bees in flight. We are use to it, but strangers and mail delivery people could start swatting at them and next thing you know, someone will be getting stung. I hate to move them, you know how I enjoy looking at them every time I walk to the front door or walk toward my car. But I found a great place in the backyard, sunny and away from all backyard activities, but cleaning the small area tired me out though, I'm far from healed from this viral set back. I really do feel drained and there is a huge difference from feeling good in bed and feeling good enough to do simple tasks that I love to do. It was a reality check when I needed to rest after only a few minutes work.

I went today for my antibiotic shots this morning, as I will be doing until at least Wednesday. I doubt I'll be back to work for at least another week and a half, these are Rocephan Antibiotics - the strongest antibiotics there are being pumped into my muscles and they are nothing to take too lightly. My doctor was very pleased at my weight loss over the last year and a half, and he pointed the numbers out to me and his nurse. I was a stocky 242 pounds at my heaviest some 18 months back. Size 38 pants were not even making it around my waist and it looked as if I carried an inter tube around my waist - it was time to do something about it.

I had never been over 200 pounds until I reached mid-life sometime around age 38. Then I quickly plumped up to that ridiculous weight and believe me, it happened practically over night. Finally, I said "Enough is enough", and made some modest changes that helped me get back to the slim 163 that I now boast. The big change in my diet was giving up regular soda, each can of soda has 1/4 cup of sugar and considering that I consumed a whopping 3 to 4 liters daily, I reduced my sugar calories by more than 30,000 calories a month by switching to Diet Coke. Told you it was a big change!

After that, it was a matter of modest exercise and reducing the salty things I loved so well. Potato chips can be killer too! I started eating pretzels instead, and they were fulfilling enough, I even seemed to tire of them quicker than I would chips. So after starting a walking program and later buying an Orbitrak Exercise Machine - a standup kinda Man-Powered bicycle that allows you to get your arms and legs into a fast walking motion without any impact, I saw the weight fall off of me at a pleasing speed. I had a tough time around 190, which was a plateau for some reason, but even that gave way to my efforts. So 14 months after beginning this program, I broke the 170 barrier ( 72 pounds weight loss ) and I was within 10 pounds of my high school wrestling weight. Not bad for a 42 year old shift worker who enjoyed pork chop samitches all hours of the night. I've maintained 165 for nearly 5 months and I have all new 34 pants and medium shirts that look great on me :)

So Beemaster... We hate to repeat ourselves again, but "WHAT THE HECK HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH BEEKEEPING???" Well.... Hmmmmm. I don't know heehee, but sure keeps me from lifting and lugging C1 and C2 around - which I just can't do yet. 

Seriously though, it does serve a very important point. Often I speak of the Bees having a clock or calendar that you need to work around. This month, I got beat down and hospitalized out of no where. If this were Fall and if I were laid up longer, it might be tragic to the colonies. Never assume that you can do tomorrow what should have been done yesterday. Working around the bee's schedule is tough enough, but tossing the frailties of the beekeeper into the pot can turn simple yard duties into a last minute rush to Winter or medicate the bees, and that is when carelessness creeps it's ugly head into your bee yard. 

Besides, your health is important. Beekeeping is heavy work and requires some degree of strength and dexterity. Being out of shape is a quick way to get yourself hurt. I'm not saying lose 80 pounds, get a viral infection and take strong antibiotics - lol, but I am saying don't exceed your own abilities either physically or mentally. Ask for help from others. Suit them up and get an extra set of hands if you need them, but whatever you do, DON'T find yourself with a super of honey or brood in your arms and no place to set them down. Preparation is 90% of successful inspection and harvesting. Keep your wits about you and always use your head MORE than your back.

I'm gonna take a rest now. I hope this little chat has helped some of you. Beekeeping is for the mind and body - both need to be ready for the tasks at hand and the beekeeper needs to objectively see his or her own abilities and work within them. I'll write again soon, but this recuperating beekeeper needs to rest.

Oh... The final count is more than 800 emails from all of you concerning my hospital stay and recovery. Thank you all so much, your prayers and thoughts have greatly boosted my spirits and I can not tell you enough how much you've helped me in this microbe war which I'm still fighting. I'm recovering slowly, and I know that God has heard my name a few hundred times recently through your prayers, and you can't beat that with a stick :) God Bless you all.

July 9, 2001

Great news all... My young buddy Fred is coming to stay with me a few weeks. He came home from Florida early and I talked to him today. We promised each other that we would spend some time together if he returned early and the timing couldn't be better. I'm recuperating nicely, although today's antibiotic shot still hurts in my left arm - I think the doctor missed his target and shot most of the Rocephan into the fattier tissue of my arm.

Fred is a natural at the bees and he will give me the needed hand to get the hives apart for their needed inspection. I always have fun with Fred, he keeps me young :)
 I doubt I'll be doing paintball too soon, I'm barely walking around the house, but we'll keep busy and have fun. 

Well.... it's later again and my car broke down while driving to pick up Fred. I just made it off of the Garden State Parkway and the car died, no lights, no buzzers, nothing. I called Tracey who came and gave me a jump after the oil cooled down. The engine wouldn't start for nothing until the oil ( which looked sludgy ) cooled. I added 2 quarts of new oil to thin it out some, got the jump and went on to pick up Fred.

We got home, watched WWF and we were both very disappointed at what is happening in the WWF with the WCW and ECW mergers. If you aren't into wrestling, it don't mean much, but us WWF fans are very upset at the way it's going - ugh.

July 10, 2001

Today was a great day. Fred and I did a little yard work before the sun drove us indoors to watch Jerry Springer and then off to an oil change on my car which cleaned all the sludge out and I'm good for another 10 thousand miles - lol. Also, I didn't mention, but I can't open my car driver side door for the inside - go figure. This happened when the car died. No clue why or if it is a coincidence, but now I need to roll down the window to get my door open. Fred finds this very funny, so I sucker punched him. Shown here is the brood box of C1 - all photos taken by Fred.

Then off to the doctor for the next to the last Rocephan injection. Fred patiently waited outside the doctor's examining room to punch my injected arm. Needless to say I sucker punched him again :) I must say, I won't miss these daily injections - they are really starting to hurt longer each time and I'm ready for oral antibiotics.

Finally.... on to the bees and a very productive afternoon it was. For starters Fred got stung and I laughed at him. Not cause he got stung, but because it was a good of a pay back as I could imagine! Punch me will he in my sore arm - ha!.

We opened C1's cover to see lots of bees in the upper box, although they really haven't drawn out much comb in it yet - at least it prevented them from swarming. I then pulled out a frame at a time, and was amazed to find nearly all the frames in the center box filled to capacity with honey. Very few cells were not capped over, but those that weren't capped over were filled with nectar.

Then I moved that box aside to get at the brood box shown above. I suited up for this venture and Fred got a little too close and got a bee trapped between his folded arms and the bee stung him on a finger. We quickly scraped off the venom sac and went about duties - me moving frames and Fred photographing everything that moved.

Most of you know that I've put off moving brood frames from C1 to C2 until I had help. I really wanted Fred for this job, he's a really good picture taker and I needed someone to get these photos for this page. So I Removed several frames, looking to see which frames had good brood count and even good oval patterns for photo purposes. I brushed off the bees with the only bee brush I could muster, a windshield ice scraper and brush kit. 

The bristles were a bit rougher than a bee brush, but the technique was pretty much the same. I brushed about two inches worth of bees each stroke, clearing them and dropping them to the box below. After ten or so brushings, nearly all the bees were in the hive and off of the frame. Shown here is a close up of the oval pattern of sealed pupa. You will notice that not all of the cells are filled with pupa, but I can attest that there are larva in these cells and the queen did a great job of filling these cells and keeping them filled.

I moved three of these frames into C2 and replaced the frames from C1 with new frames from my storage. I suspect that the prolific bees of C1 will draw these frames out in no time, bringing C1 lots of room to lay more eggs.

C2 now has lots of larva and pupa. I really didn't see any eggs on these frames though. I could blame this on the poor light of this cloudy day. But I want new young bees in C2 now, not 21 days from now, so the pupa was very important to me. Not only the pupa, but the young worker bees wax producing abilities that will soon follow their emerging from the sealed cells. Then the cells are ready for the queen in C2 to fill with new eggs and around and around she goes. Hopefully this will kick C2 in the butt and help it catch up with C1 which is months ahead of it.

C1 has about 140 pounds of honey stored. C2 hardly has any. C1 has 15 pounds of bees or more, C2 has barely 4 pounds. Hopefully C2 will thrive before the season is over. Worse case scenario, I will merge the two colonies. I really don't want to build up a new hive now - I'm trying to make C2 a viable colony and then have it Winter. If I can accomplish that, then I did a great job as a beekeeper and as an experiment in a failed hive, C2 beat the odds and won the game of survival.

Fred's gonna be here for many days and we will get lots of bee stuff done, including the next series of wallpaper images that I've been promising. Also, sorry that I haven't got to many of your emails - I'm still catching up on the get well emails and I'm way behind on many other projects. I do feel better and today I was more active than I have been since I got sick nearly two weeks ago. Check back soon, lots of stuff coming, now that I have a helper :)

July 11, 2001

We are taking a few days off from the bees and enjoying some special time together doing GUY STUFF. Tonight we went to see the Lakewood Blueclaws ( the Philadelphia Phillies minor league camp ) only 12 miles from here. We were pleasantly surprised at how nice the stadium looked. It held 7000+ seats and lots of lawn seats, which we ended up with in this sold out event. The Blueclaws beat the Lexington Legends 8 to 6 in a very close nail biter of a game.

July 12, 2001

We worked hard today, tiring me out completely at clearing two sections of stockade fence in the back yard that was completely covered with very potent poison ivy. Fred and I suited up in Tyvec and rubber gloved and tackled the job with a fury. It was hot and sweaty work, but it needed to be done. 

We then went to Black beards Cave, for go-cart riding, water bumper cars and miniature golf. Fred had stayed dry in the bumper boats until he laughed at me getting soaked, then a huge waterspout shot up through the steering column of his boat and soaked him thoroughly :)

Then, on the return trip home I stopped to pay my annual internet bill. I get 30 megs of space for Beemaster.com through my local internet provider included with my annual internet service. A great deal if you ask me. I've been with this ISP for nearly 6 years and I think they do a great job of keeping me On-Line.

Later we watched WWF Wrestling, still upset with the intrusion of WCW and ECW - again something that a only a real fan would understand. Then we got a call from my old boss Jay in North Carolina - Jay is also a very good friend of Fred and I. He was pleased to see that Fred was spending time with me. Jay knows that Fred is in a good home with people who really care about him. Jay hopes that we will all get together in October in Washington, DC for a couple of days. Washington is roughly the mid-way point between us and him.

July 13, 2001

We went to Home Depot and bought replacement stockade fence and nailed it in place. We decided to let it age naturally to match the older fence that remained. The rest of the day we goofed off and I really enjoyed NOT doing anything. Tomorrow though, we are going to extract honey from C1 - the colony has about 140 pounds now and it's time to take some it so that C1 can refill the frames.

July 14, 2001

We started out early, very early. Up at 7:30am on a Saturday is something that neither Fred or I looked forward to, but Tracey insisted that if we were going to the Englishtown Flea Market, that we got going before 9am. Englishtown is the largest Flea Market in New Jersey and one of the largest in the United States. Fred got some nice tee-shirts, a cool pocket knife and a laser pointer. I got a great deal on a quick release tripod and I bought a laser pointer too. Tracey spend $60 on something that she carried around in her bag all day - I still don't know what the mystery bag contained. We spent 3 hours walking around and got some serious sunburn and later started showing some signs of poison ivy - nothing big, just localized and itchy.

Later Fred and I tackled extracting honey from C1. First, we cleaned the extractor off, then I opened C1's supers, brushed the bees off of the four frames to extract honey from. This time i decided not to suit up and find out exactly how friendly C1's bees really are. Even though I used a very stiff brush, the bees didn't seem to mind being brushed from the honey capped frames. 

We removed the frames and set them aside while the remaining bees flew back to the hive.  We set the extractor on the front porch so that we could get containers under the drain valve.  Keeping with the theme of backyard beekeeping, we took a cake icing  spatula and heated it using a small propane torch. This turned out to be lame so we switched to a long serrated knife which worked much better.

Surprisingly the frames from C1 were not as wide as many hives i've had before. Although each frame weighed at least 12lbs. and two of them must have weighed close to 16Lbs. After scraping the cappings from the frames we placed two frames of equal weighed into the hand spun extractor.

I held the extractor down while Fred started the spinning process.  As Fred spun the extractor loads of honey whipped around to the sides of the extractor eventually making its way to the bottom. After the one side of the frames was half way done we turned the frames around so the other side could have the honey come out . After that side we turned the frames around for a second and last time. When we finished the extracting of the frames we lifted the frames up to the sun to see that all of the honey was removed, then we placed the frames back into C1's honey box where they came from - alternating them between the other honey filled frames. Then we opened up the gate valve to let the honey flow into six quart containers. 

We finished this day at Wall Stadium watching the stock cars race. Lots of crashes in all the different classifications. We saw 3/4 midgets, street stock, pro stocks, modified and legends race. Everyone was crashing into everything all night long, luckily no one was seriously injured.

July 15, 2001

Sunday was an easy day, we just planned to cut the grass and print some business cards for my pet project www.shop-lakehurst.com - check it out, but it's still not up to snuff. Fred cut the back yard and I decided to cut the front because C1 was out in force. I did ok until I got near C1 and the bees from C1 and C2 went nuts, coming after me in huge numbers.

I did my best to keep a good distance away from the bees, but they were more interested in stinging me than attacking the mower. I stood there with a few dozen angry workers banging into me while Fred safely watched from the front porch. Then, the bees landed on my neck and then on the tip of my nose. Fred thought I'd get it on the neck, but the bees thought otherwise and sting me right on the tip of the underside of my nose.

I made my way into the house, bees following and stood there in notable pain and running eyes and nose for about 10 minutes. As the night progressed, my nose swelled enough to give Fred a few chuckles and it was rather tender to the touch. Otherwise, it was a slow, do nothing kinda day and a good way to end a busy week.

Tomorrow Fred goes home after a really great week here. We got to do lots of cool stuff and we were busy every day. More tomorrow.

July 16, 2001

Well... Fred's back with his family and it's time to get back to work here, literally on Wednesday I go back to the Power Plant - but I've got about a dozen projects going all at once and they all need equal attention. I do spread myself thin these days, keeping up with the log sometimes is a recapping of several days, but I'm good at keeping events in my head. 

Fred and I made up lots of Shop-Lakehurst business cards and I'm working on the sales agreement and flyers. Lots of work up-starting a business. Luckily today, Small Office Home Office ( SOHO ) is pretty much in everyone's home. We all have computers, printers and other equipment ( mostly software today ) that allows us all to affordably create all the documents that are necessary.

My theory of Shop-Lakehurst is to bring my small community into the 21st century. Finally, our Borough Government has it's own Borough website and now it's time the businesses have a site too. I've had the domain for about a year and I haven't done much with it, but it's time to get going.

July 17, 2001

I mailed out the Newsletter last night. I hope you all enjoyed the brief recap of the month so far. I also noted in it that I looked into C2 to see if indeed the bees had grown in force and they have! The replacement queen we raised finally has filled the frames all the way across - with the help of Fred and I moving 4 frames of brood into the hive last week.

I was pretty sure that it had grown when they flew after me while cutting the grass over the weekend. Smaller colonies tend to keep inside and away from the mower, but larger colonies are more than willing to bubble out and attack the great roaring beast. Such was the case with C1 and then surprisingly C2 had also attacked me.

Again, it's simple observations that can peak your interest and following up with visual inspection is the only true way to confirm such suspicions. The bees in C2 were busy filling in the remaining frames that had needed drawing out. Whether or not they are full yet will take a bit closer look in a few days. It is hot here today and I'm feeling so good. I think I'm feeling a bit of a relapse, so I need to slow down some.

I received an email from Gia, a Beekeeper from the North West US who asked how I could be extracting honey from a colony that only has 10 drawn frames. I thought I'd cover this in the Logbook. She needs 2 full boxes of honey to secure a cold Winter's feeding of her bees. Here in New Jersey, we have 4 full months of cold weather and in bad years that could be 5 months which we need to feed the Wintered colony.

It is considered that 20 pounds per month for an average size colony is generally enough in all but the coldest of Winters. In sub-zero weather though 20 pounds won't do and that number could be nearly twice that - a whopping 40 pounds a month. This means I'd be leaving 160 pounds on the hive to feed the bees, which is roughly 12 to 15 frames - still not two full supers. But to be safe, and I know Gia is not willing to be sorry when safe is readily available is very willing to supply her bees with enough food to survive the coldest of Winters. It doesn't hurt to over supply you colonies. The honey remaining at the end of the season will extract just as well next Spring as it does this Summer. So to be safe it is always a good idea to have lots of honey on hand to feed your colonies.

I extracted four frames, leaving 6 full frames in C1 and I'm betting that C1 will continue to build up ample ( if not excessive ) honey stores to easily survive the upcoming Winter. I also expect there to be enough to share with C2 if it is needed. Will I extract any more honey before Fall? I doubt it. This extraction was more for Fred's sake than the need to actually capture honey from C1. Fred had never extracted and he was hoping to do so before returning home. I just couldn't say no to him, besides it was a great photo opportunity and a project for the two of us to share.

So C1 may have it's work cut out for it, but I think it will do fine. It has stored about 3 frames worth in the third box I installed last month and drawn out comb in that box in nearly all of it's frames - so they are still coming back heavy with nectar and the Lily pads are in full bloom here now. The conditions are right for lots of activity and growth and I'm betting the two colonies will do fine :)

July 20, 2001

It's been three days since I last updated this page. I really can't get into all the details, but it's been lots more blood tests, shots and examinations. I still am having low grade fevers, night sweats and light sensitivity problems - but I'm hopeful that the tests over the last three days will find what is really ailing me. 

The tests on Lyme Disease came back negative, although all the doctors said that initial screens usually turn out negative because of an incubation period. It could be that the viral infection I suffered came from a jacuzzi I sat in while vacationing in Baltimore too - again, it's still not determined and the most resent blood work may take weeks to incubate.

I'm not feeling too bad during the day, but night time is a different story. It seems that my aches and fevers come with the dark - hope I didn't get some Vampire Virus :)

I'm off to bed now, it's nearly 4am on Friday morning. I'm sure I'll have more stuff later today.

And... It's later again. I didn't sleep well again, but I can't lay around all day either. I posted a special notice on my Beekeeping Course Home Page  Important News Article Concerning Shipping Bees! which you all should read. It concerns the Postal Services upcoming changes in shipping policies which affects general delivery of honeybees.

I'm expecting a call tonight from the Beekeeping for Dummies Author. We will be catching up with a listing of images needed for his book. To recap: I'll be doing most of the images in the book and we need to brainstorm a little as we begin the project which is very exciting to me. I'm honored to be part of this momentous undertaking and I have read several chapters from his writings and I will say this, the book will be very thorough and entertaining - a must read for anyone with serious interest in Beekeeping and an excellent resource for us all.

I keep feeding C2 by the way. It has blossomed into a thriving colony, practically over night after being stunted for so many months. It works that way though: you'll sit there scratching your head, wondering if it has a chance of making it through the Summer and all of a sudden it takes off like a rocket. Now, it's still only half the hive that C1 is, but given enough time C2 will be as strong as it's sister hive.

Just got off the phone with Howland, the Beekeeping for Dummies Author. I always enjoy our conversations and this was no exception. He is a we traveled man who has lived a wonderful life. We spoke about exact photos needed for various chapters of the book, including setup and rarity of actually being present for many unique events that are seasonal.

The most humorous event of the beekeeping year is the Tossing of the Drones. Many of you have never heard of this, so let me explain. In the Fall when the queen stops laying and there is no longer a need for drones ( male honeybees ) to be kept around, the much smaller worker bees ( female )  literally grab the drones and walk them to the entrance, tossing them out of the hive. They try returning and are met at the entrance with great resistance from the guard bees. Eventually, the drones fly off in search of other hives willing to accept them - or more importantly a queen created late in the season in need of mating. I've watched the Tossing many times, my wife Tracey can't get enough of it :) This year Fred will get a chance to watch and laugh and learn.

I just emailed about 20 Newsletter Gang Members who I have been meaning to catch up with for some time. I know about 200 of you are still awaiting responses and I'll get you replies as fast as I can write you. But those of you who write often know, I get long winded and with over 150 beekeeping emails daily pouring in it's hard to write everyone, especially still recovering here. But all your emails will be answered, it just takes time :)

July 21, 2001

Sometimes you can really make judgmental errors while working with a hive. I've been feeding C2 right along, trying to promote good wax production from the you emerging worker bees. But let's see what drawbacks can occur by doing so.

I sat watching as sugar water shrank in the bottle at an amazing rate - nearly an inch an hour from a quart jar. Now, it takes lots of bees to move this much sugar water from a feeder jar, so I think everything is great. But upon closer inspection while showing the bees to a friend yesterday I found that the stored sugar water is taking up valuable cells that I'm trying to create for the queen to lay eggs in. 

Also, I'm trying to promote swarming in C2 - seems strange we can talk swarming when only a month ago I was noting that only 5 frames were drawn. But the various efforts of Fred and I to get more pupa into C2 has paid off. Firstly, all these bees have emerged from the cells that were transferred from C1 and those cells were meant for new eggs ( thus new bees ) laid by C2's queen. Now I have a queen in C2 looking for places to lay eggs and most of the frames are filled with sugar water - again, ugh. The other reason for frame swapping was to quickly fill all space within the hive, making "Elbow room" amongst the bees a lot tighter and also get the internal temperature up, to again promote swarming.

Well... now I'm thinking about having C1 swarm instead. It may take some effort, having three boxes on it - first I'll have to remove the upper box and place it on C2. C1 does have a huge number of bees and removing that top box will force all the bees into the remaining two boxes. That should really make a difference quickly and swarming could be just a few weeks away.

I want the swarming for photos for the Beekeeping for Dummies book. I have lots of interesting, albeit time consuming photo shoots ahead. Howland, the Dummies Book Author and I agreed that these images new to be text book perfect, even when staged for the shot. A good example would be a swarm on a picnic table or mailbox - setting this up would be very easy with a caged queen tied to an object and the workers clustering in great number.

Other shots such as cells exposed to show various stages of developing workers will need lots of set up, as will shots showing multiple eggs in cells and other hive activity that is rare to capture. Whatever the challenge, I do enjoy getting close to the bees.

Summer Concerts in Lakehurst
I want to try something new. I'm not sure how many of you use AOL Instant Messenger, but I would like to try some communication using this Live Chatting Program. Email is great, don't get me wrong, but I'd like to converse with those of you while I'm around the PC. I hope that it becomes a fun way to meet many of you who are online as often as I am.

Here goes. My AOL IM name is NJBeemaster and I hope you get a chance to come on an send me a message while I'm on. If of course instant messaging takes up too much time, I'll have to reserve to to a few hours a day, but I'd be sure to let you know when I'm around. The software is only a meg or so big, I use the beta version which supports voice chatting too. Click this AOL Link to download the software.

Another way to communicate with me is through Yahoo! Chat. I hang out in Yahoo's Computer Lobby 1 exclusively when I'm in chat, so finding me will be easy. In Yahoo! chat look for ( who else ) Beemasterdotcom. 

It's evening, late evening to be precise and Tracey and I just came back from a street concert here in Downtown Lakehurst. On my Shop-Lakehurst website, you will find Jolly Rogers Ice Cream Parlor who sponsors a Saturday Night Concert all Summer Long and I gladly mention them here because Jolly Rogers has been active in Community Fellowship for many many years.

The concert was a cross between Jazz and R&B and the group XL was very good. You know me, after the concert I walked up to the lead vocalist Marie and chatted for about 10 minutes :) It was their first concert here in Lakehurst and I promised to tell Jolly Rogers owner Gary to get them back again soon.

So it's time to close off the log for today, but I hope you all get a chance to Instant Messenger me soon or meet me in Yahoo! Chat. 

July 22, 2001

The logbook has gotten lengthy this month and I apologize to you with 56K connections for the long load time, but I still don't want to cut my months up in to pieces. I too am boggled with 56K and it's been a matter of choice because here we do have cable and DSL options. DSL though isn't the way to go, not at the cost similarities to cable which is many times faster. I Also enjoy the ability to dial up using both the laptop and desktop through my local ISP who also hosts Beemaster.com, so moving to cable ( although a luxury ) would spoil me whenever I need to return to 56K - ugh.

I was just standing on the front porch watching the colonies. It's amazing the number of bees in flight to and from the hive at all times of the day. Ci has 3 to 4 times the bees in flight compared to C2, but C2 is active enough that there are always bees in flight - so I'm happy with its progress. Mind you, I stopped feeding C2 because I want the worker to spend more time away from the hive and make more room available for egg laying.

I have the AOL Instant Messenger running, it's 11:45am and no one has called me yet, not even Fred who is probably swimming in his Aunt's Lagoon. His Aunt Bernie has an small home right on the lagoons of Mystic where blueclaw crabs are abundant and fishing and swimming are always just feet away. Fred loves it there and I can't say I don't blame him :) more later.

Just talked via text chat to Beebuddy.com  ( aka Kicker ) who has written me many times. Her site is really nice and I especially like the photos of her hives and some really neat animated bee images that I "Borrowed" for later use :) 

She says she's been beekeeping about a year now and really enjoys the hobby. I'm proud that she went the extra effort to get a domain name for her site, it really helps people remember your site address and find you again. So many great sites are lost in the great abyss of Internet search engines. Beemaster has never passed Belinda's Beekeeping Spot in most search engines, but that is not the rule. I've done searching under many beekeeping phrases; beekeeping, beekeeping courses, educational beekeeping, beekeeping for students, etc., and most of those will net Beemaster as the first website - except "Beekeeping" where my long time rival and friendly nemesis Belinda kicks my butt every time - lol.

July 23, 2001

I just voice chatted with David in North Carolina using AOL Instant messenger. It was a blast too. We started by typing each other, then David opened a voice chat and we talked about 20+ minutes. I really like that format, it's a wonderful way to meet you all. I hope more of you make a point of downloading the free AOL software and page NJBeemaster to talk with. 

NOTE: you don't need to be an AOL Customer to use this software, I am not ( and hopefully never will be ) an AOL customer, but their free messenger program is very nice and simple to use. The one thing that really turns me off about AOL is that if you forget to make a payment, they lockout your email account and people can't mail you. I've have friends that I keep getting my email tossed back at me for this very reason. Local ISPs may freeze your service, but they compile your mail for you until you either pay again or choose to move on. 

We'll it's off to the Doctor again, wish me luck. I hope he's gonna start me on injections of antibiotics again, because I'm still feeling weak and fevery - the oral antibiotics just aren't doing the trick. I'll let you know later.

After lots of trying, Kicker ( see above ) and I finally hooked up in voice chat using MSN Instant Messenger and we talked at least 30 minutes, probably about everything except beekeeping :) That's cool though, I do this website for lots of reasons and meeting people is right up there at the top.

I'm also back on injections as I thought I might be. Four days worth at least. I still hope to get back to work next week, we'll see. So, not much beekeeping stuff today, too hot here for that. 

C1 is bubbling over and doing some unusual fanning, more like a little 2 step dance movement. They move forward a step and then back and then forward again. Very little wing flapping and many of the bees are facing straight toward the ground while clinging to the vertical part of the landing board. About 200 workers in all doing this and I hope to capture images in the morning. Good night all :)

LAST MINUTE ADDITION: This email just came in, thought it was awesome.
 

Hello
I have a small swarm in my back yard. they have been there for two days I've learned a lot reading your article. I was going to kill them but now I'll just wait and see what happens.
Thanks

Sometimes I'm so proud of my visitors - this really made my night :) 

July 24, 2001

It's the end of a busy day here at Beemaster Central :) I've been back to the doctors to start another series of antibiotic shots and some more blood work. One result that came back was a bit worrisome though: A non-specific inflammatory screening ( which has a normal range from 5 to 14 ) came back with an 83 - showing that infection still lives in Beemaster and my white count is also still high. The Doctor is a bit confused at why these powerful antibiotics haven't killed everything but me yet. More next time.

Then I made a voyage into C2 and again I was very pleased at what I saw there. First, tons of brood of all ages, laid in very uniform patterns across 7 frames. The queen was in the frame next to center and I watched her lay 8 eggs in a matter of three minutes.

Then Fred called :) That always makes my day. He is coming back tomorrow to stay a few days. I'll get him to do a featured article here for you to read from a kids prospective - he already said he wants to give a try at cutting the grass around the hives. Note: using the electric mower, I wouldn't subject him to the pounding I took last week as a few hundred workers circled me and my great roaring bee muncher machine.

Then.... I spent a few hours chatting on AOL IM. A few of you didn't get through and I apologize. It's really tough to talk to more than one or two people at a time. I just don't have the multitasking talents of some of my Yahoo chat friends who have AIM, ICQ, MSN IM, Yahoo Chat and ten other things going at one time. I prefer to dedicate my time to the gang here in a first come first serve fashion. I hope you understand.

I did though get to talk to about 30 people today using chat. That was pretty darned good I think. Instant Messaging is really starting to catch on and the repeat chatters are starting to mount up too. My poor wife ended up screening a few calls while I made an occasional rest stop - lol. I'll eventually get it down, but it's new to me too.

So tomorrow should be a great day, catching up with Fred and more antibiotics shots. We'll plan our days together and I even hope a few of you will try chatting with Fred. He's got enough friends and relatives to keep him chatting though, so I might have to fight him for the keyboard or set him up on my desktop and I'll stay here on the laptop as usual.

July is winding down quickly and next month promises to be jam packed again with setting up for the Fall and Medication discussion. One night next week, I will be setting up a Chat room on Yahoo Chat and hopefully we can get a few dozen or more of us in there to have a round table discussion - this would be an awesome way to chat and meet everyone else who follows along with the logbook. If it works out, then hopefully we can continue this informal gathering weekly or biweekly. Let me know if that sounds like a good idea :)

July 26, 2001

Been a couple days since I wrote you all. I have been on AOL Messenger with some of you though and of course I've had great company with Fred here. Oh... Fred says HI ALL :)

Results from the Lyme test FINALLY are conclusive and positive. The infection that lingers is still being battled with daily shots and I just picked up another NINE bottles today. I'm still hoping to get back to work next week, but that of course is up to the Doctor.

It's rained all day here in New Jersey. Not the rain that the Northern States got over the last 24 hours, but a steady rain and lots of humidity. Finally though the heat wave has broken and temps are back in the low 70's for a few days.

Last night, during the hottest part of the day, C1 had a substantial cluster hanging from the hive entrance. Without exaggeration it had to have been 5 pounds of bees and I think that it may be near swarming - rather than just controlling heat in the hive. But today, after the heat broke, all the bees returned to the hive and normal flight activity returned. 

NOTE: Tomorrow night should be a good night to test YAHOO! CHAT. I really don't expect a lot of you there, unless lots of the gang read this update. But it should be a few people that can get a chance to casually meet each other in a relaxed atmosphere.

To join in the chat, please go to  http://www.yahoo.com/r/yc and sign in using your yahoo user name and password. The room will be in COMPUTER LOBBY and the title will be BEEMASTER'S ROOM. In there we can do both voice ( if you have a mic and speakers ) or just text chat. Remember though, if you don't have a mic, you can still listen in on our conversations.

If you do read this up date and you think you will get a chance to join in, please email me a quick note so I can get an idea of how many people will be around. Expect me to keep the room open from 8pm to 10pm eastern time US. Of course it's open ended and I hope we all get to carry on as long as we have stuff to chat about.

Please don't think it's going to be Beekeeping only - it is not. Feel free to talk about anything at all, that's why I do this site. I love meeting all of you and I hope you get a chance to drop in tomorrow. If you need more notice, I expect to have the room running the same time next week. Either way, if you could drop me an email to let me know you'll be there - it will help.

More later :)

July 28, 2001

First an apology for those of you trying to contact Fred and me last night in Yahoo Chat. We had the computer on, but had some personal issues to deal with here concerning family and we didn't get back into computing until nearly 10pm - ugh.

I got my shot again this morning and it hurt a lot less, maybe I'm getting use to them. Fred and I kept busy all day working minor jobs around the house and tonight is Wall Stadium night, so we'll be packing samitches and sodas - food is so expensive there and it's not very tasty either.

More later tonight - but we didn't do anything bee related today and may just take a good look into C1 tomorrow morning, we'll see. Bye all and have a great Saturday.

July 29, 2001

What a horrible day! While returning home from grocery shopping, I swerved to miss a deer, not missing it by the way and my car with me and Fred in it lost traction and skidded off the road hitting a tree at about 25 miles and hour head on. Thank God that neither of us were badly hurt or even killed. Fred bit his lip some and I have a very painful chest from being stopped by my seat belt. My 1990 Cutlass doesn't have airbags and the seat belts is the only thing that saved us. The deer ran off in the woods, hurt but alive.

Mind you my car is totaled, having the passenger front end pushed in roughly 10 inches. The passenger door wont open and the radiator, pumps and fans are all crushed - but we are okay. Like I said what a horrible day, I'm still upset and I was shaking for nearly 4 hours.

Fred went home to his Aunt's home, Tracey drove the two of us down to her home nearly 50 miles away. He got a chance to see his younger sister for the first time in many weeks and also visit with his many cousins and aunts. The accident was a terrible way to end a fun week, but considering how it could have been, we are both very lucky.

July is almost over and for me it has been a crappy month all in all. I started it in the hospital, spent 5 days there, contracted Lyme Disease, continue to get painful daily injections of Rocephan and now my car is totaled and my chest is killing me. I hope August is better than July, I can't take another month like this one. I'll write you tomorrow and let you know what's up. I'll be calling Fred of course to check on him. I'm sure he is fine though and more than anything I am thankful for that. The scariest part was to have NO control of my vehicle. It just lost the grip of the road when the deer hit it on the turn and headed straight into the tree 50 feet off the road. I never want to go through such a thing again. I can't imagine the horror of a more serious accident. Talk tomorrow more.

July 30, 2001

I'm still sore in my chest and I got a script and referral for X-rays - appointment tomorrow. I called Fred and he is fine :) Then I contacted the insurance agent who said that the  car could be called totaled by me since I had no collision insurance and they weren't responsible for any claims - this wasn't a problem, I wasn't about to pay $500 a year and have a $500 deductible on a 1990 car worth $1000. So it's headed for the junk yard.

Then off car shopping!!! I'm a good negotiator and I had studied enough for many months concerning my next car. I knew it was going to be a Mercury Grand Marquis and I knew what features I wanted and also how much I was going to pay. So I loaded up the plates from the old car, checkbook and some notes.

Tracey and I went to a local dealership and the salesman Darryl asked if I knew what I was looking for, I told him what I wanted and he found three cars that met my needs. I was flexible on one thing only, the optional handling package which added a stiffer - less boaty feel to the heavy Grand Marquis. But after a test drive I decided that this was not a major point toward my purchasing decision.

I did however insist on the ultimate package which included every imaginable feature - digital dash, auto climate control, dual 8 position leather seats, auto dim rearview mirror, auto side mirrors, chrome package and all cruise functions - lots more too.

Click image to view large image. The total package was $29,904 but I had lots of things in my favor to get the final price down to $26,000 even. Mercury was offering a $2000 cash back or 0.9% finance for 36 months. I opted the $2000, which got me to $27,904 and I insisted that the price be $26,000 ( a nice round number that I refused to sway from ) and after being "How about meeting me half way to death" I said, $26,000 or I go leave without a car. They agreed finally and I got an additional $1,904 off, getting my price and I went home with a fully loaded Grand Marquis LS Edition, forest green - I wrote a check for the whole amount and I own me a new car FREE and CLEAR :) Well far from Free, but definitely no payments to be burdened with :)

I called Fred who was very excited at the news, he's followed my wishes of getting this car for months and I can't wait for him to take a ride with me in it someday soon. It's such a shame he lives so far away, maybe someday that will change.

Tomorrow might just be a beekeeping day - lol. I know most of you do occasionally expect some BEE related entries, but July has been an unusual month here at Beemaster.com - to say the least. As it comes to an end, I want to thank many of you again for your prayers and thoughts concerning all my health issues. I swear I'm a pretty health 42 year old ( 43 next week ) but this just goes to show you that humans are only human and we can breakdown at the blink of an eye. I know I learned a lot about life this month and those who follow along here have too. 

Thanks for your kind emails about Fred too - he is a great kid who is having a tough time in life right now, but he is loved by many many people and he knows it too! Your emails to me that mention Fred always get forwarded to him and he loves reading every one of them. Someday you'll know more about my young buddy, but lets just say he deserves the love and attention that my wife and I give him - he is a very bright and loving young man that I hope reaches his potential in life.

July 31, 2001

I'm gonna end July with just a few note and give it all heck tomorrow with a New Month and a New positive attitude. I put over 150 miles on the new car and every mile was a pleasure. 

It is a great ride with plenty of neat gadgets and options to keep me busy on the road and in the drive way. A neat feature is it actually tells you when lights and turn signals are burned out - pretty cool. But there's tons of neat things to choose from. 

The great news is Fred is coming back already, he'll be here tomorrow sometime. He can't wait to take the ride around town in ultimate luxury - lol. I already have lots of work planned for him to do. Mostly yard cleaning where he can earn a decent $8 an hour - that way he can have blow money and we can go ball games and stuff and he can spend like a maniac :) I think it healthy for him to have a good work conscience and respect a dollars value - it builds character in young people.

A Gift From Fred - click here or on the photo to open a 1024x768 wallpaper image Fred took for you - hope you enjoy it :) Thanks for following along another month - they are flying by, even though these logs are getting epic in size I still hear from you all that the content is great and fun to follow. So, lots more of the same stuff next month and as promised we will cover medicating and setting up the colonies for the Fall and early Winter. C1 is ready, but C2 is not. C2 will get a second super tomorrow, I'm not going to have it swarm as I had planned earlier - I need to build up honey stores while the flow is still going and C2 has a good bee count now and there is NO reason to delay them space even one more day. 

Will Fred add the second super to C1??? Has C1 repaired and refilled the frames we spun two weeks ago??? Will Beemaster take photos of his young friend Fred pulling bee filled frames from the hive and send them to Fred's girlfriend Justine??? Will Tracey share her recipes using Beemaster's special blend honey with the Newsletter gang??? Stay tuned and find out, cause it's August tomorrow and I have some neat surprises coming this month for all of you. It's gonna get real neat, stay tuned :)