Hello all! Just thought I'd pop in here & introduce myself. Most of you I don't know but a few I do. Hi Jamie! Hey Charleen! I have finally gotten a moment to join in & have looked around the forum a bit. I have posted in some of the other forums about how DH & I have moved from the southern end of the state to the northern end & have bought 5 ac. & have to (GULP) build or have built a home on it. Not a task we are looking forward to. I'm looking forward to when it's finished & we are living there. Then we will get some hives going. YAY!!!! Haven't had hives in years & years.
Okay, some background here: Growing up, daddy almost always had at least 2 - 4 hives so I was introduced to honey bees at an early age. He taught us kids everything he knew about them & we helped him often in all aspects. My DH was also doing bees. As a kid he would knock over the local bee keepers hives for fun. Well, that fella wasn't stupid. He went to my DH & offered him a job (part time after school) helping with the bees & extracting etc.... After some time DH finally confessed that he used to knock over the hives. The bee keeper told him he knew that & that's why he hired him. Wiley fox; he said if DH worked with the bees for a while he would come to understand & appreciate them & would no longer knock the hives over. So DH did that for some years. Then there was Vietnam & stuff. Some years later DH went to work for the fella who had bought out the local bee keeper. By now it was a big operation. DH & I would do the extracting on a per barrel (55 gal. drum) basis. then we would drive the barrels up to the middle of the state where Souix Bee had a plant & they bought the honey.
It's been many, many years since then but we both think fondly on those years & just love bees to death. Fascinating creatures. Surprisingly gentle creatures.
With having to build a house I expect I won't be able to join in on the discussions nearly as much as I would like to but when I can, I will.
Ann
