Author Topic: Hello Everyone!  (Read 6447 times)

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Offline Cuttingedge

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Hello Everyone!
« on: December 09, 2017, 08:59:36 pm »
It was brought to my attention that I had not introduced myself.
My name is Jason. This year marks my fifth year of Beekeeping.
When I was a kid we had a vacation home in Massachusetts and our neighbor had hives all around his house. I remember running past them every morning to get to the water and running past them again to get home. They both fascinated and terrified me at the same time. I remember him giving us lots of Honey which I thoroughly enjoyed. Fast forward about 25 years. My best friend is a Beekeeper and I went through some hives with him years ago. Again I was fascinated so I took some beginner and advanced Beekeeping classes to learn the basics. I started with two hives and lost them the first two winters. The third year I got two new colonies and managed to make a split. I was able to get two through winter. Since then, I have been fairly successful and have not had to buy bees other than Queens for diversity. I managed to get about 80% through winter for the last two winters. My mentor for the last few years was a commercial Beekeeper for many years and managed thousands of hives. He only keeps about twenty hives now and raises his own queens for sale. What he does intrigued me so I asked him if he would show me the “ropes” of breeding queens a few years ago. That has been my focus for two years now and has taken this hobby into a small business.
I am now a producer of Nucleus hives and northern bred queens. I have approximately 40 hives going into winter this year. BTW, I am Located in Maine.

Offline brooksbeefarm

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2017, 11:31:08 pm »
Welcome Jason, i'm in S W Mo. and i would be intrested in some Northern queens. Mine are Mutts but when i buy queens i usualy look for Carn's, What breed have you got? Jack

Offline CBT

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2017, 08:30:44 am »
Welcome to the forum. Great place for good information and the folks are nice too.

Offline Cuttingedge

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2017, 08:41:35 am »
Welcome Jason, i'm in S W Mo. and i would be intrested in some Northern queens. Mine are Mutts but when i buy queens i usualy look for Carn's, What breed have you got? Jack
Thank you, most of my queens are Carniolan/ Italian Mutts. I did bring in a lot of Buckfast stock from Canada last season. I also brought in some stock from Michael Palmer in Vermont. These will need to be evaluated this upcoming season to determine if any will make it into my breeding program.

Offline Cuttingedge

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2017, 08:42:05 am »
Welcome to the forum. Great place for good information and the folks are nice too.
Thank You.

Offline Mikey N.C.

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2017, 09:06:47 am »
Welcome to WWB,
Those sugar cakes like CBT's recipe,  were pressed in pie pans.

Offline Bakersdozen

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2017, 10:41:12 am »
Welcome to the forum! 

Offline Cuttingedge

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2017, 12:08:43 pm »
Welcome to WWB,
Those sugar cakes like CBT's recipe,  were pressed in pie pans.

Thanks,
I mostly use hard candy but have used sugar cakes when I don’t have time to make candy.
The recipes that I use are as follows:

HONEY BEE WINTER CANDY

5 lbs Sugar
2 cups water
1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Splash of Honey Bee Healthy (If Desired)

Boil Sugar, Water and Vinegar stirring constantly until 242- 250 degrees
Let cool for a few minutes before adding the HBH
Stir until it starts to turn opaque/ white.
Pour into molds and let it set-up overnight
Cut before it gets too hard
Fills one half sheet pan
Feeds one hive or two Nucs


Here is the Sugar Brick Recipe

Sugar Bricks

4 lb. Sugar
1/3 cup of water or Apple Cider Vinegar

Mix well until the consistency is like “wet sand”. Place into mold and press well (I use a rolling pin).
Place into oven on lowest setting (approximately 170- 180 degrees) for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the sugar mix in the oven to cool and dry overnight.

Offline Lburou

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2017, 08:09:19 pm »
Welcome Jason.  :)
Lee_Burough

Offline Cuttingedge

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2017, 10:59:25 pm »

Offline apisbees

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2017, 03:04:16 pm »
Welcome Jason, i'm in S W Mo. and i would be intrested in some Northern queens. Mine are Mutts but when i buy queens i usualy look for Carn's, What breed have you got? Jack
Thank you, most of my queens are Carniolan/ Italian Mutts. I did bring in a lot of Buckfast stock from Canada last season. I also brought in some stock from Michael Palmer in Vermont. These will need to be evaluated this upcoming season to determine if any will make it into my breeding program.
It is refreshing to hear that you are evaluating the stock that you are adding to your breading program. your mentor is teaching you well.
And welcome to the forum
Honey Judge, Beekeeping Display Coordinator, Armstrong Fair and Rodeo.

Offline neillsayers

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #11 on: December 11, 2017, 07:33:05 pm »
Welcome aboard Jason! :)
Neill Sayers
Herbhome Bees
USDA Zone 7a

Offline Cuttingedge

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #12 on: December 11, 2017, 09:08:02 pm »
Welcome Jason, i'm in S W Mo. and i would be intrested in some Northern queens. Mine are Mutts but when i buy queens i usualy look for Carn's, What breed have you got? Jack
Thank you, most of my queens are Carniolan/ Italian Mutts. I did bring in a lot of Buckfast stock from Canada last season. I also brought in some stock from Michael Palmer in Vermont. These will need to be evaluated this upcoming season to determine if any will make it into my breeding program.
It is refreshing to hear that you are evaluating the stock that you are adding to your breading program. your mentor is teaching you well.
And welcome to the forum

Thank you for the welcome. I feel that evaluating potential breeders is VERY important. I look for very specific criteria. Very few actually make it into my breeding program. Anyone can rear queens through splits or grafting, etc. Raising great queens is much harder. So far, I have been very happy with the stock that I have and the daughters of my Breeder Queens have been great. After speaking with my mentor, I decided to bring in a few different lines to expand. So far only a few of my purchased queens from this season shows promise. They happen to be exceptionally docile which is one of the major traits that I try to keep. If one or more of them meets my other criteria, I will make a few daughters and evaluate them before using the mother as a Breeder Queen. My hope is that I can start introducing more Buckfast into my operation. I have secured a second yard and both that and my home yard are pretty isolated. My mentor has certainly taught me a lot and is a great resource. I greatly appreciate him sharing his knowledge with me.

Offline Cuttingedge

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #13 on: December 11, 2017, 09:09:26 pm »

Offline riverbee

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #14 on: January 17, 2018, 09:46:02 am »
welcome to the forum jason!

thanks for joining us! looking forward to reading your posts!
i keep wild things in a box..........™
if you obey the rules, you miss all the fun.....katherine hepburn
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Offline efmesch

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #15 on: January 17, 2018, 12:32:17 pm »
Welcome to the forum, Jason.  After reading your introduction, I can add, "Pleased to meet you."   It's always nice to have background info about the fellow forum members we "talk" to. 

It just occurred to me that "we" haven't done the same for you.  The old timers here have learned about each other through a multitude of posts.  Some of us even knew each other when we were active together earlier on a different forum.  I guess it's not really fair to expect you to get to know us the hard way, over time, but it would be boring to a lot of people if we were all to start re-introducing ourselves to each other.

I hope you'll be active. Then we can quickly get to feel naturally friendly with you---and you with us.
Fortunately, we are a friendly group and enjoy making each other feel good.  You won't find any  knocking down or insulting here.  When something sometimes may seem a bit harsh, rest assured, it wasn't intended to be that way---sometimes it just comes out that was by accident, like a bad joke.   (After all, in total, we come from very different places and language use can carry different meanings over the globe.)
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Offline brooksbeefarm

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Re: Hello Everyone!
« Reply #16 on: January 18, 2018, 11:44:17 am »
Welcome Jason From the Show Me State. Jack