Author Topic: Greetings from North Dakota  (Read 10949 times)

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Offline Chip Euliss

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Greetings from North Dakota
« on: July 09, 2015, 04:25:07 pm »
I'm Chip Euliss from North Dakota.  Chip is a nickname since before I was born; my real name is Ned.  I'm 63 years old and I retired from a Federal Research Biologist position a little over a year ago.  My training is in wetland/wildlife issues and that was the focus of most of my research.  Over the years, my interests shifted to the various ecosystem services that our contemporary landscape provides and how land use shifts affects the delivery of ecosystem services to humans.  For those unfamiliar with the term, an ecosystem service is basically something that humans need and get from our landscapes.  There are many different types of ecosystem services but things like habitat provisioning for wildlife, flood control, climate mitigation and even pollination services are examples.  In the later parts of my career, I worked pollination services for honey and native bees into my research program.  The work continues with folks I trained and the focus is still the same; quantifying the change in diverse ecosystem services over time and under proposed land use change scenarios.   I'm still involved with a couple of graduate students but hope to get them finished up within the year.  My interest in bees started years ago when a swarm moved into one of my wife's bluebird boxes.  I hived them up and have been keeping bees ever since.  From 1 hive 15 years ago to 700 last year.  My plan was to build a small bee business that would give me something to keep me busy about half-time when I retired. I'm afraid I failed miserably because I now have too many bees to keep a comfortable schedule.  My plan is to sell most of my bees in a year to give me more time to goof off.  I hope to be at 200 hives in about a year; that should be a comfortable number to keep me busy.  I also like to fish and hope to do even more when I reduce the size of my apiary.

So there you have my story.  Poor fellow who wanted a few bees to play with when he retired but wound up with too many for the comfortable lifestyle he planned!  It's always good to have a plan, but they sometimes spin off in an unexpected direction.

I look forward to hearing about everyone's interactions with their bees!
Chip
Chip

Offline BoilerJim

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2015, 04:52:21 pm »
Welcome aboard Chip. You picked the right forum for friendly interaction and to make friends.

Sounds like you will bring a wealth of knowledge to add to the group.

My name is Jim, one of many new friends you will find on this forum.
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Offline Perry

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #2 on: July 09, 2015, 05:29:09 pm »
Hey Chip. :welcome:
Like mentioned before, I will be reading your posts with great interest.
I am at around 70 something hives, mainly producing nucs for sale and honey, gave up on the pollination gig a couple years ago. Problem with it is you don't really set back the hives enough just pulling nucs and now I am endlessly dealing with swarms. I could split, but don't want to run over 100 hives.
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2015, 06:06:58 pm »
Thanks guys.  Jim, my daughter is a hoosier too!   She went to grad school at Purdue and now teaches at the University of Minnesota.  She enjoyed her time there.  Perry, I wish I had your constitution to scale back before I had more hives than I need!  They are lots of fun and enjoyment.  I've been doing the pollination gig for some time now.  Mostly because it's easier and more profitable to send them to California to pollinate almonds than to wrap them for wintering here in North Dakota.  In the past, they have been used for orange honey production after almonds and they come back very strong and ready to swarm; it keeps me busy getting them in control and ready for summer honey production.  Next year, I have made arrangements to send them to a different beekeeper and I'll get them back earlier, just after they come out of almonds.  Should be less hassle but we'll see!
Chip

Offline tbonekel

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2015, 06:10:00 pm »
Hey Chip! Welcome! I can tell you will be a great resource to pull from regarding bees and wildlife in general. Looking forward to your 2 cents quite often.  :)
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Offline kebee

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2015, 06:53:09 pm »
 Welcome Chip, real glad that you join the forum for your input.

ken
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Offline blueblood

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #6 on: July 09, 2015, 07:39:15 pm »
Welcome Chip!
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Offline riverbee

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #7 on: July 09, 2015, 09:01:49 pm »


welcome chip! thanks for your intro and background!  will be looking forward to reading your posts, thanks for coming!  i like to keep a few bees, GOOF OFF, and did you say FISHING?!.............. :D
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Offline tecumseh

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #8 on: July 10, 2015, 06:53:25 am »
welcome Chip.  it seem you are smack dab in the middle of honey bee heaven and suspect we may know a few of the same people.  I am a bit older than you (but not by much) and my own primary purpose in keeping bees is much the same as your own.  700 is a lot for one person and at the current time I maintain about 200 of my own and look over another 80+ at the Texas A&M Bee Lab working with Dr Juliana Rangel.  I am hoping to trim my own number over the next year and have trained a couple of good assistance at the bee lab so that responsibility has become less pressing.

my wife shares your professional interest and in a bit less than two month will retire from the wildlife department at Texas A&M. 

welcome aboard....
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #9 on: July 10, 2015, 08:56:29 am »
welcome Chip.  it seem you are smack dab in the middle of honey bee heaven and suspect we may know a few of the same people.  I am a bit older than you (but not by much) and my own primary purpose in keeping bees is much the same as your own.  700 is a lot for one person and at the current time I maintain about 200 of my own and look over another 80+ at the Texas A&M Bee Lab working with Dr Juliana Rangel.  I am hoping to trim my own number over the next year and have trained a couple of good assistance at the bee lab so that responsibility has become less pressing.

my wife shares your professional interest and in a bit less than two month will retire from the wildlife department at Texas A&M. 

welcome aboard....

I suspect we do know some of the same people in both the bee and the wildlife profession.  My degrees are in wildlife but I worked mostly on how habitats function to support wildlife (and other services), especially in wetlands.  My first grad project was under Stan Harris at Humboldt many years ago.  His daughter worked at A&M (Biology Labs I believe) but I believe she has retired.  I've interacted with others at A&M but that was many years ago.  My daughter interviewed for a position there but wound up taking a teaching position at the University of Minnesota instead--just got tenure so I suspect she'll stay there for her career.  Much closer for us too!

Thanks for the welcome and good luck with retirement.  I put my retirement off several years because I really enjoyed working at the research center so much but retirement is GREAT.  I highly recommend it!  Chip
Chip

Offline Les

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2015, 10:19:22 am »
 :welcome: Chip this a great site with wonderful people.  You will enjoy the interaction and the humor.  My eyes lit up when I saw your background because I am very interested in native plant habitat and have been  working at transforming our little "piece of heaven" into a home for wildlife.  I am sure it pales in size to projects you have worked on.  I will look forward to your posts and the wisdom and experience I hope you will share.  Oh, I forgot to mention I am a newbie......obtained my first two hives the end of March 2015. 

Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2015, 01:30:05 pm »
:welcome: Chip this a great site with wonderful people.  You will enjoy the interaction and the humor.  My eyes lit up when I saw your background because I am very interested in native plant habitat and have been  working at transforming our little "piece of heaven" into a home for wildlife.  I am sure it pales in size to projects you have worked on.  I will look forward to your posts and the wisdom and experience I hope you will share.  Oh, I forgot to mention I am a newbie......obtained my first two hives the end of March 2015.

Thanks Les.  My wife and I did the same thing at our place many years ago and are now enjoying the native plants we established and the wildlife they attract.  Have fun and enjoy your bees, they are a great hobby!
Chip

Offline Retroguy

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #12 on: July 11, 2015, 06:06:05 pm »
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome!  Look forward to reading your future posts!
I always stand behind my work...
It makes me harder to find.
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Offline Curtchann

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #13 on: July 12, 2015, 11:34:11 am »
Welcome Chip! Like all the others, will be looking forward to your posts!
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Offline Riverrat

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #14 on: July 30, 2015, 09:01:49 pm »
welcome aboard
"no man ever stood so tall as one that  stoops to help a child"

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Offline blueblood

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #15 on: October 09, 2015, 01:17:22 pm »
Welcome Chip!

Offline brooksbeefarm

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #16 on: October 09, 2015, 04:22:18 pm »
Welcome aboard Chip, I see by your avatar that you are a perch fisherman. :D Jack

Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #17 on: December 25, 2015, 08:51:42 pm »
Welcome aboard Chip, I see by your avatar that you are a perch fisherman. :D Jack

Yes Sir and any other fish that bites!  Like to hunt too :)
Chip

Offline riverbee

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #18 on: December 30, 2015, 08:55:28 pm »
a perch???............LOL!

chip what is that in your pic and where were you?
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Offline Chip Euliss

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Re: Greetings from North Dakota
« Reply #19 on: February 20, 2016, 10:25:20 pm »
a perch???............LOL!

chip what is that in your pic and where were you?

Sorry River, I just noticed your question tonight and apologize for the delay.  Wife and I have the house torn apart (remodeling) and about the only thing that's working at the moment is the internet!  The fish is a Warsaw grouper and I caught it in about 400 feet of water in Louisiana.  We take our family vacations there every year and tow a boat with the bee truck.  Fish freshwater very little but plan to do more as soon as I get better control of my schedule.  A friend invited us to fish in Manitoba a few days last week on Lake Winnipeg.  It was slower than slow but my son caught a dandy 31 inch walleye that weighed 12 lbs--he is still on cloud 9!!


Chip