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----------------- Original message (ID=28573E74) (85 lines) -------------------From: "walter weller" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology"
<[log in to unmask]>
References:  <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re:      Re: [BEE-L] What Kind of Beekeeper Are You?
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 17:31:55 -0500
For Allen's collection of start-up stories:

My wife decided I needed a hobby and got us a hive of bees from a friend
=
for Father's Day.  That was in June, 1994, "the year of the mite" here =
in central Louisiana.  In September the friend/mentor called to tell me
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all his hives were dead, and recommended I start Apistan.  I did, and =
used it till it wore out, then tried the other stuff for a couple of =
years, and now am on a system of benign neglect, live-and-let-die, with
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IPM features, and growing a few survivors.  I'm a beeHAVER now.  (Sorry,
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George.)  I had total losses the first two years I went this way, but =
now it seems to be working.  Half the packages (Russians) that I =
restocked with in 2004 have survived into this, their second year, and I
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picked up a couple of good-looking feral swarms.  I've even gotten off a
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fair crop this year even with record dry weather in May and June, and =
have started feeding.  I have one really productive survivor colony that
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I'd like to clone.  Maybe I will.

I've learned much.  One thing I've learned is that 80 years old is a lot
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different from 70.

Walter 

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