Dick Wallingford:
        It is too bad you got negative responses to your questions.  It
would seem to me that if anyone was interested in replying, they would do
so.  Others need not even take the time for the kind of response they
gave you, or any other response!
        It would seem that one of your local beekeeping associations must
have some insights they can share with beginners.  This would make
interesting material for a beginner's workshop, for instance.
        Here in PEI, canada, we are free from Varroa and Acarine Mites.
Our borders are closed to imports, even from neighboring Provinces.  the
one exception is New Zealand - Australia.  This year we were unable to
bring in any bees due to the restrictions in intervening countries, with
regard planes with live bees landing, even for refuelling.  I think one
load got to Vancouver, but as far as I know no  others.  This puts a real
strain on our beekeepers, as overwintering is difficult in this climate.
Some of our beekeepers are now trying to improve their queen rearing
capabilities in the hope of providing our own supplies in the future.
        This may be too long,  if it is I apologize.  Good luck in your
beekeeping.  It would be interesting to hear something of what it is like
in your country.
 
        From the Cradle of Confederation
On Fri, 8 Jul 1994 [log in to unmask]
wrote:
 
> Private postings following my message about the unwritten 'rules of
> thumb' that beekeepers use have been implicitly (and explicitly)
> critical of my posting.
>
> I don't think it necessary to have a standard insert with all posted
> messages that 'I will share my finding's with the list.'  I would hope
> that would go without saying.  I do not feel myself to be a 'sucker of
> information', compelling others to go out and do timeconsuming work on
> my behalf.
>
> When one is starting out in commercial beekeeping, the lack of
> experience and repetition means a lot of seemingly minor issues become
> quite major.  I am trying to develop some 'rules' that might help out.
>
> To have even a close approximation of the number of kilos of nails to
> buy to nail up several hundred supers would be useful - that's all I was
> trying to get at.  If you're going to be extracting, say, 3 tonnes of
> honey, how much beeswax might you expect from the cappings - those sort
> of numbers can be very helpful for a beginning commercial person's
> budgeting purposes.  I have *some* of the numbers, but would like to
> find other useful measures.
>
> I don't expect this List to do 'work' for me.  I merely thought some of
> the people on the list might find the topics raised interesting enough
> to read or comment on, to the ultimate value of us all.  If you're not
> interested or just want to question my motivation, ignore this posting;
> I don't need your aggravation.
>
> -------------------------------------
>           Nick Wallingford
>       Bay of Plenty Polytechnic
>  (East coast, N Island, New Zealand)
>      Internet [log in to unmask]
> -------------------------------------
>