a James Fischer snip...

At risk of revealing a cuddly center inside an exterior consisting mostly of
sharp edges, it seems only prudent to discourage those unprepared to be
responsible for the care of God's Creatures (capitalization intended, and
not ironic). 

my comments...
Of course Jim anyone who has kept bees for a long time almost by definition has concerns not only for the bees but for the bee keeping community itself.  Personally I have no way here to test customers to see if they are competent in keeping animals although certainly most of the folks who buy bees from me have rural roots and thus some basic understanding of animal care.    Needless to say Texas is a bit different than New York City... although I do appreciate the 'viva la difference' of both places.  Thankfully many of the PETA folks have migrated to the coast.

Here I find the younger folks* who have an interest easy to train and mentor. Many of these young folks don't need much help beyond pointing them in the proper direction.  Once I have them in a yard a bees it does not take me long to pretty much know which of these young folks will succeed (with success here being defined not by myself but by the new beekeeper's expectations and goals) or not < beekeeping is not a spectator sport and those that think it is are imho destined to fail or to be a constant and sustainable source of income for some beekeeper much like myself.  Personally I have grown weary of going to bee conventions where everyone there is my age or older and do believe if you do not bring young folks into this business/hobby then pretty soon we can hold bee conventions at grave yards and funeral parlors.

The various and well attended bee schools here do a pretty good job of getting the wanna-bees started although some of us 'old hands' have to grind our teeth when some second year beekeeper teaching a class throws out some fact that is a sound bite of a myth toss out by some 'expert' which they recently read in a bee book or a bee magazine.  A telephone number or bee club face book page are handy mechanism for addressing 95% of the problems of most new beekeepers.

It is more difficult to find an experience beekeeper in this town (which is the home of a major agricultural university) than it is to find someone equally experienced in nuclear physics.

I enjoyed the above paragraph very much Jim and this does describe a lot of old beekeepers I have known.  Here we might say old beekeepers are prickly... but once you shave off the thorns they are sweet in their interior.

Gene Ash

   

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