DVI>Jerry Fries wrote: >> Chris you are right about this being a bee list ,but some one so desperat >> for information they would ask a beekeeperabout birds might be in need of >> neighborly point in the right direction. >> Best wishes Jerry Fries DVI>I agree. Who better to ask? There are aver 600 addressees on this net >and some seem to know a lot more than bees. I would have gladely >responded with an answer if I had had a good one. DVI>Beeing a friend Birds & Bees, a natural! What has interested me for a lifetime among the bees is the beekeepers themselves and I have found they come in all flavors, with all kinds of vocations and ad vocations other then keeping bees including the beekeepers of the commercial size with thousands of hives. Farmers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, both local and national and on and on. One of my long time friends who also happens to bee one of the larger producers of honey with bees in Texas, California, Nebraska, the Dakotas, and other places,,, collects windmills. Yep, the real thing you all have seen down on the farm or in pictures and paintings. He restores them to working, like new conditions and installs them on his home place or farm. He has 100, yep 100, mostly all different and he knows as much about windmills as anyone in North America. Rearing birds also seems to be a common hobby among beekeepers and I have worked with beekeepers who reared many kind of game birds commercially, and the game dogs that go with them. Hatching chicks by the 10's of thousands each year. And yes we also had a beekeeper here locally who did the same with exotic birds that were non game. It does not surprise me any more when I meet a beekeeper with interests other then bees, but I do find that many time these interests are in the biological sciences more often then not, rearing deer, dancing bears, or like my own hobbies which includes foot long gold fish and dozens of different native fresh water turtles, and native land turtles. I suspect that many generations ago when beekeepers lost their high position in society to manufactured sugars and oils for light other then beeswax we became almost a society of outcasts and wanders, doing what ever we could to bond with nature. I don't know how you or I got these bad genes that I call the bee gift but we were blessed and each year around this time when we all share so much of our honey and wax with others it is important that for the New Year each of us with the bee gift remembers that one of the responsibilities of this gift is to continue the keeping of bees by also sharing our beekeeping experiences with the next generations. You all have done well here this last year and I salute you all, commercial beekeeper, hobby beekeepers, beekeeper scientist, beekeeper educator, and beekeeper regulator! God Blessed us All! Happy Christmas and may you all be Blessed more in the New Year with new beekeeping knowledge and good beekeeping experiences to share with us all. ttul, the OLd Drone Andy Nachbaur, Los Banos, California --- ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ "Where there are fruits & nuts, there are beekeepers"