President's Message: Sharing
Thursday, April 01, 2010
By George B. Schramm, LIBC President
Long Island is a magical place with a remarkable diversity of ecosystems, so what a beekeeper in Glen Cove is doing around the apiary during one particular month of the year will be quite different from what the beekeeper in Montauk is doing.
But regardless of where that apiary is located, there's one thing that all beekeepers have in common, and that's a love of sharing. Whether it's sharing honey, swarm stories, best practices, or opinions, beekeepers have an innate desire to share all aspects of their art, especially with other beekeepers.
So we're asking our member beekeepers to share with everyone else what's keeping them busy around hives each month. For veteran beekeepers this is a great opportunity to compare your practices to those of someone else in the same region or on the other shore. For our growing legions of novice beekeepers, you get to peer over the shoulder of your local master beekeeper and see what she or he is up to. Chances are, you should be following their example.
Of course, the best part for every beekeeper is that you get to share. And it's easy too: we set up a page on our club’s website called “Beekeepers' Diary”, with a simple form that you can fill out to tell us what you’re up to. You can come back as often as you like to write about a recent swarm or how many pounds of honey you extracted this season. Don't worry if you're shy, your contributions are anonymous (we ask for a first name, but it doesn’t have to be yours).
Still, you can't beat a visit with fellow beekeepers and their bees for some old-fashioned sharing. And that's just what we'll be doing on April 10th (rain date, April 11th). Club members Moira and Dave Alexander and Wayne Vitale have volunteered to participate in our annual Bee Tour. This is a great opportunity to take a peak into the hive and get some great tips from our master beekeepers. I look forward to seeing you there.
Long Island is a magical place with a remarkable diversity of ecosystems, so what a beekeeper in Glen Cove is doing around the apiary during one particular month of the year will be quite different from what the beekeeper in Montauk is doing.
But regardless of where that apiary is located, there's one thing that all beekeepers have in common, and that's a love of sharing. Whether it's sharing honey, swarm stories, best practices, or opinions, beekeepers have an innate desire to share all aspects of their art, especially with other beekeepers.
So we're asking our member beekeepers to share with everyone else what's keeping them busy around hives each month. For veteran beekeepers this is a great opportunity to compare your practices to those of someone else in the same region or on the other shore. For our growing legions of novice beekeepers, you get to peer over the shoulder of your local master beekeeper and see what she or he is up to. Chances are, you should be following their example.
Of course, the best part for every beekeeper is that you get to share. And it's easy too: we set up a page on our club’s website called “Beekeepers' Diary”, with a simple form that you can fill out to tell us what you’re up to. You can come back as often as you like to write about a recent swarm or how many pounds of honey you extracted this season. Don't worry if you're shy, your contributions are anonymous (we ask for a first name, but it doesn’t have to be yours).
Still, you can't beat a visit with fellow beekeepers and their bees for some old-fashioned sharing. And that's just what we'll be doing on April 10th (rain date, April 11th). Club members Moira and Dave Alexander and Wayne Vitale have volunteered to participate in our annual Bee Tour. This is a great opportunity to take a peak into the hive and get some great tips from our master beekeepers. I look forward to seeing you there.