So happy to join!

**Good_Karma** · 01-19-2011, 02:37 PM

Greetings to everyone, my name is Leah and my husband Don and I just ordered our first bee kit and bees. We own 56 acres of woods in upstate NY, and I have a big garden that I'm looking forward to sharing with the bees.

I currently know just about nothing about beekeeping, and plan to study this site extensively as well as reading as many books as possible between now and spring.

So far, I have many questions. Not to worry, I will search out the answers to them before bringing them up in a new topic and so I will be lurking for a couple months.

Looking forward to meeting a new group of people and learning from the wisdom of others...

**AmericasBeekeeper** · 01-19-2011, 02:41 PM

Welcome Leah and Don!

**lisascenic** · 01-19-2011, 04:29 PM

Nice to meet you!

Where are you, in New York?

**Good_Karma** · 01-19-2011, 04:44 PM

I live in a very small town called Black Creek. It is in Allegany county. It's about two hours south of Buffalo, near the PA line in the Southern Tier.

I gotta say, I am already devouring this forum! And learning so much. I will obviously have to convince my husband to go with the electric fencing to keep bears out!

Thank you lisascenic and AmericasBeekeeper for the kind welcome.

**Specialkayme** · 01-19-2011, 05:13 PM

Welcome to the site!

I just read an article in ABJ about how you can create a metal fence "cage" to keep the bears out, if you don't want to go electric. Just an option.

Good luck on the reading, and feel free to ask about something that isn't too clear.

**Jaseemtp** · 01-19-2011, 06:22 PM

welcome aboard.
I had seen that article also, where they used chain link fence to make the cage.

**lisascenic** · 01-19-2011, 07:25 PM

Do you have a lot of bears?

Have you found a local beekeepers club? I've been keeping bees for one season, and I've found it so helpful to have local mentors.

I spent eight summers working in Cooperstown, but didn't keep bees back then.

**indypartridge** · 01-20-2011, 04:04 AM

Originally Posted by Good_Karma

I currently know just about nothing about beekeeping, and plan to study this site extensively as well as reading as many books as possible between now and spring.

Beside this site (be sure to check out the "How to Start Beekeeping" subforum), here are a couple others I recommend:
Michael Bush's Beekeeping Naturally:
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
David Burns has over 90 online lessons... scroll down the list is on the right side...
http://basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com/

Originally Posted by lisascenic

Have you found a local beekeepers club? I've been keeping bees for one season, and I've found it so helpful to have local mentors.

Absolutely! Hopefully there's one near you:
http://www.masterbeekeeper.org/resources/beegroups.htm

**Good_Karma** · 01-20-2011, 04:19 AM

Yes, we do have at least one bear here (I saw him last summer), and from what I gathered from this site, electric seems to be the preferred and most foolproof method for protecting the hive. BUT, we live off the grid on solar so we do not have much excess power (we'd have to get a solar e-fence). I would MUCH prefer to go with a cage, I will do some more looking and find the article you guys mentioned. Our first inclination was to get a dog kennel, but obviously that won't be too effective.

indypartridge - thank you for the links, I will check them out today.
And no, at this point we have not looked into any local clubs. My husband prefers to try things out on his own before finding someone to help him.

For now, we're going to try it solo (with the help of this forum, naturally).

Jaseemtp, Specialkayme - thanks for the tip on the metal cage.

My biggest concern (aside from power consumption) with the e-fence is what would happen if one of my dogs came in contact with it. How do those of you with pets deal with that issue?

**Jaseemtp** · 01-20-2011, 05:41 AM

as long as the dogs are not tied up and can get away it should not be a problem. it does not take them long to learn to leave the bees alone.

Ok I found the article about the "bear cage"
It is in the January issue of Bee Culture and it starts on page 40. It is titled Chainlink. Hope this helps
Jason

**dragonfly** · 01-20-2011, 08:39 AM

Are you Good Karma, or do you have good karma?

Welcome to Beesource, and bring us some good karma.

**Good_Karma** · 01-20-2011, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by dragonfly

Are you Good Karma, or do you have good karma?

Welcome to Beesource, and bring us some good karma.

I have decent karma, but that just doesn't roll off the tongue as nicely. The screen name is just one I use on the German Shepherd forums I belong to, and figured I might as well keep things consistent. I will do my best to add some kind of karma to BeeSource.

Jaseemtp, thanks for the info, I found it.

And my dogs are free-range, never tied out so I'm guessing after one bad experience they will learn their lesson. And I already know they like honey, so some kind of fence is probably already a requirement.