@johnone @bakerbee
errr...might I just jump in with comment and a brief history of my online beekeeping
experience - newbie to "beekeepers on line" not at all new to the 'Net.
From a life lived exploring it could be said the best place to start iS the 'wrong' time
as - like in many skillsets - it is the case 99% of the problems encountered anyone can
'fix'... it is that remaining 1% that hauls the trueunderstanding out from the cupboard.
That 1% exists from having failed and then sorted the workable way forward.
One clear example of this is to be found in heart transplants today where
everybody needing one gets the best treatment and hopefully the ultimate outcome
... buuuut there was a time when just one fella broke through the failures - a 1%er.
For beekeeping (apiarism) IF a body can get bees through a dearth - which is what
wintering is - to arrive at the time of flows with what was taken up, then the worst of
times is done, it can only get better.
After just a few months amongst online Apis.* focused forums it is very clear many
"regulars" approach forums as a form of "online competition", or in promotion of
their own favoured mantra in belittling alternatives... regradless of either actually
being "the fix" for the reported situation.
It is also clear many newbies leap to the keyboard - or touchscreen these days - as a
first option. Much of the millions of words read could be saved with a little smoke and
a hive tool!
One other noted nuance is the fact one can count the number of Aussies posting into
all forums on one hand- this in a 'Net interaction owning a fraction of beekeepers
globaly. I put that anomaly - "anomaly" used as Aussies will tellya everything they
know, if asked - I put that as it has to be said Aussies being required by local (nationaly)
resource have had to develop much on their own, and so just "tell it like it is" as the rest
(fluff/packaging) is just wasted use of time and energy.
In short - you get a lot more done doing it than talking about it, like.
... welcome to you both an' thanks for listening ;-)
Bill
