# Greetings from North Alabama



## Sundance (Sep 9, 2004)

Welcome!! This is a great resource and a great
group of folks that make for the best knowledge
base going.... it gets better with every new member.


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## Rohe Bee Ranch (Feb 12, 2008)

Howdy Neighbor! 
Welcome. This is a great place for info and questions. Have you checked out the Limestone County Beekeepers Association yet? Bunch of great people over there. http://www.k4vb.com/Regional%20Associations/LCBA.htm


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## RickR (Mar 19, 2010)

Rohe Bee Ranch said:


> Howdy Neighbor!
> Welcome. This is a great place for info and questions. Have you checked out the Limestone County Beekeepers Association yet? Bunch of great people over there. http://www.k4vb.com/Regional%20Associations/LCBA.htm


Hello and thanks for the welcome.

Yes, I've heard about the LCBA, and I plan on joining. In fact I'm getting my nucs from the current VP of the LCBA.

I have already joined the Madison County Beekeepers Assocs., and I attended the beekeeping class taught by Bob Fanning, the owner of the www.k4vb.com web site.

Everyone I've encountered in the beekeeping community so far has gone out of their way to be helpful.


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## markmaster (Jan 21, 2010)

Hello from Shelby County! This is a great forum for info and advice.....lots of knowledgeable folks on here!


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome, happy beekeeping!


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## uncleflip (Mar 23, 2010)

Jefferson county checking in. I just got my shipment of unassembled hive bodies and supers today. Hopefully, I'll have bees in them very soon!

Be well
-UF


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## Rohe Bee Ranch (Feb 12, 2008)

RickR said:


> Hello and thanks for the welcome.
> 
> Yes, I've heard about the LCBA, and I plan on joining. In fact I'm getting my nucs from the current VP of the LCBA.
> 
> ...



Fantastic! Bob does a great job with those classes. Check out the Madison County Beekeepers Association web site also. www.alabees.com


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## peacekeeperapiaries (Jun 23, 2009)

welcome


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## markmaster (Jan 21, 2010)

uncleflip said:


> Jefferson county checking in. I just got my shipment of unassembled hive bodies and supers today. Hopefully, I'll have bees in them very soon!
> 
> Be well
> -UF


Good for you, Jeffco! You'll have a lot of fun assembling, waterproofing, and generally prepping for your bees.....then it gets even better! Me? I just finished priming 4 new hives, after swearing I was not going to increase my number of hives....the bees had different ideas, I guess.


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## uncleflip (Mar 23, 2010)

markmaster said:


> You'll have a lot of fun assembling, waterproofing, and generally prepping for your bees.....then it gets even better!


The fun started this morning just after 2am. Soon as I got home from the pub across the street, I decided just for fun, I'd tack together a medium super before going to bed. About 2:30, I decided the other tenants in my apartment block might not like me hammering away in the middle of the night on the third floor.  A few hours of sleep later, and I got out on our back steps to enjoy the mid-day sun as I finished the rest. I'll paint this weekend. (I got the funny idea to paint the names of the supers on them: man, bowl, star, natural, califragilisticexpialidocious, etc.... Yes, I am a silly person.)

Be well
-UF


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## markmaster (Jan 21, 2010)

uncleflip said:


> The fun started this morning just after 2am. Soon as I got home from the pub across the street, I decided just for fun, I'd tack together a medium super before going to bed. About 2:30, I decided the other tenants in my apartment block might not like me hammering away in the middle of the night on the third floor.  A few hours of sleep later, and I got out on our back steps to enjoy the mid-day sun as I finished the rest. I'll paint this weekend. (I got the funny idea to paint the names of the supers on them: man, bowl, star, natural, califragilisticexpialidocious, etc.... Yes, I am a silly person.)
> 
> Be well
> -UF


Yeah, well...Southside does have a way of making people a bit giddy. I grew up there, didn't move away until I was 27, and am still "a silly person" in many ways. My oldest son, who helps me with my hives, works at Cloud Nine and lives in Southside; my daughter and her husband are in a loft on MOrris Avenue. Southside gets in the blood, brother.....and - thankfully - there is no known cure. :banana:


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## uncleflip (Mar 23, 2010)

markmaster said:


> Yeah, well...Southside does have a way of making people a bit giddy. I grew up there, didn't move away until I was 27, and am still "a silly person" in many ways. My oldest son, who helps me with my hives, works at Cloud Nine and lives in Southside; my daughter and her husband are in a loft on MOrris Avenue. Southside gets in the blood, brother.....and - thankfully - there is no known cure. :banana:


Oh, I was very much a silly person before I moved to 5 Points South (when I was 33), so I fit right in! I think it came from growing up with a forensic psychologist for a father, and a mother who worked at a mental health center.  Getting involved in Tuscaloosa's music scene didn't help; there were lots of odd folks there. To top it off, I'm a geek, and we tend to be VERY easily amused. 

How could I live in the shadow of the world's largest pair of cast-iron buttocks _without_ being easily amused? :scratch:

Be well
-UF


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## markmaster (Jan 21, 2010)

Out of curiosity: where are you planning to place your hives? I know that Southside is blessed with what we called (although I don't actually know if they are) cherry laurel trees and there are many ornamental plantings, unused lots covered in dandelion and other flowering weeds, so there's plenty of forage for your girls; my curiosity is more directed at hive placement. Will your apartment complex allow you to keep the hive there (on a terrace or rooftop, perhaps)? Are there regulations in the city code concerning beekeeping (some cities ban it, some restrict it, some don't regulate it at all)? And - vital consideration, here - have you arranged for one of the micro-breweries to make mead from your harvest?


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## uncleflip (Mar 23, 2010)

I'm making the mead myself.  (That's what got me into this. I've been making mead for about a year now- 1 of 4 batches is now in the bottle.)

The bees will reside at a house just over the mountain in Homewood. (the girls will live in the shadow of Vulcan's ample bum.) There's a lovely little side-yard that has the right combination of sun, shade, water source, etc... There are extensive gardens nearby (flowers, veggies, etc.), so I doubt the girls go hungry. 

Be well
-UF


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## markmaster (Jan 21, 2010)

Sounds like a good setup! Urban beeking interests me because of the challenges it presents (pollutants, lawn chemicals, intolerant neighbors, civic restrictions, etc.) and the obvious need to get natural pollinators back into action inside the urban jungle. I correspond with a young NYC couple who have 2 hives on their apartment roof - evidently, there was once a pigeon roost up there, so they took over the space. They say that the honey they get is sweet and clear, with no more than a manageable loss of bees over the winter. Best of luck with your hives!


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## uncleflip (Mar 23, 2010)

Interesting. I think it was just last week or week before, that NYC legalized beekeeping. Before, they had been classified in the same group with venomous or dangerous animals. There were lots of 'undergound' rooftop beekeepers before that.

I'm relieved to know the NYC honey does not taste like a subway station floor. 

Be well
-UF


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