# Beekeeping Internship in Jamaica! Please Help!



## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

Hi everyone! Could you please check out my Indiegogo and help me reach my goal!! I've been accepted for a beekeeping internship in Jamaica but don't have the money to fund it  If you could please help me get there, I'd appreciate it so much!

Thank you in advance!!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/beekeeping-internship-in-jamaica/x/10130196#home


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

I trust this is a joke!


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## beepeep (Feb 8, 2015)

4 new posts all asking for money.

Today, 01:27 PM

Today, 01:31 PM

Today, 01:32 PM

Today, 01:33 PM


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## Fergus (Jan 27, 2015)

Sounds like a great opportunity, where do I send the check? (sarcasm):lookout:


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## Mr.Fred (Jun 26, 2014)

You have to go to Jamaica because there are no local opportunities in California? You aren't even trying, are you?


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

I'm sorry, I don't know why people assume this is a joke, people start Indiegogo pages for exactly this reason. I am student and want to take advantage of an opportunity. I'm still not sure why this is so amusing.


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

Yeah, you're exactly right. I was trying to share my page so multiple people would see it, thanks for noticing.


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

I'm glad we are all so passionate about bees. You don't even know me or what I've applied for but thanks for trolling. I guess people who study abroad shouldn't either..


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

Not a very supportive page I'd say.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

danielleeeee said:


> I'm glad we are all so passionate about bees. You don't even know me or what I've applied for but thanks for trolling.


No, we don't know you, you've not told us about yourself and you've not shown us why we would want to support you to go abroad and learn beekeeping when it is so easily accomplished here in the States for almost nothing.......... IMO you just want us to fund a fun time for you abroad...


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## Pathfinder (Sep 7, 2014)

It might help if you provided in depth information about the internship showing people it is real as well as giving a reason why an internship in Jamaica would be better than an internship in California. I may be a new Beek but one of the things I have learned is that successful beekeeping is very local. Learning to learn to be successful in your area you need to intern in your area. I really don't see what you could learn in Jamaica vs California that is worth the $8,000+ you're asking for...


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

People do travel abroad to learn all the time. If you clicked the link it did tell you about myself. Like I said, you have no idea what I applied for. A forty hour work beekeeping in Jamaica was the best and most engaging opportunity I was offered. I really don't know what else to say. I don't need people trolling something I find exciting and will eventually figure out. It's amazing though that people jump at the idea of supporting Super Troopers 2, but because I want to continue my education in a tropical location it's frowned upon.


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## Pathfinder (Sep 7, 2014)

Explain to me how asking for more information is trolling....I read it and it does not state who the internship is through with any links to information on the program...also many subjects can benifit from learning abroad but if you would have read my previous post properly you would have noticed that I stated that beekeeping is local...meaning that how beekeeping works in California probably won't work in Jamaica and vice versa. Therefore I asked you to explain what you think you could glean in Jamaica for 8k vs what you would learn in California for free ....


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

I wasn't asking for $8,000 plus and the opportunity was there for me. It could have been anywhere and even in the US I would have needed money to do this as it's a forty hour work week of not getting paid. It's $1500 a month just for the internship. I'm not going to bother at this point posting any fliers or anything from the organization because I feel extremely discouraged on this page.


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

Pathfinder I didn't say you were trolling, it was a post meant for someone else. I don't know why the replies aren't right under it. This is what I wrote to you.
**
I wasn't asking for $8,000 plus and the opportunity was there for me. It could have been anywhere and even in the US I would have needed money to do this as it's a forty hour work week of not getting paid. It's $1500 a month just for the internship. I'm not going to bother at this point posting any fliers or anything from the organization because I feel extremely discouraged on this page.


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## Pathfinder (Sep 7, 2014)

So you just want people to blindly give you money for a "supposed" internship without providing information about it or about why you want to do it there? Good luck with that. You are either one of two things. 1. A scammed trying to get free money or 2. Young and immature and unable to see how the way you are asking for money without becoming defensive and not providing any requested information about how the money you want "donated" will be used....either way that sets off alarm bells and people will not donate. I was fully willing to donate if you would have properly answered my reasonable questions....if you really are not a scammer I would highly suggest you change how you go about this.


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

I appreciate the advice and that you were willing to donate. I'm definitely not a scammer but I'm embarrassed that people are so negative, so quickly about something I thought sounded so great, fun etc... You are right though that I should mention have mentioned the organization. I was just saying I felt discouraged as this was one of the two forums I posted on and the first comments were so negative. Not that I expect anything at this point but it was through Farmer to Farmer at the Yerba Buena farm in Jamaica.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

I suggest that if you offer to go and work for free and pay 1500 a month besides, you could get some takers in California. Some potential companies might be turned of by the Indieagogo thing though. Not everyone thinks that is an admirable way to go.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Danielle, We've got two problems here.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?226194-Forum-Rules



> *Advertising. *Chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are not permitted on the Beesource Beekeeping Forums and will be deleted.





> *Double posting/Cross posting.* Don't do it.


I deleted your other cross posts. I should delete this thread as I have in the past when others have asked for funding. But I'm going to make a change. I will move this thread into the Blog and Podcast forum, expanding it to include "Fund me" threads.


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## Pathfinder (Sep 7, 2014)

Even when people act in a way you do not agree with you still have to be polite and professional and not get upset or flustered by them. Business 101...there will always be detractors. You need to post a link to the program proving it's legitimacy and also explain why you feel an internship in Jamaica would be better than a free one in California....


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## Pathfinder (Sep 7, 2014)

Hey Barry...I want to go learn beekeeping in Scotland. ..want to fund me?


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

Thanks Frank for the advice. I didn't think about that. I just keep looking for more places anyway because I assume I won't be able to come up with the money. So...


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

Thanks Barry.


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## Pathfinder (Sep 7, 2014)

It would probably be best to find a Comercial beekeeper in your area. They will probably let you intern for free.


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

You would think more people would be willing to except free help, but I haven't gotten a yes yet. Also it seems a lot of people want you to have your bachelors degree when I only have my associates at this time.


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## JWChesnut (Jul 31, 2013)

Yerba Buena Farms (host of the internship) is a center for USAID's Farmer to Farmer beekeeper program. Tomas Herbert (moderator on BS) gave initial guidance in 2012 to the Top Bar experiments. (his posts and extensive pix of the first steps are on BS). In the intervening years Sam Comfort, Melanie Kirby and Les Crowder (all stars of the TB beek world) have all cycled through the farm. 

The webpage for Yerba Buena cites the pay-to-play internship at $1500/mo. The interns have pix and blogs documenting their sojourns (about 2 per season).

Tom Herbert notes that Langs are standard in Jamaica, and records some commercial operations (150 to 200+ colonies). The top bar model is being promoted as an alternative, for the usual reasons, plus Jamaica cut off wax imports to prevent CCD and other issues. Jamaica does not have Africanized bees, so the quarantine will help isolate JA from that huge issue.

The internship would have limited "business" relevance back to the US as the commercial uptake of TB is miniscule, but would be educational on a poverty-level subsistence farm experience.

My own experience in Latin America has been that as soon as committed beeks secure enough capital to go to Langs, they make the jump and leave TB behind. This doesn't prevent idealists and dewey-eyed true believers promoting the system uncritically. 

My criticism of the Yerba Buena Farm program is that they are relative newbees (starting beeks in 2013), milking the US AID's Farmer to Farmer program (and interns willing to pony up) to promote TB without critical evaluation.


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

Do you want to learn beekeeping as a profession? I doubt you have to go all the way to Jamaica to do that.

Nor, I expect, do you need a bachelor's degree. 

The $1500/week "fee" to provide free labor seems like a rip-off to me. Not (directly) a rip off for your prospective funders, but actually for _you_. 

For the cost of single week, you could buy all the equipment needed to set-up a couple of hives. Or you could build a TBH from wood scraps (that was whole point of the original design as far as I can tell), and with some luck and effort you could probably score some free bees, too. And then, ta-da, you're a beekeeper. My impression is, though, that this wouldn't train you - or provide marketable experience - in _commercial_ beekeeping. Nor, as JWChestnut pointed out, would a month of working in a subsistence level, TBH-operation in a small, isolated Caribbean country (even one with very nice beaches.)

If you're genuinely interested in learning beekeeping, contact your local bee club and offer some free help in exchange for a chance to play with bees. Maybe you won't find handling bugs all that appealing. Or maybe you will fall under their spell, in which case you will find a way to do it.

Good luck to you.

Enj.


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## WBVC (Apr 25, 2013)

danielleeeee said:


> I'm sorry, I don't know why people assume this is a joke, people start Indiegogo pages for exactly this reason. I am student and want to take advantage of an opportunity. I'm still not sure why this is so amusing.


If this is what funding pages are doing it is a sad state of affairs. Many students don't have up front funds...they get scholarships, grants or borrow, work hard and pay it back.


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## danielleeeee (Apr 10, 2015)

Thanks for your response. Yes I'd like to learn it as a profession and own my own apiary. You understandably need experience to do that and you definitely shouldn't need a bachelor's degree. It's $1500 a month which covers room and board. It is expensive but also seemed like a great experience. I would love to set up some hives myself but I don't have any outdoor space for them. I've asked all my friends, they said no. I'm already part of my local beekeepers association and am going to an almond field tomorrow with a professional beekeeper from the club. We only go out twice a month though.


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