# Howdy from northern California



## kustomizer

My bride and I have a 25 acre piece of dirt in the heart of the California gold rush country. A solar powered machine shop owns us and since we are stuch here the majority of the time we have animals to keep us busy. here are 17 goats, 4 chickens, 1 duck, a pig, a large white guardian dog that lives with the animals, a black rott that lives underfoot of my bride, and now around 40,000 bees that are on their way soon. I have been busy putting together boxes, frames and a bench to set them all on and painting everything that will experiance the weather. I am going to start with 4 hives and see where we go from there.


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## tecumseh

howdy from central texas.

hope you enjoy your experience with beekeeping.


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## berkshire bee

Sounds like a good start. Do you run the machine shop?


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## Laurence Hope

Hello, Kustomizer,
I bought some beekeeping equipment from a lady near San Andreas, and we spent a nice
night in your local bed and breakfast place there. We really enjoyed our trip to and around San Andreas. For us flatlander valley folks it was a pleasure. Welcome to the common thread of bees that we all share.


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## Ravenseye

Hello from the other coast! Glad you're here. Interesting mix of critters...the kind of mix I like!


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## kustomizer

San Andreas is a nice little town, a lot of gold rush as well as agricultural history here.

I think the machine shop runs us sometimes, but yes we run it, we make a wide varity of widgets, the big boss has started making a web site to display some but it has been a slow process. www.skoobyzzstuff.com ( no bee stuff yet ). I read somewhere that "life is what happens while you are making other plans" and that just about sums up things around here.

thanks for the warm welcome, I hope to be prepared before the bees get here but I imagine there will be some rushing around at the end to keep things interesting.


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## KQ6AR

Hi,
I have a few friends near you. Two in Mountain Ranch, & the other out Sheep Ranch.

Dan


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## kustomizer

I wonder if they might be someone we know, I pick my wine grapes in sheep ranch. and know quite a few of the 500 or so that live in mountain ranch.


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## KQ6AR

Our sheep ranch friend is named Bill & he's involved with the police dept & ham radio. One of our Mountain Ranch friends is Sam, or Samantha. She drives the ambulance, & works volunteer fire. 

The other guy I couldn't describe without writing his full name, don't know if he'd appreciate it.


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## kustomizer

I don't know any Hamm nutts, but I will check around, there are alot of fine folks around here.
thanks


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## Cessna180

We need more beeks. Hope your warm it's 13 this morning in Anchorage, Ak.
Snowing now.


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## kustomizer

It"s 52 here, had snow last week. I like snow on TV, I can change the channel when I get cold, I really get mad if I have to put the quad in 4wd to get to work.


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## kustomizer

My bride wants to know if you have hot wateer bottles for your girls when they sleep, and who puts chains on them so they can go to work?


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## Cessna180

Our girls are tough. No need for hot water bottles and such. If you have to put chains on to go to work, don't go. Unless it's a Hockey game.


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## kustomizer

My bride and I are heading off to our first bee club meeting ( delta bee club ) tomarrow, we have yet to sign up but we are going to check in or check it out, however you choose to say it. We will be up way past wy bedtime but we will see what we learn.


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## Juliette

*Hello from Boulder Creek, CA*

Hi there! Good luck with your beekeeping adventures! Let us know how it goes 

I'm interested in finding out the best places to get a bee package in Northern California. We're brand new beekeepers, getting ready to get our first bees.

Have a great day,
Juliette


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## kustomizer

I don't know about the best but we are hoping ot get ours on time and healthy, beyond that I guess it is up to my bride and I.


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## Juliette

I guess I was curious about what you and your bride decided as far as 'where' you were getting your bees - will it be through the Delta Bee club, or through a local company? We've placed our order with a company in Chico, and they'll be picked up first week of April.

Hope you enjoyed the club meeting.


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## kustomizer

We ordered our bees from some folks in Dixon, the UPS man is supposed to bring them to us around the 10th of next month. I had not heard of the Delta Bee club at the time we ordered them. We did not make the meeting, we chickened out and blamed it on the thundershowers ( we were having Kansas type rain ) and for some reason folks around here have to hurry up and get there before they have a wreck and the next thing they know they are the first ones to the scene of the accident. I would rather not be the one they run into.


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## walking bird

hey kustomizer, you getting your bees from Phil over at Noble Apiaries in Dixon? I'm picking four packages up from him on April 4th.


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## kustomizer

Phil at Noble would be the guy, load em up heavy, we may loose a few with all the roping and branding, at least until we get the hang of it.


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## walking bird

Phil's a good man, and he's very helpful--- actually returns calls and emails when you have questions, etc. I had him ship mine last year, but this year I'm gonna make the drive and see the operation. Plus, with four packages, I didn't want to pay the shipping.


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## kustomizer

In this day and age it is good to find a few folks in business that come with a good recomendation form their customers.


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## kustomizer

Very excited, our bees are home, kinda wet, coolish California weather today.
We are making a garden / bee condominium on the top of the mountain near our home ( 1/4 mile as the woodpecker flies, but most of a mile and 800 feet in elevation, on the dirt road to get there ). The backhoe finished digging ditches as the rain began to fall and 1 inch of water combined with fresh dug dirt makes for a mud-hole so sloppy that we may have to winch the goats out should they venture near. 


http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee73/kustomizer1/beeforum.jpg


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## KQ6AR

Sounds good, We get ours tomorow.

Part of the photo link is missing


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