On the drone thing I still have a few
IMGP0733.jpg
Here's a very bad photo from Wednesday
The drone is near the entrance
IMGP07332.jpg
Ahem amm
I raise my own queens and they are AMM
I raise my own queens and they are AMM(ish)
I raise my own queens and the are carniolan
I raise my own queens and they are caniolan(ish)
I raise my own queens and they are buckfast
I raise my own queens and they are Buckfast(ish)
I raise my own queens and they are Italian
I raise my own queens and they are italian(ish)
I raise my own queens and they are hybrid/allsorts
I raise my own queens as part of a breeding group
On the drone thing I still have a few
IMGP0733.jpg
Here's a very bad photo from Wednesday
The drone is near the entrance
IMGP07332.jpg
Ahem amm
Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 29-11-2013 at 10:25 PM.
what no cheek about my drone??
Hi readers
Getting near the closing date for the poll
Can there really only be 26 people who have raised their own queens ?
The SBA has around 1500 ? members and that/s a lot of queen bees
Probably close to the number of actual individuals that have posted this year...maybe? It's interesting, if you look at 'who's online' there's almost always someone new registering...never to be heard of again!
And if you look at the IP address (a select few can!) you can see that they are unlikely to be cosher beekeepers*, often unlikely to be a real person at all. Some of those attempts are successful and you may notice the new 'user' disappearing when we get round to sifting out those with all the signs of being just spammers.
DR, your questions are likely just to elicit a response from those who raise queens in a controlled way (rather than just from the swarming impulse). Also, it has to be said, posting on a Scottish beekeeping forum is a minority interest, even for Scottish beekeepers. May be time for me to write something for the magazine though, to encourage more to stop by.
* For example the latest one, signing up yesterday - Devid89. Has an email address that is apparently from a UK domain (good) but the actual domain has a strange name (not good) that I haven't previously seen (oops) and past history suggests that we'll get a slew of spammers from there. However, the registration came from an IP address in Bangladesh (right, should really just delete it now). I could check out the IP address to see if its a recorded source of spam, and the domain name too, but maybe I'll just watch for a while. I once deleted a Russian who really was a beekeeper wanting to discuss bees and had to apologise later.
Last edited by gavin; 05-12-2013 at 08:46 PM.
Hi Gavin
I think you might be right I should have broadened it out more, but I hope it still represents a cross section
In one of the chicken forums any registered user with no posts in 6 months is deregistered
From your post I see there might be a good reason for that
I do see your problem Gavin but still, there are a lot of accounts registered in the 'members list' section but I reckon probably no more than 40 have posted in the last twelve months. I understand the reasoning why -I'm registered with a few forums but never post and maybe only visit a couple of times a year, if I need specific information which isn't easily searchable elsewhere. Maybe it is a good time for you to get something in print to try and draw in some fresh views ready for next Spring.
Does it really matter if there are plenty of lurkers? I would rather have them lurk here and be exposed to some grown-up discussion than move to another site full of hot-heads.
Not at all, not to me at any rate. But I do think that it'd be nice for more people to help round out some of the conversations here.Does it really matter if there are plenty of lurkers?
Just a few points. DR, it is an interesting poll and well worth having. All I was saying really was: don't be surprised at the numbers responding (there are more than I thought it was going to get!). Prakel and Rosie, yes, lots of real beekeepers have signed up and most don't post. I do know it is widely read, so that makes it all worthwhile. Making this forum 'free to view' was a deliberate choice which means that we don't know for sure who is reading it, but from casual discussions I know that many keep an eye on what is happening here. Currently (and this was just the software default) those who upload images to the site via the vBulletin software have them viewable only by logged-in users. That is no bad thing because it encourages more people to sign up. Some of them may go on to post something which can be a daunting experience for those who have never done it before.
An article in the Scottish Beekeeper would be no bad thing, and maybe I should renew efforts to kindle interest when I'm speaking to LAs ... or ask for a slot at national (I mean SBA) meetings. The quality of the discussion here is indeed good, and it is fine that those who just want banter and perhaps an argument post elsewhere. Doesn't mean that the forum shouldn't evolve though. There were things probably worth doing but which I haven't got around to to various reasons. That book discussion area for example. Maybe one for the Christmas break.
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