More on original hives

With all this heat and dryness (not counting the yucky humidity), I wanted to make sure that my original two bee hives were doing well and having plenty to eat and drink. I headed out there today to fill the division feeders and put the beetle traps in place.

They were doing well and the bees were hanging around the outside of the hives trying to deal with the heat. It surprises me that I have so much in common with my bees.

I hope to get some photos the next time that I inspect the hives. It's been a while and I would like to have more photos.

Checking in on the new hive

Added the 2nd hive body today with the division board feeder. Those bees are growing in numbers and their disposition was good. They could have cared less about what I was up to because they were busy.

I'm pleased with their progress and it seems like the queen is doing well and laying eggs in a good pattern.

This hive is going to go to my friend's home in Medford in August. I'm really excited.

Update on New Queen

It's been a week since the hive was split and they both appear to be doing well. I was excited to see that the new queen had been released from the cage and the attendants cleaned out. On inspection, there appeared to be brood in various stages of development although I did not disturb it for too long - only long enough to give additional food.

Already thinking about getting all the hives prepared for winter.

Summer Split

I have been thinking about it for a while but wasn't ready for my split in the spring. Now, I have a friend that has offered to let me put a hive in his yard in Medford. On Sunday, Mike Long of Uriah Creek Apiary, brought me a queen -- My first queen outside of my original hive delivery. I had to get ready to get her hived.

Went over to Nature's Rescue and split one of my hives -- took 4 frames of brood and shook off a 5th frame of bees into the new hive and placed the queen carefully between two of the frames. Then, closed up the hive (already had a screen in place) and brought the new hive over to the Lighthouse Center to beef up for several weeks.

Fed them a sugar solution from a bag feeder and am hoping that everything takes. I checked yesterday (Monday, 7/4) and there are bees flying in and out so I am hopeful.

Going out tomorrow morning to feed the original two hives and check on how they are doing. Also, going to check on the weight of my honey supers. I'm looking forward to my first taste of honey from my own hives. Now, all I have to do is figure out how I am going to extract it.

Spring Hive Report

So far, my bee hives have made it through the winter. I'm trying to get a decent day where the foragers are out flying so I can really go through to check the frames. I have a sinking feeling the #1 hive has lost its queen.

Last week, when I checked the hives. #2 was calm and the bees were industrious and ignored my clumsy hands going through to see what's happening. Those frames are really glued in there! Hive #1 was completely different -- bees came flying out by the hundreds when I took the top off. Smoking them did not seem to have any effect and their buzz was not the happy rhythm I have been used to.

I wished that I had brought some sugar water in a spray bottle to distract them and decided that it would be better to wait to a warmer day, when I had plenty of time (and sugar water) to inspect the frames more thoroughly.

Well, so far Mother Nature has not cooperated with me with a warm, sun-shiney day where the foragers would be out gathering pollen and I could take the frames out one-by-one and check their disposition and their health.

I'm glad that there are plenty of bees in both of the hives and they are gathering pollen but want to give them every opportunity to be healthy and grow.

Also, I am officially a member of the New Jersey Beekeeping Association and am looking forward to my first meeting of the Jersey Cape coming up on 4/21/11.

Women's Educational Pheasant Hunt 1/16/11

Registrations are being accepted for the next Educational Pheasant Hunt sponsored by the New Jersey Quail Project. While female and younger hunters are encouraged -- all hunters who are looking to learn about hunting over pointer dogs are welcome to apply. The hunt is limited to 20 hunters. This is truly an educational experience and not meant for hunters who regularly hunt for upland birds whether over dogs or not.

The day may start early but is full of activities, education and great food! Here's the informal agenda for the day:

• Gathering and breakfast @ 7:30 AM
• Welcome, Safety Talk and Overview of the Day
• Off to the traphouse for some practice
• Hunting in the field with a mentor, guide and dog
• Lunch at the Club house
• Back out in the field for afternoon hunt
• Meet at the Clubhouse for tagging and cleaning the birds
• Departure about 4:30 PM

Attached you will find a registration form with additional information. All hunters must have a 2011 NJ Hunting License, require amount of safety orange, and their own eye and ear protection. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. However, I am smack dab in the middle of about a dozen projects; so, please be patient with me. I promise I will get back to you.

Sponsorship and donations in support of these educational programs are accepted. Friends or family attending with young hunters will be asked for a donation to cover their meals. Pola Galie and Mike Mazzucco, co-chairs. Reservations/Registrations are REQUIRED.

Special Thanks to the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, New Jersey Outdoor Alliance Environmental Projects/NJ Quail Project, English Setter Club Directors and Members and our volunteers - mentors, dogs and our Camp Cook, Ed Gerber!

Additional details, photos and registration form are available online at http://www.njquailproject.org

Where's my website traffic? You have to work for it!

A few new Internet clients have voiced concern over their disappointment that creating and launching a website did not bring them the results they were hoping for. They are not getting significant numbers of what they consider good qualified leads or sales.

Some people feel that if information is placed on the Internet and available over the web that the world will come marching to their door, everyone clutching credit cards and cash! In fact, some new website enabled businesses are actually afraid that there might be too much business and they will be overwhelmed the very minute their site goes live.

Well, I hate to always be the one that sometimes crushes someone’s website dreams but I have to tell people a very disappointing – “Well, that usually only happens with gambling or pornography websites or websites that are giving away really good prizes for free.” I try to never say it just like that but, unfortunately, that statement is honest. Of course, there are always the terrible embarrassing photos of a celebrity that make the rounds of the email world and drive people to go look at the photos. Seriously, we do not even allow those types of businesses on our servers so . . . .

For the rest of us, a website is a tool that still has to be taken out, used and maintained from time to time. Websites are wonderful tools that expand our communication capabilities – they are there, 24 X7, in full color (and sound), giving a lot more information and photos than we could ever afford to put into magazine or newspaper advertising – How many of us can afford radio or TV? Not many, I am afraid. Websites give businesses the ability to collect information and receive questions, quotes and/or orders at any time.

It takes a while to build traffic to a business or personal website and that takes time and good old-fashioned hard work and diligent communication -- Communication of all kind – face-to-face, telephone, email, forums, advertising, etc.

However, it is not all bad news. There are many things that you can easily do to help build traffic to your website as well as hone the information that you intend for your target audience.

Here are some easy, economical things that people can do to drive traffic to their site and over time, communicate with potential members or buyers.

1. A website needs to be updated regularly with fresh and timely content. Make people want to come back to your website again and again – try to get them to leave something behind . . . email address, money – it’s up to you.
2. A banner exchange with websites whose constituency is similar or complementary.
3. A link exchange (similar to above) – you can ask everyone you know who has a website to link back to your website but you should offer them a reciprocal link if they have a business.
4. Make sure your content tells the story you want it too and use photos to help explain and clarify your message.
5. Use your domain based email – It just drives me crazy when someone has a website. Visit me at www.MyBusiness.com and then their email is MyBusiness@my internetprovider.com -- It should be MyName@mybusiness.com -- there are a million things you can do with email if you have your own domain.
6. Make it easy for people to find and/or communicate with you. Nothing drives me crazier than not being able to find out where people are and how to contact them. If there is no email address or contact form, I often pass businesses buy. If you are too busy to answer my email, then you definitely do not need my business.
7. Do not be afraid to list your website on search engine websites. Do everything you can to help people find their way to you. (Just remember to make the trip worthwhile.)
8. Use the forums that let you talk about your business website. Sometimes forums will not let you have a link if you are not paying for advertising but you can talk about what it is you do and why others should join you to do it. You could also ask your friends and family to do this but this should be more than a once in six-month activity but something that you do and participate in on a regular basis.
9. Email lists and/or groups – search them out and you may find one that you can put an ad on a regular basis. I belong to a weaving group that allows any sales notices or ads to be placed on Friday. I actually pay more attention to the email chatter on Friday because I am always looking for a bargain.
10. Ahhhh, the social media bug-a-boo. It’s important to be active (within reason and do not throw away your personal privacy). You can meet a lot of potential customers by using Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, CamoSpace and others. Seems like there are more social media sites that are specific to an audience or a networking site popping up every day. Most are FREE! Use them. Even purchasing an ad on Facebook is rather inexpensive and you can control the content and budget!

But once you start, you want to keep up with it – get in the habit of posting something on a regular basis on a schedule that you are comfortable keeping or get someone in your organization that is more comfortable with the web community to do this. Even if you put it in your schedule to do something 1-3 times a week, it helps to promote your business.

These are just a few ideas for people to use to promote their websites and try to get more traffic to them. However, make sure there is something for those visitors to see or do when they get there or they will not necessarily come back.

I hope this helps as this is just a little synopsis of what I have seen since starting to host and design websites when we were still using DOS Trees as menus and a GUI was still a dream.