Newbie in Central Florida

[SamBigDeer]

Howdy, All;
..   About 15+ years ago I took advantage of an opportunity to satisfy my curiosity about bees/beekeeping.  A somewhat elderly neighbor had several hives and some nucs in his yard so I stopped in one day and introduced myself and began asking questions about bees.  The outcome of that was, we became good friends and he gained a willing (though somewhat ignorant) helper/student.  He gave me four hives with colonies installed as payment/gift for my efforts in helping him.
..   Eventually I lost all the bees, sold a couple of the hives to a citrus grove owner, wax moth wiped out one good hive (my ignorance of what the problem was until too late to save it),  lost another by losing the queen, etc., etc... The mentoring neighbor/friend had moved away so no source of new bees or encouragment/inspiration. 
..  Well, lost my bees but never lost my interest.  A while back, I stumbled across this forum and began to visit and read the posts.  Ya'll (that's you all or all of you) seem like good people, so if you will, allow me to hitch a ride on this train for a while.  I'll try not to offend.......
Sam
 

[indypartridge]

Hi Sam!

Welcome!  This is a great forum to learn about bees: good folks here!

I also want to encourage you to get connected with a local bee club. Beekeeping has undergone some significant changes in the last 15 years, so it would be very worthwhile to find a new mentor or two!
http://www.floridabeekeepers.org/

[JP]

Welcome aboard Sam! Glad to see you here and that you never lost total interest in bees. You will like this place, and learn about lots of useful, as well as useless things, but who knows, maybe you could put the useless things to good use in the next life. I don't know what I'm saying, just welcome to the forums, ok.


...JP

[Cindi]

Sam, welcome to our forums, so glad that you have found us, and I doubt seriously that you would offend anyone here, so don't worry about that.  You have experience with the bees, that is cool, you obviously have fallen under that spell of the bee and you are addicted.  Good that you have not been fully deterred by the losses of your colonies.  All losses of colonies are a sad thing, but you are carrying on and that is a wonderful thing.  Welcome, stick around, tell us more of yourself, we love to hear the experiences and the lives that people spend with their bees.  Ask your questions, we all learn by the answers that come from the questions.  So Sam, welcome, stick around lots and lots, we love to have new members.  Have the most beautiful and wonderful day, we all be lovin' this lfe that we live.  Cindi

[pdmattox]

Welcome to the forums. I live in florida as does understudy. If you need some help feel free to pm us.