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"I read your diary all the time and find it very interesting. One thing I'm always looking for is current honey prices! I also sent you some pictures that I have taken recently. I love taking pictures so from time to time I can send pictures if you would like. I'm also the editor for the Red River Apiarist association and a 3rd year beekeeper. I love it!! I started with 6 hives and the next year jumped to 85! That was quite the challenge with the weather we had last year. Anyways here are some pictures of my hives!! -- Dan

"P.S. I used the #1872 for my Desk top as a wall paper! Looks great!

Thanks, Dan.  Pictures are always appreciated.  I'll try to do more on prices.  The picture above is lo-res for fast loading, but here are two of Dan's hi-res pix if anyone wants to use them for desktops.   One  Two

Am I going to Saskatoon?  I am beginning to doubt it. As much as it might be nice to be there, I don't look forward to the eight-hour drive there and eight hours back.  I guess that years of attending the US meetings has given me a new perspective.  What little of importance that happens here can be learned as easily in the US, along with much more.  I realise that some think we are much smarter, but actually, it looks to me as if we are just lucky.  Our climate gives us great crops and protects us from a lot of problems.

To tell the truth, I am really beginning to doubt the relevance of the CHC and many other Canadian beekeeping groups.  From an Alberta beekeeping perspective, any provinces east of Winnipeg just do not matter in any positive way.  Some are are closed to Alberta bees and hives, some tend to be very restrictive and anti-business in their outlook, and their only significance for us is the political force they exert against us.  There are a few national issues, but I think we would be better off without any national organisations.  What have often does us more harm than good.  What little we need from the national government (less is more!), we can negotiate ourselves, and our provincial government backs us all the way.  What national policies exist, most of them - IMO - are actually harmful to, or useless from the perspective of Alberta beekeepers.  We need some honey regulations to protect the word honey and our market, some rules to ensure product safety, and that is about it.

The simple fact is that most commercial beekeepers like to mind their own business, and have little interest in bothering others, especially other beekeepers more than a few miles away, and the beekeepers who thrust themselves forward into organisations tend too often to be do-gooders and busybodies who want power over others.  Don't get me wrong.  There are many who are not, and who have served selflessly to make this industry profitable, but too often, IMO this has been the case in the past. 

The Canadian Honey Producers Association is attempting to put that right, but, from what I can tell, nobody there is really interested in much more than getting the CHC off our backs, and getting a few wrongs righted.

Further, looking closer to home, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are cut off from us.  Saskatchewan is closed, and moreover has used its political energy to thwart Alberta's goals.  (And their own, IMO).  As a result, of Saskatchewan's isolationist policies, Manitoba is isolated - by Sask on the west, and miles and miles of bush on the east.   There are some smart, free-trading beekeepers in Manitoba, but they are cut off from us.

In fact, when I think about it, I realise that most of these provinces do nothing for us at all, but on the other hand, they often deliberately and actively interfere with our business. 

Imagine, for a moment, a Canada with no CHC.  Here in Alberta, we would be far better off, since we would be represented by an organisation which actually represents us - our own - and have no national organisation to set up obstacles for us. 

I will say a good word here for British Columbia, though.  B.C.  is, with the exception of the Island, progressive, tolerant, largely well-informed, and not restrictive to the legitimate business needs of beekeepers.

Anyhow, I must take the car in for an alignment shortly, so I'll write more later...

Winter is winding down, now, but I got a call asking about how I make winter wraps.  I dug up an article I did for Bee Culture magazine in 2002, and sent it off.  I don't see it  on the Bee Culture site anymore, so here it is.  Also remember to visit Selected Topics from time to time.

Ellen & I took the car to town for an alignment and have to take it back for some more parts and tires later.  We also ordered new tires for the van.

Meijers came for supper and we contemplated going to Saskatoon and Winnipeg.  Try as we might, we could not justify the time and the expense.  There are a couple of interesting topics.  One is the mention of an electron beam facility in Manitoba.

Today: A mix of sun and cloud. High 10. Tonight: A few clouds. Wind becoming south 20 km/h overnight. Low zero. Wednesday: Sunny with cloudy periods. Wind becoming southwest 20 km/h in the morning. High 14. Thursday: A mix of sun and cloud. Low 3. High 12. Friday: Cloudy. 40 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 4. High plus 1. Saturday: Periods of snow. Low minus 14. High minus 11. Normals: High: -3°C Low: -14°C

I was saying, yesterday, that we would be better off without the CHC.  Maybe I'll try arguing the other side now.  After all, they are currently doing a few constructive things like the C-BISQT programme and getting the official OK for oxalic acid, and...  Hmmm. I'm out of good things to say for them...  Is there more?  Are these few things enough to make up for the damage they have done over the years?

Who knows? ...and what is past is past.  I hope the CHC, assuming it survives, continues to become more constructive, less obstructive and strongly interested in unselfish win/win solutions instead of the all or nothing, dog in the manger approaches that prevailed in the recent past.

I should also give the CHC high marks for their website.  It is full of good information, even though things are very hard to find there (I should talk, with my site!?).  I went looking for CHC oxalic and C-BISQT links to add here, and have spent ten minutes so far without finding either... yet.  I figured I'd beat the drum for their oxalic fund raising and pat them on the back for C-BISQT.  I assume I will eventually find the pages...

(Later)  Actually I did not find either, and I give up.

Ellen & I went to Calgary to pick up some frames for her paintings and did a little shopping.  I went looking at laptops, since I would like a smaller, lighter, quieter machine that lasts longer -- more than 3 hrs -- on a battery, and has a smaller power supply.  I like the Sony machines because they tend to have Windows XP pro, not XP Home, and also a much higher screen resolution, plus they have a dedicated video board, not integrated video.  In the process, I viewed this site on a number of wide screen machines, and became aware that the self-adjusting format I have developed can be extremely wide on a 2000 pixel wide screen, and on these machines, the type can appear tiny.  Well, I trust the owners of such machines can learn to change their type sizes.  If not, they will have trouble with most sites.

We had expected to pick up the car, this evening, but it is still not ready.

Today: A mix of sun and cloud. Wind southwest 30 km/h becoming light this morning. High 13. Tonight: A few clouds. Low zero. Thursday: Sunny with cloudy periods. Wind becoming north 20 km/h in the afternoon. High 14. Friday: Cloudy. 40 percent chance of showers. Low minus 4. High plus 2. Saturday: Cloudy. 60 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 7. High minus 5. Sunday: Cloudy. 60 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 18. High minus 13.

We ran the van to town for the new tires, and picked up the car.  It is better, but there is still a bit of noise that goes away when the brakes are applied.  We decided that the problem must be loose callipers, so that job is next. 

The van handles better with the the new tires.  It had 215s and I went to 205s with an all-season tread.  The steering is a lot lighter now.

Looks as if we may get high speed internet here.  Decent price, I think, but only 3 GB/month?  Bummer!

Today: A mix of sun and cloud. Wind becoming west 20 km/h this afternoon. High 11. Tonight: Cloudy. 70 percent chance of rain showers changing to flurries this evening. Low minus 7. Friday: Cloudy. 60 percent chance of flurries. High minus 5. Saturday: Cloudy. 60 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 10. High minus 7. Sunday: A mix of sun and cloud. 60 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 18. High minus 13. Monday: Sunny. Low minus 16. High minus 9. Normals
High: -3°C Low: -14°C

"Winter storm watch for Drumheller-Three Hills upgraded to heavy snowfall warning
The potential for severe winter weather exists over these regions. Heavy snow in the mountains and through central Alberta today will push southward tonight and continue into Saturday. A Major winter storm is developing in southern Alberta today. Mild pacific air streaming over the Rockies will bring snow to western And central Alberta today. 10 to 20 cm of snow is likely in the mountains today and tonight with up to 15 cm across central parts of Alberta. Visibilities will be reduced to less than one kilometre in snow at times today. Conditions will improve by Saturday morning.

Well, we got about fifteen centimetres. 

Today, I decided to work on the furnace auger, something I had intended to do for some time, so drove to Linden to get some auger for an idea I've had.  I took the van, and the new tires are very nice.  I hadn't been enjoying driving the van lately, but it handles much better, and, even in the new snow, I had fabulous  traction.

I got the main auger extended and toyed with the new auger idea.  I ran out of time, but the pilot tests are promising.

Today: Periods of snow. Amount 5 to 10 cm. Temperature falling to minus 12 by evening. Tonight: Snow. Amount 5 to 10 cm. Low minus 15. Saturday: Flurries. High minus 12. Sunday: A mix of sun and cloud. 60 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 19. High minus 12. Monday: A mix of sun and cloud. Low minus 16. High minus 9. Tuesday: Sunny. Low minus 11. High minus 2. Normals High: -2°C Low: -14°C

Allen, Read that you are always requiring photographs! Here is one that makes the wait for spring a little easier and helps the days cleaning supers pass just a little faster All the best, Peter Thanks.  Very nice!  I'll use this to head the next page

Hard Drive Crash!  A friend called in mid-afternoon, saying his computer would not start.  Got a message saying something about the boot.ini file.  I said I'd go over and look, so went for supper ands found his hard drive had crashed.  He had complained to me about slow starting a week or two ago, but I had not put two and two together.  His HD is the silent sort, and he is quite deaf to boot, so he did not hear it thrashing around; he just noticed slower performance.  I ran a recovery program on it, but it was not making much headway by the time I left.  I'd say the drive is dead and chances of recovering anything much are mighty slim.

The moral of the story?  Backups, backups. backups.  I have three or four copies of everything important, including one I carry off-premises.  For those who only have a few megs or just want to save pictures, there is Gmail and Yahoo!.  You can email yourself pictures and they will stay on Gmail as long as Gmail exists, or Yahoo! offers free picture and file storage.  You  can keep things private, or share some or all of them, as you see fit.

For an example, see my Yahoo! photo site.  Not much there, but they give me 30 megs if I want it. I've had it for years, but seldom use it, as you can see.  Write me if you can't get into the page.  I am not sure I have sharing turned on there.  Anyhow, I have a briefcase there, too, and I can upload files of any sort to Yahoo! from anywhere, for an off-premises backup, and, using my password, access them from anywhere in the world, and I can make them private or public.  They should be secure, but if I'm worried about hackers, I can encrypt before sending them up.

Today: A mix of sun and cloud. 70 percent chance of flurries this morning. Wind becoming north 20 km/h this morning. High minus 14. Tonight: Cloudy periods. Clearing near midnight. Low minus 27. Sunday: Sunny with cloudy periods. High minus 12. Monday: Sunny. Low minus 17. High minus 9. Tuesday: Sunny. Low minus 10. High minus 1. Wednesday: Sunny. Low minus 9. High plus 3. Normals: High: -2°C Low: -14°C

I could -- and still can -- see a chance to increase honey consumption by a significant percentage, in  honey liqueurs, honey wines, and honey beers.  It takes money up-front to ramp up production and sales, though, and I figured the co-ops had the muscle, and the mandate to make it work.  It's their mandate (I thought) to find new uses and to create new markets, not just to camp on the Canadian packaged honey market.  I suggested that they could work with an existing winery and bottling facility, the way that many small producers of wines do.  It could be a fairly simple project to get underway.  Anyhow...

At the time, I was thinking only about mead, since I was already making mead, and people were applauding and demanding it.  I stumbled on the idea, but, once that idea came up, I immediately realized that the markets for soda-pop and athletic drinks is even more immense, and uses even larger volumes of sweeteners.  Why not honey?

On the honey end of things, nothing is happening there -- as far as I can see.  Moreover, a superior pancake syrup can be made with just pure honey and water, and nobody is doing that ...Opportunities for value-added that are just begging for some smart beekeeper/entrepreneur to pursue them?

The co-ops were created to solve a problem, but, IMO, they have gotten fat and lazy, been dominated by people of limited vision ("Hey! It's dark in here!"), punished and denigrated entrepreneurs among their membership, and only exacerbated the marketing problem. I also offered them my mail-order business, but the board at the time had no clue.  They could not even figure out what I was offering them, they were so focussed on putting honey into jars and bears and squeeze containers and selling it to retailers for less than cost, then showing up at the annual meeting with a detailed overhead presentation on why it was the beekeepers' fault that management and staff could never make a return on equity!  Mail order is a stable, growing, high margin, low-cost, easy-entry, take-'em-by-stealth, business that is not under the thumb of the big grocery boys.  Duh!

Golden Acres bought our mail order business from us; they bought our list, but did not take advantage of our extensive marketing and copy-writing expertise.

That was a few years back, now, so, since I mentioned the subject just now, I decided to visit the Golden Acres site.  Why not come along?

OK.  we're here.  Hmmmm.  The front page sucks.  It's poorly organised, and my browser wanted me to do some kind of software install.  No way!  I don't do that. Ugh!

And what's this? The page prominently mentions antibiotics and honey.  Oh, oh!  Not a good idea.  Better to mention purity, traceability, organic, etc. and then lead off the front page to a more detailed discussion -- if necessary.   Accentuate the positive.

On an earlier visit, it had little java bees running around the page.  I hate! that.  Okay, I found their online store, and that part is not bad (assuming anyone finds it from the opening page).  Seems to work, too.  Bonus!

I don't know how far Golden Acres has grown the mail order enterprise, if at all, but, IMO, mail order can be a dynamite business.  We just about made a living from it, by mail, back before internet shopping got jumping.  I remember going down to Toronto to a CDMA  mail order seminar (with all the big names in mail order teaching their secrets) to see what I could learn.  Three days and several hundred dollars later, I left for home, having found out that we were doing much better than most.  In fact, no one believed me, when I said what we were doing and what our response rates were; I was told by experts that what we were doing was impossible.  For them, maybe.  I didn't say much after that.

Mail order, combined with a store brand (which we did not have), combined with the Internet, can be a very powerful channel, especially in the hands of a good marketer.  So far, no one has come anywhere near tapping the potential -- as far as I know.  (How would I know.  Mail order success is almost invisible).

Maybe someone will hire me to tell them how?  I doubt it.

I spent the afternoon and evening working downstairs, cleaning up the workshop.  It has been a mess since we wound down the business, and there is lots to do.  It is a nice relief from desk work.

Ruth came for the afternoon to work with Ellen in the studio, and stayed for supper.

Today: A mix of sun and cloud. High minus 15. Tonight: A few clouds. Low minus 27. Monday: Sunny. High minus 12. Tuesday: Sunny. Low minus 16. High minus 4. Wednesday: Sunny. Low minus 12. High plus 1. Thursday: Sunny. Low minus 8. High plus 4. Normals High: -2°C Low: -14°C

It's been a cold few days, but now we are getting warmer weather again.  I have quite a few things to do today, including more cleanup, returning the excess auger flighting, and more filing and desk work.

Chris emailed me this morning with a news article saying that BC Place worker may go on strike, and sink the boat show.  I've been running short of time, and reconsidering the trip.  Maybe this will make up my mind for me.

Ellen & Shirley went to Calgary for the day.  She is enjoying her 'retirement' and works every day on here stained glass and painting.

Eight million Iraqis dared to vote, in the face of fatwas and terrorist threats -- a higher voter turn-out than in Canada -- Ezra Levant -- Calgary Sun

I took the extra auger back to Linden, then, since I was already a ways down the road, went to Airdrie to get a few things I need.

Today: Sunny. High minus 10. Tonight: Clear. Low minus 20. Tuesday: Sunny. High minus 5. Wednesday: Sunny. Low minus 14. High zero. Thursday: Sunny. Low minus 12. High plus 2. Friday: Sunny. Low minus 7. High 6.

It looks as if the Boat Show is cancelled, so I guess I'll not be going to B.C. this week.  No matter, I have lots to do.

I decided, today, to spend more time in the HoneyBeeWorld Forum, especially when answering questions that arrive by email.  I'll post them in the forum so that the answers are shared.  I'll also try to check the forum daily.  Remind me, if I don't.  We had good momentum some time back, then the forum crashed and I could not get it up for a while and it died back a bit.

Hmmm.  I see that I need to enter each forum section and see what is there.  I'd missed some messages.  I also see that, when posting there is a check box for email notification.  Handy!

Seeing as I am recommending AvantBrowser (just from what I have heard about it, since I am a dyed-in-the-wool Maxthon user), I downloaded AvantBrowser.)  I'll report later on what I think.  BTW, although I do like Opera, and use it sometimes.  I found some site compatibility problems and drifted more and more to Maxthon.  In my limited test, though, AvantBrowser is fast, possibly faster than Maxthon.  I find also, though, that I immediately missed the the many features of Maxthon and doubt I will use AvantBrowser much.

I have been working in the basement lately, cleaning up.  I'd been working on this off and on for weeks, and today, I did some painting down there, something I've been meaning to do for some time.

Today: Sunny with cloudy periods. High minus 4. Tonight: Clear. Low minus 17. Wednesday: Sunny. High minus 2. Thursday: Sunny. Low minus 14. High plus 3. Friday: Sunny. Low minus 11. High plus 3. Saturday: Sunny. Low minus 9. High 6. Normals: High: -2°C Low: -13°C

I see there are new Windows® Updates today.  I drove the car up to Three Hills again this morning and had the callipers re-bushed.  Can't really say if it makes a difference or not -- I'll have to drive a while before I decide -- but I like my cars to be quiet and smooth riding.

In the afternoon, I did more cleanup.

Wondering what usually happens the US` stock market after the Fed raises rates 6 times?  (From Chart of the Day)

It seems the Boat Show is on again.  Ho Hum.

Today: Sunny. High minus 2. Tonight: Clear. Wind northwest 20 km/h becoming light this evening. Low minus 17. Thursday: Sunny. High minus 1. Friday: Sunny. Low minus 9. High plus 5. Saturday: Sunny. Low minus 14. High plus 5. Sunday: Sunny. Low minus 7. High plus 5.