BM-Staff – Page 6 – BeeManiacs

Posted on March 9, 2014 by BM-Staff

Where can I download class presentations?

We just added a new page in our LearnBee website where you can download presentations we use in classes or meetings.

You can go to the LearnBee website and navigate to the “Download Presentations” page or just follow this link:
https://beemaniacs.com/learn/index.php?title=Download_Presentations

We use Libre Office Impress to make our presentations and if you want to open the original file, you can download Libre Office for free. If you just want to see the presentation, we generated a pdf handout that you can download from the same area.

If you cannot find any file you are looking for, please contact us: education@beemaniacs.com.

Posted on March 6, 2014 by BM-Staff

Launching Our New Educational Website

We are moving all articles or educational information to a new educational website that is based in the same website engine than WikiPedia. Our goal is to relocate and host new educational content and programs in this new site:
LearnBee – https://beemaniacs.com/learn/

LearnBee will host material developed by BeeManiacs Staff and volunteer contributors and the wiki-style website engine will facilitate searching for content as the amount of articles grows.

Our goal is making the material public and we will use a flexible copyright system: the material is free to copy and use, as long as a statement recognizing BeeManiacs as the owner of the copyright is kept with the copies being distributed.

We are currently members of the Education committees of the American Beekeeping Federation and Washington Master Beekeeper Program and are also actively involved in the educational programs of the Inland Empire Beekepers’ Association and West Plains Beekeepers Association. Our educational program will be expanding soon and we will add features and content in the new LearnBee area.

In the main website we will keep posting blog-style news (like this one) that will appear in the Home page. On the top of the main website we will keep the links to the educational website (LearnBee) and Contact information and soon we will add an active link to the BeeManiacs online store.

Probably next week we will announce one educational benefit for beekeepers in driving distance from our headquarters. Stay tuned for details…

Posted on February 28, 2014 by BM-Staff

Opening March 29

We will open our store for business on Saturday, March 29. We invite all beekeepers to stop by and check the material we have, while having a tasty hot dog and some cookies.

We set the store hours for Friday and Saturday, from 10am to 4pm, but we can also open by appointment if you cannot make it for either of those days.

We also decided to start carrying bee suits this season. We are currently manufacturing the BeeManiacs full body bee suits and jackets. We will also supply leather gloves with ventilation.

The online store will open a few days before our walk-in store. If you are interested in buying online or just checking our online catalog and pricing, stay tuned for upcoming news in our website or our Facebook or Twitter accounts.

Posted on February 14, 2014 by BM-Staff

BeeManiacs Selling Beekeeping Supplies Soon!

We have great news!

BeeManiacs will start selling beekeeping tools and some supplies soon. We currently estimate that we will open for business by the last weekend of March. We will keep you posted of actual dates via this website and we will broadcast those news over our Facebook and Twitter services.

We will start bringing some basic items like smokers, hive tools, bee brushes, uncapping tools and similar tools.

We will be focused in carrying good quality items and a variety of options for each tool. We want customers to be able to get not just one hive tool, but the one they choose to buy over many different options. Your smoker should fit your needs so you should be able to choose among 4 or 5 different models.

Since we will bring many options for each tool type, we won’t be carrying this year a complete line of beekeeping equipment. For example, we won’t sell in 2014 any wooden-ware or live bees.

We want to share with you our introductory flyer. Please open the following links:

Flyer front page: BM-Flyer-Front_Feb2014
Flyer back page: BM-Flyer-Back-Feb2014

Posted on February 9, 2014 by BM-Staff

Bayer Bee Care – Pullman, WA

BeeManiacs was invited to participate at the first Bayer Bee Care event of 2014. It was held on February 6 in WSU (Washington State University) Pullman, WA campus.

This is the second year for this Bee Care tour.

Even though we currently don’t use chemicals in BeeManiacs operations, we try to keep an open-minded approach for all types of beekeeping.

We welcome the effort from Bayer approaching beekeepers and farmers so they can explain which projects they are funding for research and ongoing investigations in minimizing negative effects of pesticides on pollinators and improvements in chemicals for beekeeping operations (mostly for commercial beekeepers). Bayer will also increase efforts in training and educating farmers in the correct use of chemicals.

We would recommend anyone that is against any type of chemicals to go and participate in one of these events so you can voice your concerns directly to Bayer staff. We have heard complains about big chemical companies in many beekeeping meetings, but in those meetings there’s nobody to hear those concerns. Next time, go to an event or you can just pick up the phone and talk to them.

As chemical manufacturers hear these concerns they will react and improve products or processes and will also fund grants for Universities to find better ways to do things moving forward.

For more information you can go to their website: http://beecare.bayer.com/home

Posted on February 7, 2014 by BM-Staff

ABF Conference 2014

BeeManiacs was present at the American Beekeeping Federation Conference in Baton Rouge.

We put together a presentation that we’re showing in some local bee clubs and for your convenience we make the pdf file available for download here.

ABF2014 presentation.

Posted on January 26, 2014 by BM-Staff

BeeManiacs Logo

After a couple years of searching we finally found a logo design that we are happy with that will identify BeeManiacs products.

Meet the new BeeManiacs logo:

We wanted something beekeeping related yet simple and modern.

Simple because we’re easy to interact with and will try to keep everything we do reachable and simple. And modern because we are taking a different approach into beekeeping, an industry where it seems that having three generations and about 150 years of experience seems to be more normal than in other fields. We are newer to beekeeping and half of our human resources are under 16.

The hexagons keep the logo beekeeping related, but the bee they form make it extra clear. In this picture below you can see how even the bee abdomen is an hexagon.

And if you didn’t notice at first, there’s a honey dipper embedded in the logo. Just mentally remove the “wings” and the head + abdomen of the bee form a honey dipper. The image below would help visualize the dipper.

Now that we have a trademark that we can use to identify BeeManiacs, we will start working on using it as much as we can on high quality products and we hope that in the next couple of years this trademark will be a symbol of good quality and widely recognized as BeeManiacs.

Posted on January 6, 2014 by BM-Staff

Master Beekeeper Program

For 2013 our New Year’s resolution was to keep improving our beekeeper skills, applying for the Journeyman Level in the Washington Master Beekeeper Program.

The program has three levels: Apprentice, Journeyman and Master.

During 2013 we took classes, tests, and volunteered in many events collecting different points to meet the requirements of the Journeyman Beekeeper level.

In December 2013 we received our official certificates so we were able to fulfill 2013 New Year’s resolution right before the end of the year!

We’re looking forward to start the Master Beekeeper level now and we will apply once we meet the required experience time (two more years of beekeeping experience, so we should be taking the test in 2015).

Now it’s time to make some resolutions for 2014…

Posted on September 27, 2013 by BM-Staff

Dandelions and honey bees

They are pretty……they last long…….they are the first wild flowers we see when Spring starts, and…. they have bad reputation, because dandelions are considered weeds worldwide and they spread very easy with the help of the wind.

To change that bad reputation is important to know (and spread the notice to your good neighbors) that dandelions are our bees’ first natural pollen and nectar source after winter.

Bees will work hard in these dandelion “fields” to get the nutritious nectar and pollen that they will consume in the hives until other flowers start blooming later during Spring.

So, next Spring, when your neighbor starts showing some “cabin fever” symptoms and wants to start mowing the lawn even during a rainy day, ask him if he can wait a few weeks until your bees finish gathering their natural food …..of course it is always a good idea to give him at the same time one of your honey jars :)