Buzzing the Web: BeeMaster.com forum

• The BeeMaster.com forum is one of the top places on the web to meet fellow beekeepers from all over the world.

Let’s say it’s another two weeks until the next beekeepers association meeting, and you’re feeling the need to talk bees. Your family of non-beekeepers isn’t interested. Your best bee buddy is out of town. The crowd at Cracker Barrel looks like a bunch of syrup-soppers rather than honey-loves.

What to do?

There’s a site on the web that’s perfect. It’s the forum on the BeeMaster.com site. The BeeMaster forum bills itself as the number one beekeepers forum in the world, and they’re probably right on that. Post a question, pose a problem, or just tell your latest bee story, and you will get an almost instant response. And the response will come from all over the world.

The forum is well-organized, so it is easy to find your way around. In fact, there are a number of sub-forums that are devoted to specific topics like the growth of the beeyard, pests and treatments, raising new queens and the like. One of these forums, called the Trading Post, is just what it says – a place where you can buy and sell equipment. There’s a forum for people who have their own web sites and blogs, and there’s even a forum called The Coffee House, where you talk about non bee-related things to others interested in beekeeping.

And, since many of us are also gardeners as well as beekeepers, there’s a gardener’s forum.

One of the nice things about all of this is that the forum is tightly monitored and moderated, which makes sure that one gets uncivil or abuses their privileges.

You have to register to participate in the forum, and you have to post several entries before you get full privileges to post links or upload pictures. That’s a bit irritating, but you can go online to ask questions and make comments immediately, and that’s a good thing.

I have posted several things on the BeeMaster forum, and I have always gotten friendly, well-meaning responses from people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say. It’s kind of like the Blount County Beekeepers Association meeting all day and night and all over the world.

This is a wonderful site, and if you want to extend your circle of bee buddies, I highly recommend it.