And if you know someone with a few different kinds practice with theirs before you buy your own

And if you don’t, some gun ranges have rentals. This can be a good way to shoot a variety of calibers and designs to see what you like.

When I was first starting out, I spent a lot of time at the BeeSource forums. I haven’t been there in a while, so I don’t know how it currently is, but I found it a good resource initially. FWIW, I always found the beekeeping-related subreddits to be pretty hit and miss.

There are tons of books available, possibly from your local library, but some are better than others. Wicwas press has a lot of good books, but I think they skew more towards advanced beginner and later, rather than the basic beginner.

But most importantly, there’s a saying that “all beekeeping is local”. While the basics are generally the same everywhere, the specifics vary depending on location. Not only things like temperature, humidity, and rainfall, but also what kinds of plants bloom, when and how often.

So regardless of any reading or other research you do, one of the best things you can do to learn is join a local beekeeping club. There will surely be members that have been there for a while, and you can learn from them what really works in your area.

Also, if you’re in the US, check with your local Ag Extension office. They may have resources or info to help you get started. Possibly even classes.

I’d start with local apiaries and/or small/mid scale beekeepers.

The trick will be finding one that will let you buy a smaller quantity (relatively speaking - you probably don’t want multiple 55 gallon drums of honey) at near-wholesale prices.

This might be tough, because small scale (hobbyist or side-gig) beekeepers often charge a premium because they’re not producing a lot, and value the hard work they put into what they did get.

On the flip side, larger outfits will likely already have contracts with a reseller, and may not want to bother with selling a mere 50-100 lbs as a one-off.

A good place to ask around might be a local beekeeping club/meetup. It would at least let you meet some of your local beeks, and maybe determine which are retail-only and which do wholesale.

Unfortunately, I’ve really scaled back my number of hives and now only get enough honey to keep my immediate family supplied.

But I appreciate the sentiment.

Beekeeper here. I won’t comment on whether or not you should. But since I know a little about storing honey, here are some things to consider:

If you do this, you need to make sure it’s sealed in airtight containers.

Part of what gives honey its antimicrobial properties (and long shelf life) is its low moisture content. But it’s hygroscopic and will pull moisture directly from the air if exposed. After it pulls enough moisture, it can ferment, grow bacteria, or otherwise not be fit for normal consumption.

Also, honey can crystallize over time. This doesn’t mean it’s bad, but in order to re-liquify it, you’ll need to heat it. So consider your storage container size and material carefully.

That said, 52 lbs is less than a 5 gallon bucket full (at roughly 12 lbs / gallon), so it shouldn’t take an incredible amount of space if you choose to do it. Or, in smaller portions, a quart mason jar will hold about 3 lbs. So 2 cases (12 jars each) would exceed your quantity requirements, and be more manageable than a 60lb bucket.

Also if you can buy it in bulk at wholesale prices, it will be cheaper. Retail can be anywhere from $5-$20 per pound (depending on what/where) whereas the last I checked, wholesale prices were more like $1.50 - $3.50 per pound, depending on quantity.

Hope that helps.

There was a series of TV commercials in the 70s for a laundry detergent that focused on “ring around the collar”. So I suspect it’s a spoof of one of those.

Back in the 90s, Windows NT had a POSIX compatibility layer that you could enable (it wasn’t enabled by default).

It goes without saying that the Emus will retake Australia.

Since they’re flightless, the rest of the world will be safe for a while. But when they form a navy or invent air travel, the rest of the world better watch out!

Edit: LOL, I just noticed your instance. You know what I’m talking about. 😛

I have sort of had enough of copy and pasting commands I find on the internet without having a good understanding of how they actually work.

One thing you could do is start trying to understand those commands.

Read the man pages or the documentation to figure out what the commands are actually doing. Once you have the “what” , you can dig deeper to get to the “why” if it isn’t obvious by that point.

After enough of that, you’ll go to copy/paste and already understand what it’s doing without needing to look it up again.

Then from there, it’s a matter of building the instinct to be able to say “I need to do X, so I’ll use commands Y and Z.”

The longer the distance, the larger the diameter of the wire you need, due to resistance/heat.

Typically, extension cords are going to be manufactured with the thinnest wire they can get away with based on the safety requirements, in order to save on materials cost.

So plugging 2 short cords together might cover the same distance as 1 longer cord, but the longer cord will use thicker wire to maintain the proper margin of safety.

At least they don’t have herpes.

I’m just wrapping up my first playthrough of Fallout 3. I’m not “done” but I finished the main storyline and am starting to lose steam with side quests and DLC. So I may wind up putting it down soon.

But I really enjoyed it. I’ll probably play something else for a while, then give New Vegas a try.

The Call of Cthulhu TTRPG.

Look up some of the Japanese lore about Tanuki (the Japanese name for the raccoon dog). It involves magic, giant scrotums, and all sorts of delightful stuff.

If you like anime, Studio Ghibli (famous for a lot of classics including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and others) did a movie called Pom Poko, which is about tanuki. If you don’t care for subtitles, the English dub is pretty good, and the voice cast stars a lot of well known (for the time) American actors.

You’re obviously not a golfer.

Maybe you’re right. I get all confused when it’s not in Möbius order.

To expand on this… Part of what happens to the nectar inside the bee’s honey crop is the addition of various enzymes (IIRC invertase is one. I don’t recall any of the others) that modify the sugars and other compounds in the nectar.

So nectar goes in, the result of nectar + enzymes comes out, then it’s dried until the moisture content is low enough (~18% is what I was told as a beekeeper. Who knows how the bees measure it…)

Not to be all “Well ackchyually” but most (maybe all?) of the moisture reduction happens after the nectar has been stored in the comb, but before it has been capped with wax for storage. So the bottom two panels are out of order.

Also, if anyone cares, the term for the mouth-to-mouth passing of the nectar is trophallaxis.

We used to feed our cats almost entirely dry food, with wet food as an occasional treat (no real schedule for wet, just every now and then).

But over the years we’ve had a number of cats that had health issues that were mitigated by switching to mostly wet food.

So now it’s reversed- almost entirely wet food with dry food occasionally (every couple of days or so). At least, for our indoor cats.

We also take care of a feral colony (many of which we’ve TNR’d), and those cats get dry food for logistical and cost reasons.

100%. They’ve just guaranteed that the sous vide unit that I have now is the last Anova product I will ever buy.