>> I do not tell them "what to do".
> I expect you are exaggerating a bit.
This is yet another incorrect assumption!
I made a very clear and simple statement of fact.
I see no reason for it to be presumptuously rejected out of hand as
exaggeration.
> For example, I delivered 40 packages to our club.
> I told them the procedure on installing...
Big mistake. Exactly what I specifically warned against.
You assume the existence and validity of "THE PROCEDURE", so you are doomed
from the get-go with the current crop of beekeeping novices.
There are many, many ways to install a package, ranging from my personal
favorite, of cutting the screen along 3 sides of the package, and dumping
all the bees in one smooth motion into the hive, down to laying the entire
package atop the frames, placing an empty super around it, and letting the
bees figure out that the queen and the feed can are no longer inside the
package.
What I do try to do is to familiarize everyone with the variant types of
packages and queen cages, like the plastic queen cages vs the 3-hole wooden,
and the need for marshmallows to create a candy plug in the former type, the
wood-and-screen vs the newer "bee bus" all-plastic type packages, and so on.
Yes, I address multiple techniques, but I do not try to push one or another
down anyone's throat, as I find more and more novices suffering from
advanced cases of congenital terminal anthropomorphism, and there seems to
be little hope of a cure.
The whole issue of simply how to "hive" a package exposes all sorts of
interesting pathologies, as most novices will have strong opinions on what
is "humane" vs "inhumane" and these opinions tend to surface strongly at
their first encounter with what will be truly their own bees.
I don't have a way to read a bees' mind, so I tell my class about my horses
and chickens. I had horses, most of them in retirement, dropped off at my
farm by people who knew I was a soft touch. They had a magnificent barn.
But did they ENJOY their lavish barn? No! They enjoyed the two simple
3-sided pole-barn sheds I had erected for the one horse who refused to come
inside in all but the coldest of winter nights. Was I cruel to "leave them
outside"? No! All doors were open 24x7, and the horses could wander as
they pleased between river, pasture, and barn. They literally voted with
their hooves.
And my chickens... I experimented with "free range", but the hens preferred
their coop. They would come out on a sunny afternoon, and poke around a
bit, but they all spent more time inside than outside, the exact opposite of
the horses. Do chickens LIKE being "free range", or are they more like my
dear Mother, who calls a hotel with poor air conditioning "camping".
In both cases, one had to observe the behavior of the animals in one's care
to figure out what THEY preferred. This is a little easier with horses and
chickens than with bees, but bees do show us "what they prefer" by expanding
to larger broodnests and heavier honey crops, and they show us what they
don't prefer by failing to thrive.
I find it amusing that no one has ever thought things through far enough to
postulate that bees might NOT want to work so hard to produce more brood and
bigger crops, and that by providing them with "infinite" drawn comb, and
optimized foraging force sizes, the beekeeper is forcing the bees to work
harder, and work themselves to death sooner than they otherwise might. This
may be due to a lack of understanding of what bees might do with their
leisure time, if they had any. When they do have spare time, all we see
them do is to varnish their decks and woodwork by "washboarding", which any
sailor will agree is the least desirable way to spend an afternoon.
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