> feedlot beekeeping...

The term is inherently an attempt to defame people who only can only make a
living when their bees thrive, rather than merely survive.

Yes, the things beekeepers do for the almonds seem unnatural, but then,
almond trees in the western hemisphere are also unnatural.  Blooms needing
pollinating in February?  Not native to these parts. Crops needing so many
hives in one area? Holding yards? Unprecedented.   Almonds did for
beekeeping what cocaine did for Miami.

I worked apples, and the most important beekeeping we did was done in the
snow.  Not quite as Dr. Moreau as the almond guys, not quite as capital
equipment and diesel intensive as the fellows who would take their bees
South for the winter and work the whole east coast, but pollen supplement
has been around for a long time, as has "stimulative feeding".

And we would keep feeding colonies during apple pollination, because if the
growers were smart and cut their understory, the bees would have nothing but
apple nectar and pollen.  Hives can easily starve working apples, as it is
chilly enough during the day, and cold enough at night to require the bees
to burn more nectar than they can bring in the door on "heating" to keep a
patch of brood going.  And apple pollen alone is pretty low-quality stuff,
it makes undersized bees, clearly malnourished when they were larvae.   If
it is chilly and windy enough, the foragers bring back little or no nectar,
as the trees may produce only pollen, little to no nectar.  So they really
do not even recover the "fuel cost" of just flying around the orchard some
days.

Now, as I started in Fancy Gap NC, and worked my way north along the Blue
Ridge to the MD border, I needed those hives to remain strong through
multiple successive orchard placements, so every hive had two pollen patties
at all times, and many had hive-top feeders, if they started to lose weight.
Some hives were on life support for several weeks at a time, but one has no
other option, as apples often bloom before the snow has melted.

This was not "feedlot", this was trying to get the bees to perform reliably
despite unreliable weather conditions.  Bee swarms in "Natural" conditions
have only a 1/3rd chance of surviving their first winter.  In those same
"natural" conditions, apple crops are likely to not get well-pollinated due
to that same pesky weather in half of their springs.  Our business plan, and
everyone's business plan is to do BETTER than nature could do.  If we don't,
we can't stay in business, as nature is not inclined to naturally provide a
crop to anyone.  CROPS aren't "natural", they are an artificial construct.

But the moment the bees find some decent natural pollen, they ignore the
pollen patties, and this would happen no matter how generous I would be with
the trapped fresh-frozen pollen percentage.

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