>> 1. IF we were
>> concerned about the ultimate survival of honeybees and factored out 
>> losses
>> to beekeepers, crops, etc, might be to manage hives without antibiotics,
>> and
>> other meds, and allow for natural selection to create resistances?
>
> The above is being done  and has been done for years on a small scale.
> Success has been seen for survival of bees but what has been found so far
> seems to fail when those bees are placed in a commercial migratory 
> setting.
> In holding yards of thousands of hives.

Sureley this is the problem.  Of all the zillions of organisms in the world 
only a handfull have properties that have allowed them to be 'domesticated'. 
One of these properties is being able to live in concentrations not 
experianced in the wild.  The husbandman must put in some effort to 
emeliorate the deleterious effects of this crowding.  But there is a limit, 
at some stage this limit will be exceeded, and the cost of the input will 
exceed the benefits of dealing with the larger numbers.

When everything goes well, the deleterious effects of this overcrowding will 
be masked.  But let any stress occur and then disaster.  Really a no 
brainer.

I am not argueing that one should not 'manage' bees in this way, only don't 
be surprised when they don't appreciate the situation.

Geoff Manning 

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