At risk of revealing a cuddly center inside an exterior consisting mostly of sharp edges, it seems only prudent to discourage those unprepared to be responsible for the care of God's Creatures (capitalization intended, and not ironic). "Success" is not the issue. The issue is the ability/willingness to engage in responsible animal husbandry. Perhaps it could be described as a "concern for one's neighbors" or "good citizenship". One wants to weed out the reckless yahoos. One must teach values and ethics along with queen-marking and split-making. Beekeeping, at its core, is the art of making ethical choices when no one is watching. Of course hives die even when you "do everything right". But far more important than "doing things right" is to DO THE RIGHT THING. James, seems we would disagree My point was who the heck made us the deciders of the above statements. Seems to me a dang lot of Hubris involved in deciding that any one of us in particular are adept at determining the above items. I would say anyu one in NYC should be banned from bees, You would be amazed at some of the calls I have gotten from NY beeks..... Bizzare... but Not my place to make that call. Jusat as none of us are quialified to say who will make a great beek, or a bad one, or even what that entails. That idiot who doesn't treat may end up being the guy who gets mite free bees.... So in the mean time..... I say we stay the heck out of those decisions.... Of course maybe the NYC Mayor when he gets done regulating softdrinks, can tell us how to make those decisions..... Charles *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html