> >Most years, here in the UK, I don't need to feed my bees at all and then
> it's only one or two hives.


In the idealism of my youth, I ran a commercial bee operation in California
and Nevada, never feeding any sugar syrup or pollen sub.  In my pollen-poor
home in the Sierras, this required me to transport my hives to irrigated
pasture from July through October.

One day, when I challenged a large commercial beekeeper about his feeding
of syrup, he said, I don't know whether it's good or bad, but my colonies
sure appear to do a lot better after I've given them a gallon of syrup!

It occurred to me that perhaps my idealism was getting in the way of good
husbandry for this semi-domesticated animal that I was keeping.

I found that my friend was right--my bees didn't care about idealism, and
greatly benefited from supplemental feeding when natural forage was
scarce.  Additionally, sometimes supplemental syrup or pollen sub was
actually more healthful for the bees than the "natural" California pollen
or honeydew that they were gathering, especially for wintering.

That said, feeding is costly in both labor and material costs, so I do it
only when appropriate.

As far as Darwinian beekeeping, I don't see many Darwinians keeping cattle,
goats, poultry, dogs, or cats.  They all keep breeds bred for docility, and
adapted to husbandry, and apply that husbandry to their livestock or pets.
In North America, since no races of honey bees existed when humans invaded,
there are no "native" races to maintain via Darwinian selection.  That
said, I cull my colonies ruthlessly, eliminating the genetics of those that
don't perform well in my environment.

On the other hand, for those where honey bees are native, maintenance of
native, locally-adapted races is of great value, and my hat is off to those
who are helping to perpetuate those genetics, even if it means losing some
of them to starvation--that is a decision for the beekeeper, whether the
overall benefit losing that colony to starvation in the interest of natural
selection outweighs, the loss of the genetics of that colony in the
breeding population.


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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