>In the name of research ( like Randy Oliver does) is one thing but in

> commercial beekeeping each hive is a unit with a dollar per season
> investment
>

Bob is exactly right--nursing dinks and running survivor yards is very
expensive.  I can only afford to run a portion of my operation as such.
Every other box has to be working to the max.  No dinks or slow colonies
allowed.

This is where I have trouble in filling out surveys for "winter losses."
Few of my colonies ever "die."  I combine any underperforming colonies
without hesitation, and take my "losses" in the fall.  But they weren't
really "losses," they were intentional combines.

The downside is that, coming out of almonds, all colonies are boiling over
with bees, and late March and April are always a frenzy to split them all
before they hit the trees.

Randy Oliver

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