> It is obvious to all of us that those professional 
> beekeepers who are not very good beekeepers, 
> but got away with bad practices in the past, are 
> now making their money by helping other 
> beekeepers or by suing the government.

Working backwards through the above:

No one has made a dime from suing the government except the lawyers and the
professional fund-raising and lobbying firms that employ them.  The hope of
a big payday with a deep-pockets defendant certainly persists, but it is a
vain hope, as the Government will never be liable to its citizens (see
"sovereign immunity"), and the companies that follow the government
regulations in good faith would also not be held liable, as any deficiency
in the regulations is not their fault.

"Got away with bad practices" ignores the fact that, not so long ago, we
were all advised to alternate Apistan with Check-Mite.  This turned out to
have been the worst possible idea ever in terms of creating lots and lots of
resistant varroa.  So today's "best practices" as published in one's state
newsletter by the Ag Extension agent might be tomorrow's reason to burn
woodenware, as several mid-sized operations ended up doing, just to excise
the  coumaphos demon once and for all. 

"Not very good beekeepers" ignores the very poor options that face someone
with even hundreds of hives, let alone thousands.  What can one do about
varroa and nosema at reasonable cost and with a limited number of man-hours
that assures that one will be able to show up with enough strong hives to
fulfill a pollination contract profitably?   THERE STILL IS NO CLEAR ANSWER
TO THIS QUESTION, 30 YEARS AFTER VARROA APPEARED IN THE USA!  So things like
using cow ear tags rather than the officially sanctioned Apistan strips was
"R&D" by desperate men merely trying to keep their bees alive for one more
pollination placement, hoping that a few weeks on prairie clover afterwards
would help.

Yes, there have been several people who have looked upon the problems of
bees and beekeepers as an opportunity to self-aggrandize, but they have not
really profited in the process.  All of them would have made more money if
these problems had not cropped up in the first place.

And if anyone wants to watch "The Last Beekeeper", it is on YouTube, for
$2.99.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onibYYhReCg

Beekeeping since 1990-something is a lot like entropy.  
You can't win, you can't even tie.  And you can't stop playing, either.  
That's exactly why I sold out when I could still get a decent price.

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