> An ethical question arises when we are 

> selling nucs.  Sometimes my sons ask

> me why I sell our precious bees, lovingly 

> raised, to those whom we know will let 

> them die due to idealistic neglect or 

> some whacked-out idea

 

I will offer a counter-intuitive suggestion that it is a Good Thing(tm) to
sell bees along with the possibility of some advice to these customers. 

 

While it is true that the real money in being a snake-oil salesman is the
income from the annual re-sales of packages and nucs to the cult members who
have deadout after deadout, I am happy to report that one can drive them out
of business by doing exactly what we do, offering packages without question
to any cult members at non-profit co-op prices (actual cost, no mark-up).
This cuts into the profits in selling snake-oil, as he wants to sell
packages for maximum profits, and it also lowers your price per package
through economies of scale.  It only takes a few years to make snake-oil
very unprofitable, or at least make him a minor player in the local
package/nuc business. 

 

But even if the bees with which one restocks deadouts are "free", the
losses, year after year, drive some out of beekeeping and toward less
frustrating avocations, and drive others to admit that they need some help
with learning how to keep their bees alive.

 

As proof of this, I submit the announced "last meeting" of LA's "Backwards
Beekeepers" (that's not a pejorative, it is what they call themselves.  See
http://backwardsbeekeepers.com) was held recently.  Even with a steady
supply of free swarms of bees having varying levels of africanization (and
hence, presumed varroa tolerance), the emotional strain of losing hives year
after year to varroa or repeated swarming to the point of colony failure
made the basic premise unsustainable.  The NYC branch of the 'Backwards
Beekeepers' never really grew beyond its original handful of members, and
their facebook page and the individual blogs of the leaders have been
dormant for over a year.  Tumbleweeds.  Could the "gold rush" be over?  I
hope so!

 

Many of those who do not give up come to the remedial/deprogramming section
of our novice class, where they are permitted to harangue the assembled
group for a short period, and pitch whatever belief system they feel
appropriate, and then participate in a post-mortem analysis of photos and
samples taken from their deadouts to determine "cause of death" of their
hives.  Amazingly, those that see the comedy in this approach are polite
enough to not show it during class, and it is a good way to introduce the
concept of monitoring the results of any action taken to verify efficacy, no
matter what that action might be.

 

The best news is that a firmly-held wacked out idea (random example: using
Reki to heal one's bees) can be leveraged into a basis for the beekeeper to
pay MORE attention to their hives.  And no matter how wacky the idea (random
example: only working bees after an Ayahuasca "ceremony", look it up) paying
more attention to the bees by actually opening up the hive on a regular
basis, and checking on stores and visible open larvae, and doing a varroa
drop count every other week, can go a long way towards success in beekeeping
versus not doing so.

 

I would think that telling people that the nucs were bees "from the Almonds"
would be incentive for them to treat the hives as "rescues" from the perils
of rough-and-tumble agriculture.  You could list all the diseases and pests
that are exchanged in the groves and holding yards, and maybe include a
spotters guide to these problems.  After all, of course all-natural feral
bees would of course be utterly care-free and self-sustaining, but bees
rescued from the "slavery" of the almond groves, the salt mines of
beekeeping, are simply going to need more husbandry.  

 


             ***********************************************
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