> Add that you get to sell specialized 
> (natural) hives, frames and equipment
> to the soon to be failed beekeeper.

Naw, we are also the category killer in the local bee equipment market, once
again, by finding low cost, buying by the pallet, and selling at cost.  We
even gave up on the bee supply companies and have "couture" bee jackets made
in Williamsburg Brooklyn, and the bulk of our woodenware made in NJ. There's
a warehouse with enough spares to fill any need that might crop up, comes in
handy when someone becomes the proud owner of a swarm, and realizes that
they need another bottom board RIGHT NOW.

> Now I just let them be. It is sort of like warning people about icy
> sidewalks. You are happy for the ones who listen and get through fine, but
> the ones who do not, well you sit back and watch the show.

But as those neglected hives die, they are robbed out by nearby healthy
hives, and thus reinfest hives that would otherwise be varroa-free.  I've
got some pretty substantial data to show that this is the primary, perhaps
only, reason why varroa controls seem to "fail to work".  For a while, I
tried to promote universal use of entrance reducers so that weak and sickly
hives could defend themselves, but that did not help much, as the hives
still died, and were robbed out during the warm spells of winter (a reliable
feature of an NYC winter), or in early spring.

Eric Mussen coined the phrase "nuisance beekeeper" to describe these types
of beekeepers who blindly rely on "special bees", "special combs", or
practices that would be most charitably described as "complementary" or
"alternative" veterinary medicine, and make life more difficult for their
neighbors.

The good news is that the converts are perhaps the best salespeople and
advocates to recruit others within their "community" of like-minded people.
When they can show tangible success in the form of bees that buzz back in
reply to a midwinter knock on the hive, and bees foraging in early spring,
the others realize that keeping the bees alive most important part of
"saving the bees".

While you may not be your brother's keeper, you likely have to make an
effort to be your brother's beekeeper.
I call it "education as self-defense".

	

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