A > As a hobby beekeeper, 15 colonies and growing any information out there >can't help but improve my skills or at least furnish me with another question >to ponder when the inner cover comes off. > Now the commercial operators with a few thousand hives might find the >information a bit hard to glean from the various posts but my bet says they >built their operations in the field and not at the computer monitor in the >first place. > As a commercial beekeeper with 1200 colonies under the snow I find this list a great place to visit. Remember, with your 15 colonies you need several good ideas to make it worthwhile. If I get only 1 good idea from the list this winter that I can use 1200 times or that might save 1% or my colonies, or produce even 1 extra pound per colony, or save me 1 minute a colony then whatever I have invested in time to read these messages has been a good investment. Eric Eric Abell Gibbons, Alberta Canada (403) 998 3143 [log in to unmask]