Keith said:

> Most of what Jim just described as the way he sees beekeeping
> and keeping bees is a paradigm and is not necessarily true,
> just the way he sees it.

While you may not share some of the listed "beekeeper agenda"
with the rest of us, I think that the goals are common enough
to be considered "universal" among beekeepers.

The points of "agenda" listed for bees are all very basic points
of inherent bee behavior, well-documented by the literature.
Focused discussion of specific bee behavior would be required to
convince anyone that they were not "universal generalized truths"
about bees.

So, which are the specific points with which you take issue?



Scott said:

> The bees had stored enough to carry them through the winter

Assuming a "normal" winter, whatever that might be.
Fail to predict the winter, and you too will be forced to
feed, or face starvation dead-outs.

> and build up in the spring

There's only one problem with this assumption - the actual
"build up" does not get rolling at full speed until fresh
nectar and pollen are coming into the hive.  Stores, no
matter what the quantity available, simply won't do the
job, so one must do "simulative feeding" of syrup and
fresh frozen pollen to make a significant increase in the
bee population in a timely manner for either pollination
or a decent spring crop.

A rational beekeeper is forced to draw the conclusion that
early spring feeding is required regardless of "conditions",
meaning that he both plans to feed and plans to leave less
on the hives because he plans to feed in spring.

> plus surplus for the beekeeper. The beekeeper just didn't
> let the colonies keep that extra honey.

It follows from the above that there is no "supporting lines of
genetics that would otherwise have removed" (the initial claim
that started this thread) going on in this scenario, as the bees
DID gather enough for their purposes, and the sole "problem" is
that the beekeeper harvested "too much".

Don't forget that a hive that produces significantly less than
other hives would be requeened after the first flow due to low
early-season production in all but the most "leave alone" operation.
Beekeepers want strong colonies that make lots of honey.

To claim that there is a potential for genetic "pollution" that
might result from different management practices is to fall under
the spell of Lamarckism and its discredited theory of "inheritance
of acquired traits".

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