I received this email:
>    I hope you meant that ironically......a beekeeper with branch offices for Christ sake! aaarrggghhh!

I have no particular prejudice against large scale beekeeping, nor
small scale. Large scale beekeepers are mostly people who started out
small and succeeded for one reason or another. That's nothing to scoff
at. Many of them employ skilled beekeepers and offer them things they
might not get on their own: steady work, steady pay, health plans,
etc.

To me the important thing is: do you love what you do? I don't know
the Adees but I expect that they are in the bee business because they
want to be. Maybe they are trying to get into raising almonds, too. A
friend of mine tried to supplement his beekeeping with a sideline as a
realtor. There's another industry that's not doing too well these
days!

I don't know why this keeps coming up: "big operators are the bad
guys". I prefer to think of them as beekeepers. I sort of like
beekeepers, always have. Sure, some are jerks, you find that in any
crowd. Still, you can't even be a beekeeper without a strong knowledge
of meteorology, botany, entomology, etc., even if you don't use those
terms.

pb

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