Brian said:
If you read his articles you know
Kirk slices and dices his bees into nucs each year to stay ahead of the
mites.

This is new industry information? We were told by dr. Shiminuki in 1989
slicing and dicing bees was a form of reducing mite load.

How would this method work for the commercial beekeeper doing 10
pollinations a year with nine months  of constant brood rearing? Sorry Brian
but you would need to nuc after each pollination and then your pollination
hive would not be strong enough for the next pollination. Hives after  four
months of brood rearing( commercial migratory operation)  need a varroa
treatment before the end of the fifth month or  in many cases are over mite
load threshold.

Unlike most commercial beekeepers I have read all Kirk's articles. I read
both ABJ & BC cover to cover each month . Problem is I only found time to
read the May ABJ this last weekend.

The problem I have with Kirk's "Practical Plan for removing ALL treatments
from commercial apiaries" is its not sustainable large scale. I read the
article through two times.

Kirk slams the commercial sector without first hand knowledge of the
commercial migratory sector.

I hear at almost every bee meeting I attend how terrible all the honey sold
in stores is. Really? Sure some  imported is but can you really paint all
honey sold in stores as inferior to a hobby beeks?

I hear all commercial beekeepers use sheep dip in their hives. Really?

Researchers say the main reason for CCD was the movement of bees on trucks.
Really.

I might be the only commercial beekeeper dumb enough to try and enlighten
the FGMO, small cellers and the "removing ALL treatments for commercial
apiaries" crowd.

IPM is what the best beekeeping researchers in the WORLD recommend for
commercial beekeepers. NOT ONE has ever recommended to *me* to STOP all
treatments of any kind.

The problem in my opinion is that out of respect for the writers of the
small cell, FGMO and stop all treatments crowd many of us  do not write
articles for the bee magazines telling the horror stories from beekeepers
which have lost all their bees trying said methods. Plenty of these people
around. I give my opinion on BEE-L but never want to suppress minds trying
to move away from treatments. I would be the first to drop all treatments if
would truly work. I keep hoping! Kirk's methods might work for hobby &
sideline on permanent locations but I personally would never put all my eggs
in one basket and switch the whole operation to one of these FGMO/ small
cell or drop all treatment plans. I would do like i always do and test first
on a couple yards.

IPM yes!

drop ALL treatments No!

bob

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