>>Wrong. For example, when varroa hit the US a lot of beekeepers went out of business. They were the ones who wouldn't or couldn't adjust their management techniques to the changed game.
Many are also in business who
did not change their game.
I am not supporting or arguing against
any one style of beekeeping, I am simply
looking at this from a historical perspective.
I am exploring what history as shown
concerning the assignment of cause for
mortality, and is possible implications
to beekeeping.
There are many examples of 'ones who
wouldn't or couldn't adjust,' ie: ferals and
beekeepers refusing to adjust and treat colonies
here in the USA and other parts of the world,
and surviving and thriving in spite of this refusal
to adjust.
The miss-assignment of blame as has been done
during the 70's and the current epidemic, in fact,
inadvertently served the beekeeper well for
centuries, by allowing the resistance mechanisms
to develop in the honeybee, without interference
from man.
honeybee die offs, historically have tended to
be short and abrupt, subsiding in a year or two.
From Virgil in 29 B.C.E. blaming the Gods for sending
"a plague among thy thriving bees", to the
beekeeper from Illinois during the 1911- 1912
dieoff stating; "the weather made the bees lazy."
In spite of these miss-assigning of blame, and
subsequent miss-assigned remedies, the 'plagues'
tended to be short and abrupt, subsiding in a
year or two.
In modern times, with proper assignment of
blame, we begin to see plagues in honeybees
lasting several years or even a decade. One
might hypothesize that 'one reason' for this may
be that knowing the cause, promotes the
creation of remedy's designed to lessen the
impact to the beekeeper, prolonging the
development of natural resistance, whereas,
not knowing the cause, and therefore not
applying 'proper remedies' would better serve
to promote a more rapid development of natural
resistance in honeybees.
Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm
|