> I can manage both [NWCs and Italians] 
> in the same yard with the same techniques.

I was puzzled by the above, until I recalled how short the season is up in
Alberta.  In places with slightly less extreme climate, one finds that NWCs
are weeks ahead of Italians in spring and much earlier to take action for
winter than Italians, as NWCs are highly responsive to changes in
environmental conditions, and are very efficient utilizers of stored
resources.  

If managed like Italians, NWCs will enjoy explosive growth, and swarm 3
times before apple bloom.  In the lower 48, one makes spring splits of one's
NWC hives when one is starting stimulative feeding for Italians.

> When I said 'commercial beekeeper', 
> I was thinking of an operation with 
> well over 1,000 hives and full-time staff

But what is meant by "full time"?  Certainly not year-round employment for
all hands in Alberta.
Hives wrapped up for winter don't need much attention.

If one takes First and Last Frost dates as arbitrary "start and end season"
dates, Calgary has a growing season of 114 days, Red Deer 106, so Kneehill
County, Alberta would have about 110 days, less in the suburbs.  In the
rural areas around NYC, the growing season is double that, and to the South
the growing season gets longer.  Further, some winters in the USA can be
mild enough (5) to create conditions where bees don't cluster enough, and
eat themselves out of house and home, prompting mid-winter feeding for even
the best-provisioned hives, and all sorts of other shenanigans.

So, in terms of hive-management-days (hives * days), a 600-colony operation
in Northern NJ, would roughly equal a 1200 colony operation in Alberta.  The
difference is amplified further South and yet again in the apple pollination
business, as one starts with orchards at least 100-200 miles South, and
works Northward, as the blooms emerge extending the season considerably
beyond that of one's backyard.  

In terms of harvesting, extracting, and bottling, this was the only time we
ran 24x7 in shifts, as getting supers back on the hives as quickly as
possible was yet another way to be more profitable with the same number of
hives.  

> When I said, 'semi-skilled labour', 
> I was imagining semi-literate 
> non-English speaking seasonal 
> imports with an attitude.  

I've always thought that the obligation was on the employer to know the
primary language of those he hired, or not take advantage of the lower pay
rates of "imports" and "temps".  The safety implications alone are very
troubling.  The term "attitude" raises latent concerns about the temp
service used.  But all those terms very accurately describe many of the
teenagers I hired, at least for the first few weeks. See Kipling's "Captains
Courageous" for a general overview of my employee handbook. 

> Interbreeding... was not a... problem 
> as there is no special property to maintain.  

As mentioned above, in less extreme climates, the "special properties" of
breeds like NWCs not only become apparent, but can spell the difference
between massive profits and years that alternate between "breaking even",
and marginal profits. 

> With the Russians, however, 
> the strain must be kept pure 
> to maintain the benefits,

I'd suggest that beekeepers to the South of Alberta might think that this
was the case with many of the specific hybrids I listed, as they offer much
more than different colors in slightly more temperate climates. 

> When I said 'commercial beekeeper', 
> I was thinking of an operation with 
> well over 1,000 hives and full-time staff, 

I prefer to focus on profits, rather than "size" figures, as size may be the
primary reason for an unprofitable operation.  Occupying several niches at
the same time (apple pollination for a percentage of the crop value, comb
honey, Demeter-certified honey, doing one's own extracting and bottling,
retail sales, renting splits to gardeners and so on) allows a much leaner
operation to generate much higher profits with far less sunk capital in the
operation, even with an unexceptional yield per hive as compared to other
operations.  These days, 10K hives is not considered large enough to take
advantage of economies of scale.



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