From "The Honeybee Conservancy", at
http://thehoneybeeconservancy.org/<http://thehoneybeeconservancy.org/:>

"Hobbyist beekeepers are key. Small-scale beekeepers are important to helping the bees.  It is better to have 5000 beekeepers with 3 hives each than one beekeeper with 15,000 hives. The hobbyist beekeepers really can take close, personal care for their bees."  Quote from Marcus Imhoff, director of "More than Honey".

The Bee-L forum is dominated by folks who keep bees for a living.  What do you large-scale beekeepers think of this statement?  The science community is currently working on the hypothesis that each beehive is a "superorganism".  Thus, you could say that each of your individual hives is like one cow, one pig, or one chicken.  How many of you feel that you really know *each* of your hives?  As a farmer, how important do you think it is to know each individual?

Christina

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