I have to agree with Jack, but rambling off the original topic often gets us into great discussions. As is often sighted all beekeeping is local, so too all beekeepers have different motives and goals. Tom's theory has scientific merit but it must be stressed that it is not hands off beekeeping or treatment free beekeeping or easy beekeeping. I would go out on a limb and say that it is not for beginners or casual beekeepers. For experienced beeks that know their way around the craft and are motivated mostly by the science and wonder of it all, go for it and let us all know how it works out.

My goal is to make as much money as I can from each colony in an ethical and environmentally conscious way. I, as we all do, love my bees but they are managed livestock that have to make a living. The economics is easy, it's total sales less imputs. In the early days I experimented with various colony configurations and as the majority (I think) have come to agree double deeps offers the most flexability and largest profit per hive in the northern tier. I do sacrifice a good deal of harvestable honey late season but that greatly reduces feeding costs and allows me to control mites when they need to be controled and that means winter survival is very much higher than the national norm. I go for big colonies in spite of the fact that they are varroa mills. Varroa control is a whole other topic much discussed here and elswhere. Thankfully I have not yet had to deal wit SHB. Swarm control is easier and that is no small factor when the colonies are on a spring flow in out yards. I think that it is accepted that one big colony will out preform 2 or evan 3 small colonies in honey production. My usuall is 150 to 175 puonds and brag about the occasional 320 pounders. I do very little fall feeding, no winter and the majority of spring feed comes from robbing capped frames from the rich and giving to the light. Labor is also a large cost and except for the dreaded factor of "gravity increase"(all my boxes weigh twice what they did 20 years ago :-),) managing 1 big colony takes less time and is less expensive than several small ones. 

So there is not a right and wrong or evan best way. But I can think of fewer better ways to spend these dreary snow bound late winter days than keeping up with Bee-l. 

Paul Hosticka
Dayton WA

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