>> The above statement "there aren't a whole lot of books 
>> out there for 3rd-year beekeepers," is simply not true. 

> I would suggest...   the current "ABC & XYZ"...
> and of course, "The Beekeepers Handbook," 

Those are both fine books. Both contain small contributions I made - the
bee-lining section in ABC & XYZ,  and an overview of the issues unique to
densely-populated major-metro urban settings in the "Handbook".

But these books utility as "reference books" isn't what I was talking about.
(But it does show the importance of a good index.)

While there are many "additional topics" (such as queen rearing) that make
up the educational materials for beekeepers with a few years under their
belts, those are actually diversions.
They are an occupation in themselves, and do not mesh well with a "working"
operation that is both pollinating and making honey - queen rearing was
outside the "scope of practice" of my operation.
(I maintain the naval aviator's creed for the squadrons that made up my
little air wing... "I don't build 'em, I don't fix 'em, I just fly 'em".)

There is also an entire lifetime one can spend learning the anatomy,
physiology, and biochemistry of bees, but mastery of those topics won't make
anyone a significantly better commander of their carrier air wing of fuzzy
little foragers any more than mastery of queen rearing might.

If one looks at the book most often cited as a "study guide" for the EAS
"Master Beekeeper" certification, one finds something akin to a script for
the (USA) TV gameshow "Jeopardy" - lots of fascinating arcane trivia, with
no connective tissue at all.  The unifying theme is the lack of any theme.
I think this is why modern working operations of any size are rarely run by
anyone anointed with the title "Master Beekeeper", and why Howland
Blackiston, (who wrote the misleadingly titled "Beekeeping For Dummies")
travels to beekeeper meetings to put on his hilarious "Jeoparbee" games -
the subtle point made is seemingly lost on those who both prepare and take
such certification exams - they  don't realize how broadly they are
lampooned.

So, the "3rd Year Class" invariably ends up being a collection of hard-won
observations and opinions based upon the personal experience of the
instructors, and the outcome is much like the outcome of most discussions
among beekeepers - consensus is rare, and the starting point is not a broad
view of what "scales up" or what is "cost-effective", but simply the
perspective of one beekeeper.  So even a very experienced beekeeper has
quite a bit to learn if he/she were to sign on with a modern larger
"interstate" operation with multiple truckloads of bees to manage. 

I'm not going to put my name on a beekeeping book, for the reason I'm not
going to write a beekeeping blog, start a YouTube beekeeping channel, or
hold brief beekeeping workshops on TikTok. 
  
But there is a market out there for a consensus view of what is actually
being done "commercially" on some fairly straightforward stuff. Survey the
larger sideliners still standing, survey the multi-state operations, and
note where things overlap.   The result would be a consensus view on "best
practices" that avoids the no more than personal perspective of a
statistically insignificant number of beekeepers.

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