hi peter,

yes, i think we are on the same page here....and your question is a good one:

"But keeping the bees you already have alive is also a priority. How can you be a beekeeper without bees? Hmm."

flippantly, i would reply with:

"But breeding well adapted bees is also a priority.  How can you breed adapted bees without culling those that require treatments to survive".


to me, this is a "long term vs short term" debate...get a good crop this year, or be working for strong stock for the years to come.  i'm certainly not trying to tell anyone what to do....i just don't know how you can do _both_ of the above until you have enough bees that don't need treatments that culling the weak doesn't kill your harvest.

also,:
"Replacing hives lost with hardier stock is the best approach; we agree on this."

...yes, we do agree on this.  that said, i think the rush to buy "new" queens from breeders that have "bear resistant stock" is a mistake.  of course all of these genetic traits are important...but the best measure of "hearty stock" in a given apiary location is "do the bees survive and prosper there".  again, this requires raising ones own queens from survivors, not buying queens that are advertised (or even demonstrated) as being "hearty stock" in another location.

deknow

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