I personally think the moderators do a great job under trying conditions.
Two or three times I have questioned a moderators decision or process, and
without exception have found that proper procedures were followed.  I would
not want to go back to a list that was not moderated.

I have been following this discussion with more than a little interest.  In
my opinion, most of the angst could be avoided by showing some humility in
the comments.  After all, when considered in total, beekeeping is an art
rather than a science.  This is the reason that so many seemingly different
practices can be totally successful.

I think it is the blanket statements and sweeping generalities that cause
the most irritation.  For example, I once said (approximately) "In this
climate, Carnolians are best because they shut down brood production in
early winter and do not resume until early spring.'  'Italians, on the other
hand, continue to raise brood until well into the winter, shut down for only
a few weeks, and start brood production again in mid-winter."  This was part
of a comment on over-wintering.

My statement comparing Carnolians and Italians was a generalization, and was
only restating observations made by Brother Adam, Cobey, Morse, and many
others.  However, David Eyre took me to task for the generalization and, in
a message to the entire list, stated that "his" Italians shut down brood
production early and resumed only in early spring.  He was correct in his
criticism and since I have tried to use appropriate qualifiers.

That said, statements such as "aggression is not a gene characteristic" and
"Given enough repeats, ie. daughters replacing mothers via 'walk away'
splits or emergency raising over a period of generations the quality falls
apart" and even (approximately) "emergency queens are trash", are certain to
generate controversy.  Especially when the person making the statements is
so quick to criticize others.

The problem is...it is been very well documented that aggression is an
inherited characteristic.  It can easily be bred into (and out of) bees.
However, to the best of my knowledge no one ever said that aggression is
solely due to inheritance.  I don't begin to question that at times mere
replacement of a queen will calm bees.  However, that does not mean that
aggression is not also inherited!

We also "know" that many, many commercial beekeepers re-queen solely by
supercedure or by making "walk away" splits, and that they are still very
successful after 20 or more generations.  Sure, the walk-away splits are
done during a strong flow and with high nurse bee populations; knowing that
these are required is part of being a commercial beekeeper.  These same
beekeepers do not make splits from aggressive hives, those with poor
production, chalkbrood, etc.  Sure, there are instances where producing ones
own queens leads to undesirable characteristics, but not always, as was
implied.  When one writes that emergency queens are junk and qualifies the
statement by pointing out that the writer is a queen breeder, it is not
unreasonable to wonder if the statement was self-serving!  How different the
reaction might have been is the comment was "at times, an emergency queen
might be produced during cold, rainy weather; during a dearth; or otherwise
under less than optimum conditions.'  'Such queens are likely to be inferior
to those purchased from a reliable queen breeder or produced during a strong
flow."

Personally, when I write to this list I feel a real obligation to not
mislead anyone and feel honored that I might be able to help.  I also learn
a great deal.

Lloyd
Lloyd Spear, Owner, Ross Rounds, Inc.  The finest in comb honey production.
www.rossrounds.com