To me the real question is not who is swindling whom, who is getting a bad rap, etc. The real question is why have so few advances been made in bee breeding compared to other livestock and agriculture, despite many decades of promises. 



That’s a topic worthy of discussion.  As I have mentioned before,  lack of nationwide standards.  We have a group that thinks "all beekeeping is local"  and as such its hard to come up with industry wide standards.



BUT  I offer another thought that myself and friends are hashing out,  and that is highlighted by the follow.   So follow along please,  and ponder.

Point one
The latest comments bemoaning the state of breeding.

Point two
E.T. comments on the state of AG in WI.


Point 3 Ross Conrads article on neonics

There are many more I could recite


Where I am headed is as an industry,  we have regaled ourselves to a bunch of whiners.  Every excuse and alibi in the book.  No mater they are not true and easily disproven.  Not my point.   My point is an industry we are fragmented and despondent.  Articles in publications are 90% (my est) bad news.  Look how many articles lately are touting pesticide problems and making excuse on why we need to fix this or that to help the bees  who are dying in record numbers.

What happened to 10 ways to improve your comb honey?    I am aware there are exceptions,  not my point.  My point is like Gene mentioned  WI beeks are doomed cause AG ground has changed.   It does not matter one whit the comments come from a guy in TX repeating it, and the fact it doesn’t match with historical records (USDA  keeps them and yes I looked)  it jives with the woe is me complex, so by and large everyone who read that line nodded sagely and will parrot it.  I doubt more than my bothered to actually look.

So the first step IMO is to recognize we need to kill the pity party garbage,  2nd is to understand we are a part of the Modern AG group  and this would include everyone here on BEE_L and stop acting like we are some environmental activist,  and 3rd as a nationwide group come op with a plan for a baseline way to evaluate our stock.  Practical evaluations season to season in identifiable regions.


Short of that  as long as we have whiners about vast monoculture, naysayers reminding us honey yields are dropping, and outliers denying we have mite problems,  then we will long term  expire as the buggy whip people did.   

Randy was helping me with an article a year or so back,  he reminded me that I needed to have a villain as the myths I were arguing with would need a scapegoat.  Why?  Why are we as an industry hell bent on something to be upset about??

Just my thoughts  from a dyslexic emotional involved beek in IL  with the highest honey numbers every for my yards.

Charles

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