By supplementary feeding you
> are doing nothing to de-select those that can't cope unaided with the
> local
> environment.

It is hard for Randy , Stan , juanse and myself  to express our opinion on a
mainly hobby list. Dee's bees sit in one location. Our bees are on the move.
There is no local area the bees are in or many times a single state. We
crank our bees up to levels unseen in most operations. We care little about
bees for a local area as we are commercial beeks on the move and leave the
bee breeding up to Marla or Sue.

I have been in holding yards so loud you had to scream for the beek next to
you to hear you. have felt like I had been to a rock concert after work due
to the change in noise level.

When in California and we are loading semi after semi after almonds I get a
cough from being around such a large number of bees. Others report the same
thing.

I know things we say are hard to grasp but heres a fact which you may have
never heard before or seen in print. If you pull a strong hive out of
almonds and want to maintain the hive strength at the level at which the
hive was pulled while waiting say three weeks for the next pollination a
strong hive needs a half gallon of feed a week. Fact.

If not fed the queen starts shouting down. stored honey will not entice her
to lay eggs at the pace done during the honey flow. feeding is an important
tool to the commercial beek.

bob

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