>  "What you just described is hive manipulation; "treatment free" is no
chemicals""
>> "There is a big TF group that calls that treatment. "

Consonantly splitting hives in hope of staying ahead of varroa is perhaps
the most disruptive and invasive thing one can do to a hive, and it
certainly has no connection to what happens "in nature". 

But if you think about it, none of this is about the bees in the least.
It is all merely about the egos of some beekeepers.

Put any adjective you like in front of "beekeeping", and it only shows that
you have presumptively made up your mind about what the bees need before
observing what the bees will readily show you by their behavior. This means
that you have lost sight of the most basic principal of beekeeping - that
you must abandon your own biases and assumptions, and base your beekeeping
upon observations, evidence, and tangible evidence/metrics rather than
assumptions or ancient dogma.  All beekeeping, by definition must be
evidence-based, or one will not be able to keep the bees alive for very
long.
	
I chuckle at people identifying themselves as "treatment-free",
"sustainable",  "holistic", or "moca-frappuccino" beekeepers, moreso when
the label is a transparent attempt to excuse negligence and a lack of
diligence toward the heavy lifting and sweaty work aspects of beekeeping.
Intentions or pretensions are irrelevant, I care about the bees, and if you
put adjectives in front of "beekeeping", this tells me that you care more
about what others think of you than you care about the bees unlucky enough
to (briefly) be in your possession.  These are God's creatures, and we have
an obligation to meet minimum standards of animal husbandry, no matter how
tiny our livestock might be.  Eric Mussen succinctly defined the entire
class of "faith-based" approaches as "Nuisance Beekeeping", as they
inevitably create problems for surrounding beekeepers.

For a number of years, half my operation was managed "biodynamically" as I
could get double the price for honey from health-food stores.   But the
dogma was complete and utter nonsense of the silliest sort - using astrology
and the phase of the moon to schedule activities, making "teas" with dubious
ingredients that were well-known to be at best indigestible, and at worst,
toxic to bees.  But what really frustrated me was that even though I had
gone to the trouble and obscene expense of becoming "Demeter-Certified" and
strictly following all their rules years before anyone could differ Rudolf
Steiner from Edgar Cayce, anyone who wanted to could simply claim to be
following the practices prescribed, and dub themselves and their honey
"biodynamic".  Demeter Certification was nice,  but the health food store
owners lacked any shred of ethics, so they took remained willfully ignorant
and took everyone at their word.  It was a free-for-all, and most made no
attempt to be familiar with or follow any of the mystical magical rules they
claimed to be following.

Of course I should have expected this deceit from men who sold homeopathic
remedies, as this product line requires the health food store owner to
endorse a stance that says that impossibly high dilutions are somehow
possible to make, despite the concept of molecular weight, which puts a
lower limit on the dilution possible for any once substance, given that we
lack mixing vessels the size of a planet.  This same expectation that basic
science both matters to all and is generally respected by all continues to
this day to be my undoing, here also.

Don't get me started...

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