Bob writes
> Research hives are kept small for ease of checking. I keep hives in which you would be hard pressed to find the queen when full of bees. Hives coming out of pollination are boiling with bees. Often at a time when those left at home hives are on 4-5 frames of brood/bees.

I don't know about elsewhere but at the Dyce Lab at Cornell, not true.
I was there for 7 years and we always tried to keep the hives as
strong as possible, and producing honey. There were some nucs and
observation hives kept for various purposes, but any research that was
aimed at commercial beekeeping was done with hives that were as good
or better than commercial hives. Other times, we used commercial
beekeepers' yards for precisely the same reason. You want to get
results that can be applied to regular hives run by regular
beekeepers. Look at what Randy is doing, he is using real hives for
real results. Is he not a researcher?

One summer at Dyce, we got 30 barrels off about 200 colonies. Not a
fabulous crop but still pretty good considering all the experiments we
were doing with the hives at the same time as trying to get a decent
honey crop. If I work out a procedure that depends on opening the same
hive every day for a month, or depends on it never being strong enough
to get into the third story, what good is that? It isn't good for the
big guy and probably not for the sideliner either.On the other hand,
some of the things commercial beekeepers do to be expedient -- are
definitely not in the best interest of the bees. But I understand we
each do what we need to get the job done. I wouldn't criticize anybody
without walking a mile in his shoes.

PS: not only did I have to find the queens in hives boiling over with
bees, but we often requeened the same hives several times during the
same season. Got to love research!

-- 
Peter L Borst
Danby, NY USA
42.35, -76.50
http://picasaweb.google.com/peterlborst

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