Hi Karen,

This is a great topic, and as we are starting to plan our year, one that is on my mind.  We teach a number of classes/courses every year, and have a mass market book on the market for beginning beekeepers....we tend to take things seriously, and that includes feeling responsible for advice that leads to a bad result.  We've gotten calls and letters (nevermind emails) from all kinds of readers (one person who was incarcerated, one beekeeper in the Austrailian outback who makes his own foundation....and wants to start making smaller foundation in anticipation of the mites)....when addressing this broad an audience, we didn't feel comfortable _not_ telling people they should get an allergy test before taking up beekeeping.  Things either need to be very general or very specific.

One local new beekeeper (before we wrote our book), followed our advice and introduced a package onto Honey Super Cell (fully drawn plastic comb).  His queens died in the cages...he faced the wooden queen cage screens directly into the plastic....since new beekeepers never have drawn comb to start with, this was only an issue because of the HSC....one I didn't think about when I gave him advice.  You can bet it got special mention in our book, and when we talk to people.

Our general approach to teaching and writing is to stick with not only what we know, but what we actually do.  We try to test things when we can (keep a virgin caged for 6 weeks to see if she will mate, etc).  One big exception was that when we were asked to write a book, most of our bees had screen bottoms (a shim with a screen stapled to it) and top entrances.  We weren't  totally convinced that this was the right approach (or if I was making the best use of them)....and between getting the contract and actually writing the book, we visited with Kirk Webster and Mike Palmer.  Telescoping tops, grain bag inner covers, bottom entrances....nothing revolutionary, but both of them spent a great deal of time going through their bees with us and talking about their approach, results, and observations.  We decided that for the purpose of a beginning beekeeping book (that was going to be a bit unconventional anyways), we would stick with the traditional setup...which I think was a good choice (I built tops and bottoms last year, and most of our colonies have the standard configuration (we use the grain bag inner covers, but not all grain bags are the same...these are woven and breath a little....we buy them new).

We were at a bee event, and the then-president of one of the 3 big regional beekeeping organizations was giving a talk.  He was discouraging beekeepers from learning how to graft, and promoting walk away splits...ok, nothing wrong with that (I graft...but nothing wrong with walk away splits).

Someone asks when they should check to see if they are building cells...his advice is that it isn't necessary, but if you want to, between 10-12 days after splitting (!!!!).  I do know from experience that you can easily tear emergency cells at this stage (especially if you haven't opened the box since making the split), and my book learning tells me that this is exactly when you don't want to be pulling frames, or even bumping the hive very much for queen development.  Checking after a day or 3 is best (in my opinion), but checking at _almost_ anytime other than 10-12 days is OK (if you are not worried about tearing cells).  This is terrible advice for beekeepers for whom this will be their first exposure to how to make their own queen.

I've heard accounts that I trust (I expect you have too) of Certified Master Beekeepers who could not identify clear cases of AFB (nothing against Master Beekeepers in general, just that certification does not always mean qualified in the field).

My point is that teaching is a bit like parenting...despite how badly it gets done sometimes, it would be worlds worse if everyone did it (or was required to do it) the same way....because the likelihood that that "same way" would be the "best way" in a given situation is near nill.

I also think that sometimes there is the opposite problem...bee clubs and teachers that are not at all tuned into the internet.  I'll be the first to admit that getting the most out of the information available online takes a good bit of time, but in this day and age, I think it is part of the essential toolbox of staying informed.

deknow

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