> I'm scratching my head here...who said anything about "one size fits all"?  The quote you posted indicated that ours was a treatment free approach...how is that "one size fits all"?

Such an ideological approach proposes that somehow, decades of beekeeping experience is moot, that by avoiding "treatments" -- whatever that means -- we can succeed where others have failed. 

It reminds of the "no vaccinations" folks. They don't get vaccinated and tell their friends they shouldn't either. I grew up in the 1950s when every parent was terrified of polio. When the vaccine came out, it was like a miracle had occurred. Too late for me, though. I had polio in 1955. Now I get every vaccine I can; I had one today against "shingles". 

As a NY State bee inspector I saw the results of treatment free beekeeping: dead empty hives. That was the best case scenario. The worst case was apiaries with dozens of hives sick and rotting hives with American foulbrood. The treatment for that was a roaring bonfire.

I am not saying that some folks can't get away from treating for mites, or AFB, or wax moths. But to suggest that ANYONE can do it, is to advocate a one size fits all methodology which fails to take into account local factors, such as rampant foul brood, migratory holding yards, marginal beekeeping conditions, bad stock, etc. etc.

But what I object to the most is an anti-science, anti-business, anti-foreign rabid xenophobia. If this isn't you, so be it. My mistake. My own feeling is that we all contribute our little piece to the whole picture, not make the whole picture about *me and my way* of doing things. 

My chief point of course was that while you condemn this guy because he works for Bayer, as being wholly incapable of presenting reality unskewed by his bias; yet you are fairly steeped in this whole "treatment free" schtick -- whatever that means. 

My dictionary says: 
>treatment: the use of a chemical, physical, or biological agent to preserve or give particular properties to something.

By that definition, a glass of water could be a treatment. I always thought that treating bees kindly was the best treatment in any case.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm