> The Bee-L forum is dominated by folks who keep bees for a living.
I'm surprised by this statement, Christina. As far as I can tell, few who
post to the List actually pay their mortgages with income from beekeeping.
And since there are (if I recall correctly) about 3000 subscribers, that
would imply that the vast majority did not keep bees for a living. That
said, Allen and Bob (formerly commercial, but now sideliner), Pete
(formerly commercial, but now hobby level), I (formerly hobby, but recently
grown from sideliner to small commercial) do indeed post a goodly amount.
But we do so mainly to share the knowledge that we have gained from
experience with others, small or large scale. The sorts of discussion on
Bee-L are generally not the sorts that would occur with a group of
commercial beekeepers.
> How many of you feel that you really know *each* of your hives? As a
farmer, how important do you think it is to know each individual?
Perhaps we should ask the question, if one were the manager of a large
group of human workers, how important would it be to "know" each and every
one? Similar to managing livestock, one would "know" the average, and
focus on those away from the mean. One would give special attention (and
promote) those who performed best, help those who were sick or struggling,
and fire any slackers.
It is similar with large beekeepers. For effective time management, we may
treat or feed individual poorly-performing hives, but it is generally more
cost effective to combine them (the only reason for combining rather than
simply killing them is to recycle the equipment). Mother Nature is the
same--she does not favor the weak.
I personally run a bit more than 1000 hives, yet still "know" many of them
personally. I know which hive in a yard was a bit hot last time. I've
marked the few that were struggling with EFB or mites. I know which yards
need a bit of feeding. And I especially know the best performers.
--
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com
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