>>I have inquired as to what practices you are referring to and what proof you have that any of these practices are actually causing any of the problems that have been observed.

Lloyd has recently mentioned a pollinator with 8,000 colonies who has treatments going all season and requeening with cells 8 times a season.  That's about a queen cell per month in the active season!  To me, that borders on the increadible if you think that a virgin will take about a week to emerge, another week to mature/mate/start laying.  She's gotta be laying for about 2 weeks when another queen cell is inserted...

I have a feeling that either a lot of the cells are torn down by bees happy with their queen or the treatments are screwing up the queens so badly the bees go for a new queen every time a cell is presented.  You'd think they are raising their queen cells, too. 

Anyway, I would consider this operation very unsustainable.  The wax in these colonies has got to be a toxic reservoir.  From what I have seen elsewhere, this operator may likely be a master beekeeper.

>>Perhaps a solution is to go back to moving only bees without comb.

They have found small hive beetles in packages.  Not a perfect solution.

>>It is pointless to just go on about the big boys and their non-sustainable practices without identifying them and proposing realistic alternatives.

Just want to add that there are a lot of small [and master] beekeepers to engage in unsustainable practices, too.

A local beekeeper recently bought a queen from me because the previous one failed after some varroa treatment obtained from Germany (not sure if the treatment was not used per instructions).  Well, my queen failed shortly after laying up both sides of a single frame.  The bees raised some queen cells but these got torn down soon after being capped.  My guess is the queen larvae were damaged by treatment residues. 

I raise a handful of queens and sell the extra ones over testing them (3-4 frames of good pattern and emerging brood) so I know my queens are good.

Waldemar

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