> I ask this because you contradict all the scientific data I am familiar with. 

This is an unnecessary, pointless and inflammatory generalization. "All the scientific data"? Come on.

> You will always learn more from success than from failures.  Failures don't pay the bills, and they exhaust capital that could have been used for more productive purposes.  Enough failures, and you go bankrupt and can't continue learning whatever you're studying.

More generalizations. Back in the 1970s and 1980s I lived in San Diego. I knew countless beekeepers who were successful keeping bees that knew next to nothing about them. What did they learn from success? Beekeeping is easy to do, no problems. Problems came when they got foulbrood and lost the hives. 

On the other hand, my attempt at large scale beekeeping (500 hives) failed. I couldn't make it pay, with the 1980s prices. I sold the bees and didn't own bees again for ten years. When I started up again, I found it impossible to keep hives alive for more than 2 or 3 years, without miticides, which I didn't want to use.

Now, I am doing the beekeeping of the 21st century. Last fall I lost 50% to mites, lost another 50% over winter. That means I started the spring with 25%. Fed them constantly till I could get some queens mailed to me, divided to make the numbers back, kept feeding till they looked good enough to go. Now they are all full of bees. Maybe I learned something from failure.

Pete

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