> In bees, the thing that ultimatly matters is honey production. 

Frankly, I beg to differ. What ultimately matters is the health of the organism. Bees will make honey regardless, and if there is a tradeoff between high output and health, I would venture to say that one should opt for health. How long can you keep whipping the horse before it dies? 

As I have stated often enough, the total output per apiary is what pays the bills, not the per colony average. If your colonies are healthy but say produce 80% per colony than the next guy, you can keep more colonies to make up the shortfall. 

Sure, one sees the law of diminishing returns at some point, but with honey prices on the rise, maybe the income will be adequate. Depends on your market. 

PLB

             ***********************************************
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