>In my opinion, package and queen prices are too low. If they were more
expensive, I imagine people would put in more care towards the management of
their colonies. >At the current prices, it's relatively easy enough for an
average backyard beekeeper to replace their 2-3 dead outs every year.
While there is certainly room in the market, the prices are actually pretty
close to right. I do understand many beekeepers think they are too low,
but its not quite correct. I do have the perk of working with many of the
large producers to understand that market.
There is a large boon of packages/ hives and nucs in spring, and a very
short window for sale. I know many beekeepers who would love to sell more
packages in May. Unfortunately the window is closed. The price has been
adjusting for many decades, and is pretty close to market demand. Riase the
price much and people buy less, supply and demand is working well!
>Btw, locally oxalic acid is all the rage for treatments. But when I asked
around in the past few years, there is very little difference in surviving
colonies >between those who treated with oxalic and those who didn't treat
at all ( ~80% loss ).
This is a really cool statement, and right on target! BUT completely
misleading! I too have been seeing and hearing the same stuff. But a
friend recently cam to me and asked if he used his new 3k vaporizer every
time he moved hives ( pollinator moving 3-4 times a season) should solve
his mite problem? Right? Sounded great. I made the smart choice to say
I don't know, plug the the information in to Randys sheet and see what it
looks like! He grumbled for a week, but it turns out when he mapped it,
it will not work!
IMO the vast majority of us are doing treatments without understanding the
real implications. We think we got a good kill first of, but we are
completely clueless as to how that fits into the seasonal picture. It is
obvious to me, most of our failures (mine included) come from the naive
belief we treated just at the right time and our treatments worked as we
hoped, not as they actually did.
Charles
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