>> Who am I or are we, to discourage anyone?

At risk of revealing a cuddly center inside an exterior consisting mostly of
sharp edges, it seems only prudent to discourage those unprepared to be
responsible for the care of God's Creatures (capitalization intended, and
not ironic). 

At their core, most efforts at beekeeping education are defensive in nature.
Existing beekeepers want to assure some level of competent care for the
hives within flight range of their own hives, because while we may not be
"our brother's keeper", proximity means that we certainly all are "our
brother's BEEkeeper", like it or not.  Your varroa problem becomes mine if
you do nothing, so your varroa problem IS my varroa problem, and I need to
be proactive.

Beyond the welfare of the bees, the "societal collateral damage" issue is an
acute problem in locations of higher population density (urban/suburban).
One idiot can get beekeeping banned in an entire county, city, or town.  One
minor incident is enough.  It all depends on it being a slow news day.

If you go to the animal shelter to adopt a dog or cat, they will ask you
some pointed questions, and not everyone who walks in leaves with a new pet.
Woe to the unprepared person who is so foolish as to attempt to adopt a
rabbit (most abandoned immediately after Easter) through the New York House
Rabbit society, as even a single exposed lamp cord wire not covered in a
thick chew-proof vinyl shield means "no bunny for you".  Yes, they actually
send an inspector/auditor to verify that your home is "bunny-proofed".

Why should bees be handed out to anyone with money, moreso given all the
mischief one "nuisance beekeeper" can do, and how badly he can damage the
ability of responsible beekeepers to continue to quietly keep bees without
anyone paying any attention? 

> what makes anyone here think they 
> know what is best for someone else

I doubt anyone here is so presumptuous to think that they know what best for
someone else, but many of us do have some firm opinions on what is best for
the bees themselves. Many of us also feel a deep obligation to the welfare
and sustainability of our local communities of beekeepers.  

> how would I know which of these 
> folks who pluck their money down 
> will or will not succeed at beekeeping?

"Success" is not the issue.  The issue is the ability/willingness to engage
in responsible animal husbandry.  Perhaps it could be described as a
"concern for one's neighbors" or "good citizenship".  One wants to weed out
the reckless yahoos.  One must teach values and ethics along with
queen-marking and split-making. 

Beekeeping, at its core, is the art of making ethical choices when no one is
watching. Of course hives die even when you "do everything right".  But far
more important than "doing things right" is to DO THE RIGHT THING.  

> I do think starting folks off young with 
> a mentor... stand[s] the best chance

But the exact demographic that most desperately needs a mentor is precisely
the type of person who thinks that (a) beekeeping is easy, and (b) that they
will single-handedly revolutionize the craft of beekeeping and teach all
these old white guys in caps with tractor logos how blind and ignorant they
have been.  Many people have excitedly presented me with a "biodynamic
calendar", or shown me a copy of Rudolph Steiner's "Bees", which invariably
prompts me to pull out a dog-eared and yellowing certificate of compliance
with "Demeter Standards" for half my beekeeping operation, back when I had
an actual operation worthy of the name.  (Demeter Certification means that
Germans in white lab coats have inspected and found you to comply with
Biodynamic [Steinerism] standards.  Don't laugh - health-food stores happily
paid double the usual price for my honey.)

At a more basic level, there are never enough mentors to go around.

So, we end up back at the "bootcamp" approach - ("Beekeeping is the art of
choosing between heat stroke and being stung while doing heavy lifting") .
You have to discourage some who clearly need to rethink (or to think for the
first time!) about what they will actually do with a box full of bees.
While one can view the wayward newbee as a self-correcting problem, this is
wishful thinking - there are negligent beekeepers who are happy to restock
every spring with a package, and continue to do nothing more each year.
There are varying levels of this, the most common being the novice who
considers it exceptional to "go down into the bottom box" when "inspecting"
a hive.

> I do sell a few nucs here and why 
> should I not take anyone's money?

It depends on how much trouble one nutcase can cause for you and everyone
else, assuming that you just don't care about the bees themselves in the
least.  Your sentiment, expressed by someone selling ANY OTHER LIVING THING
would be utterly reprehensible - even plants need care, and those who sell
them encourage buyers to consider if the plant will be able to get enough
sun, water, etc, and inherently, this includes a pointed question - "are you
willing to put some effort into caring for this plant?"

So, the punchline to the joke is "If your standards are lower than the
fellow selling begonias, I am happy that you are not selling nucs anywhere
near me!"  

Lastly, there is a growing crypto-fascist militant demographic who strongly
feel that ANY creature not left to its fate in the wild is being exploited.
They have taken over the PETA organization, and successfully harassed
SeaWorld into ramping down its Orca breeding program to zero.  They have
since moved on to the same tactics regarding Beluga whales.  They will not
stop until they have imposed their own views on everyone else, and every
animal rescue that cannot result in re-release ends instead, in euthanasia.
They honestly think an animal would prefer death to any form of "captivity".
We have seen this propaganda from the "Vegan" sub-culture many times in
their fictionalized accounts of bees being "held captive" and otherwise
mistreated by beekeepers.  The good news is that these types will heckle the
instructor, and will generally self-identify fairly quickly.  My personal
approach has been to invite them to prepare some slides, and address the
class for 10 minutes in the NEXT class, but please STFU until then.  None
have ever returned to make their case in a coherent presentation to any
class, as coherence does not seem to be their strong suit, but it is only a
matter of time until someone goes "undercover in a beekeeping course" to
"expose the inhumane practices", with "film at 11".  So, I openly discourage
things like queen clipping as barbaric, I talk about humane practices, and
ethics are given full weight as a factor in beekeeping, but more
importantly, I emphasize early and often things like the cold calculating
cruelty of a hive to a queen who has merely started laying eggs more slowly,
and discourage overly-romantic notions about bees.  (nb: "Nature, red in
tooth and claw" is Tennyson, not Shakespeare, not the bible)

A hive of bees is not an ant farm, not mail-order Sea Monkeys, not an
aquarium, nor a terrarium.  It inherently interacts with the outside world.
It can seem to "threaten" and "do harm" to neighbors and complete strangers.
It can get renters evicted, and owners hauled before civil authorities
and/or a courtroom if you aren't very careful. 

Despite all this rationality and concern for craftsmanship, my wife
continues to sing to her bees when she works her hives.

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