>>Wrong. For example, when varroa hit the US a lot of beekeepers went out of business. They were the ones who wouldn't or couldn't adjust their management techniques to the changed game.

Many are also in business who 
did not change their game.

I am not supporting or arguing against
any one style of beekeeping, I am simply 
looking at this from a historical perspective.
I am exploring what history as shown 
concerning the assignment of cause for 
mortality, and is possible implications 
to beekeeping.

There are many examples of 'ones who 
wouldn't or couldn't adjust,'  ie: ferals and 
beekeepers refusing to adjust and treat colonies 
here in the USA and other parts of the world, 
and surviving and thriving in spite of this refusal
to adjust.

The miss-assignment of blame as has been done
during the 70's and the current epidemic, in fact, 
inadvertently served the beekeeper well for 
centuries, by allowing the resistance mechanisms 
to develop in the honeybee, without interference
from man.

honeybee die offs,  historically have tended to
be short and abrupt, subsiding in a year or two.
From Virgil in 29 B.C.E. blaming the Gods for sending
"a plague among thy thriving bees", to the
beekeeper from Illinois during the 1911- 1912  
dieoff stating; "the weather made the bees lazy." 
In spite of these miss-assigning of blame, and
subsequent miss-assigned remedies, the 'plagues'
tended to be short and abrupt, subsiding in a 
year or two.

In modern times, with proper assignment of
blame, we begin to see plagues in honeybees 
lasting several years or even a decade.  One 
might hypothesize that 'one reason' for this may
be that knowing the cause, promotes the 
creation of remedy's designed to lessen the
impact to the beekeeper,  prolonging the 
development of natural resistance, whereas, 
not knowing the cause, and therefore not 
applying 'proper remedies' would better serve
to promote a more rapid development of natural 
resistance in honeybees.

Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/HistoricalHoneybeeArticles/




 

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