What I question is the generality that if we do > not open thousands of hives a year we do not know what we are doing. I don't think I said you did not know what you were doing. I did imply I can tell at a glance *everyday* beekeeping problems and my main helper is 280 pounds 6 foot four and in his late twenties and can also. he does an hour of aerobics at night and does not break into a sweat in the bee yard. He has worked along side me since he was a child. I could not physically work many hives in two hours by myself( nor would I try). My other help gets the job done but gets twice the work done when I send my main helper along. > For my wife and I beekeeping is fun. for me beekeeping is interesting. not fun. Fishing is fun. We have the time to go through the > hives top to bottom. For me there is simply not enough hours in the day. Relaxing for me is doing BEE-L. My day started at 4 am and only stopped now but still need to get a truck loaded for tomorrow. >We have time to try new and different things. In the seventies a beekeeper wanted me to look at his hives. I noticed some cannabis sativa growing amongst the hives. he said *I didn't think you would notice*. He wanted me to try a new and different experience. We find > problems at an earlier stage than somebody that works 65 hives in two > hours. The only unknown in my bees is queenright which I check continually. The rest are minor issues and managed. > Bob there is no way you are going to convince me that you found all of the > problems in those hives. What problems am I missing? In the newspaper daily you see people dying (my name was not in the paper this morning!) and on another page people being born. bees are similar. If you provide room for the new bees and the number dying does not get out of hand not complicated. Trying to save every hive in a commercial operation is a noble cause but is not doable. We deal in percentages. My winter losses were in the low 20% range. Not what I would like to see but the *new* normal. > Generalities are never accurate. There are exceptions in everything. True but the road to successful sideline and commercial beekeeping is lined with beekeepers which tried to run a commercial operation like they did when they only had a few hives. Not only is such attention to detail not necessary it wastes precious time needed for important work. Thanks for your reply Doug and hope this year is your best ever with your bees! I resemble your remark about your old boss but many beekeepers would love to see my beekeeping notes and data. Moving on: There are survival commercial beekeepers in the U.S.. A few which have never seen CCD losses. Researchers for the most part spend all their time with those seeing problems. Commercial migratory beekeeping is getting competitive again ( glut of bees in California) and when happens many commercial beekeepers are slow to share secrets. Hmmm. Many imply new methods are around for common problems but not willing to share with *me* as not wanting posted on the net. My bees look the best in years so care little. Gordy the entomologist for the largest almond grower said this years bees brought in where the best in years. Still we hear reports of large losses. Welcome back to the world of *may the best commercial beekeeper win*. The world H. Bell and I grew up in. bob *********************************************** 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