James Fischer wrote:

 > The future "improvements" in beekeeping will likely be "expensive".
 > The cost differential may be as extreme as the difference in
 > cost delta between scythes and the first mechanical harvesters.

Brought back memories. I was responsible for the maintenance of ships in
the US Pacific Fleet. Labor costs in Japan were three to four times the
cost of labor in the Philippines but the Japanese shipyards were much
more mechanized and used 1/3 to 1/4 the labor so our costs were the same
for the same work. Quality was also better in the mechanized yards, so
true cost was cheaper there, since you did not have to do the same job
twice.

In all of Jim's examples it is really the cost of labor that drove the
improvements. Put scythes in the hands of laborers and pay them minimum
wage and that $150,000 harvester looks cheap. Same with beekeeping on a
commercial scale. The less labor intensive you are the more profit you
will garner.

Most of the support for older books will come from hobby beekeepers who
do not factor labor into their costs. I saw a Philippino cutting a small
area of grass with scissors. It took him an hour or two to cut where a
mower would do the same job in seconds. He did not have a mower. Same
with most hobby Beekeepers. We can use older techniques only until we
scale up.

I started honey extraction by crushing combs and hanging them in
pantyhose to drain (that technique made it into an article in Organic
Farms and Gardening some ten years ago). It was time consuming and I did
not get much honey, but lots of wax. When I purchased an extractor (much
more expensive than pantyhose) the results were reversed dramatically as
was the time it took to extract honey.

Just look at the different methods of Varroa control that have come on
the scene in the past year. Oxalic Acid has gone from a labor intensive
drip method to a vaporizer which is cost competitive with strips on a
hobby beekeeper level and much cheaper compared to the labor required of
strips on a commercial level (if it were certified).

Jim's other comment on reading live authors is also good advice. Will
not mention the author, but I have his first edition and latest book on
a specific beekeeping technique and they are quite different. He learned.

It is fun to read the older books, but if I want to know what I should
do today, the more current books are where I would turn (after an
internet search on the subject).

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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