> I don't feel the practice is sustainable.
I'll agree wholehearted with Jeff Pettis on
the specific point made by Jeff in the article,
which seems to imply that cross-continent trips
from Florida to the Almond groves of CA are a bit
much when combined with a typical east-cost
pollinating run from South to North as spring springs.
But neither Jeff nor myself would ever agree with the
generalized indictment of migratory beekeeping that
has been a consistent theme in Brian's postings from
his completely comfy non-migratory operation.
I wrote something that has been picked up and reprinted
in multiple languages in far-flung places, and it starts
out like this:
"So, you wanna know about beekeeping?
These days, its really all about almonds.
They make us do insane things.
No, that's not right, the money makes us do insane things.
But the almonds are where the money is.
Almonds have done to beekeeping what cocaine did to Miami."
http://bee-quick.com/reprints/udunno.pdf
But the massively misinformed idea that "migratory
beekeeping" in general is anything new, or puts
some new "stress" on the bees is laughable in the
extreme, given that migratory beekeeping has been
around since at least 3,000 BC or so. Back then,
they were moving hives around on donkeys. Anyone
who has ever tried to ride a donkey can confirm
that this would be several orders of magnitude more
"stress" than the modern approach of lifting pallets
smoothly with Swinger Forklifts onto flatbed trucks
with air-ride shock absorbers, riding on smooth
interstates fast enough to provide a cool breeze
to the hives.
Anything that's been going on since 3,000 BC has clearly
earned the designation "Sustainable". I can't think of
many other businesses that have lasted for 5,000 years. :)
The only reason researchers have been saying that beekeepers
should "reduce stress", was that they still don't have any
better advice, and are fumbling for something, anything to
say in response to the question "what can beekeepers do
about CCD?".
They certainly did not want to admit the unvarnished truth,
which is that "All we can do here is watch hives die".
("Saving Private Ryan", 1998)
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