> Up until the late 1800's and early 1900's the movement 
> of hives by beekeepers could be more accurately defined 
> as 'transhumance beekeeping'; vertical seasonal bee hive
> movement, typically to higher pastures in summer and to 
> lower valleys in winter, or movement to extend the honey 
> producing season or to new sources of forage.

One is usually safe quoting Eva Crane, but in this 
specific case, she was wrong.

I had a strange sense of Deja Vu about this discussion,
and sure enough, back in 12/2007 Lloyd Spear started a
thread called "Pimping Bees".  I contributed this tibit:

================================

An entertaining story can be found in the collection of
papers called "The Bureaucracy of Ptolemaic Egypt" (found
at Columbia U, copies elsewhere), where a group of beekeepers 
petition a local official for the return of their asses, 
conscripted for some unnamed public works project.  They 
pointed out that they had loaned their donkeys for 10 days,
and 18 days had passed without their return.  The growers
were waiting impatiently for the beekeepers to move their 
hives, as the growers wanted to burn the weeds and brush 
and then flood the fields.  The farmers were hinting that
they would set the fires by some deadline, hives moved or 
not, so the beekeepers pointed out that their loss of hives 
would reduce the taxes that could be paid to the king.

================================

So, 3000 years ago, beekeepers were moving their hives
to specific crops for a specific bloom of a cover crop
overtly planted by a grower. (Or for the weeds that grew
in fields left fallow for a year, it is not clear what 
the specific strategy was in this case.)

This was not mere seasonal movement, this was a hive 
placement so specific that they had to move their hives 
to avoid the collateral damage from the growers' attempts 
at pest control and fertilization.

Funny how absolutely nothing has changed in all the 
years that have since passed since 300 BC, ain't it?

1) Growers still don't give a darn about us or our bees

2) Appeals to the government are useless, as they 
   are clueless sissy boys and cityfolk who think 
   that they literally own our asses.

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