> I run one workshop where all we do is handle empty gear,
just so people can practice going through the motions and become more
efficient - it is beekeeper Tai Chi.

I begin all my beginner beekeeping field sessions by doing exactly this.  I
don't allow anyone to open a hive until they have demonstrated good
technique in removing and replacing combs in a well-propolized box of fully
drawn combs.

By removing the distraction of bees from the picture, beginners can much
better concentrate on comb handling technique.  Their subsequent entry into
a live hive then goes far more smoothly.

>Given that migratory beekeeping is so unnatural for the bees

Unnatural?  Tell that to Apis dorsata.  Or to Apis mellifera scutellata,
both of which naturally migrate.

>I believe that the only reason for large-scale migratory beekeeping is the
unsustainable increase in the human population.

Or perhaps because beekeepers, similar to sheepherders, found that by
driving their flocks to better pasture helped them to grow.

The other reason for migratory beekeeping, is that with the advent of
widespread monocultures, there was not enough forage left to sustain local
populations of pollinators to service those monocultures.

>Phillips' work is not quaint, even as it is old. Beekeeping research was
already serious business in his day

I'm in complete agreement on this, and am often impressed by the work of
these early researchers.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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