Peter and All,
 Knowledge is wonderful ! The problem is using it to achieve positive results.
I agree it takes a lot of work and long hours to do the job right. That really came to my attention when Nirvan Hope had a book published " Three Seasons of Bees" She was keeping a diary of what we were doing and dedicated the book to me. When your in the heat of batter you just work. Now being able to look back and see that a normal day was 18 hours working was a wake up call of the real world of beekeeping. When I turned 70 I went to 6 5/8 " boxes like Steve Taber told me years ago when I had a 5 day visit with him in California. 
 Beekeeper's need to be learning all the time. When I started to move bees up on Forest service land , I set up a survey on location. I had a full 50 mile area north and south on the east side of the Olympic Mountains.  Just me under contract for 35 consecutive years. I set up hives at 2,000 and 4,000 feet with some facing north and some facing south. The results were very easy to see with North and 2,000 feet being the best for honey production on fireweed. Other problems were roads and near water.
 That was only one little spot to deal with in my beekeeping. You understand that processing and selling the honey at 7 farmers markets a week was a big job all in itself. Luck had nothing to do with my beekeeping. Eyes open all the time. A little example: Driving home on a Sunday night after a market I notices a forest fire on  the Olympics. We have a good view of the Olympics but it takes me 3 hours to get to the bees. I told my Son to get ready for a long night. I broke out the binoculars and saw the fire was on the north side of the river valley.  We were safe . 
 Those are just stories. Good beekeepers need to pay attention to the bees and keep up with all the changing environment and science. We have information thanks to researchers like Jerry and Randy plus many more. We are not in the 1800's with a very limited amount of deep science. I do have a copy of a 1889 Hive and the honeybee. It is like night and day but we still have problems in beekeeping.
 The Best
Roy Nettlebeck
Tahuya River Apiaries  Wa.   

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