>
> >In my opinion, package and queen prices are too low. If they were more
> expensive, I imagine people would put in more care towards the management
> of their colonies. At the current prices, it's relatively easy enough for
> an average backyard beekeeper to replace their 2-3 dead outs every year.


I agree!  We are small scale--producing about 3000 nucs with new queens
each season.  We turn a profit on nucs, but it's hardly worth my while to
produce queens for sale--we do it only as a public service for the local
beekeepers.

Every California queen producer sells out each spring--supply can't keep up
with demand.  In any other agricultural enterprise, the producers would
raise prices until supply came into balance with demand.  It makes me
wonder whether bee venom has an adverse effect upon that part of the brain
that deals with economics.

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

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