PLB
I agree with your last post.  That is the trick, deciding who deserves respect for what they are doing.  I love doolittles books though not having a background in bees and his old english makes me have to read them more then once to start getting what he is saying.  You mention bee sorce being like going to a bar fight.  I mentioned two names on bee scorce.  Bee scorce is better then here at times for somebody new.  The post are more instatainous and you don't have to wait for a moderator and so if you can learn which members give good advice and which not to listen too, you can get answers to more pressing problims quickly.  When Michael palmer post on bee scorce, I listen and a couple fo the moderators give solid comon sense advice.  The member squarepeg has did his best (in my opinion) to tell the good and bad of his last few years and has tried to track and post the numbers that people seem interested in and has my belief and respect in what he says.  There are many that might put a grain of good stuff out once in a while but that I discount much of what they say.  It is like buying a house, buyer beware.

I think Ian stepler has some of the best vidios on you tube.  He does not say much on bee scorce but you can see in his vidios how he has broke down keeping a whole lot of bees in really factory type methods.

I don't keep bees like any of the guys that I respect but that does not mean I am not looking at all that they do and trying to pick the gold from them and keeping the rest in my mind for when I advance to the point I need more.  I look for thier best practices and steal them as needed.  Right now, I do as little as is needed to keep things running smooth but am adding to my tool chest for when they don't run so smooth.  I am a slow learner and can only progress so fast.

Part of that is deciding who is worth listening to
.
As a side note and part of why I keep the bees as I do up till now.  I built a saw mill to cut my own boards.  I built everything including the frames.  I built my extractor.  I wanted bees and want to be successful at keeping them alive and prospering but also got into bee keeping on my own terms with mostly time invested rather then money.  I will spend the money if keeping bees ends up requiring it but got into it to find out before I invested a bunch.
I am sure some of this affects my attitude as I proceed.  But I am looking hard at what every one is doing and so I have not closed of my options for adjustment if needed.  So far, knock on wood, my current need is learning local flows and how to keep swarming at bay and I faild at that last year.  That is why I have eight hives instead of just three.  I could have put some of them back together and made more honey but I built equipment over winter and so no biggy, wood is cheap and I have the time.  I do have one two year old hive that I was able to keep from swarming by removing two brood combs from it but still have a lot of learning to do.  I could not have survived even this good with out the resorces on the internet.
As far as taking care of mites.  I expected my hives to die first year.  I expected my bees to die second year.  I expect my bees to die this third year.  I was going to let some of my bees die at least once so I could see it and see the signs and what the autopsy showed so that I have a base line to see it coming.  My thoughts even if dumb, was that it might make me better and I might also see a differrence in the bees by what ever action I took to stop it from happening a second time.  It has just not happened yet and so I just keep reading for when it does so that I know all my options to pick from for when the time comes.  I was pretty excited about the shop towel thing that randy is working on cause it seemed like it was going to be the easiest way to handle it if I ever got to that point. It was a little dissapointing to see the spring results compared to the hot wether results.  I still would not use it till the bees made me a believer that I need to but I did like that ideal about as good as any so far.  I will also say this.  If the need to treat is ever shown to me by my bees.  Michael palmers single calander treatment seems the most efficiant if the bees don't get resistant. Lots of stuff out there from respectable guys to choose from.
Cheers
gww

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