>I looked up Seeley's article and find it makes prefect sense.
>Darwinian Beekeeping: An Evolutionary Approach to Apiculture
>https://www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org/darwinian-beekeeping
Your 100% right, Dr. Seeleys comments are right on the money, BUT that’s not the problem. The problem lies in 2 major areas,
1. Most beekeepers who listen To Dr. Seely, do not hear him at all. They hear how to apply what he says to their oversized langstroth in which they want to collect honey. They of course they preach to others about Dr. Seeleys work and bees of the Arnot, of which they completely did not understand the whole picture.
2. It completely ignores the actually commercial needs of the country for pollination. It would be great to all have wild deer in our back yards, its nowhere near close to the reality of meet we get from other sources such as beef chicken and hogs. Same with bees. Tiny hives high in the trees are fine, but they do not even come close to meeting the pollination needs of our food supply.
Side note, Dr. Seeley cites checking cavities every 3-4 months to make sure they were occupied.
Last year I came upon strong cause to doubt that principle. I do NOT doubt Dr. Seeleys work, but I did come to realize most of the stories we hear of continually occupied wild hives are simply not true.
Sometime in early late march right after almonds a big swarm landed in a small try next to the holding yard. As is common I took over a box with a bit of comb and shook them in and let them sit right there, 200 feet from the shop/ yard.
The hive took well (10 lb swarm) and quickly filled the double and 2 supers, by mid may,
Late may I want to pull honey, and hive was collapsing from beetle damage. Honey was slimed, and brood eaten, I left the hive alone and
Following 2-3 weeks hive was robbed, EVERY day there was heavy bee traffic.
First part of June I wanted to mow and went to move the box, to my surprise another swarm had moved in (no holding yard bees around)
July I pulled honey from the now queenless hive sometime in mid July another swarm had to have moved in.
So during the course of the season, the hive thrived and died 3 times., never was there any lack of bees flying around, and without a serious inspection, the average person would have never know. Seems to me there is a lot more of this going on than we may understand. Death, robbing and other bees moving in, can happen in short order.
Charles
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