"So, in the context of practicing Darwinian beekeeping, is it fair to say that in your situation you are not actually able to adhere to the basic Darwinian tenet of colony spacing."

Is it essential. No. Just as it is not in keeping them in tree cavities in the woods and you must never touch or look in side the tree.
Your trying to pigeonhole rules that say this is all you can do. I also don't let my colonies swarm naturally but rather do an artificial swarm I call fly backs. Maybe I'm not a Darwinian beekeeper by trying to apply only some of the differences discussed in Seeley's wild bees and conventional beekeeping.

What do you call your type of beekeeping and does everyone do it exactly the same? I'm sure many of the commercial operations have their own management that differs from the next. Some maybe better than others in people's opinions.

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