While some bees were moved by train, some even by barge as early as the 1800s:

(a) "over 1000 miles" is just a bit of an exaggeration for everything but Mississippi barges, and even they likely moved only along a fraction of the length of the entire river

(b) that movement by train and barge was NOT for commercial pollination

(c) it was trucks that much later became vehicle of choice for pollination, as trains were an ungainly and impractical way to get bees around.

Frank Pellet commented in his 1938 "History of American Beekeeping":

“The high cost of preparation, the long haul by freight and unloading and loading, and moving to apiary sites with horses and wagons resulted in too much expense to make migratory beekeeping by rail a practical method. The auto changed all this. ... Migratory beekeeping became common practice, especially in California, where large areas are devoted to the production of some special crops.” [p. 113]

And the purpose of the movement in "migratory beekeeping" at that time was NOT commercial pollination, but instead, just to make more honey.  Pellet again:

" 'Migratory Graham'... boasted that he kept bees in 32 California counties and five valleys in Nevada. According to his own statement in 1918, he had shipped 161 cars of bees. A typical season with him was to start the bees in the almond belt of Butte or Colusa counties. From there he would move to orange in Tulare county and back to Sacramento or San Joachim Valley to the seed belt. From there he would go north to alfalfa and south again for jackass clover.” [p. 113]

In Pellet's extremely detailed history of US beekeeping includes discussion of all aspects of commercial beekeeping at the time, including chapters on professional “Honey Production,” Migratory Beekeeping,” and “Bees in California.” 

But NOWHERE in his book does he ever mention any beekeeper being paid for pollinating crops.  To him, "crops" are just monoculture nectar and pollen sources.

So, it seems clear, from Pellet alone, that commercial pollination, the raison d'etre of the modern beekeeper, simply did not exist at all when Pellet wrote his 1938 book, thus invalidating much of what was said back than as applicable to the goals and methods of the modern beekeeping operation.

But here's the simplest test - ask "Where are the contemporaneous notes and data to back up the statement?"  If there aren't any, then that's an anecdote. 

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html