>
> >A lot of people don't understand success and the various benefits it
> brings. Keep up the good work


Thanks for the support Pete!   My critic, who for some reason is not
posting to the List, feels that, "I believe that if you are taking money
from investors, you most definitely should be developing a commercial
product to provide them a return on their investment dollars."

In answer, basic research often has no immediate commercial return, but the
knowledge gained is often to great benefit to the industry as a whole.

In the case of the research that I'm proposing, I'm trying to answer the
question of whether colony productivity is tied to certain strains of gut
endosymbionts.

If we find that it is, then any beekeeper could then apply this knowledge,
by inoculating new colonies with beebread from his most productive
colonies.  This would not be a commercial product, but could have great
benefit to the industry.  We may also find that the gut symbionts are as
important as the genetics of productive colonies, and thus shift our bee
breeding strategies.

On the other hand, if there does not appear to be any correlation between
specific gut biota and productivity, then we may all take claims that this
or that probiotic product will result in greater colony productivity with a
grain of salt.

In the above examples, the "investors" in the research, would gain benefit,
without the commercialization of any product.

I follow, and also perform, a great deal of bee research that is intended
to simply help us to better understand bee biology.  In my articles, I
often suggest practical applications of that research, without reference to
any commercial product.  The knowledge alone has value, and I give it away
for free.

I'm putting a great deal of my "own" money (from donations to my website)
toward this research, and will publish the results for any and all to use
as they choose.  Some may even commercialize a product, but I have no
intent to do so.  I do not stand to financially benefit from the research
directly, and am in fact donating the time that I (and another local
beekeeper) spent in collecting the gut samples.

Frankly, I am surprised that my critic accuses me of "low class bad
manners" for asking beekeepers to help fund research that may help us to
better understand bee biology.

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

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