Brian retorts:

“Steve do you keep hives in areas where migratory beeks operate? If not I 
would suggest you don't know what you are talking about.”

     Brian, if you will notice I never said that migratory beekeeping is 
not the cause of much of the problems we, and that includes migratory 
beekeepers themselves, are facing today.  The reason I didn’t say that is 
because I don’t know.  For all I know you are right.  But you are just 
shooting from the hip.  There isn’t any depth to your analysis.  You make 
highly inflammatory, exaggerated statements about almond growers when in 
fact there are many more crops dependent on migratory beekeepers than 
that.  You dismiss as insignificant the extent to which our food supply is 
dependent on the work these guys do, and you totally ignore the costs which 
would accompany your proposals.  I am sure you have altruistic motives, but 
your approach is so simplistic as to appear self serving.  When I stop to 
think about it, relative to the economic importance of migratory 
beekeeping, what you and I do is what seems insignificant in the grand 
scheme of things.  I have no facts to back that up, by the way.
    I do not live in an area that is impacted by migratory beekeeping, but 
I am never the less subjected to all the common bee maladies, and I have to 
be constantly on my guard against them.  I seriously doubt that eliminating 
migratory beekeeping is not going to change that for me.
    What may be obvious to you is obviously not obvious to a lot of people 
who have a completely different perspective on the matter than you do.  
What is needed here is less hyperbole and more facts.   If all you want to 
do is vent your frustration or preach to the choir then that’s one thing, 
but if you are trying to convert the skeptics you need you be considerably 
more thorough.  That is all I am asking for here.

Steve Noble  
         

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