Personally, I take the side of Andy Nachbaur, Bob St. John, and Janet
Montgomery on the issue of "brevity."
 
   A word of introduction to those who may not know my record.  Four years
ago I "retired" from the Univ. of California here in Santa Barbara.
Despite that fact, I still have my office and lab there and continue on
full time honey bee research --- for no pay I might add (no longer "at the
public trough" --- my income now comes from investments, not from the
state).
 
   Although established bee researchers managed to thwart my attempts to
get government grant funding for the last three decades, I found that such
an exclusion actually permitted me greater freedom to pay real attention to
what bees really do rather than to try to get results that would agree with
prevailing theory.
 
   I have found that professional researchers (bee studies or otherwise)
often take themselves too seriously and worry quite a bit too much about
how well they interact socially (biopolitically) with other researchers.
For example, I have been trying to get established bee researchers to
conduct simple experiments on the question of colony foraging patterns with
respect to prevailing wind direction (experiments such as Larry Friesen did
and published on back in 1973).  So far, though, I have failed on that
attempt, apparently because those researchers might get some results that
could disagree with prevailing theory (as illustrated in recent exchanges
in BEE CULTURE).
 
   Do I stay on BEE-L?  Sure!  As a fourth generation beekeeper (and now
bee researcher), the comments and questions from beekeepers continue to
bring back memories of the various experiences we all go through as we
learn about bees.
 
   I do have one gripe, though.  Sometimes the questions asked have ready
answers in standard beekeeping books.  It seems as if we can have a brisk
exchange on BEE-L by people who do not read those books --- at times a
"pool of ignorance" as some would call it.  (Heck, I seem not to be able to
get researchers to read some of the articles I cite.)  Near the end of some
of those exchanges I feel compelled to jump in and cite chapter and verse
--- sadly suspecting that the reading will still not be done.  At other
times my professional tasks (such as trying to complete an article I am now
writing on nectar, sugar feeding, and honey) do not permit setting the
record straight, as it were.
 
   Here again, not how I waited until near the end (I hope) of this
exchange on brevity before jumping in.
 
   With all best wishes for the upcoming season of beekeeping!
 
                                                        Adrian
 
Adrian M. Wenner                         (805) 893-2838 (UCSB office)
Ecol., Evol., & Marine Biology           (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Univ. of Calif., Santa Barbara           (805) 963-8508 (home office & FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106
 
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*  "The difference between real and unreal things is that unreal things *
*   usually last much longer."                          Pot-Shots #6728 *
*          Copyright, Ashleigh Brilliant --- used with permission       *
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