>Besides too many of
>us are doing it without any of the things you listed,
>meaning "zero for artificial feed once established as nucs,
>and no treatments at all period."

Although it is true we cannot control where the bees go. As Dee here has
mentioned we can control the level of contamination in our management. Since
we have successfully shown that putting artificial substances in our hives
is not only possible but helps ensure a more successful beekeeping
experience in the long term (short term losses are expected when bees are
deprived of the dopes), then we should do everything in our power to ensure
nothing goes into the hive that nature hasn't provided to the bees herself.
This is the goal of an organic lifestyle in general and organic beekeepers
specifically despite what has become "officially acceptable" for legal use
of the word organic.

Organic beekeepers that are zero tolerant find their bees have stronger
immune systems because they eat real pollen, not just neutral sources of
protein, they eat nutritive honey with its trace elements and not neutral
bleached white sugar or hfcs. And they certainly don't suffer from over
medication, which in the short term seems to help (as it did seem to help
historically but is now being seen as a cause of the problem by many even
here), however in the long term does nothing except allow us to propagate
bees which would have been culled by nature, thus preventing nature from
doing her job which is ensuring that we only have strong bees with strong
immune systems and capable of withstanding pressures from varroa and
tracheal mites and the diseases they vector in.

The proof is in the pudding which specifically translated means...I continue
to still have bees and they still haven't been treated.

Scot McPherson
McPherson Family Farms
Davenport, IA

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