a Richard Cryberg snip followed by > my comments 
I feel that treatment free bee keepers allow their bees to suffer by not providing safe and simple husbandry measures to control mite populations.  If they have no empathy for the animals they should not keep them.

>About as good an examples of the difference between an ethics and a moral statement as I have seen in recent post. First notice that rational though has been displaced by an emotional response.  Secondly why should empathy be a requirement of proper husbandry?  Shouldn't skill and deep understanding be much more important?

>I suspect the primary question come down to.... are your looking for short term gratification or are you willing to spend the time and effort to produce a better bees and place some assurance (bet) that honeybees will be here a long time into the future?  Is short term suffering in some way better or different than long term suffering? Is suffering not an essential component of making for individuals and groups that are much more resilient to change? Are not all of the treatment in some way uncomfortable (produces it's own level of stress) on the individual within the hives?  Will not some treatment kill the hive just as dead as does varroa?

> I think it was Gandhi (loosely paraphrased) who stated that...the one thing we share with everything here on earth is suffering... and yes even the rocks suffer.

Gene in Central Texas...



   

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