Hi Bill,

> I know many who were serious and vocal
advocates but who no longer keep bees.
>

Please, I know many and all are still keeping bees. There are many more coming along, and also some that are doing quite well you
have never heard from. Please Bill,  name a few that are no longer keeping bees?

> So, all you large scale successful "organic"  or "small bee" continental
US commercial beekeepers, let us hear from you as to the size of your
operation and your bottom line.
>

Since you ask Bill, you should be the first to answer your own question. I do not even enter into your query because I am not what
you would consider commercial or continental US and my focus is in breeding bees for my location and developing wintering methods,
and I can not even claim success yet because it will take many, many years to do the task seeing I am pretty much doing it on my own
with my limited finances. The bottom line is not always the goal in keeping bees but as my breeding succeeds I can then focus more
on the bottom line which will increase as wintering percentages increase. And Bill, as much as you would like to compare and make
Maine equivalent to keeping bees in Alaska, Maine still has us beat as a better environment for keeping bees with longer summers and
shorter winters. And yes I agree with you that beekeeping is local and a person can not compare one method of keeping bees in one
location to another's someplace else.

I would hope you would answer your own question first since you asked it but I will go first.
At the present time going into winter I am keeping 22 full size colonies and 44 five frame polystyrene nucs of which half I built
myself and half are the BetterBee Polystyrene five frame nuc. Since my focus and product for myself is breeding and gaining queens
bred in Alaska and developing better wintering methods for my unique location, my bottom line is about 40 new queens and an
experiment or trial with my new nucs. Not much, I know, but it is to me a lot. Here is a URL showing my hand built nuc.
http://akbkeepr.blake.prohosting.com/styronuc.htm

 . ..   Keith Malone, Chugiak, Alaska USA

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---