George said:
Richard Adee is the largest commercial beekeeper in the U. S., and he has
60,000 colonies that he requeens every year.

Actually Richard shares the throne with another little known beekeeper.

Even the late great Roger Morse was afraid to label Richard the largest so
in his article about U.S. beekeeping for the spring 1999 issue of "Invention
& Technology" pg. 15   he wrote the following:

"Many full-time family operations manage between 500 and 1,000 colonies,
though the two largest ones have maintained as many as 60,000 colonies( more
than a billion bees) in a single year."

On the same page he did also write the following which I found interesting.
I will greatly miss the writing of beekeepers like Roger Morse and Richard
Taylor!

"In 1880, William L. Coggshall of Ithaca , New York , owned 4,000 hives of
bees , more than anyone else in the world. William typically left home on
Monday mornings with a wagon and a team of horses. His hired men followed
behind. They took a circuitous route, visiting apiaries, which were usually
two miles apart and contained 30-50 hives apiece. They slept in barns and
took prearranged meals with farmers along the road, returning home on
Saturday night. "
"BY THE TURN OF THE CENTURY THEY WOULD BE TRAVELING ON BICYCLES!"  Roger
also wrote.

Bob

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