> Up until the late 1800's and early 1900's the movement 
> of hives by beekeepers could be more accurately defined 
> as 'transhumance beekeeping'; vertical seasonal bee hive
> movement, typically to higher pastures in summer and to 
> lower valleys in winter, or movement to extend the honey 
> producing season or to new sources of forage.

Yes, of course - what did you expect?  
Pollination contracts?

> To say that migratory beekeeping of today is in any way 
> comparable to traditional transhumance beekeeping from 
> 3,000 years ago

The only comparison I was making was that being "migratory" 
has gotten easier and easier on the bees with the advance 
of transportation technology.  I can only think of one mode 
of transport that was "ideal" long ago, and that was the 
old trick of keeping bees on a barge on a North-South river 
like the Nile.  That would have been easy on the bees.

> The switch since the late 8000's to monoculture and non native 
> crop plants, serving to reduce nutritional forage variety 
> for honeybees.

OK, lets pick a non-native crop that is grown in monoculture.
How about Almonds?

Go ask Randy, given that you consider him to be
"astute and accurate" - ask him about the nutrition
of putting bees on almonds.  He will tell you that the
bees will do GREAT on almonds, as long as the hives are 
not deployed when half dead.

Let's pick another - Purple Loostrife.  The bees go crazy
over the stuff.  But the Purple Loostrife makes its own
monoculture by forcing out other growth.  Up in Vermont,
entire ponds are ringed with it and streams are "choked"
by it.

And recall that honey bees are not native to this
continent, so when you say "non-native crop plants", are 
you claiming that a non-native pollinator will somehow
do better on native plants?   How's that work, exactly?
Why wouldn't the bees do best on the plants that evolved 
where the bees evolved?  Oh, that's right - the reason
is simple - bees are generalists, and can make a living
off whatever is making nectar and pollen at the moment,
and switch between nectar sources multiple times per day.

As a general rule, exotic invasive plants are the favorites
of bees.  If they did not offer better nectar rewards to
pollinators, they would not spread so fast so as to earn
the label "invasive", now would they?

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