> feedlot beekeeping... The term is inherently an attempt to defame people who only can only make a living when their bees thrive, rather than merely survive. Yes, the things beekeepers do for the almonds seem unnatural, but then, almond trees in the western hemisphere are also unnatural. Blooms needing pollinating in February? Not native to these parts. Crops needing so many hives in one area? Holding yards? Unprecedented. Almonds did for beekeeping what cocaine did for Miami. I worked apples, and the most important beekeeping we did was done in the snow. Not quite as Dr. Moreau as the almond guys, not quite as capital equipment and diesel intensive as the fellows who would take their bees South for the winter and work the whole east coast, but pollen supplement has been around for a long time, as has "stimulative feeding". And we would keep feeding colonies during apple pollination, because if the growers were smart and cut their understory, the bees would have nothing but apple nectar and pollen. Hives can easily starve working apples, as it is chilly enough during the day, and cold enough at night to require the bees to burn more nectar than they can bring in the door on "heating" to keep a patch of brood going. And apple pollen alone is pretty low-quality stuff, it makes undersized bees, clearly malnourished when they were larvae. If it is chilly and windy enough, the foragers bring back little or no nectar, as the trees may produce only pollen, little to no nectar. So they really do not even recover the "fuel cost" of just flying around the orchard some days. Now, as I started in Fancy Gap NC, and worked my way north along the Blue Ridge to the MD border, I needed those hives to remain strong through multiple successive orchard placements, so every hive had two pollen patties at all times, and many had hive-top feeders, if they started to lose weight. Some hives were on life support for several weeks at a time, but one has no other option, as apples often bloom before the snow has melted. This was not "feedlot", this was trying to get the bees to perform reliably despite unreliable weather conditions. Bee swarms in "Natural" conditions have only a 1/3rd chance of surviving their first winter. In those same "natural" conditions, apple crops are likely to not get well-pollinated due to that same pesky weather in half of their springs. Our business plan, and everyone's business plan is to do BETTER than nature could do. If we don't, we can't stay in business, as nature is not inclined to naturally provide a crop to anyone. CROPS aren't "natural", they are an artificial construct. But the moment the bees find some decent natural pollen, they ignore the pollen patties, and this would happen no matter how generous I would be with the trapped fresh-frozen pollen percentage. *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html