From: "Nancy M McKenna" <nancy.mckenna@attbi.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2002 21:00:44 -0600
To: <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: Food chambers

Quote:
********
>> There are MANY more hobby, small scale beekeepers around this country than
>> there are commercial, and concerns you may have in your beekeeping operation
>> may not be the least bit of concern for a small scale beekeeper.

> Losing bees in winter may not matter to you or small beekeepers? Okay. My
> mistake. Sorry.
*************

I think the point is NOT that it does not matter to small beekeepers, but
that small beekeepers do not have your point of view. To have a large apiary
(1000 hives) means you're working with acres of crops, possibly single crop
acrage which you may or may not be hired to put your bees onto. This would
mean that a prepondarance of your honey is from this one crop.

On the far opposite side of the continuum is the small beekeeper like
myself. Such bees are in the personal home garden or nearby, collecting
pollen and nectar from a wide range of plants over the neighbors' yards and
also from Forest Preserves less than a mile away. With this perspective and
considering that more beekeepers have this perspective of forage material
then it is untrue to say that _as a generalization_ that the bee's own honey
is bad for them to overwinter. The majority of bee keepers who are in the
equal to or fewer than, say 100 hives, would be better off leaving the honey
for their bees.

However, it is equally valid to state that IF your bees are on single crop
acreage, then it is far better to supplement them with sugar, just as it
would be bad for a person to eat only one food overwinter, no matter how
tasty french fries are.

nancy