M Bush on Treatment-Free

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Originally Posted by Oldtimer

Once you've put that on your label, (the public should be educated, right?) then you can feel free to continue your attacks on others. Long as they are true that is, there are some beekeepers selling honey tested as perfectly good, who have been caught up in your bad publicity.

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I wasn't aware that I needed your permission to tell the truth...thanks for the heads up:rolleyes:

deknow

You don't need my permission. What I meant by feel free, was in good conscience, and honesty. After you've fully educated your customers since you are very passionate about that.

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Originally Posted by deknow

oh please.....on any unselfish level, the life of a bee hive is morally equivalent to the life of an ant colony....that any homeowner would poison, any farmer or gardener would plow under, and no one would mourn.


If a beekeeper who's honey "tests perfectly good" wants to be part of an industry that values their honey the same as honey that doesn't, and doesn't do anything to distinguish their product from something that is not equivalent, then they get what they deserve.

deknow

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OK, if that's your viewpoint, not much I can do.

But what goes around, comes around. The end result of negative advertising is that everybody suffers. Badmouthing others is good for a quick buck only.

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Originally Posted by Solomon Parker

Hives don't move Mark. They don't. Swarms may go a couple miles, if that. They don't move 1000 miles in any direction in a year, much less 10. They are not migratory animals. You cannot expect them to be hunky dory if you move them to an entirely different climate all the time. They're not adapted for it. They're not "meant" to move.

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Originally Posted by squarepeg

but then neither do they move their combs around, nor do they donate comb, brood, and resources to those that would have it. (and let's don't forget that wild bees aren't force fed a less than optimal diet).

are your manipulations any less invasive that trucking them around?

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good evening sol.

promise i'm not trying to play gotcha here, but i have raised this question a time or two and no one has touched it yet.

the question is 'how benign (or not) to the colony is just the practice of keeping them in a hive?'

maybe a good topic for a new thread.......

Let's start new threads instead of keeping this one going.

acknowledged cap'm!

I generally don't like to post our powerpoint slides...they are just the outline for a talk, and are easy to misinterpret. This is a version of what we talk about to bee clubs when they want to hear about treatment free beekeeping. There is too much here for me to commit to answering every question, or clarify every point...it is generally done in 1.5 hours, but probably deserves 4.
http://www.beeuntoothers.com/index.p...rk-in-progress
deknow

Very nice, Dean!

One question. Your definitioin excludes feeding with sugar syrup. As a first year beekeeper this year, I had to feed a late summer cutout. I had no honey available for feeding, so of course I used sugar. My preference is to avoid feeding whenever possible and to feed honey, if necessary, but it just wasn't possible. I don't feel like I am breaking any treatment free standards by feeding these bees sugar syrup. Have I violated your principles by doing this?

Ted

We don't feed sugar. We recommend that a new package should be fed sugar...I would say the same for a late season cutout that needs food. We use honey for these things (packages this year each got a deep frame of honey), but unless you have your own honey to use, I don't recommend it.

Again, there are simply too many things that are only hinted at in the slides to address them all, or to address them in depth. ...my intention of posting it is mostly to show that in order to discuss what we are doing, you really need 4 hours...unless you can talk real fast :) ...and that what we are talking about is far, far from "toss 'em in a box and leave 'em alone".

deknow

deknow

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Originally Posted by deknow

I generally don't like to post our powerpoint slides...they are just the outline for a talk, and are easy to misinterpret. This is a version of what we talk about to bee clubs when they want to hear about treatment free beekeeping. There is too much here for me to commit to answering every question, or clarify every point...it is generally done in 1.5 hours, but probably deserves 4.
http://www.beeuntoothers.com/index.p...rk-in-progress
deknow

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perfect! thanks dean. and can i assume that most of the info is in your book as well?