Funny quote from Organicbeekeepers list

There's a listserve on Yahoogroups: Organicbeekeepers. On the email this morning is this funny quote. The question was asked:

"Is one of the benefits to organic beekeeping healthier, more disease resistant bees?"

The person who answered the question said:

"That's the reason for organic anything, methinks. I bee healthy, you bee healthy, they bee healthy. Lotsa healthy bees. :-)"

That certainly is my goal with not using poison and not treating the bees chemically. I can't say that I am an organic beekeeper yet, though, because my bees came in nucs which came from beekeepers who probably treat their bees and even if they don't, use foundation which has chemicals accumulated in the wax from previously chemically treated bees.

In addition, the organic folks think that it is outside of organic methods to use powdered sugar to get the bees to clean the varroa mites off of their bodies and it is outside of organic methods to feed the bees anything but honey. I do powdered sugar shakes and I feed the bees sugar syrup in the winter and early spring.

In psychology, the term successive approximation applies. This means that I am gradually moving to pure organic beekeeping but I am not there yet. To the best of my ability so far, I am practicing my version of organic beekeeping, but obviously have a way to go before I can call myself an organic beekeeper.