I was lucky enough to hear Mark Winston in the spring of 2014. He is the author of the Biology of the Honey Bee that I and many others studied for Master Beekeeper. He writes essays on his blog and his essay today just blew my mind.
Please go and read every single word of it.
I hope to have the opportunity to hear him in person again soon. He has some good YouTube videos:
I like it. I like how much he's referring to the bigger picture. Not quite as radical as I would have been on not treating, but close. I've found it amazing that beekeepers, who used to be very much environmentalists back in the 70's have jumped on the chemical treadmill that all us beekeepers used to rant about. We used to be the most anti-pesticide group in the world and when Varroa arrived everyone jumped right off the bandwagon. It should be sobering that an environment that used to support so many bees that beekepers in the early 1900s were arguing if there were any limitations on how many hives could be in one place, can now support at most about 40 hives in most places. Our environment is changing and not in a way that supports more life.
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