For those who don't see bees as possessions and helpless, how hard is it to accept the truth and reality that shows us bees have lived and survived much longer without out interventions than with them?
You have yet to respond to that.
If 'natural' approaches are so detrimental, nature would have selected bees for extinction along with the dinosaurs.
What? Do you even see or understand what I am saying?
I'm not against natural methods, and have been promoting them for years.
What I am suggesting, and the heart of the conversation, is the overall message placed upon new beekeepers, in regards if they do this or that, that all the so-called problems will go away. I could pinpoint an example of vinegar machines, foundation, hive styles, breeders, and strains of bees...all making the same claim that they have the answer to all the mite and other problems. And based on the many people I talk too, that is the message they come away with. I hear all the time....
I want to keep bees naturally and not use chemicals, so I want to use TBH's.
I want to keep bees and not use treatments, so I want to use Russians.
I want to have comb with no chemicals in the wax, so I want to use foundationless.
I'm tired of losing bees, so I want to start using....... (you fill in the blank, it's all been said before.
My conversation is about the overall message that sugar is bad, HFCS is bad, treatments are bad, opening a hive is bad, and about a dozen other concepts or suggestions that new beekeepers are bombarded with. Many which think after hearing the vague comments, think that they are harming bees if they are not feeding honey, or that they will lose their bees if they keep bees in hives not of a particular style or comb, and so on, and so on.
After awhile, it just makes you want to puke. So broadening the conversation, and questioning, challenging, and being critical is something worth merit. To sit back as you say and simply have 100 beekeepers all suggest 100 ways of keeping bees, all making the same claim, without discussion due to being afraid on not being PC or afraid of steppin on a few toes, benefits nobody. And for most if not all of the claims, some are half-truths at best, and downright wrong for many.
If I say something you don't think is correct, then challenge it. If you say something that to me needs clarification or challenged, I will also. Why that is seen as "bad" is beyond me. I'm not just here to promote my own agenda or my way of keeping bees. It is to pass on my experience of both good and bad, what worked and what did not work. And to state what never came close to what the claims may of been.
But somehow, if I mention my own experience in something that did not work, and due to the fact that there happens to be a group standing on another corner suggesting conflicting views, then why is that seen as "attacking" or something incorrect?
I'm just glad I am not a new beekeeper needing to experience each and every wild claim out there chasing some illusive success, due to nobody stating perhaps the other side and bringing some sense into some rather wild claims and suggestions.
When you start hearing people lose bees because they were told not to treat, or you hear people not feed bees when they are starving because white sugar was suggested as a no-no, or they start questioning themselves because they were told if they bought these bees or use this hive and they lost the colony, you start wondering.
I'm not blind. One of the things you will not see on most forums, is the brutal truth of many of the same beekeepers who make wild claims. You won't hear them state how many hives they lost. And if they did lose hives, it was due to some obscure reason, and certainly not due to anything associated with their beekeeping style. SUCCESS....always due what they are promoting. FAILURE...always for some other reason.
Me, I lost my Warre Hive last year. Did everything by the protocol out there being promoted. But they died. I wonder how ofter you hear that claim among those promoting the wild claims while promoting this type of beekeeping. And that example can be used across the board.
It's like the breeder never suggesting how many hives they actually lost. Most breeders never mention problems. They are promoting their business and have "interests" to protect. And groupies promoting one style of beekeeping or another are just the same.
That....is how I see it. ;)