Market Farming

[Leigh <lh AT pressroom.com>]

My 2 cents.
When the mites hit the first year I lost 50 hives out of 100.  The 
next year I lost 25 of the remaining 50.  By then treatments started 
to appear but since my honey market was the health food stores that 
were buying my honey as organic, I didn't feel justified in using a 
treatment that left residues in the honey (yes, yes, the treatment 
now, if used properly, claims that there is no residue in the honey).

I got out of selling honey and just kept hives for my own 
pollination.  There are mite resistant queens on the market now but 
the kinks have definitely not been worked out.

Oh, and as for pesticides, I would like to agree that drift caused 
the death of my bees, but my apiary and farm is located in the middle 
of a forest several miles from the nearest farmer.  Pesticide losses, 
though, are always a problem with beekeepers, particularly those who 
rent out hives for pollination services.