Like many things, people make rash and in or mis- informed comments or decisions based on things like feelings, or worse, their personal sense of altruism. Altruism is a disease of the mind that correlates one person meaning well with doing well and that if that one person feels strongly enough about it, that others not only should agree, but MUST agree.
Ever since the mainstream news media captured peoples attention with Colony Collapse Disorder among honey bee colonies in the early 2,000's a non-beekeeping segment of society has not only grown more aware about honey bees but has become more vocal and opinionated about what should be done, if anything.
Newsflash!
Honey bee colonies have been susceptible and dying due to parasites, pathogens, predators, and poisons ever since there have been bees. Beekeepers have experienced periods of great difficulty in keeping colonies alive in hives since the Egyptians put them in clay pots.
But somehow now, if people care hard enough, and force others to also, suddenly, somehow, bee colonies will somehow overcome all those problems and survive regardless.
That's a magic bullet beekeepers have been hoping for forever. It doesn't work.
But now people with no education, training, or experience are wanting to not just be involved in the discussion about bee health and management, they want to be authoritative and tell beekeepers what to do and how they're doing it wrong. Because, they care so hard.
Beekeeping is an agricultural activity. A matter of animal husbandry. Hobby beekeeping is annoying enough to me, but to be honest, I need specific purpose in my beekeeping. I tolerate hobby beekeepers because I can intellectually understand it, I personally just don't "get it", but that's my problem.
I approach beekeeping as a trade. There are procedures and methods that result in certain production goals and others that pertain to general health. Beekeeping in this approach utilizes education, training, and practice. For most hobbyists, its a "learn as you go" approach and much of it socially engaging.
In contrast, the "bee activists" only know what they get from the mainstream media. That is basically the equivalent of knowing nothing at all.
Beekeeping is no place for Altruism. Whether as a trade, commercial, or hobbyist, beekeeping is very much an individual practice. The person who owns and/or manages the bees is the final word in management. There's no place for beekeeping by consensus.
