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It's a very interesting topic and one that is widely debated these days as beekeepers face mounting threats from disease. This is a good overview with some ref

• lostlogin 7y ago
  There are some interesting points there but many are inaccurate. Difference 4 discusses the loss of antimicrobial colony walls. They coat man man hives, it’s there. There might be less but the amount depends on the age of the gear. Difference 6 relates to hive entrances and how snow blocks them and they are the wrong design. This maybe true somewhere, but many places have no snow and good beekeepers adjust their entrances to suit the conditions and prevent robbing. This is superior to an uncontrolled entrance. There is criticism of wax removal. Old wax spreads diseases and makes disease management harder. Yes, making wax consumes energy, but it improves hive health. Point 18 discusses the human selection of larvae for queens, or culling of poor queen cells. Strangely, bees choose queen larvae poorly. If a colony is queenless they need a new one. The best queens are fed royal jelly early, but a queen is needed fast if a colony is queenless. The first queen to hatch is usually the winner so the older larvae fed jelly wins. These queens tend to be poor. Human management of bees keeps them alive. Unmanaged they die, fast. Often bees are kept where they wouldn’t be naturally, so deaths may not all be bad, but humans go to a lot of effort to keep colonies alive by working with bees, not against them.