This came to me in a circuitous route from Jerry Hayes.  Survey
responses are requested this week.

Aaron Morris - I think, therefore I bee!

-----Original Message-----

Dear Beekeepers;

By now nearly everyone in our industry is aware of the high winter
mortality experienced by bees over the last several years. You may
recall that the AIA initiated a survey last March in an attempt to
quantify the losses.  You can see the full report as published in the
ABJ at http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/CCDPpt/CCDJuly07ABJArticle-1.pdf

Basically these findings documented a high average loss of bees across
beekeeping operations.  Most of these losses were likely from known
causes.  These results were widely used to help prepare testimony for
congress and to help with highlighting the problems facing our industry.

The AIA is again initiating a survey of bee losses, and we are asking
for your participation.  We are asking beekeepers to participate by
completing the following questionnaire between 23 and 30 March 2008.  We
believe this survey should take about 5 minutes per beekeeper.

1.	In what state and county do you keep your hives?
2.	How many hives did you have alive in September 2007?
3.	How many hives are alive now (March 2008)?
4.	How many splits, increases, and/or colonies did you make/buy
since September 2007?
5.	Were your losses over this time period what you would consider
to be normal?
6.	What percentage of your hives that died had no dead bees in the
hive or in the apiary?
7.	To what do you attribute the cause of death for the hives that
died?
8.	What percentage of your hives did you send to CA for almond
pollination?

There is talk of congressional hearings to investigate the status of bee
health in early April, and we would like to have this data available to
that group for then.  When you are finished, e-mail your results to
[log in to unmask]

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Sincerely,
G. W. Hayes, Jr.

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