>  I'm familiar with the huge drifting issue when installing packages during flight weather, but question any advantage to settling longer than overnight.

I've been lurking too long but I learn so much from this list and look forward to every post.  
As Randy stated during a recent post, the drifting issue is well known with package installations. During a recent club meeting, the attendees were presented with opposing views from experienced beekeepers. One segment was adamant that packaged bees were far superior to nucs for new installations in the spring. Another segment was equally adamant that nucleus hives were far superior to packages. At our location, packages are usually available about the 10th of April and Nucs about the 1st of May. It's pretty basic and I believe the answer is clear, but if you were expanding beyond splits by several hundred colonies, what would those of you on the list do; packages or nucs? 

Another observation pertinent to the loss of forage land issue recently discussed that might be of interest to some. Many thousands of acres here in North Central Kansas are being bought up by individuals or clubs that then utilize the land for Whitetail deer hunting. It occurred to me that this land that usually goes fallow might make great pollination centers if managed correctly. So I contacted some local brokers and rapidly found the hunter land owners anxious to allow us to place colonies on their land. We have been given rights to more than 2400 acres for our training farm in the past two weeks and the owners are paying for all the seed required to create pollination havens. More are asking for the same arrangement. Two obvious reasons. Land for recreational use is taxed highly; land in production is taxed at a much lower rate. Since honeybees are considered livestock, USDA recognizes colonies on the land as production agriculture. They are also going to provide as much pollinator mix as we want. We have all that in an agreement signed by FSA/NRCS. Also, since we are a not-for-profit, the landowners receive a charitable deduction of $150 per acre or $369,000+ for the 2400 acres. May be a similar opportunity out there for some of you.
Gary.   

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html