> Half the hives dead in the U.S.? > Am I the only person concerned? And yet the 780,000 bearing acres of California almonds http://tinyurl.com/bqv6vug was still adequately pollinated according to this March 6 article: http://tinyurl.com/d44g639 > To say PPB (PISS POOR BEEKEEPING) is what is going on > in my opinion is laughable. The article attributed the slight almond bee shortage to: "Pest control — of varroa mites in hives — has been problematic. And in the upper Midwest, drought and loss of foraging land to corn and ethanol production have affected bees." The loss of foraging land to corn and ethanol production occurred because the EPA's ethanol mandate requires increasing volumes of biofuels to be blended into the fuel supply each year through 2022: http://tinyurl.com/bluexut Paul Cherubini El Dorado, Calif. *********************************************** 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