In California, long before varroa, my rule of thumb for taking hives to almonds was to assume taking only 2/3rds of my August colony count to almonds the next February. So 33% "loss" has long been my working economic model--even without the involvement of pesticides, varroa, DWV, or Nosema ceranae. Has sustained me. BTW, it wasn't that those colonies necessarily died. I mainly due to combining the weaker ones in fall. -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** 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