Peter, Why would you say we have little knowledge of what the larger producers are doing??? Every one I have talked to has been extremely open. It to me sounds like an interesting report. I really like the idea of separating The history of hive declines due to farming practices, from the annual losses of typical beekeeping. One of the insane arguments I hear all the time is that we used to have so many more bees. Then blame it on pesticides, which to me is a huge deception. Most losses are social economic issues related to farming and city life changes in general, not other issues. Separating them seems to me the best idea in while to help pinpoint any real issues we are still battling with. Charlie *********************************************** 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