*if* the research of Dr. Gregory and the research done at Tucson in
> 1977 by Roy Barker are correct in that bees fed HFCS live half as long as
> bees fed sucrose then like in both studies the bees would die in the last
> few weeks of life. A similar situation to bees with nosema.
Peter said:
 At least, in
> cages.

To further test the issue the Weslaco Bee lab did tests on nucs in the
field  and the results were the same.

Several articles are around by Barker. Also I suggest one reads the entire
article instead of fast forwarding to the summery.
>
> Which is what I have always said, but the organic types don't want to
> hear that !

I thought you were one of the organic types? Keeping bees without
treatments?

Peter asked:
 By the way, what does it mean to say "bees die in the
> last few weeks of life"? Don't we all?

When I gave the nosema reference I would have thought you would understand
but if not here goes.

*If* bees live half as long when fed HFCS instead of sucrose and die a few
weeks earlier than normal like only living 4 weeks instead of say 6 weeks
then as a honey producer I see a big problem. The main reason I control
nosema is nosema shortens bee life span by a couple weeks.


Some commercial beeks think all is well when they see a box full of bees.
have no idea of nosema load . tracheal mite load or varroa load. Never seem
to think of what they might could do to get the size of honey crop Bob gets.
They read Randy's excellent *How to* articles and then go back to what they 
have always done.

In spring when those beeks are stumbling out of the house to do their first
check of the year i am putting supers on with splits completed.

Right now they are starting to pull honey supers and I am spending time on
BEE-L with mine all done. Varroa treatments completed weeks ago. Hives
needing feed already done.

I am the opposite of procrastination!

The procrastinator is doomed to fail in commercial beekeeping!

As a bee inspector Peter  I suspect you see plenty of the bee havors and box 
movers
in your travels.

bob

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