In all seriousness, I think it's our environment.  This is kind of a widely generalized excuse but it takes into account our airborne pollutants from all sectors of society, the industrialization of monocultured agriculturalism (don't you just love that phrase) and the continual intervention and intrusion of the chemicals we think we need to combat the parasitic pests in the beehive.
 
In short, I think it's the environment outside the hive, the quality of the available forage, and what we're putting into the hive.  I also think our genetic selection, some of it forced upon us by parasitic pests and disease, plays a role.  There are always long term consequences to short term decisions, some of which are unintended, most of which are unpredicted.
 
On a totally unrelated note, I immediately thought of my 81-year old father who insists we don't have the winters like we did 30-50 years ago.  He remembers when a "lardy" hog was highly prized by the local butcher.  Now everything is lean and mean.  Then he'll launch into one of his favorite monologues on how you used to be able to raise a family on a small farm without the benefit of off-farm income. There's a lot of things that have changed.
 
And just as a totally unrelated tangent, yesterday, November 15th, my bees were still bringing in yellow and orange pollen.  And it's the middle of November!
 
Grant
Jackson, MO




      

             ***********************************************
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

Access BEE-L directly at:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L