Hello Randy, Paul & All, Both Randy & Paul make interesting points but I think a Midwest beekeeper should respond. First let me say the amount of fungicide sprays applied to soybeans (& corn) corresponds with the current price of soybeans & corn. If you Google "soybean fungicide sprays" you will find countless sites which urge caution using fungicide sprays on soybeans *unless corn prices are in the $7 a bushel range or soybeans in the 14-15 range.* Money is made on chemicals and many sprays are not needed and actually cost the farmer rather than make money. Soybean rust being the *Poster child*. Next we come to Soybean Rust discovered in the south a few years ago. Alabama I think. After news hit that Soybean Rust was in the U.S. truckloads of spray was applied even if no rust was yet detected. Chemical companies ( Syngenta) rushed to register Bravo & Quadis for Soybean Rust. Worse yet many many section 18's were given for propicoonazole, myclobutanil & tebiconazole to fight this new menace. The important thing to remember is if everyone is spraying then we never really know if would have been a menace and famers need to continue spraying as a preventive. Next we come to the BIG PROBLEM concerning honey bees and fungicides: In my opinion and in order to sell more chemicals many spray applicators recommend a combination of fungicides. Combinations are never tested when chemicals are registered. In the Mississippi delta after soybean rust was discovered and the above chemicals were sprayed the commercial beekeepers started seeing high bee loss. After a couple years of high bee kills beekeepers in those areas left the soybean (and cotton ) fields (which they had kept bees in for several generations of beekeepers) and moved on. So farmer greed ( highest yields possible) and chemical company greed ( sell more products and the push to spray even if might not be needed) and the spray outfits which spray when bees are in the field ( 8-5 jobs) are not helping the situation. As beekeepers we see the results ( dead hives or weakened hives) and after a couple seasons we are forced to stop believing what big ag tells us and go with our observations. Before other migratory pollination started many commercial migratory beekeepers migrated into soybean fields , cotton fields and irrigated alfalfa for their honey crops. Sprays on these crops have stopped many from making honey on these crops. Now in the Midwest many are seeing problems around soybeans due to being unable to find areas free from soybeans as Paul says as 30% of my area is soybeans. With the dollar losing ground daily against other currency the problem does make a windfall for farmers as other countries want to buy a higher amount of soybeans and corn so I see no end to the problem. When Allen Dick went out of business in Canada I could get a dollars worth of bee equipment for sixty five cents. Not today! The higher price for Aussie queens & packages is because of the falling U.S. dollar. bob bob *********************************************** 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