Jeremy, >I always have some portion of hives that lag with these symptoms, usually >in the fall but also sometimes after almond pollination. It seems to take >a full 3-4 weeks of improved forage for the hives to recover. It is not >surprising to me that the symptoms have not cleared up yet. Thanks for the reply! I was going to call Georgia tonight and see what Jerry B. had to say when he spoke with the beekeeper. I have never seen these symptoms in our bees coming out of almonds. In fact some of the hives which were graded low are boiling with bees on the return and in many cases look better than the passed grade hives. I agree about queens. it is our practice to put a hive tool to queens in dink hives and eliminate small cluster hives in spring. The bottom line today does not allow trying to nurse hives back to health. In the name of research ( like Randy Oliver does) is one thing but in commercial beekeeping each hive is a unit with a dollar per season investment ( and some commercial beekeepers say the figure is close to a $100 per hive ( per season) for labor, meds, pollen sub and syrup but I think the figure is high but every beekeepers situation is different).. In fact the current price in the K.C. area for 3 pound package bees is from $80- to $85 and one seller is adding on sales tax. Both are adding on box deposit. I am mentoring a young commercial beekeeper and I keep pointing out the simple fact that today *his* key to success is healthy hives. Bees number one and all other things beekeeping second.( bottling, stores and equipment repair etc.) 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