_ _ _______ ______ _____ _ _ _ | \ | | ____\ \ / / ___| | ___| | __ _ ___| |__ | | | \| | _| \ \ /\ / /\___ \ | |_ | |/ _` / __| '_ \ | | | |\ | |___ \ V V / ___) | | _| | | (_| \__ \ | | | |_| |_| \_|_____| \_/\_/ |____/ |_| |_|\__,_|___/_| |_| (_) The first blooms of the almond pollination season are opening and its wet, it's starting to rain again with a guarantee of one to eight inches depending on who you listen too, and some have been listening and the central California dams have been opened just in case, causing rivers to fill bank to bank with flooding in the low lands. If the rains come as predicted, the past months floods will look like good times compared to what can happed in the flat central valley when all is full, earth, dams, creeks, and rivers, and along comes a good old frog strangler. Beekeepers are starting to move their bees into the almond orchards that have good roads and finished their dormant spraying. Many orchards have yet to be sprayed and with little dormant weather are now in a condition to bloom as the buds are swelling because of the warm tropical storms that continue to visit. The total loss of bees and their hives from the earlier floods may never be know as little effort has been made to make a accurate count as the majority of the loss were out of state bees anyway. Early reports of bee hives seen in the rivers for 100 miles were more then likely accurate as if all the bees in the almonds were placed end to end down the middle of highway 99 they would reach from Bakersfield to Mt Shasta with not gaps. My own guess is that between 8% and 10% of the 900,000 hives that are in the state were lost and washed out to sea by way of San Francisco bay. ttul Andy- (c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk. 12496 --- ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ May the Carrier be with you.