Mark, don't get too envious! As Mea said, many of us out here in
California got hit this year, big time. For my area, 180 days last year
without a drop of rain, bears, an explosion of Yellow Jackets, ants along
with the regular problems. And during the time we normally get that nice
Eucalyptus honey we got so much rain that the Eucalyptus crop was what I
imagine the Almond crop in our area will be. This has been my worst year
ever, but now that the ground is wet, the weather is sunny and there are
huge amounts of flowers I trust it will start getting better. I went from
100 hives to 35, and the 23 that I took to the Almonds didn't really build
up much. The open mated Russians did the best, for anyone interested, both
for surviving and Jan-March honey production.

So, to stay on subject, I've started my splits yesterday hoping to avoid
losing any more swarms. It means a loss of honey, probably my main crop,
but with all those hives standing empty I guess I don't have much choice.

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