Hello All,
The following is taken from a paper put out by Lyle Johnston ( 
broker/beekeeper which places around 40,000 -50,000 hives into almond 
pollination.)

Lyle Johnston:

" The devestating drought throughout most of the mid-west will cause stress 
on hives going into fall. There are a few areas that did produce but many 
beekeepers are reporting the worst crop since they began keeping bees. I 
would venture to say that 60% of the bees that pollinate almonds spend the 
summers in the Mid-west states. We have all had poor crops before and no 
matter what you do the bees after a bad crop ( pollen patties ,feed) the 
bees never seem to recover and look healthy."

Hopefully Lyle is wrong about the above but exactly what I am seeing and 
hearing.

This year will put a final nail in several outfits coffin.

 Many Dakota beekeepers are in Texas trying rebuild in time for almonds  we 
were told at the meeting. 

One Mid-west beekeeper moved bees to the Dakotas to try and get a honey 
crop and met with disaster. Now he is in Texas trying to rebuild. On top of 
everything else we were told yesterday he fell off an RV roof and broke his 
leg and has had to have surgeries and pins installed!

Keith Delaplane did a program at the KHPA  meeting on pollination. His 
conclusion is the need for pollinators keeps growing and the number of 
hives available keeps dropping.

Bob

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