> Jim seems to think beekeepers are for the most part too stupid to 
> train.

I resent that. 
I said nothing of the sort.
What I said was that most beekeepers lack skills and/or motivation.  
I said nothing about ability.

Let me provide some very specific examples of what I meant:

1) Please tell us where you currently get media appropriate for 
   culturing foulbrood.  If you make it, list your ingredients
   and recipe.

2) Please tell us what your favorite stain is for highlighting
   nosema spores on slides when looking at midgut contents.  
   What is the stain you'd like to use, but can't afford?
   What are the minimum and maximum size of nosema spores
   in microns, and what does this imply for large-scale
   screening efforts?

3) Lastly, please explain to us in brief how you prepare a sample 
   for an electron microscope.  :)  (Hey, you said "electron
   microscope", and you have not made any correction, so I'll
   take you at your word that you have some hands-on experience!)

The above (except for #3) should be trivial if you are planning 
on teaching others how to "diagnose", so any delay in responding 
will indicate that you yourself lack specific experience and 
factual knowledge basic to even the simple types of diagnosis 
you propose to teach.  (Note that I said nothing about intelligence.)


> I really can not believe there are beekeepers around
> (except maybe Jim) which believe that the current die off 
> is because of a single NEW problem.

Something else for me to resent, as your summation is not
only clearly at odds with what I said, but both puts words
in my mouth I never spoke, and implies assumptions in my 
head that I would never make. (As always, I meant what I 
said, and I said what I meant.)

I don't think that we have evidence yet to support a claim that 
CCD is or is not caused by a single factor, nor do I think that 
the evidence currently at hand supports any claim that the 
factor(s) are new.

In fact, the exact symptoms being called "CCD" have been seen 
before, at least in the mid-1970s and in the 1960s.  I'm not 
certain about "disappearing disease" symptoms prior to the 1960s, 
as I can't seem to find clear symptom lists prior to the 1960s. 
(Anyone with a clue on this, please e-mail me.)

So, to summarize:

1) You proposed tooling up with tools that may not be 
   appropriate, as no one knows what tools are required
   at this point.

2) You proposed educating and equipping beekeepers when a
   better investment would be to fund a ramp-up of capacity
   and throughput at existing labs, where "quality control"
   can be more than an empty phrase.

3) What we clearly don't need is yet another layer of 
   bureaucracy to hold its hand out for the few dollars
   that will be allocated to "CCD", even if it has a
   laudable goal.  We have existing groups that train
   people on a regular basis, so learn to play well with
   others, rather than creating yet another stand-alone
   effort.

4) We don't need ANY efforts other than "R&D" right now.
   When "R&D" comes up with something akin to "an answer",
   THEN we can decide how to socialize whatever best
   practices are considered appropriate.  We may need
   every single dollar for the "R&D".

But other than the above, we are in perfect agreement. :)


   

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