wrote:

>Is there a medium or large beekeeper on this list who has recently
>experienced usually high unexpalined losses and is brave enough to
>come forward and discuss it in this forum?

OK I'm coming out of the closet. I lost 15 out of 15 in one of my 2
apiaries. The other had 20% losses. (i.e. normal). There's a few handfuls of
bees left in one colony that act strange and will be on the way to a lab in
the next few days. Since I wrote about CCD it seems too easy to jump on that
bandwagon but the symptoms are similar. I'm in Ct and the bees never moved.

I interview a lot of people for my article. I have about 20 contacts that I
won't name. When I asked a large operator if he had lost bees he frankly
told me that he wouldn't tell me if he had.

I wondered a bit about this answer but there are a number of reasons:
1. He may have pollination contracts he's scrambling to cover and he
wouldn't want the growers to get nervous.
2. He wouldn't want competition to know he was weakened. 
3. It's a bit like publicizing a financial statement; who wants to do that?
3. There may be a certain amount of guilt involved over not taking good care
of the bees. Guilt is a common reaction when trauma hits.
4. He may not want to itemize the stuff that went in the hive that wasn't
legal.
5. He may not want growers and potential customers to be suspicious of
future bees or bee-products.

OK out there, you don't have to come out of the closet, just add to my list.
What is the reluctance?



Dick Marron
 

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