From the Lompoc Record
http://www.lompocrecord.com/

> Driving east out of town on Highway 246, en route to John French's Las Flores Apiary on Mail Road, I saw some white boxes scattered about in a field near Cebada Canyon Road. They were some of the 4,200 Las Flores hives in 50 locations from Creston to Buellton to Cuyama to the Santa Maria and Lompoc Valleys.

> John and Greta French and their son James keep some serious bees. Parked in their ranch driveway were two huge flatbed trucks used to haul hives to distant locations. A very large shed nearby housed very large machines that uncap honeycomb cells and extract honey. In years when bee production is high, 15 people working 10 hours a day may process the product of 500 hives a day, rendering 26 to 30 barrels of premium honey per day. That happens when the rains come in March.

> John's thoughts about CCD? He knows the prevailing theories, but he has no firm opinion as to the cause. He does know that the price of honey is increasing, that production is down 70 million pounds nationwide from last year, and that the decrease is attributed to CCD.

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