Lou said:
 >I am interested to know the current status of  Oz bee product imports into
USA.

I can really only speak about  the bees & packages from Browns Bees
Australia. I have done five articles in ABJ on their bees. I can post the
months and articles if you have access to old ABJ's.

Half my bees are Australian. I see no chalkbrood. Chalkbrood *I have been
told* is still an issue with the other exporters but I have no direct
knowledge. I found three hives with minor chalkbrood in the first import but
not all the queens were from browns Bees as basically his season was over
when we asked terry for a pallet of package bees and he asked around to find 
enough queens.

I have been very happy with the queens but I believe this years import have
been the best for my operation. A bit nippy on a cloudy day when all the
bees are in the hive or worked without smoke.
Some of the largest brood patterns I have seen. Very prolific.
Will fly in a light rain and fly earlier than my U.S. stock.
Recent findings:
 Will spend the
night in the field when being open fed or working plants. I think the fact 
that the
Australian bees will spend the night in the field is important as when the
bees return at first light they kind of wake the hive up. To test my
hypothesis I would get up before sun up and go to the Australian hives. At
first light I would see the bees returning and passing nectar to house bees
which in my opinion woke the colony up and soon the foragers were taking
flight. In the same yard few bees would be leaving the U.S. hives and the
activity did not pick up until the bees I painted returned.

I re did the experiment this week using blond cordovan bees and Australian
bees. Using a large tank coated with honey both the cordovan bees and the
Australian bees visited ( easily told apart). At dusk the cordovan returned
to the hives. The Aussie bees spent the night. The Aussie bees did not take
flight at first light but left quickly about fifteen minutes later with a
load of honey headed to the hives and returned a couple times before I
started to see the cordovan bees.

In my opinion the above explains observations of seeing the Aussie hives 
with activity up to an hour earlier than my U.S. bees.

Last January while in Florida I helped install 150 queens from Taylor (
Australia) and have not heard yet about the results. I hope to check those
hives this January.

bob

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