Jeremy,

>I always have some portion of hives that lag with these symptoms, usually
>in the fall but also sometimes after almond pollination.  It seems to take
>a full 3-4 weeks of improved forage for the hives to recover.  It is not
>surprising to me that the symptoms have not cleared up yet.

Thanks for the reply! I was going to call Georgia tonight and see what Jerry
B. had to say when he spoke with the beekeeper.

I have never seen these symptoms in our bees coming out of almonds. In fact
some of the hives which were graded low are boiling with bees on the return
and in many cases look better than the passed grade hives.

I agree about queens. it is our practice to put a hive tool to queens in
dink hives and eliminate small cluster hives in spring. The bottom line
today does not allow trying to nurse hives back to health.

 In the name of research ( like Randy Oliver does) is one thing but in
commercial beekeeping each hive is a unit with a dollar per season
investment ( and some commercial beekeepers say the figure is close to a
$100 per hive ( per season) for labor, meds, pollen sub and syrup but I 
think the figure
is high but every beekeepers situation is different).. In fact the current
price in the K.C. area for 3 pound package bees is from $80- to $85 and one
seller is adding on sales tax. Both are adding on box deposit.

I am mentoring a young commercial beekeeper and I keep pointing out the
simple fact that today *his* key to success is healthy hives.

Bees number one and all other things beekeeping second.( bottling, stores 
and equipment repair etc.)

bob

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