?> >Opps! the almond areas are all AHB.

>Hardly, Bob!  There has only been an occasional find of AFB in the most 
>southerly almond areas.  An ocassional AHB hive might be tolerated in a 
>vast Bakersfield almond orchard with few folk around, but could cause 
>serious issues in most of the orchards that I pollinate in Northern Calif!

Pardon me, but does this not seem like a double standard?   A few AHB here 
and there in California and hence scattered through All the US contiguous 
states don't count, yet Argentine queens from areas which are at least as 
AHB-free are excluded from the US as I understand it.

Speaking of Mexican bees, before AHB came to Mexico, we in Canada imported 
hundreds of Mexican packages on a trial basis.  They did OK, but nobody 
wanted them again: They were incredibly mean!

I was reminiscing recently with one guy I know, mentioning how I had been 
down to inspect his Mexican packages for a wintering programme back then. 
He laughed and said, "I probably gassed them after they were counted into 
the programme. None of my guys would go near them".  That having been said, 
much of the beekeeping labour hired in Western Canada is seasonal help these 
days and many have bees at home.  I wonder how that works? 

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