Thanks Pete.  I'd seen Dennis present this info.  The marked bee drifting
study was really eye opening, and confirmed the amount of drifting that
I've suspected.

Hey, can you send me a copy of Gloria's new paper in Environmental
Entomology when it comes out next week?

It's funny how she uses the word "unsustainable"-- the danged researchers
need to market themselves as needing more funding to avert economic
disaster.

How are your bees doing--are you able to recover from your winter losses?

Randy

On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 3:34 AM, Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> In case you haven't seen this:
>
> The importance of controlling varroa populations especially in areas of
> relatively dense bee colonies was stressed by Dr Dennis vanEngelsdorp at
> the BBKA Spring Convention earlier this month.
>
> A sick colony explodes into the landscape and infiltrates surrounding
> apiaries, he said.
>
> He identified the three key risk factors to bee health as varroa mites and
> associated viruses; pesticides in the field and in the hive; and poor
> nutrition.
>
> Of these varroa is the biggest threat – and he and a research student soon
> expect to publish a paper showing that varroa mites feed off the fat rather
> than the haemolymph of honeybees – a factor that is of considerable
> importance for bees going into winter.
>
> In a sample survey, he found that 56% of beekeepers had not used
> varroa-control products in the previous twelve months. For some hobbyists,
> not treating for varroa and losing, say, nine of ten colonies doesn’t
> matter too much. However, the impact does not stop at their own apiary.
>
> In another study, he and his team marked bees in an apiary either yellow
> or blue. Yellow indicated that the colony was collapsing, blue that the
> colony was healthy. The collapsing colonies duly died out, but their
> surviving yellow-marked bees exploded like a bomb in the landscape. Those
> yellow bees were found in almost every apiary in a two-to-three-kilometer
> radius!
>
> http://www.vita-europe.com/blog/
>
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-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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