Andy and all,
        Whew, you gave me a scare there.  Here I am getting ready to
hitch up the John Deere and go back and disk up the wildlife food plots
I sowed with sunflower and millet.  At first I thought you were telling
me that sunflowers were bad for my bees.   In many ways I'm lucky in
that I live in the middle of Ky Horse country and the vast majority of
the land around my farm is pasture and hay fields.   Because the horsey
people don't want to poisen their animals pesticides are almost never
used in any quantities.  My one neighbor does have about 300 acres he
alternates with corn and soybeans.  His use of pesticides is minimal.
He uses herbicides more than pesticides.  (we are hunting buddies so he
keeps me up to date on what's going on)
        I seem to recall that Andy mentioned somewhere that you can
control your losses from pesticides--I'm assuming you meant by not
moving your hives where somebody is spraying the earth with junk.  Since
I am neither a commercial beekeeper and my hives stay exactly where they
are I don't know if I can have any control over the situation.
        I truly appreciate the information I glean from these pages.
Beekeeping is one sideline I have found where there is little substitute
for experience.  Books can help.  But books are largely written by
authors whose experience is regional.  So you can learn the concepts
about things like supering, nectar flows, hive body reversing, etc.  But
the actual knowledge about how and when to apply these concepts in
practical application differs greatly from region to region.  I have
been keeping bees for 3 years now and have 20 hives.  Some I started
from packages, some from splits, the first few I bought were "started
splits" from a local bee guy.  I have two people I rely on for
information--each with very different perspectives.  One fellow, in his
90s, at one time had over 400 hives.  His primary goal was/is honey
production.  The mites hit him hard a few years back and he never really
had the heart  (or energy) to build his apiaries back up.  He finally
retired from the bee business last year and sold his remaining 200
hives.  (I got a great deal on a 1 year old Kelly extractor<G>)  Frank
is a great resource for me and I probably call him every week with
another question.  He also visits my apiary from time to time to look in
my hives and give me some advice.  The other fellow I deal with is in
his mid 70s.  I  bought my first splits from him.  He does a lot with
the local club but his focus seems more on making beehives, and selling
"started hives" to new beekeepers.  He actually sells about 80 new hives
a year.  He does run his own apiary with about 40 hives.  However, it is
clear that honey is not his major interest.   Combined, these gentlemen
have over 60 years of beekeeping experience.  What a great resource for
me.  Their advice is always on the money-and often contradicts some of
the book advice.
        So to sum it up.  I appreciate all you do here and on your web
site.
Best Regards,
Jeff Schriner