Charles
The real question for me is what choice is there?   I have no real options left.  Bee-l is great,  but no updates on the honey market here.As you know, we're slowly building a new audience - your own presence here on Bee-L, as well as several of your former classmates, points to that.Give costs, etc.  I think the future is OnLine publishing of a more technical nature.  Bee-L is great, but it's a stream of conscience, chronological set of postings that clog up email.  A year ago I built a possible alternative, but it was and remains first and foremost a way to organize testers of our pest, disease, and pesticide exposure diagnostic app for Smart Phones.  The APP was supposed to be a 90 day wonder, which is now going into Yr 2.  We tried to get a Pro version  out this spring - but ended up with too little, too late.  However, we're very close to having fixed the last hang-up for Commercial Beekeepers, Bee Inspectors, and Researchers.More importantly, we now have good evidence that the Acoustic App will work on current day Smart Hardware.  After several months of so-so performance, we found the source of the problem.  Once we fixed the glitch, the APP immediately flagged American Foul Brood, successfully grading levels (severity) of infection, on both  Android and iPhone.  It also flagged a few colonies as suspect - low probability, but  higher than normal, with no visible signs of infection.  Five of these colonies were flagged by the App.  We followed for past month.  One went queenless, one suddenly turned around and is now very strong - no longer reading as possibly infected.  Three are doing ok, with no signs of infection, but heavy propolis.  The literature says that up to 20% of infections may not be observable, and there's some evidence of bees self-medicating.  We also know that the Vita kits get positives on a few hives that do not show signs of AFB or EFB.   On the basis of 5 suspect hives, 3 of brought in and coated surfaces with propolis, I'm not claiming to know the answers - but it makes one wonder.   Regardless, I'd rather the App produced some false positives rather than miss infections.It's been a struggle to  get this app ready for  serious testing.  Our goal now is to have it ready for southern hemisphere this coming field season - which is fast approaching.We do have over 15 years of extensive research into this, but the hardware was always the  stumbling block.  Unfortunately, it's far easier to get R&D money than commercialization $$.  The technology changed about 2 years ago when top-line Smart Phones added Facial Recognition - and with that the processing power and speed to  run Sound Recognition.Since I'm retired, I can put in Sweat Equity, as have some of my colleagues.  We're beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  When we get the App out on the  land for serious testing (and find some funds to be able to manage the huge data flows and software calibration for improved accuracy), I'll hopefully have time to fully launch our OnLine Bulletin Board for those who want a place to talk the 'dry, boring' stuff that Charles and most of us on Bee-L enjoy.

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