> Except that many "successful" beekeepers have experienced large scale
catastrophic and unexplained losses.

Unless you start to question those beekeepers.  I've questioned many on
details, and if they answer candidly, it's extremely rare that a
catastrophic loss is "unexplained."

Even in your case Pete, how often were your monitoring mite levels, and
what percentage of your colonies did you monitor, pre and post treatment?

>  Too many want to find some cosmic mysterious cause of colony loss when
in fact it is nearly always TLTL (too little too late)

I'm very much in agreement with Paul's comment.  I learned long ago to pay
less attention to the complainers, and more attention to the quiet guys who
put money into the bank year after year.  The ones who fill their almond
contracts year after year--meaning that they needed to have strong, healthy
colonies going into winter.  From them I've learned that there is no magic,
no secrets to success--it's just diligent practice of good animal husbandry
and being proactive rather than reactive.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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