Hello All,  I have been giving talks on bees this week and I have been
getting a lot of feedback about the lack of bees on fruit trees in
western Washington. I looked around myself and the problem is real. Now I
wonderif other parts of the world that has Varroa has the same problem?
We have lost many of our hobby beekeepers do to varroa and they don't
want to start up again. This could affect wildlife that lives off of
berrys and nuts. The real gold that the honeybee does for man is
pollenation. We move the bees to certain crops and then try to find a
place toget some honey.Honey prices are up for US honey and it should
stay up. We need all the bees that we can get , so the beekeeper needs to
make a living off of them so we will always have the bees around. If
domestic honey gets undercut very much , we will all feel the affects of
Mother nature. We need healthy bees in the whole world.Just take one
second to think about an other % 50 lose of honeybees with beekeepers and
no feral colonys. I have now looked at over 40 large apple trees in full
bloom aboy 6 miles from my home over a 4 hour period. I saw ONE carniolan
with a friend of mine.We did not see one bumbulbee either.This fall will
back up what we see now.
  A note to domestic producers,you are selling more than honey and you
need to get that accross. We need an educated public , so help educate
them.Everyone can help and we have the hammer.We only want the truth out
because it will last , I think this time the beekeepers have to show how
much the bees do for everyone and not just honey.We need the people to
support us and help themselves. We want packers to make money , but we
did loose a lot of beekeepers and not many packers. Times changes and now
its time to really support honey producer organozations and stick
together, because it is easy to have John Q public look outside and see
for themselves. I have been feeling bad seeing so many old time hobby
beekeepers going down. I'm 54 and I have never seen a spring with so few
bees on flowers all around.My trees can be herd 100 feet away and down
the road 6 miles nothing. This may be a big experiment in nature.
 Best regards
 
Roy