>
> >I certainly have seen the whole colony run out of the hive plenty of
> times. Maybe they couldn't get out fast enough, and suffocated. Just a
> guess.


That is the same thing that we normally see.  But none ran out in this
hive--they just started falling off the combs and dying.  My sons fumed
hundreds of hives this past week, but only one exhibited a bee kill.

Dick, a question for you.  Understood that the anhydride would be more
reactive, but due to its low vapor pressure, do you feel that there would
be significant exposure to a beekeeper?  Since the butyric acid vapors
would be at far greater concentration, I'd expect that the beekeeper would
avoid inhaling any significant amount of the anhydride due to the stink
from the butyric acid.  And even then, wouldn't the relatively few
molecules of the anhydride immediately degrade when they hit the mucus
coating your lung membranes and form butyric acid?

I'm asking for reasonable safety concerns.  I've inhaled excesses of both
formic and vaporized oxalic acids, and would not want to do again.  But
I've never had concern about inadvertently inhaling a dangerous amount of
butyric acid.


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

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