regardless of what bee someone is using , there is no excuse any more to use mite treatments that 
contaminate comb. beekeepers must accept the role they have played in the demise of honeybees. 
contamination of comb with high levels of miticides is now documented and appears to contribute 
to the overall problems of recent  bee losses.. 

we have apiguard, formic and OA depending on your situation which do work. i'm not saying i'm 
the worlds best beekeeper but I and others I know seem to be able to keep bees alive using these 
soft treatments. 

then there is the russian bee, for honey production the russian bee does not appear to have any 
drawbacks - I realize that for mid winter pollination of a tree that is native to Asia (almonds) that 
the russian is not going to work.  but wait - maybe no bee will work given the requirements of 
almond pollination. 

nobody is forcing beekeepers to risk their operation to go for the "pot o gold" in almonds. frankly 
that whole operation out there looks grossly unsustainable. 
 
IMO almonds are ruining US beekeeping. unless we genetically modify the honeybee i don't see 
how there will ever be a way to congregate 100's of thousands of colonies in a small place and not 
wreak havoc. this is not the answer any one wants to admit so we go on with the silly notion that 
science will somehow find a way to allow an unsustainable method of agriculture to continue. 

over a period of 3 years I wonder how the loss statistics would trend if every out state beekeeper 
left their hives home over the winter and skipped the cluster in CA?  leave those poor CA 
beekeepers alone and let the almond industry work with what bees they have in CA and stop 
transporting the latest bee crisis annually cross continent. 

i'm just tired of the notion that its everything else except beekeeper practices that are causing all 
of the troubles.  

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