On Fri, 14 Mar 1997, Adrian Wenner wrote:
 
>    Yes, shortage of bee colonies does exist.  In the following article:
>
>   1996  Wenner, A.M. and W.W. Bushing.  Varroa mite spread in the United
> States.  BEE CULTURE.  124:341-343 (June issue).
>
> we included a graph, one modified from a government publication (authors
> Hof and Willett).  The U.S. now has about half the number of colonies it
> did in 1950.
>
>     Hi Adrain and All,
 
   I knew that we lost many beekeepers over the last few years do to the
mites. I was not awhare of the large drop of hives since 1950.
 We can do something. I know that there are courses availible and plenty
of info on the web do to the work of some great people on this list. When
we give talks about bees, we are projecting the wonderful parts of
beekeeping.That is where it starts, people need to be educated about honey
bees.I don't think we can turn the schools around to be like Janko's posts
a week ago. He lives in the heart of carni land and the people know it and
educate there children about beekeeping.
 Last night I recieved a call to give a talk to another Kiwanis club. I
get a free lunch and sometimes a new person in the world of beekeeping.
 
 Best Regards
 Roy