>I've also spoken with those who received bees from out of state to place
into almonds.  Many arrived crawling with mites or in poor shape otherwise.

I guess kind of hurts to see those hives receiving a higher pollination fee than your hives.
(chuckle)

>On the other hand, one beekeeper in the Illinois corn belt walked up to me
and said that he sent 2400 of his 2600 hives to almonds.

Always come back to corn it seems?

Hopefully the competition will keep placing bees in corn.

Maybe almond pollination for out of state beekeepers sending bees to almonds ( as California beekeepers could never supply all the hives or even a third) will top out at a thousand dollars a hive if hives keep crashing.

> I'm fully aware, as Bob points out, that none want to have their
names publicly associated with CCD.  They are far more candid at the Calif
Queen Breeders meetings.

Not good for business.

>  The consistently successful have a few management techniques in common:

Are you saying the reason the largest and most successfully operation the world has ever seen ( Adee honey farms) loss is PPB?


>Bob, are you saying that drought over 60% of the country,  following a
warm, varroa-breeding winter, coupled with lack of Taktic for mite control,
are not enough reasons to explain unusually high colony losses?

Certainly is enough for Bayer.

Most tactic use I hear of comes from California. Seriously. I am not trying to offend.
You hear rumors of poor hives coming in from out of state and out of state beekeepers hear of all these illegal treatments being used in California. Hopefully both only rumors!

>Are you saying that neonicotinoid use suddenly increased last season,
resulting in higher losses than in previous years?  If so, please share
your sources of information.

Sure.

Each year new products are introduced? Use increases. Correct?
Certainly not *less* neonic use!

Higher losses (50% USDA figure 2012/2013) correct.

Coincidence? You tell me.

I said:
>the problem is too big for the USDA to handle?

The above is easy to see in my opinion. Cutting back is what we have observed at bee labs.


> >Virus is a good scapegoat.


Especially since they are so demonstrably effective at killing colonies.

Many of us are not convinced. With over two million hives there is no proof virus is a serious problems. Certainly a hypothesis.

Virus kelt ma bees?

I mean no offense to Jerry B. but those promoting virus as behind CCD and the bee kill have been for the most part dropped from funding and as posted some researchers are doing articles discounting the virus hypothesis. Correct.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree on a few issues.

bob

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