Hello Dick & All,

I also want to say you did an excellent job Dick with your "Die Off"
article! Best CCD article I have read yet!

Dick said:
>eventually you'll come to a small well-done study that cleaned up
Nosema Ceranae in three treatments.
>Dr Paxton has a paper coming soon in the Journal of
Invertebrate Pathology that will state that it's about everywhere.

As I said earlier I have not had trouble controlling nosema in my bees with
fumidil ( I treat  ONLY as needed according to my tests) but have noticed I
have had a low level nosema each fall for the last few years. This spring I
also had a low level nosema so treated. I have not had the nosema tested to
see if possibly nosema ceranae.

After reading the MAAREC information and seeing what Dick has posted when I
get on my feet again I am going to test and see if my spring nosema
treatment worked.

I posted on BEE_L around two weeks ago I detected a low level nosema in
package bees out of California . Those bees had fumidil in the feed can with
the package. I will recheck those bees also. I did not verify with a
microscope those findings but the Midgut was off colored and slightly
swollen in my field test. We did call the package producer and he said the
hives the bees & queens came from had been fed Fumidil before almonds.
I went ahead and did another treatment with fumidil to clean up the problem
hopefully.

I am not happy about the price increase on Fumidil and feel the product is
overpriced but only one source so we have no choice.
We have always been held hostage in Fumidil pricing! I remember when a 9.5
gram bottle was around twenty bucks but was quite awhile ago!

 Having to spend three times the treatment price (worse scenario) adds up.
Right now figuring roughly $120 a 9.5 gram bottle ( $129 plus shipping in
most catalogs today)will treat approx. 120 spring hives the cost is a dollar
a hive spring and fall treatment at approx. 60 hives for the same bottle (
easy number to figure) the cost per hive would be approx. $2 per hive. Looks
like my cost this year the way things are going is an annual $3 per hive.

 If I should need three treatments (as per Dick's post) instead of one
spring & fall this year (worst case scenario) my Fumidil cost could run as
high as $3 a hive in spring and $9 this fall which would be $12 a hive which
would effect the bottom line of profitability. Could equal my feed cost in
fall ( I only feed as needed for obvious reasons but fall feeding with the
last two years of drought has been necessary due to zero fall flow in our
area) and could be higher than treatment cost for varroa mite!

HFCS  has increased in price due to the current price of corn ( corn prices
last year were slightly over a dollar a 100wt. and the last I bought by the
ton in February was almost $4 a 100wt.).

This time last year  55% HFCS delivered by tanker in the Midwest was  .17 a
pound.( Several cents higher in California for reasons I have yet to
understand)

 Today's price locally for  42% is  .28 a pound . The cost is expected to
continue to rise making HFCS prices double for those commercial beekeepers
needing to feed bees.

Most of us have switched to sucrose but sucrose has always cost about twice
what we paid last year for HFCS which although I personally think is a
better bee feed ( as per my April ABJ HFCS article) is still making feed
costs this year almost double last year.
After learning of the widespread use of sucrose by California beekeepers I
had planned to spend the extra money for sucrose but again paying double for
feed makes profitability harder.

Also fuel cost is still rising in our area although within .20 a gallon of
this time last year but expected to rise.

Like I said in a post a couple days ago I doubt a $35 handout for a
verifiable CCD loss will make new people rush to get into beekeeping.

The above are fixed cost on the rise. I can not get away without buying bee
feed, fuel or fumidil at present.

On the bright side it seems the drought has ended so less feeding might be
done and I have consolidated yards ( higher numbers to start) trying to save
fuel. If things turn dry I can always go and reduce hive numbers in yards
later but cutting the number of yards saves labor and fuel for now.

I realize most on the list are hobby and the above is not a consideration
but even hobby beekeepers like to keep abreast of the current situation in
commercial beekeeping.

Another problem effecting large operations is getting Mexican help in. It
seems ( I was made aware of last week)there is a problem getting those
people into the country since George Bush visited Mexico last month. The
problem has been reported to me by a good source and is only effecting the
largest of commercial operations so of little concern to most on the list
but I have no reason to doubt the information I was passed.

Lack of help is a serious concern to those using out of country help.

I am on a very small beekeeping business level these days but profitability
and sustainability in business is important whether serious sideline or
small commercial! Beekeeping for a living is hard work!

bob


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