I just received this, but which was dated March 2, 1988:

> Over the last several weeks, many beekeepers across the state have experienced unusual winter losses. Some bee yards have suffered 100% losses. This problem seems to occur state wide and exists in both hobby and commercial operations. I have talked with people all over the U. S. and have found that other states are also having similar problems; some even sound worse than ours, with one state estimating a loss of around 150,000 colonies. 

> These colony losses are characterized by extremely small starved clusters, or the complete absence of bees, in the colony in spite of abundant colony stores. Something or a combination of events has caused the winter cluster size to dwindle away in a hurry. After talking with beekeepers and scientists in several states, we think that the honeybee trachael mite (HBTM) is a definite factor in colony demise. 

Point is, large scale losses are not new; nor is the effort to attribute causes, which may or may not be at fault.

PLB

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