Tim Tucker wrote:   I would imagine that your shrinking foragable area will
further deteriorate and create other problems locals and small operators
will have to deal with. 

Hi Tim

I was speaking last night with a large queen producer from the north valley
of Calif.  He says that the area is currently saturated with bee yards.  He
noted that any added load is felt by the locals.  In his own operation, he
doubled the number of colonies in each yard in order to run larger
numbers--knowing well that it would effectively cut forage in half for each
colony.  It did, and it showed in his bees.  He's being forced to summer his
bees out of state to keep them strong for almonds.

The question is:  is Calif beekeeping going to go to the "feedlot" model
that Keith is successful with (supplementing or replacing natural forage
with vegetable protein and sugar syrup), or to moving bees out of state for
the summer, if the prices of diesel and honey sales make it cost effective.

Randy Oliver

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