Hello All,
Still unable to send email due to a weak wireless signal so comments in 
the long form will come later. Also answers to Medhats private questions.

The main points on the DE hypothesis:

90% of harmful emissions go away after idle.At idle harmful emissions the 
highest.

chemical particle size is small enough to be a problem for insects.

No research has ever been done on if DE emissions are harmful to insects.

Due to DOT regulations most semi loads from the Midwest are only on the 
road for up to ten hours and then sit all night in a truck stop. At least 
30 hours for loads from the Midwest and 40+ for Florida/Georgia loads

I know of only a couple beekeepers with their own semi's which use two 
drivers. We have never sent a load with other than a single driver. The 
trend today is a single driver only driving 8-10 hours a day taking bees 
to almonds.

Problems with DOA on arrival or shortly after started after the new 
additives were put in use. The first year the industry placed the problem 
on varroa control. The next year CCD and this years trucking has just 
started so we will have to wait and see.

We started looking at the hypothesis after my last almond article. We 
blamed the California graders as we know what those bees looked like 
before shipment (due to the warm weather we had gone through the hives 
before shipment). As I said in my article five loads from the Dakotas were 
basically DOA on arrival . When I spoke with the beekeeper he said the 
bees looked great before shipment. This was the year before CCD so little 
interest except for my article.

Hopefully members of the national organizations will see fit to provide 
research funds for our hypothesis. A board member of the ABF will present 
our hypothesis.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
In the deep south with temps going into teens tonight. Snow forecast for 
parts of Florida. 

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