Gavin said:
.On the Scottish beekeeping forum we had fun with a blog last year, written
by Mason, which claimed that Varroa is not the problem but a symptom,
implying that Varroa would be benign if it were not for neonics. It takes
all types I suppose ....

The above hypothesis has long been tossed about but only a hypothesis and 
one
of many concerning bee health. Certainly not provable.

What we don't know is so vast it makes what we do know seem absurd.

Other hypothesis which could be effecting bee health which were met with
ridicule.

When Dr, Carrick said and produced research (which he sent to me before
presenting) describing *without* virus bees have no problem with varroa both
of us were laughed at in commercial beekeeping circles.

When the HFCS research from Dr. Gregory at the Weslaco Bee lab was presented
at both national conventions and I published in an American Bee Journal
article commercial beekeepers were slow to accept HFCS might be causing
problems.

No single cause for bee health issue has been found but many areas suspect.

Most successful commercial operations has at least one professional
beekeeper aware of current research and possible suspects. The rest of the
operation might be described as box movers ( certainly not true in every
operation).


bob

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