Hello Mike,

Thanks for the post, I'm not offended and appreciate your time in writing all of this. As it stands right now a lot of good bees are not rented. It is not the almond grows problem that some keepers choose to winter in cold climates even though they know that the bees are committed to the almonds in late Jan.

 Ignorance and poor beekeeping practices is no fault of the grower.

 The grower has his whole year's revenue riding on three weeks of pollination.

 How would you feel if you were like my friend Mike H., with two thousand hives not rented because other keepers brought in crap at a lower price? Mike H. is going to lose several hundred thousand dollars because of ignorant keepers. Also, a guy from Idaho is sitting with 400 that can't be rented (good bees too ). Look in the Modesto Bee or Fresno Bee papers online, you will see bees renting for $80. Who am I going to feel sorry for, take a wild guess.

If I were to send my bees to the blueberry pollination out in Timbuck-too, in which I've never done before, you can bet my homework would be complete before I ever loaded a single hive.

Keith

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