From: "Bob Harrison" Honey Production:
> "An old bee book I have says that per colony honey crops average 235 lbs.
in
> 1909, and the figure is 250 lbs. for 1916.
> Our average now  is about 60 lbs. THIS SUGGESTS THAT, IN SPITE OF ALL THE
> EFFORTS TO IMPROVE HONEY BEES , BY SEARCHING ALL OVER THE WORLD FOR BETTER
> BEES ,THERE HAS BEEN NO IMPROVEMENT AT ALL."
>
> Comments?

The answer in UK would be reduction in forage - in 1916 sheep grazed
clover-filled hillsides - agricultural practice has been to swamp wild
flowers with fertiliser that favours grass.  Farmers have been paid to grub
out thousands of miles of hedgerow to make bigger fields - they are now
being paid to put some back (it's all right, it's only the tax payer who has
to pay twice for nought).   England had had orchards for 2,000 years - now
an extreme rarity. Even wheat fields glowed with poppies, now hardly seen.
Super bees can't do better tha locally reared bees withhout something to
collect.

Nothing to do with winter wrap either.  Can we have a new theme?

Robin Dartington

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