--- On Tue, 5/7/13, Bill T <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> http://beeinformed.org/2013/05/winter-loss-survey-2012-2013/
> Losses were about average (about 30%) since they started the

So why does the USDA put an alarmist spin on this average loss?:
"We're just one adverse climatological event or one big loss
of bees in winter away from a pollination disaster," said
scientist Jeff Pettis, one of the report's authors.

http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/decline-us-honeybee-population-endangers-many-crops-053826835.html

I mean last spring and summers Midwestern heat and drought
was approximately a 50 year climatic event and yet managed
colony losses were just average.

And if, hypothetically, there was a 20% shortage of bees for the
almond crop in any given year, how does that translate into
a "pollination disaster"?  I drive California's Central Valley
every week and have noted the almond trees growing in abandoned
orchards and in residential yards still set a good number of
nuts without managed hives nearby.

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

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