Medhat Nasr said, “ An average number of hives per commercial beekeeper in Alberta for example 2200 hives. In Europe is 500 hives (you can correct me in that).”

Thank you, I will. Only 3% of beekeepers in Europe have more than 150 hives according to EU stats.
http://www.cari.be/medias/abcie_articles/133_eu.pdf 

But we must stop thinking of Europe as ‘A Country’. There are between 45 and 50 (accounts differ) countries on the geographical continent of Europe and 27 dis-assorted countries make up the European Union. 
The statistics which are available are for the EU and are not very reliable but they have the merit of existing.

 “According to our (French) Ministry of Agriculture, the average number of hives per Beekeeper is only 66 and this is an increase over previous years.
http://www.agreste.agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/primeur282.pdf
I have no idea where he gets the information. If it is from the beekeeping associations mine, which covers the Rhone, has never asked me how many hives I have. 

Finally, Ari is right when he says, “In EU formic, thymol and oxalic treatments are permitted in organic production” but the use of these products does not make one an organic producer as Randy seems to imply. The regulations are much more complicated than that and from the comments on today’s list I think that even most of your labels would also be banned under our legislation.

Bil, France

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