what is it with the east coast and florida? 

its real quiet here in the mn/wis/ia region (please if someone else has info we'd love to hear it) the 
regional papers have not had any reports of massive local losses either.

for the stationary folks i've been in touch with,  winter losses are mixed with some reporting 
normal and others higher then average losses but pretty much typical stuff. 

i have a friend with russians north of here and he has very low losses (1:20) and he also winters 
lots of 4 frame nucs too. 

of course many of the migratory keepers are still on their way "home" yet so that part of the 
equation is missing. 

i still don't get why there was never a big run on packages/queens before late march. sure most 
are sold out now but thats normal for April. 

'Janet, many of us have commented on the bizarre claims made in several news stories. people 
with conspiracy theories of gmo's and emf "noise" have seized on this canary in a cold mine story. 
many writers have ignored academic and industry leaders who were being cautious and instead 
the more spectacular sources of info were included in the news. 

one thing does seem certian and that is conditions vary considerbly between beekeepers and 
regions. that "fact" has not been evenly covered. instead the stories appear to be mostly over-
worked variations of the "sky is falling",  i mean really i'm not sure what that map tells someone 
who is not a beekeeper. john or jane doe public could infer from the map that CCD is taking a 
major toll all over the USA. the map really shows where beekeepers who have CCD in their hives 
call home, not neccasarily where the losses are as we are finding out here on bee-L. 

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