On Sat, 02 Jan 2016 10:55:33 -0500, [log in to unmask]  
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Interesting thoughts  and somewhat acurate E.T.  as noted there are 
> always some isssues such as a shipping problem or a poor mating week in 
> some areas.

Speaking of bee shipping, Santa has dropped Frank Pellett's History of  
American Beekeeping(*) under my tree this year. Just finished reading the  
chapter on the start of California beekeeping and the exploits of one  
J.S.Harbison. Packed 67 colonies on a month-long boat trip from PA via NY  
and Panama to San Francisco and arrived with 50 viable colonies all in  
1857. And this was after many, many others have tried and failed to get  
colonies to the west coast. Talk about audacious ingenuity! New Yorkers  
are crazy, but this was one CA dude that just wouldn't give up until he  
got his bees, then becoming one of the largest honey producers in the  
country.

Przemek

(*)Highly recommended; 1938 prose and grammar are a bit strange to this  
non-native English speaker, but the character descriptions of the giants  
of American beekeeping are fascinating. I guess it's no surprising to the  
experts on this forum, but it's amazing that after millennia of beekeeping  
it would take a new country like US to cross the chasm and advance  
beekeeping into the commercial age.

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