I waited to see if someone will drop something like this (since there is beekeepers from New Zealand on the List): Two years ago NATO had lunched air strike on Yugoslavia, which is my the neighbouring country. In the same time, for approximately 2 weeks, large part of my country (Macedonia) were under big (I don't know how big) ozone hole. This (if not first) was very rare occasion: I remember that for 15 minutes walking without hat under the sun, I started to fill headache. In about same time - for the sake of my neighbours, I couldn't work my bees because the bees were unbelievable aggressive. The supers were empty but all the bee yard was smelling like the best honey flow is in progress - the mountain meadow plants were in full blooming. The reason was not local as I was inclined to think at that same time, because after that (in autumn), many beekeepers from all over the country had reported the same aggressive behaviour in their bees and empty supers, but... I am only one who speculate that reason was in extra UV radiation - all others were convinced that reason was NATO strike (low flight of helicopters, radiation from bombs and missiles, etc. etc.) (...in the same season beekeepers from Yugoslavia reported that they had one of their best honey years!) Anyone who had find any correlation/indication between aggressiveness of bees and ozone holes (extra UV radiation)? ===== Aleksandar Mihajlovski, editor of Macedonian beekeeping journal: "Melitagora" Ul. Helsinki 41 a, 1000 Skopje, Macedonia Tel./Fax(modem): ++ 389 2 363-424 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Join "Apimak", Macedonian discussion group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apimak __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions! http://auctions.yahoo.com