Greetings I think Aaron made several important points. I urge anyone who skimmed his message to read it carefully and assimilate what he said. We need to be better beekeepers. It's not a matter of learning it and then doing it, one has to keep on learning one's whole life. Everything is changing and more rapidly than ever before. Beekeeping is 50% back, 50% brain. You can't skimp on either. The future lies in better bees, not letting nature take her course. Nature will probably ensure that bees will survive, but not necessarily *my* bees and not necessarily bee-keepers. Good examples from the wine industry! The grapes themselves have been selected and bred, too. If you want good wine you have to pay more; the blended stuff can be real cheap but you may get a hangover... Beekeeping is one of those things that is so tightly tied to weather and climate and markets, that it will always be unpredictable. That's why so few people are in agriculture, it just keeps getting harder all the time. You have to love it. And I haven't heard of anyone getting a crop insurance policy on honey. pb