Here is what I have seen recently in regard to hive health in southern coastal CA. I have been feeding hives for a commercial beekeeper on the coast recently, and some hives are very dramatically worse off than last season. It is my observation that beekeepers have been very much over-confident after how successful they were last season. 1. Starvation-- This season was a bad drought, and hives that stayed on the coast all season have been on the brink of starvation since September. Cannot feed them fast enough. Some yards were 15 frames in October and now are 6 frames. Hives that were brought to the coast full of cotton honey are in much better shape, but there appears to be a slow kill happening in some hives, with dead workers piled in front of the entrances. Eucalyptus started blooming this week, which is a helpful source of pollen. I am also noticing the phenomenon recently coined "entombed pollen" in many hives, where there is brick red pollen sealed beneath wax. 2. Varroa-- As more holding yards are brought into the area, mites are reappearing in previously healthy hives. In response the hives consume syrup reserves at a greater pace. All hives in other yards I have looked in have misc. forms of home-brew miticides. Also, hives are coming home from South Dakota after a poor clover honey crop loaded with mites. Apparently South Dakota has cracked down on off-label miticide usage, so the hives were not getting treated before being sent home. 3. General hive health-- I have noticed that the hives seem "fragile" this season. Feeding them syrup can be enough to kill what was a strong hive. This is apparent with the commercial run Italian hives. I have some yards with VSH queens where the hives are much more robust (and much more full with bees). Other interesting things I have seen recently include SHB larvae brewing in pollen patties. --Jeremy Rose San Luis Obispo, CA *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Access BEE-L directly at: http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L