>In advance of any crop, it pays to feed the minute you see a decrease in buildup plant nectar secretions. I wholeheartedly agree Kirk! I just spent the weekend with a group of commercial beekeepers from Calif, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana--they ran over 100,000 hives among them. I questioned all on pesticide issues. Pesticides were essentially a non issue to these guys. They see occasional kills, and lose the crop for that yard, but merely shrugged them off. These guys were multigenerational beekeepers, all move to almonds, all make honey. None were complaining. Things are different in different areas. It sounds like it's tough in Bob's area. Re the Russian beekeeper, guys who run over 10,000 hives don't do it for a hobby. They do it to make money. They manage their operation to make money, not to make a point. -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** 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 Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm