On Fri, 23 Feb 1996, Vince Coppola wrote: > I'm getting more reports of colony losses. Some can be explained > by beekeeper ignorance, but some are not. At our last meeting two hobbyists > reported high losses. In one case it was 100% loss of 40 col., in the > other case it was 48 of 50 dead. Both treated with Apistan last fall. > I know them both quite well and inspected their bees myself, so I can > vouch for their capability. > > The most amazing report is from a well respected commercial beekeeper > here in WNY. He has kept bees since 1968 and runs over 1000 col. He has > worked as an Inspector and knows dieases well. Last spring he put two new > Apstan strips in each col., in March, took them out in June. He surveyed > his operation in Sept. and found very low varroa counts. He made an above > average crop. He saw nothing unusual last fall. He lost 80% with PMS > symtoms. > > There is much we don't know and I don't think we have all the tools.> Vince , Your last line should get some people asking some questions.There is much we don't know and thats a fact. I don't know if we have all the tools , is pay dirt. We have tools that need to be turned on.We need to have the tools that we have working. #1 and most important is our researchers.These people need help in getting the funds that they need so they can find a piece of the puzzle.We need them to ask us for help. Everyone needs help of some kind. If the researchers tell us to change something that we have been doing in beekeeping with a test group of hives or when they do come up with something that has been tested and works , then lets do what we can to follow. I know that I'm not going to put all my eggs in one basket like I did last year. I had a 30% lose and that was my cause. But I have been writting to some very helpful researchers and I think some of them are not to far off , but it has to be proven by tests. Some have told me that we will not get rid of the Varroa mite. That sounds fair in the nature of things. We need some bees that can keep them down to a level that will that will not lowwer the productivity of the hive beyond an economic level. This is not a simple problem, it will take a lot of hard work by many people. We can and should recrute those people that need our bees for pollenation. They have a big stake in the out come.Use the tools we have and get more if needed . Lets not get shy about it. If anyone has some names of people that are friends in Washington DC , please drop me some E-mail with there names. We have to have a few. We have some very fine researchers working on the problem right now. I don't want anyone think this is a simple quest, It is very, very complex but it needs to be done. We made the moon , not because it was easy. Have a GREAT day Roy Nettlebeck