Hello All, I have been giving talks on bees this week and I have been getting a lot of feedback about the lack of bees on fruit trees in western Washington. I looked around myself and the problem is real. Now I wonderif other parts of the world that has Varroa has the same problem? We have lost many of our hobby beekeepers do to varroa and they don't want to start up again. This could affect wildlife that lives off of berrys and nuts. The real gold that the honeybee does for man is pollenation. We move the bees to certain crops and then try to find a place toget some honey.Honey prices are up for US honey and it should stay up. We need all the bees that we can get , so the beekeeper needs to make a living off of them so we will always have the bees around. If domestic honey gets undercut very much , we will all feel the affects of Mother nature. We need healthy bees in the whole world.Just take one second to think about an other % 50 lose of honeybees with beekeepers and no feral colonys. I have now looked at over 40 large apple trees in full bloom aboy 6 miles from my home over a 4 hour period. I saw ONE carniolan with a friend of mine.We did not see one bumbulbee either.This fall will back up what we see now. A note to domestic producers,you are selling more than honey and you need to get that accross. We need an educated public , so help educate them.Everyone can help and we have the hammer.We only want the truth out because it will last , I think this time the beekeepers have to show how much the bees do for everyone and not just honey.We need the people to support us and help themselves. We want packers to make money , but we did loose a lot of beekeepers and not many packers. Times changes and now its time to really support honey producer organozations and stick together, because it is easy to have John Q public look outside and see for themselves. I have been feeling bad seeing so many old time hobby beekeepers going down. I'm 54 and I have never seen a spring with so few bees on flowers all around.My trees can be herd 100 feet away and down the road 6 miles nothing. This may be a big experiment in nature. Best regards Roy