My apologies to those who are less then entertained by my efforts, the devil makes me do it. ttul Andy- ---------------------------------------- PUFF, PUFF on the Beekeeper and His Bees, but NOT TO WORRY Betty Crocker is coming to the rescue according to San Francisco newspapers reports of November 3, 1996. As General Mills reduces the amount of honey they purchase annually to add to their many products advertised as containing HONEY by millions of dollars they are puffing a cut out contest giving 25 cents for each bee cut from the HONEY NUT CHEERIOS box to bee science, limited to up to $100,000., a impressive amount until you consider it will go to 3 institutions and require the purchases of 400,000 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios by Jan 31, 1997 and the postage to send them in. Heck, I am only on my 2nd box and my blood pressure has risen maybe because of all the salt in this product, (or its promotion). Honey Nut Cheerios would do better as a bar nut replacement then a kids breakfast food but it may be far more expensive then nuts. And for my cat, I am not sure but he may have to go to the vet as he has been acting strange and may have impacted intestines or something. He has been aiding me by consuming as much of the product as I can force on him which looks to him like the real thing, expensive cat food anyway. God knows that I have poked fun at those who like PAN from our hispanic community but how anyone can eat these so called manufactured food products in their slick boxes and with the advertising bidets that would get Punchus Pilot easily elected president is more reflective of a sick society then the few cents worth of grain they contain. And to think this all revolved from a crank doctors idea that pre adolescent boys would not play with themselves in bed at night if they had whole grain dry cereal for breakfast. HA, Ha..it didn't work for me near as well as the boxing gloves I wore to bed. According to a wire report from Scripps-Mcclatchy News Service, written by Pam Slater, published 11/3/96 in the San Francisco newspapers, headlined, THREAT TO HONEYBEES IMPERILS AGRICULTURE, and TWO KINDS OF MITES KILLING OFF CALIFORNIA POLLINATORS...these well know bee pests have already "killed nearly all of the country's wild honeybees and more than 60 percent of commercial bees." PUFF, PUFF this time on the wild weed...maybee legal to grow in California by the time you all read this! Projected "annual losses to the American economy could run as high as $5.7 billion" so the experts say. One of these being UC-Davis honey bee expert Dr. Eric Mussen who goes on to lament, "We've never had anything before that eliminated bees like this. Right now, probably 90 percent or more of the wild honeybees are gone." (This is not to say they have not tried, with pesticides, and this from the Dr. Mussen who provided the sworn expert bee science, (BS), testimony to the courts, that caused many hives to be killed and put some good long time family beekeepers out of business because of a California quarantine he supported, but then he had nothing to lose.) According to high officials of GM, Inc., The money raised will go towards research to eradicate the mites. I would guess the honey producers themselves could have provided this much money and more but for the dramatic reduction of honey used by GM down from 6 million pounds to less then 2 million pounds, maybe they figured we beekeepers could use the help...Mussen also says "that the loss in California has not been as bad because we have so many commercial beekeepers and use pesticides to kill the mites. But not so for the Northeast where millions of wild honeybees are now dead." Very perceptive from the UC Davis, California Extension Beekeeper who would have a hard time getting money to even go to a state line beekeepers meeting if it was held on the other side of the line. Pass the hat around again boys another one of those who can't live on his Dr's wages and spare a little of his own money for a day or two with the industry who he is supposed to be part of...without any personal sacrifice I guess is the rule. The article goes on to quote Steve Easter, my own one time almond field representative from the Almond Growers marketing CoOp who made it to the top as president, and he should know better, he tells how the 7,000 almond farmers in California have paid $2 million more last year for bees to pollinate their crops which have not been effected in size by the mites to date. I challenge anyone who can show me that paying more for bees because of the lack of them would bring the dead one's back to life, other then on paper...anyway this is only one of dozen's of stories that have been put on the wire in response to, or PUFFing the General Mills press release on "Saving the Bees". Enjoy your HONEY NUT CHEERIOS, ttul, the OLd Drone (c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk. --- ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ Oh, no! Not ANOTHER learning experience!