PV>I have periodically reviewed the subscriber list of Bee-L and I have >noticed a strong trend for the "professionals" (i.e. those people _paid_ >to offer info and support to beekeepers) to turn over faster than >average subscribers. I suggest that if you want these people to read >and reply to your questions, don't fill their mailboxes up with comments >about your local weather. Hi Phil and Bee Friends, I am sure it is no surprise to any that I don't agree with any of your post, but I won't take it apart other then this one area... It is up to these individual who claim to be "professional" to earn their own pay and not the lowly beekeeper to bend his knee. Any good so called "professional" who can not make his point in verbal discussion should not be at the public hog trough anyway. I am a professional beekeeper myself and I don't receive a dime to post here or any other place, but as long as I feel I have something to contribute I will post even knowing that some so called "professionals" don't like my own personal style of posting and are even less interested in my opinions. Many do take the time to read it all from cover to cover anyway, and I am pleasantly surprised all the time when some even agree that our bee world is not a perfect place and our science is not exact but we all still have to live together and that includes the professionals be they in paid by some branch of government or by the sweat of their bodies and the honey their bees produce or the crops their bees pollinate or just with the joy in watching their own apiary big or small. Personally I am very interested in all local beekeeper reports, and I would like to see a never ending tread from the beekeeper regardless if they are professional or not on topics such as WEATHER and how it is effecting your bees this day, MITES and what worked for you or did not work in your efforts to control them, BEE STOCK, bee it made in America or imported from Africa, and anything else that they want to post on. Let the professional stand in line a year or more to get his own professional "for sale" information published if he can not join the real time world of beekeepers on the internet and share a little of his time in reading and posting in this echo or any other. I personally suspect the work of any professional who can not take the heat of the public view on their own opinions scientific or not, and maybe they should not publish or post them and have their subordinates read this list if it has become too large to manage with their available time. In any case its their loss and not ours. The Weather which every beekeeper in this area knows is the number one consideration in producing the pasture we all need at least here in Central California. We never get enough rain, thats right, the water is causing misery to many people right now here in California especially to those who build and live in the flood plains and I am sure even a few bee hives will be lost or maybe a lot and I can hear my neighbor beekeepers on the local bee radio network talking about helping each other in moving and checking bees that may be in danger of the floods that are coming down the rivers right now as I write this. These losses are just gifts from man to the rain Gods in thanks for the next storm. And with the 100 year flood comes a profusion of flowers, some not seen for a 100 years since the last flood to provide pasture for our bees and such beauty to this area that normally is a desert with less then 10 inches of annual rainfall that now has received a years supply several months before the end of our rainy season. ttul Andy- (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 ~ ... Where bee-hives range on a gray bench in the garden,