On Nov 21, 2005, at 6:24 AM, Bill Truesdell wrote (altered somewhat):


> Creates the obvious question- if back country bees are so isolated
> would they not also be
> isolated from Varroa? Or have they been tested for Varroa?

    Honey bees essentially disappeared from Santa Barbara in the early
1990s, with a couple of notable exceptions ( see:
http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/abjsep1999.htm ).

    The same happened in the back country, according to two of my
beekeeper friends who have traversed deep into that country.

                                                                        Adrian

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