Greetings all:

Just thought I'd add some data regarding California queen mating. I am in 
eastern Ontario (all my life of 45 years running 1200 hives the last 20 
years) where our industry has caused many of it's own hardships with it's 
overly protective strategy. Total border closure to US imports in the late 
1980's was a significant factor in the decline of colony numbers in this 
province which are 35% lower today. The initial impact on western province 
packagebee operators was much worst and totally unforgiveable IMO. I am 
adjacent to New York state and the bees/mites did not respect the law but 
came across anyway.

However, in June 2004 after much tough debating, with testing and 
protocols in place, US queen imports have resumed. I have brought in 325 
California(north of Sacramento)queens since then and I believe over 600 
queens total came in last year province wide. This province(gov't-OMAF) 
decided they would follow up with morphmetric testing of the offspring of 
these queens inspite of the other protocols in place. None of the queens I 
brought in showed any signs of africanization by FABIS and I have not 
heard of any positive test results on the others. 

So far the AHB drones seem to be absent or unsuccessful in this area of 
California, atleast during mid to late April when my queens were getting 
mated.

First pollen yesterday March 29th.
Rob T.

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