On Wed, 7 Mar 2007 21:33:58 EST, Jerry Bromenshenk <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

><<Brian said:  My own opinion is the Fall of 2005 mite crash  losses in the
>USA far outweighs the tiny number of  colonies claimed to be  afflicted with
>CCD>>
>
>Brian, can you provide the numbers of colonies lost in the Fall of 2005  mite
>crashes in the USA?  If you are going to list this as the benchmark,  what is
>the number?
>


I don't have access to numbers just my own gut feel of talking and reading and absorbing what I 
see and hear.  The fall I should be refering to also is 2004. By Jan 1st of 2005 you could not book 
a queen or package anywhere in the USA. Most of my friends and contacts were scrambling for 
bees in December already.

Here we are in early March 2007 and I don't see any rush for bees going on. The queen producers 
I have frequent contact with had room to book yet a couple of weeks ago. Demand seems average. 

I visited some producers in CA last week and no one was breaking a sweat. 

So comparing bee availability and backroom chat with others in the business I'm not hearing the 
same magnitude of losses of Fall/Winter 04/05 to our current 06/07 situation in fact I'd say its no 
where close. 

Anyone having trouble finding bees this spring? am I missing something? does the situation look 
way different somewhere else? Please tell us as I have not heard of any news here on Bee-L or 
anywhere else.

I would not trivalize anyones loss. I'm sure we have some here in Mn...we always do...maybe they 
are staying quiet. Most of the big boys are not here anyhow so I guess some bees really are 
missing from Minnesota eh?  

The reason for the loss though is the point in question as we wait with bated breath for the 
"answer is....."  

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