Hello All,
I am in the process of getting my operation up an running after a long 
winter.
Pumping feed to hives needing feed ( looking at around a 6% loss but still
have yards to check) and was up until 4 AM Saturday night pumping drums of
honey into bottling tanks.

I will as time permits comment on a few of the excellent posts posted the
last couple days. The following can't wait.

I am sure many on BEE-L watched the program on Dave Hackenberg. Although I
did not contact Dave
while I was in Florida I did sit down with one of Dave's closet commercial
beekeeper friends which talks to Dave all the time and got an update.

The points I picked up from the program which were different than the first
60 minutes program were subtle and are part of the baby steps the industry
is taking to find a cause of the die offs.

My analysis of the program information which only a commercial beekeeper
might pick up:

1. Dave's bees did OK in spring and into Blueberries. No sprays hurting bees
are used in the Blueberries.

Are you with me? The same scenario happened in the CCD year.


2. Dave moves into crop pollination in areas of row crops (pumpkins ) and in 
late fall
until present hives start crashing. The program said over half Dave's bees 
are dead again. I actually have heard 2/3 but lets go with the program info.

The point which shows Dave suspects the
area which is causing his problems comes out when the pumpkin in grower says 
he
was willing to pay twice the fee he paid (the year of CCD) to get Dave's 
bees. The grower tells 60 minutes he could grow pumpkins without bees but 
would not make a profit.

The question is:
Will Dave return to the pollination areas next year after seeing his hives
crash two years in a row? I think not but again we are only doing an
analysis done by Bob Harrison from the outside looking at the problem.
However advising commercial beekeepers is what I am known for doing.

The program also points a finger at Bayer and imidacloprid.

*if* ( please indulge me for a minute Brian!) beekeepers doing pollination
look at the areas they go to and then the crash comes then the obvious
solution ( at least for the immediate future) is to avoid those areas.

Consider:
The commercial beekeeper network ( I call grapevine) is extensive and uses
phone lines. I use up a phone card a month plus my cell phone. For the most
part we do not use the bee lists. Too slow of making contact. The phone is
faster.

Would you take a couple thousand of your hives into the fields Dave feels
caused Dave several hundred thousand of dollars of losses two years in a
row? I would not!

Some ( mostly researchers) say Dave is barking up the wrong tree with his
thinking neonicotinoids are at the root of the problem. Mostly because 
without the dead bees to examine how can you point the finger in a 
direction.

However most doing
pollination are going to look at the fact that seeing the same problem occur
twice is a strong indication doing pollination in those areas is presenting
a problem. Some on this list pointed to maybe varroa & nosema were the issue
the CCD year. I can say for sure they were not this year and suspect they
were only a minor part of the problem in the CCD year.

Consider:
*if* ( my hypothesis) the neonicotinoids are at the route of *some *of the 
die
offs then there is nothing to research. Take the research funds and try to
stop or limit the neonictinoid use. As beekeepers we do not want to spend
millions of dollars and then all get a book published by the USDA-ARS with a
title like this:

" Living with the neonicotinoids"
or
" how to limit your losses from neonicotinoids as new neonicotinoids come on
the market almost Dailey"

" In the first decade of the new millennium,there may be just 20% of the
people keeping bees as were in the 1970's when I supported beekeepers new
and established" ( Taken from pg. 9 of the 2007 publication " Increase 
Essentials" by
Dr. Larry Conner.


 Honey (all grades) have been mostly running over a dollar and reports are 
in
the buck twenty range right now. You can make money in wholesale honey in
drums with those prices.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison



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