----- Original Message ----- 
From: "randy oliver"

> Glad to see that some of you Aussies are paying attention, Trevor!  :-)

and Trevor said

> Well they tell us it is not if but when.  So like the boy scouts, be
> prepared.  Best to glean as much from those at the frontline so I am ready
> for the attack.

Yep, we are paying attention, as well as quite a few dollars.  The trouble
is that in the last few years we have managed to get three unwanted
organisms (EFB, chalkbrood and small hive beetle).  So there is a concern
about the scout masters.

A little while ago I was quoted in my local daily as saying we didn't have a
lot of faith in the ability of the quarantine system to keep varroa out.  A
apiary officer was quoted as saying much the same.  However, I was the one
singled out in a letter to the editor by a quarantine official, as not
having a clue, or words to that effect.  A few weeks later the equine
influenza outbreak occurred, something that was at the time, akin to the sub
prime fiasco.  I would have thought horses were a trifle larger than either
bees or varroa.

Trevor has alluded to the fact, that over much of Oz there are drones being 
laid nearly all year.  He said he was putting in his first drone comb in 
July, middle of our winter.

Geoff Manning

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