Hello David & All,

>Yeah, I 've been consumed with the season, just had time to bee a lurker.

Me too!

Going to get busy after tomorrow as I am getting a state health dept.
inspection. Rumor has it the Lafayette county inspector has been lax on his
inspections. I am set up to federal standards so not a big deal.
Hope *she* is not afraid of bees as we are working dead outs on the west 
side
of the main building and the bees are trying to rob. Help is suited up but
not me. A few upset robbers sting me about once and hour. The UPS man called
on his cell and said my delivery was out by the road. Another day at the bee
farm.

> I 've seen some aggressive hives but we've been splitting so hard to try
> and overcome this past winters CCD loss that everything has been split and
> requeened several times by now.

Does your losses display the documented CCD signs? I split like you are
doing every spring since 2007 but this year. This year and last fall I am
experimenting. About all I know now is race has little to do with survival .

>A couple years ago I signed up with the state and had samples taken with
>the compliance agreement and all came back negative for tex-mex genes.

Hell so did all the beekeepers samples except for the feral colonies ! I am 
sure some beeks received bad news on their samples but so far I have not met 
any. have you?

> I feel if I have a stinging incident, am found not to have queens marked,
> this would make in a money hungry lawyers eyes and in real fact not
> following the compliance agreement and weigh in as something that could be
> used to show liability.

I carry insurance with the Hartford but more importantly I am incorporated.
I filled out all the paperwork in about thirty minutes at the Sec. of States
office (with help of the girls in the office and a box of donuts) and paid 
less than fifty bucks
to incorporate. I pay a $20 a year fee on the internet once a year. The fee
is correct for 2010 but not sure about the filling fees as I filed many
, many years ago.

I remember when I wanted to get a honey loan under my corporate name. The
USDA was sure I was going to default but made the loan. I even was able to
get a credit card in my corporate name with a  $50,000 limit. Being a
corporation is better protection than insurance in my opinion.


>Our state apiary section ,in my opinion is not very commercial beekeeper
>friendly,but that's another story,

Move to Missouri. We have not got a state inspector but if we need permits I
inspect my friends hives and my friend inspects mine and we report our
finding to the state and a health permit is issued.

>I'm told the inspectors are being asked to GPS locations, which I know
>that's heading toward a forced location registration and a NEW revenue
>stream. To  much of Big brother is not a good thing.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day which brought a smile:

"I love my country but fear my government!"

>One footnote on your flashback and worrying about American Foul Brood,
>since the onset in 06-07 or CCD, I have not treated near like I did for AFB
>, have noticed it has become almost non existent and am not seeing it at
>all this spring.

The hobby guys might roar but in a commercial operation you might skip a
prophylactic treatment once in awhile but when your bees are in pollination
with other migratory beeks (as mine are) AFB can raise its ugly head quick.
*In my opinion * treating once a year (at least) makes the best management
sense.

bob

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