Harry you made my evening (its a long winter)I thought Ive heard about
every Christmas story but giving bees candy for the holidays is a new
one on me, thanks. Back to the"big kill" I hope somebody writes a book
about this, it probably could be done right from the bee-l archives. Ive
heard bees died because:it was a bad winter, the strips didnt get in
early enough, not enough strips, home made remedies that didnt work, bad
corn syrup, the virus, too much too little too late, whatever it was and
please someone correct me if Im wrong Canada didnt get the big kill
apparently because they had a quarantine that slowed the march of the
mites. Now was it worth it, to some yes to others no, weighing that one
out is beyond me but it does appear that presently they are benifiting
from the lower 48s misfortune in that tracheal mite resistant strains
are now available and some hopefully adequate chemical controls have
been worked out. I realize we are discussing a couple different
questions here first should Scotland try to restrict the movement of
bees to that I say I dont know your situation. Here in Vermont we did
and I believe over all we benifited. The southern breeders and package
producers wouldnt agree with that but ask them if New Zealand should be
allowed to send bees to the States. A different situation of course but
it illistrates that we all have to look out for ourselves dont we. Now
should New Zealand expose thier bees to the rest of the worlds scurges,
I cant see it, my god they are actually working on eliminating AFB, goes
to show there are some benifits to being an island. I hope this thread
is carried on perhaps its been unraveled already. Im new to this
internet. One last thought, have skunks been eliminated in Europe and if
so what did it, rabies. Rick