Hi Andy,
 
        I just had a comment to make, below.
 
In message <[log in to unmask]>, Andy Nachbaur
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>All this bad press and talk about Apistan and how it is failing to control
>V. mites has prompted Zoecon the infamous to offer a new program for
>beekeepers announced to a selected few with a slick post card from their
>advertising agency. (GOD protect us all from those with such talents wasted
>on projects like this when they could be out doing good works like
>promoting HONEY instead of feeding off its good will and that of people who
>keep bees.)
>
>Following in the shadow of General Mills "Save the Bees" rip off box top
>offer comes the Apistan "Hive To Honey with Apistan" and  ZOECON's big big
>bigger cash rebate program of $ 00.05 cash.Yep the big five, five cents a
>strip but only to those who buy a minimum 600 strips or more, limited to
>one person, who buys the 600 or more strips on the same day. WOW a big
>$30.00 discount paid for by all those who don't buy 600 or more strips at
>one time every day.
>
>Here's your friendly dusty company who's selling you all a product that may
>not work but costing you $5.00 or more per hive per year and they are going
>to give a big nickle of that to some big bad commercial beekeeper who more
>then likely is the reason you have varroa mites in the first place and you
>should bee happy in your work.
>
>What a deal, we all should feel a lot better now that our bees are living
>better through chemistry and reserve a special place for ZOECON and all
>dusty chemical sales man or woman in the next life. At the same time we
>should be trying alternatives as if nothing else by their use we are
>monitoring our hives better to see if they work and sending a message to
>those who would regulate us and their chemical company partners.
>
I don't know about their marketing strategy in the US and I realise that
not everyone is in favour of chemical companies but what is the
alternative? If Apistan hadn't been invented, specifically for the bee
industry, I would guess at least half of the bee colonies in the United
States and the rest of the world would now be dead and many beekeepers
and growers would have lost their livlihood. Pollination would be more
difficult and therefore expensive and food would now cost that much
more.
 
Zoecon was not perfect, who is? but the consequences of them NOT
developing and providing such a useful tool would have been truly
devastating for beekeeping. And before you say it, home remedies would
just not have been enough to save the day.
 
That's my two cents worth anyway.
 
 
Max
 
>Give us a break ZOECON, WELMARK International or what ever you call
>yourselves today. Some of us know a little about the cost of things and you
>have lived up to your name, WELLMARK and we bee keepers have been the
>"mark". Maybe a 20% or 30% reduction in price across the board would better
>match the reduction in efficacy of your product.
>
 
 
>ttul, the OLd Drone
>
>Final Solution to V. mites @
>http://beenet.com/mites/killem.htm
>
>
>(c)Permission is given to copy this document
>in any form, or to print for any use.
>
>(w)OPINIONS are not necessarily facts. USE  AT OWN RISK!
 
--
Dr Max Watkins