In a message dated 97-10-19 12:29:43 EDT, [log in to unmask] (Andy
Nachbar) writes:
 
<< What ever your slant on the hype and misinformation still being passed
 like the wind on the reported the loss of all feral bees and much of the
 hive bee populations the facts seem to be the effect on agriculture has
 been limited as the 1997 crop reports come in for the year and all the
 bee, honeybee,(feral and hive) pollinated crops report record yields with
 Cranberries taking the dollar lead from the 1996 and 1997 billion dollar
 California almond crop.
 
 
  http://www.abcnews.com/sections/business/harvest/harvest_cran.html  >>
 
   Well Andy, we DO have fewer bees. But, I don't think the press understands
that the terrible losses of the last couple winters were mostly restocked
from the south.
 
   And we are using them much more intensively and effectively.
 
   Watermelon growers that used to quibble on price, then put 4 hives on a 50
acre field now don't quibble and they are putting 20 or 30 on that field. I
understand from other beekeepers that the same effect is seen in other areas.
 
   I don't know much about the left coast, but here on the right coast, bees
are migrating more than ever. I know of hives that pollinate four different
crops in four different areas in the course of a year.
 
   Most of the commercial bees are, at least in part, migratory. And some of
the few beekeepers who said they'd NEVER migrate, after the terrible winter
losses two years ago, are migrating south for winter. We give the bees every
chance we can, and they respond.
 
   Our bees were beautiful last spring. Our biggest problem was swarm
control. We simply did not have enough equipment to take advantage of their
power.
 
   I have tried for years to get some northern beekeepers to send down nuc
boxes full of deep comb, during the winter. I'll put the frames into deep
boxes and put them on my bees in March, letting the queens make lots of
brood. Then in April we can split back into the nuc boxes, giving the
northerner lots of bees with little work on his own comb, at an attractive
price.  So far I've had only a couple of small takers.
 
   We've learned a lot about making fewer bees do more work.
 
   As long as Apistan works, we can get our crops pollinated. Therein lies
another question.
 
[log in to unmask]   Dave Green   Hemingway, SC  USA
The Pollination Scene:  http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html