I went to a small regional beekeeper potluck over the weekend. 

met a beek i knew that had moved onto a property 1 mile near a remote bee yard I have.  I saw the 
eqipment by the house all summer. 

during the course of the evening he mentioned he now had hive beetles. he's a sideliner with 
about 40 colonies with what appeared to be average experience with bees. 

he is busy with his job in the fall so instead of feeding and wrapping, he lets a mirgratory beek 
take his palletized hives to TX for winter and in spring receives nucs in exchange with new 
queens. 

he seemed surprised when i told him he now had beetles forever. he said something about the 
larva looking dead with the colder weather.  the deadouts and supers with beetles were moved to 
his honey house in fall. he has no bees on his property. 

i'm pulling my colonies form that yard 1 mile from his honey house in the next few weeks. 
in general i keep my 17 yards in remote areas away from other beeks and never intermingle bees 
or equipment between yards. 
 
my core business is selling varietal honey. it takes much extra time to extract then mass 
extraction with semi automated equipment. beetles will have a great and costly impact on my 
business. its not if but when....

something to me is wrong with this picture. why should i have to be on the run from this 
nonsense?  who can I send the invoice to when my costs go through the roof to deal with a 
problem i did not create? 

similarly if a beek is moving CCD infected hives (what ever that means)  across country and infects 
someone else and they can prove it ...is there a liability involved with the beek who moved the 
hives if he knew he had CCD? 

to me this an issue of self responsibility. in other areas of agriculture I doubt this kind of 
disregard for other producers would go on without a liability risk. 

i'm interested to hear other opinions. 

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