_   _ _______        ______    _____ _           _       _
| \ | | ____\ \      / / ___|  |  ___| | __ _ ___| |__   | |
|  \| |  _|  \ \ /\ / /\___ \  | |_  | |/ _` / __| '_ \  | |
| |\  | |___  \ V  V /  ___) | |  _| | | (_| \__ \ | | | |_|
|_| \_|_____|  \_/\_/  |____/  |_|   |_|\__,_|___/_| |_| (_)
 
The first blooms of the almond pollination season are opening and
its wet, it's starting to rain again with a guarantee of one to eight
inches depending on who you listen too, and some have been listening
and the central California dams have been opened just in case, causing
rivers to fill bank to bank with flooding in the low lands.
 
If the rains come as predicted, the past months floods will look like
good times compared to what can happed in the flat central valley
when all is full, earth, dams, creeks, and rivers, and along comes a
good old frog strangler.
 
Beekeepers are starting to move their bees into the almond orchards that
have good roads and finished their dormant spraying. Many orchards have
yet to be sprayed and with little dormant weather are now in a condition
to bloom as the buds are swelling because of the warm tropical storms
that continue to visit.
 
The total loss of bees and their hives from the earlier floods may never
be know as little effort has been made to make a accurate count as the
majority of the loss were out of state bees anyway. Early reports of
bee hives seen in the rivers for 100 miles were more then likely
accurate as if all the bees in the almonds were placed end to end
down the middle of highway 99 they would reach from Bakersfield to
Mt Shasta with not gaps.
 
My own guess is that between 8% and 10% of the 900,000 hives that are in
the state were lost and washed out to sea by way of San Francisco bay.
 
                           ttul Andy-
 
 
(c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document
in any form, or to print for any use.
(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
12496
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 ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ May the Carrier be with you.