On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:47:21 -0600, Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]> wrote

>The organic people you visited (in dead of winter and not looking at their
>bees yet I suppose) need to speak with our USDA-ARS researchers. No is
>highly suspect.
>
>I am very skeptacle of people with 150 hives of bees and say no mites and no
>AFB.
>
>
>Have you looked at their hives and done tests?
>

fine don't believe me...why should I care ? 

a lot of people were skepitcal too of claims made about GW being an idiot 6 years ago and now its 
considered pretty much common knowledge eh?....

anyhow to set the record straight they are not "organic people" (as in the birkenstock kind) just 
normal beekeepers very isolated from the typical beekeeping areas .

they have not brought in any outside bees other then Kona queens. several raise their own queens 
and sell each other bees or queens. for several reasons I don't feel like divulging the exact details 
of this at the moment. they know what they have and are trying to protect it...

I'll stake my reputation on the claim of no mites and no AFB,  they have documented proof from 
outside credible sources. there are 9 or so beekeepers involved mostly hobby but a couple have 
30-60 hives. lets just say its not a typical situation one finds in the Midwest, the location is 
obviously the key.

this is not that unheard eh?  Hawaii has no varroa and I would not be suprised that somewhere 
else in North America a few isolated pockets exist. 

anybody else know of any? or maybe they don't want to say....and why would we call in a fed lab 
coat guy? Don't we call them in after everything is all hosed up?

please read this article (link below) and tell me organic is an idealistic notion...the guy is turning 
business away . plus he has a business to be proud of that does not make him more of a chemical 
applicator then a bee charmer, nor does he infringe on other beekeepers with smaller operations 
by moving hives back and forth across the country loaded with the latest bee parasite, virus, or 
roach.
 
http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/11/14/smallb1.html
 

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