>Unfortunately California is not the land of milk and honey this year.


A recent article entitled "Drought reduces honey flow to trickle",
tells about CA beekeepers looking for greener pastures and
moonlighting in other jobs to keep their bee business going. The
article states that experts predict a 50% drop from last year's crop.
One beekeeper estimates that he will gather 40,000 pounds of honey
this year compared to 60,000 last year from 900 hives. He is taking a
part time job to supplement his income.

Estimates of 120 pounds of honey were common during El Niño years,
but this year we will be happy to see 40 pounds per hive.

One thing that is a result of this trend is that wholesale prices of
honey have gone from .70 cents to $1 a pound, with some retailers
marking up honey 10 percent since June.

So CA beekeepers are feeding sugar and moving hives to distant states
like Montana in hopes of breaking even this year.

Paul Cronshaw DC
Beekeeper
Santa Barbara



>Rick Green wrote:
>
>>  I had the best honey yields ever. I live in Saratoga county of New
>>York State.   Please share your stats,   Rick
>
>My bees are in NW Clinton county. Possibly the best year I've seen.
>Took 4300 from a yard of 26 yesterday. Most of the colonies are
>heavy below. Still have 11 yards in NY to strip. Probably get 130 -
>150 pound average over the 650 colonies there.
>
>                                                                       Mike