As I said last week, much of this article is in error.

DARPA will do what DARPA intends, but the notion of "bees failing" is false 
(that came from the reporter, who didn't talk to DARPA or me or apparently 
anyone else),and we're the ones who put chips on bees with Pacific NW 
labs.  The purpose was to track bees looking for landmines, since at the 
time, we did not have any technology that could located unmarked bees (bees 
without tags of some form -- paint, dusts, transmitters.  Our tags were too 
heavy - they disrupted flight.  However, the design team, who could not 
receive any additional funding to reduce the size of the tags, went on to 
design the RFID chip being used by the big box stores like 
Wal-Mart.  That's why we can now offer inventory control and beehive 
protection technologies based on best-available-technology -- we've 
continued to work with this design group.  Maybe we don't have the elusive 
queen marker, but we can mark anything from frames to pallets.

Jerry

And yes, some day, I hope you can check most of your hives from your easy 
chair -- I do it now.

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