> There appear to be enough hives in Calif. May I suggest that you don't > bring in any more unless you have firm contracts. I do not believe the situation can be linked to a single factor. Can you confirm what we suspect? 1. water issues. 2.mostly good hives (some strong as heck. 3. Because a move started last year to readily accept field run bees due to cost some beeks went to splitting 10 frame hives into two hives to actually make a better profit and in many cases eliminate splitting issues right after almonds. We battle to split hives after almonds to prevent swarming in apples. In other words for those not understanding what I am saying (Randy does) if you take a few thousand strong 10 frames and bust into 6 thousand 5 framers you can produce a glut of bees. Beeks which bring strong hives in and feed feed feed after Dec. 22nd can produce the hives to split in half. Heavy doubles in and singles ready for a second deep out. Not all out of state beeks are doing the above but enough are to help create a glut of bees. 4.almond prices low and with pollination high and water cost high some growers might consider passing this year to rest trees. Am I close Randy or way off base? bob ******************************************************* * Search the BEE-L archives at: * * http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l * *******************************************************