Yes, I found that interesting, but the one thing that really stuck out is that the winter losses are high and it really does not sound as if these are very productive bees. I wonder how his crops compare to others with more commercial stock. Years ago, I bought queens from a breeder who had mountain-hardy stock and I ran them a few years until I discovered that I was supporting them, not the other way around and went to a commercial strain which suddenly made me money and was less work. It seems to me that, at this point, the bees which can withstand mites and disease without chemical and management help tend to be wild or conservative strains with limited commercial potential. Note, I said "tend'. There are, of course, exceptions and we have come a long ways from a decade or so back when virtually any colony which was not given chemical assistance was a goner in family short order. I fully expect that in the next decade, we will have commercially useful bees which are far less chemically dependent. *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Access BEE-L directly at: http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L