Note: This original and response is crossposted to the beekeeping newsgroup and the bee list. In article <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask] (Keith Downing Mueller) writes in rec.gardens: > >Just got power back after Fran. > >There are hundreds of trees in our surrounding woods which have been >downed. AS a result, there are now bees everywhere. If you need bees come >down here. > >Please bring ice and your own batteries >-- >Keith Mueller [log in to unmask] I hope you and yours are all well and safe. Unfortunately the hollow trees that feral honeybees prefer for their homes, are the first to go in this kind of storm It would be a very tall order to get the bees established into new homes and settled down for winter. Their disaster has already stressed them so much, then to lose their brood (or what brood couldn't be transferred) would just add to it. Right now any open hive has little chance, as bees are robbing out each other, and hornets and yellow jackets joining into the fray. They have little chance of survival. If there are hives that are not broken up, they may well survive and be okay, but then you will get a round of aerial mosquito spraying. After Hugo, the environmental "protectors" ignored the label directions and applied insecticide on many warm sunny afternoons when bees were foraging on goldenrod and asters. The field bees just dropped, and the clusters back at the hives became too small to survive the winter. Bumblebees and many solitary bees also dropped where they were working. If they do aerial spraying, I would do everything within my power to make them obey the law, as expressed in label directions. If the material is toxic to bees; it will forbid application while bees are foraging. Don't let them establish the times of application by guesswork, but by monitoring to establish when bees actually are foraging. There is no reason to compound the disaster by doing additional damage to pollinators. Fran will impact your pollination picture for years to come. This is an aspect of the disaster that is not often recognized. [log in to unmask] Dave Green, PO Box 1200, Hemingway, SC 29554 Practical Pollination Home Page Dave & Janice Green http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html The opinions expressed here are not those of my boss. She doesn't pay much attention to my opinions either.