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Friday, June 08, 2007

Update on the Bees

When I show up at the market, it seems that I get a lot of people who are very worried or concerned or interested in what is going on with all of our bees, so I thought I should say a few words in this blog that might give you the answer you were looking for.
To be honest, I'm a very young (at beekeeping - not age) beekeeper, while I read everything that I can get my hands on to help me understand what is going on, I'm not knowledgeable enough to give anyone a definite answer. Right now it seems there are a whole lot of theories out there and because none of my bees disappeared, I can't tell you first hand what happened to me because I didn't experience it. I have other friends nearby who have lost hundreds of colonies and are really worried about what is going on. On the blog page I have updates that automatically come up when a new article appears and I check it constantly. Jim and I are going to the Heartland meetings in July and I know there will be a whole lot of discussion about it there, so I promise that I'll keep you posted.

As far as our bees go, they are doing fine. Some of them were doing well enough to split into two hives in the spring and we have already put honey supers on most of them so our first supers should be ready to come off sometime in July. Last year the comb honey went over so well that I put on twice as many boxes so hopefully this year I won't run out.

I'm headed to Moms this week so Jim is going to keep an eye on the girls while I'm gone, he enjoys the bee yard just as much as I do.

I have just one more thing to say about this entire colony collapse disorder, more funding needs to be made available to our research centers across the United States that would allow them to help figure this all out. I've gotten the chance to listen to these folks who come to our conferences to let us know what they have learned and while they sometimes talk way above me, I know that we have people in those places that are committed to help find out just what is going on. Money as usual I am told is an issue so maybe we need to talk to the people in Washington so they share a little of what they have to help figure all of this out. I know money money money. But lets face facts without the bees there sure would be a bigger issue, so why not try to get a handle on things now?
Just a beekeeper wondering out loud.
Enjoy this beautiful weather. . . . .