Subject: "America's honeybees are in a bad way".

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 15:59:00 GMT

*FYI* Ed Stockwell is the owner\beekeeper at Stockwell Honey Co that
produces some of the best Mesquite honey in the world from the Mexican
boarder area of SW Arizona. Stockwell Honey Co was started by his
grandfather in the 1940's. Crops can vary from little or nothing to
several hundred pounds plus. Ed has first hand every day experience
working with the so called "killer bees" as identified by the USDA at
$100.+ per hive sampled. Ed has an mechanical engineering degree with
honors from the University of Arizona, but has chosen to continue
working in the bees as his mother, father, and grandfather before him.
Anna, his wife also is a beekeeper and helps in the bees and is a sister
in law of a well know bee breeder in Florida where Ed and family have
spent several winters working in the queen rearing business.

                                ttul Andy-

This message was from [email-masked] to [email-masked]
originally in IN-E-MAIL on the WILD BEE'S BBS.
                    ----------------------------------------
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 1996 01:15:36 -0400
Subject: Re: "America's honeybees are in a bad way".

Hi Andy,

Just finished extracting- big 20 pound crop! It's the land where Jesus lost
his sandles. The catsclaw and oak trees are dying, maybe a fifty to one
hundred year drought in places. The bees mostly look pretty good. I got some
good matings this spring from the best 10% that had drones and it should be
that way again this summer since I left the best hives heavy. The really
wild, aggressive hives mostly  fizzled out last winter, but there are some
good crosses, either from them or from the tamer wild ones. One of Dave's red
line superseded last Feb. and crossed with some wild stuff I was playing
with. The bees are tiny, and a bit runny, but not aggressive. Brood was wood
to wood in both directions on the comb and they made a great crop! I've got
my eye on a couple of feral hives that wintered and are in good shape. I'll
probably pick them up in the next few days. One is a bit jumpy, but the other
is not. Both have small, leathery bees.

I don't buy the gloom and doom about bees and beekeeping. In about half of my
hives I have just been painting them with essential oils (no apistan) in a
petroleum jelly base and it seems to be holding the line, especially with
regular requeening. I've also had to destroy a couple of swarms that had been
established for at least a year. Water and off season food has been a factor
in the bee die-offs here in Arizona as well as varroa. The extended poor
conditions also caused internal mites/viral problems. As for Jerry Loper's
article, I say, " From twelve, many."

It looks to me like the honey pipeline is not going to get full for quite
some time and thus this may be the start of a several year good cycle. I have
a few ideas that I am working on to make it easier to get those lbs of honey
in and out. Now all we need is some rain...

Take Care,
Ed, Chris, Anna

Another thought- those wild bees may have some trouble wintering even here in
Arizona. I had some stuff that I felt mostly crossed out with the wild ones.
They made a huge crop last year, but I had plenty of empty boxes there this
spring. These bees may not be much help to the northers, unless they just
want to keep the market firm- Ed.
                                        <30>
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