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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [ocba] what's the question?
  • Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2013 15:41:42 -0400

On 7/5/2013 2:52 PM, Lewis Cauble wrote:
If it were an easy question to answer, we wouldn't still be discussing it.

The important thing is, what is the QUESTION? If the question is, unless interventions are made, what is the cause of hive dwindling and death for MY hives here in Orange County, the answer is varroa mites. It boggles my mind that there are a few folks who spend all their energy debating & protesting & petitioning what about what "may" be randomly killing bees in Canada or Oregon or Florida yet they refuse to accept the undeniable fact that they are letting their own bees succumb to a well-known, well-studied, well-understood, universal affliction that can be fairly easily controlled.

That's a bit like telling your kids, "don't go play on the freeway unless you put on sunscreen!" Then blaming the fact their kids were squashed on the depletion of the ozone layer.

Psychologists warn us not to confuse the unusual for the normal. The unusual makes the headlines; the normal does not. The reason that bee-kills go viral on the internet is because they are unusual, in fact very rare. Varroa decline and collapse is endemic, an everyday occurrence, so people pay no attention to it. Go figure.

Randall Austin, a guy who uses appropriate varroa treatments and has healthy, productive bees, low if any winter losses, a honey harvest to be proud of... and does so year after year after year.




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