OT Are Cell Phones the blame?

Seems like a very fragile, difficult business. I take it you must have a keen love for these creatures to be in it. For me, I don't like getting stung. The yellow jacket wasps are the worst as far as I'm concerned. This is a fascinating subject.

I don't do it any longer, but with bee keeping, getting stung is sometimes part of it. I've had them get into my suit and crawl in my ear. Never stung there, it just is unnerving. They usually won't sting you in your suit unless they feel pressure on them as if you were squashing them. If I was working an aggressive hive, I always wore full protective clothing, helmet netting, and gloves. Alot of smoke was the norm. You always knew when they would attempt to sting you in mass because they give off a very distinct and unusual chemical gas that signals the others to sting. You never forget that smell. When that is happening I always backed off from the hive to let things calm down for an hour or so, and then carefully approach the hive, and work them as gently as possible. Wasps on the other hand are NEVER to be approached with normal bee keeping clothing. Wasps are able to sting repeatedly, unlike honey bees, using longer stingers that will penetrate bee clothing.

The pay phone would come back if cell phones are reduced.

That is market driven.

Yikes, I didn't know that. Do you recommend any book for a lay person just to learn a bit about bees and beekeeping?

I didn't have any books to start out. I learned from some older experienced guys that did it for many years. It was a steep learning curve at first. I'm guessing that you can find alot of information on the net or at a book store or library. If you have a county extension office, they can be a really valuable resource as well.

I'm not for sure, but I would guess that the most popular bee being used right now world wide would be the Italian bee. They are the most docile and productive. Some problem that affects only that strain of bees could account for such a decrease in numbers. Only very few bee keepers that I knew years ago could handle German bees, sometimes we called them Black bees. They are quite aggressive and you had to be very experienced. If any hive becomes too agitated over a period of time, they won't produce nearly as much honey as a calm, docile hive.

Perhaps once we look deeper we may discover the effect is caused by the current increases in the number and intensity of sun flairs. There are those scientist that believe sun flairs are the cause of the current climate change as well as the effect on microwave transmissions from cell phone, commutation satellites and the ever growing number microwave land line telephone transmissions.

Few people realize it was a gigantic sun flair that caused the huge power outage in Canada and the northeast as well as the failure of many communication satellites, a few years ago. ;)

mike