The problem with bees --yours or his--is that you can NOT control where they decided to harvest their nectar/pollen!! LOL.. You could have 5 hives, sitting in your orchard and IF your neighbor has something that has better quality, more nectar--they are heading over to visit his orchard, wood lot,clover patch or even hummingbird feeder. I have been keeping bees for almost 12 yrs and I love them. It is a great hobby and you can purchase a LOT of equipment/bees for that amount of $$$$. I agree w/ others--plant lots of clover, (herbs my girls love Mountain mint- have it planted around the orchard)Thyme and dandelions... Let an area go natural ( don't mow the wild flowers, weeds--it will bring in all kinds of pollinators... Good luck w/ your decision.

Most scientists seem to think that what they are now calling CCD is actually a 'disorder' (because they don't know what else to call it) that has long been observed in the bee keeping community, both here and abroad. For generations, though in much smaller numbers, bees have been doing this same thing. Long before cell phones, by the way! (lol) The term CCD is a new one, just to make sure that everyone is on the same page. As you can imagine, deceased bees are being evaluated like crazy all over the world! A lot of similarities have cropped up, but nothing (yet) points to any ONE causal agent. Mites are not the instigator of CCD, but can take away from the general well-being of the hive. Bees are also prone to a wide variety of other fungal and bacterial diseases. It could be an instance where the world's bees have just been bombarded by so much that their immune systems are compromised. Some of the articles I've read seem to focus on a fungal strain, Nosema ceranae, as a contributing factor.

My husband went through almost 3 years of these 'hives'. Called angioneurotic edema when a reason such as allegy isn't found. There was never more than a few days between 'attacks'. He had large swellings on every part of his body. (yes, that too) Sometmes it would be just a finger or an eye lid. Other times it would be in a half dozen or more places at once. More often than not he would have it around his waist at the belt line. Heat, cold and pressure seemed to set it off. The worst was when the condition went 'inside' and he would have what semed like severe indigestion and pain in the diaphragm/esopagus. About 3 years into this, he bagan having a different chest pain. It turned out to be angina and a short time later he had quadruple heart bypass surgery. Two days after the surgery, he had his last attack of these hives. It has been 23 years now and he has not had another hive. Were the hives and heart condition connected? I don't think so...but who knows. The propensity to angioneurotic edema, I have read, runs in families. Our daughter in her teens, had a round of it that ran for about a year. She is diabetic, and when she was changed from beef insulin to pork insulin the breakouts stopped. She is 46 now and has had no more problems. Daughter #2 has, over the last 10 years, had maybe 6 or 7 short episodes of it. And 3 of my husbands 6 siblings have had short episodes with it. The only thing that helped anyone was time. They just have to run their course it seems. Husband and daughter were put on a couple different medications, including benedryl, that did not help. Maybe now there is something that will. Do a web search for angioneurotic edema. There is a lot to learn. Much more now than when we were looking for answers for my husband and daughter.

This spring, I took Claritin-24 hour (note: not with D) almost every day for 3 months for mild allergies. Wondering if my allergy season had past, I stopped on May 4. By May 5 I was suddenly and totally free of the constant craving for sugar and fat that had plagued me for many weeks, had made me stock up on cookies and ice cream at every store trip and gain much weight. My cravings had been such that I could not sit and watch TV without chewing on something tasty. Six weeks later, the cravings have not returned. For stuffy nose or leaking eyes, I take the same Claritin 2 or 3 times a week. It's hard to find online much about the weight-gaining effects of antihistamines - I assume due to the pharmaceutical industry's huge presence on the web. Other personal health info that may be involved: I am 75 years-old. Developed hives (where legs rub together walking a treadmill) for the first time in my life, after being in swimming pools twice in past year; cured quickly with anti-histamine (Claritin-24). I took the Rx steroidal spray Nasonex for several years to combat a life-long post-nasal drip. Last year it seemed not to work as well, and as the Claritin was helping the problem, my doctor said to quit and if needed we would try something else. The Nasonex supply ran out during April. I seem to be more delicious than ever to the no-seeum insects (this is Florida). I hope this helps someone or brings me more info on the subjects of histamines, anti-histamines, or cravings!