I'm back from the North American Beekeeping Federation Conference! Dutch Gold sponsored the Breakfast today...Yummmm. I saw quite a few people checking out some Dutch Gold honey and McLure's maple syrup to put on their pancakes! But WOW was it hard to wake up at 5am! Anyways, there were quite a few beekeepers that seemed used to waking up early. Even at those early hours, I got the feeling that most beekeepers are very realistic people. There was much chatter about hives and mites and such, but overall there was a great awareness that many of them would lose large portions of their bee populations over the winter. Don't get me wrong, they are very happy people but it seems with time, beekeepers, just like anyone else in the agricultural industry, know that most of what happens is out of their control. I think it is a trait that most people these days would not be able to deal with.