Richard Adee the owner of Adee Honey Farms in South Dakota is the largest beekeeper in America. Richard consistently runs 80,000 or more colonies between South Dakota, California, Washington, Texas and Mississippi. When it comes to Honey-B-Healthy, Richard says 'we wouldn’t operate without it.'
Adee Honey Farms suffered a 40% loss of bees in 2008 and testing indicated that numerous viruses were the primary cause. As Richard tells it, he sent the best of what was left of his bees to the almond orchards in California and shipped the rest to Texas. Then he bought a bunch of new bees in an effort to expand and improve the gene pool in his bees and he bred from the best and most resistant of his remaining stock. In the Summer of 2008 his bees were looking pretty good but were not making much honey. He drenched the bees with Honey-B-Honey and the bees seemed to take off, ending the year by producing a nice honey crop. Testing and sampling following the drenching indicated much lower virus levels as well as lower Varroa levels. Since then Richard reports that he has had no major health issues with his bees during the past year and a half and he now uses H-B-H regularly in his bee feed and is drenching them once each summer as preventive maintenance. Like his colleagues, he appreciates the fact that H-B-H is a food related natural product and that he does not have to rely on toxic chemistry and drugs to maintain his industrial size operation.
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