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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Lewis Cauble <lewis AT hivebody.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Monsanto Buys Bee Research Comapany
  • Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:17:40 -0400 (EDT)

It should also be noted that after Monsanto acquired Beelogics in September, they hired Jerry Hayes in December.  Jerry was the chief inspector in Florida and member of the scientific board of Beelogics.  Jerry was (is) also the author of the "In The Classroom" section of ABJ.

 

An organic farmer asked me this weekend if I thought that neonics were the cause of CCD.  I explained that from what I understand, science seems to implicate that varroa mites and the diseases that they vector are a much bigger factor.  "Hmmm" he says.  I've never heard of varroa mites".

 

The silver lining in the cloud of CCD has been that bees are in the news more than ever.  This in turn has brought tons of new backyard beekeepers to the scene.  The thing that bums me out is that the media gives no mention to the critter that every beekeeper has to battle while trying to keep bees.  Some beekeepers will have a pesticide kill, but EVERY beekeeper will have varroa mites. 

 

My laissez-faire attitude towards pesticides and bees stems from my experience as a beekeeper.  My deadout colonies are not a result of pesticide poisoning but rather beekeeper error.  I didn't control mite load, I didn't feed enough, I didn't inspect to determine if it was queen-right, I split too heavy, etc.  I am solely responsible for my losses.

 

Raging against EPA and big ag might help the bees, but educating each other on good methods of keeping bees I believe will be a much more productive avenue for us backyard beekeepers.

 

Lewis

 

 


On April 24, 2012 at 9:34 AM David DiGiuseppe <david AT daviddg.com> wrote:

An admittedly anti-corporate biased article. But still, the facts speak for themselves.
 
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David DiGiuseppe 



 



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