North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Dylan Ford" <dford@suffolk.lib.ny.us>]

 

 

 

Folks - This is forwarded with permission from another list. dylan

 

 

> No ORGANIC Bee losses
> 2007 05 06
>
> | redicecreations.com
>
> I am quite involved with many alternative agriculture
> groups, and I received this email from a trusted
> friend...you might want to check it out for your news
> section...
>
> "Sharon Labchuk is a longtime environmental activist and

> part-time organic beekeeper from Prince Edward Island. She has 
twice
> run for a seat in Ottawa's House of Commons, making strong 
showings
> around 5% for Canada's fledgling Green Party. She is also 
leader of
> the provincial wing of her party. In a widely circulated 
email, she
> wrote:
>
> I'm on an organic beekeeping list of 
about 1,000 people,
> mostly Americans, and no one in the organic 
beekeeping world,
> including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony 
collapse on this> list. The problem with the big commercial guys is that they 
put
> pesticides in their hives to fumigate for varroa mites, and they 
feed
> antibiotics to the bees. They also haul the hives by truck all 
over
> the place to make more money with pollination services, 
which
> stresses the colonies.
>
> Her email recommends a 
visit to the Bush Bees Web site at
> Here, Michael Bush felt compelled to 
put a message to the beekeeping
> world right on the top 
page:
>
> Most of us beekeepers are fighting with the Varroa mites. 
I'm
> happy to say my biggest problems are things like trying to get 
nucs
> through the winter and coming up with hives that won't hurt my 
back
> from lifting or better ways to feed the bees.
>
> This 
change from fighting the mites is mostly because I've
> gone to natural 
sized cells. In case you weren't aware, and I wasn't
> for a long time, 
the foundation in common usage results in much
> larger bees than what you 
would find in a natural hive. I've measured
> sections of natural worker 
brood comb that are 4.6mm in diameter.
> What most people use for worker 
brood is foundation that is 5.4mm in
> diameter. If you translate that 
into three dimensions instead of one,
> it produces a bee that is about 
half as large again as is natural. By
> letting the bees build natural 
sized cells, I have virtually
> eliminated my Varroa and Tracheal mite 
problems. One cause of this is
> shorter capping times by one day, and 
shorter post-capping times by
> one day. This means less Varroa get into 
the cells, and less Varroa
> reproduce in the cells.
>
> Who 
should be surprised that the major media reports forget to
> tell us that 
the dying bees are actually hyper-bred varieties that we
> coax into a 
larger than normal body size? It sounds just like the
> beef industry. 
And, have we here a solution to the vanishing bee
> problem? Is it one 
that the CCD Working Group, or indeed, the
> scientific world at large, 
will support? Will media coverage affect
> government action in dealing 
with this issue?
>
> These are important questions to ask. It is not 
an uncommonly
> held opinion that, although this new pattern of bee colony 
collapse
> seems to have struck from out of the blue (which suggests 
a
> triggering agent), it is likely that some biological limit in 
the
> bees has been crossed. There is no shortage of evidence that we 
have
> been fast approaching this limit for some time.
>
> 
We've been pushing them too hard, Dr. Peter Kevan, an
> associate 
professor of environmental biology at the University of
> Guelph in 
Ontario, told the CBC. And we're starving them out by
> feeding them 
artificially and moving them great distances. Given the
> stress 
commercial bees are under, Kevan suggests CCD might be caused
> by 
parasitic mites, or long cold winters, or long wet springs, or
> 
pesticides, or genetically modified crops. Maybe it's all of the
> 
above...

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Dylan Ford is the author of the proposal at www.ideaforpresident.com , a website devoted to an idea that could provide an avenue to address pollution issues, food safety, social justice, prison reform and healthcare.