North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Michael Nave <jmichaelnave@yahoo.com>]

The problem with this discussion like most other CCD
discussions is that it provides explanations for bees
dying. It provides no explanations for bees MISSING.


--- Dylan Ford <dford@suffolk.lib.ny.us> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> 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...
> 
> 
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> More information about the BDNow mailing list
> 
> 
> 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.>
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