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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] colony collapse

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  • From: "Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>
  • To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] colony collapse
  • Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2009 12:49:47 -0700

There are only guesses as to why the organic hives are immune.  It could be pesticide exposure, other chemicals, greater variety of flowers, larger cell size, different strains of bees with different immunities than industry-bred bees, and certainly the lack of stress you mention has been cited as well.

 

~ Stephen

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Tim Inman
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 12:42 PM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] colony collapse

 

It makes all the sense in the world to me that organic keepers might not have as much problem with CCD.  Some of the pharaceuticals used conventionally on bees help 'control' mites and other parasitic creatures.  Since they are insects, too, the products are basically insecticides.  (I'm a furniture restorer/hobby farmer, not an ag chemist.  Please forgive me if I'm not technically spot on here.)  My understanding is that the beekeeper is trying to dose the bees as strongly as possible to eliminate the pests without actually killing the bees.  Sorta like chemotherapy for cancer patients, maybe. This would certainly stress the bees and leave them with much more vulnerable health systems. 

 

I try to think and operate as 'organically' as I can.  I live in the middle of a giant Iowa cornfield, so everything around me is 'non' organic farming.  But, regardless of definitions, I stay with my original point:  Healthy, happy, non-stressed disease free bees can produce more, resist disease naturally, and live longer and better.  And we do, too, as a result.

 

Tim

 

 




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