To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] No Organic Bee Losses (From BDNow)
Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 08:22:19 -0400
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...
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.