Organic Beekeepers Report No Colony Collapse
(With a dose of reality below from Miles Stair)

Date: Sun May 27, 2007 9:50 am ((PDT))

Scientists are struggling to understand the dramatic decline in the honeybee population in the U. S. and other countries. But organic beekeepers' hives are doing just fine, one keeper disclosed.

Nationwide, one-half to a 1 million colonies out of a total of 2.4 million died this past winter, and scientists aren't sure why. Genetically modified foods, mites, pathogens, pesticides and electromagnetic radiation from cell phones have all been blamed as possible causes of the bees' demise, although the underlying problem remains unknown, Science Daily reports.

But organic beekeeper Sharon Labchuk of Prince Edward Island, Canada, wrote in an e-mail excerpted by information. com: "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."

Another beekeeper, Michael Bush, explains on his Web site that commercial keepers use hives with larger honeycombs, which results in larger bees.

The article on information. com, also cited by the Progressive Review, states: "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.

COMMENTARY BY MILES STAIR

The article above illustrates the incredible ability of media for simplifying information while simultaneously distorting it to be virtually untrue. The basis for understanding must include absolutes in the definition of words, lest we cannot communicate meaning at all.

Organic Beekeeper. An organic beekeeper is one who does not use fluvalinate (Apistan) or any other miticide to kill Varroa or tracheal mites. They do not use Terramycin for minor bee diseases, nor Fumidil B for nosema. Instead of those chemicals, "organic beekeepers" rely upon super concentrated, specially formulated, totally artificial (not found in nature) "essential oils" to supposedly make life so unpleasant for the mite that they will voluntarily march out of the hive.

There are no other distinctions of note between evil "chemical" keepers and pure, wholesome "organic" beekeepers. Honeybees are true free spirits, i.e. wild, and frequently disobey even organic beekeepers. They will fly to whatever darned flower they desire, not bothering to ask if that flower has been fertilized with 10-10-10 or 5th generation pure organic compost. "Organic" nectar is very difficult to have certified, as GPS units small enough for individual honeybees have yet to be developed in commercially viable quantities, so it is entirely possible that honeybees could stray from the true intent of their 'keeper and occasionally visit flowers or florets in an evil, artificially fertilized or sprayed garden, orchard or field.

In nature, honeybees draw two sizes of comb: worker comb and drone comb. Worker comb has 5 cells to the inch, drone comb has 4 cells to the inch. Almost all beekeepers us wax foundation which has been embossed with 5 cells per inch to artificially induce honeybees to draw all worker cells, as drone cells produce drones and are absolutely worthless to beekeepers, the ultimate useless eaters. Even so, the bees will often draw a couple of rows of drone size cells across the top of a frame, as they know there must be drones or the colony will not ultimately survive. Even their matriarchal society recognizes that women's lib only goes so far and that males are needed occasionally.

So we are left with a logical contradiction. Either commercial beekeepers are forcing honeybees to draw all-drone comb, or pure, sweet organic beekeepers are forcing honeybees on a diet and whipping them into producing artificially skinny "Twiggy" comb. In either case, the true dimensions are completely ignored - the vast majority of beekeepers.

While the greatest number of beehives in the country belong to commercial beekeepers, the vast majority of beekeepers are hobby 'keepers with only a few hives. Ain't no way they are going to load a couple of hives into their van and drive to Orange County every February to secure a pollination contract. In fact, the vast majority of beekeepers are Fixed Base hobby beekeepers, and they use worker foundation in hives constructed as they have been since invented by Rev. L. L. Langstroth in 1851.

A few hobby beekeepers must want "organic" honey on their tofu (they apparently grow only organic tofu plants), so the use of chemical miticides are verboten to them. But to claim victory over CCD on the basis of "organic" beekeeping methods producing only "naturally slim" bees stretches credulity to the limit.  There may be some basis of help against CCD in individual details of organic beekeeping, but that cannot be stretched to encompass a total cure and prevention of all beekeeping ills.

The article above differentiates beekeepers into two categories only - wholesome, natural "organic" beekeepers and large evil commercial "chemical" Nazi beekeepers who "truck (hives) all over the place to make more money with pollination services, which stresses the colonies."  "Making money" appears to be the central factor in stressing the colonies, applying a political agenda to commercial beekeepers and their honeybees. 

In point of fact, commercial beekeepers make their living from pollination contracts. Honey production is incidental to their operation! Without commercial beekeepers, no country could produce sufficient food to feed their own population. And the article totally ignores the vast majority of beekeepers - those hobby beekeepers who keep the faith with Langstroth, C. C. Miller, et al, keeping a few hives in their back yard or orchard, caring for their bees in exactly the same way they have for over 150 years...well before the advent of Colony Collapse Disorder and politically correct propaganda.

Miles Stair