Surprise! Organic Beekeepers Reporting Zero Losses

[Nostalgia]

With all the frightening news over bee losses throughout the world, it appears that one tiny minor piece of information was overlooked: the losses are occurring in colonies besieged with chemicals and artificial additives. Organic bees are fairing quite nicely, thank you. From the article,

“‘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,’ said Sharon Labchuck. ‘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.’”

In our efforts to make larger bees that are resistant to more predators or diseases — have we crossed the line in how far we could go? As the article 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. 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?”

Or, even better: Would this current administration dare trample on the industry that has risen to supply the pesticides and inorganic alternatives to these bee keepers? Can they afford not to?

http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1388

[ZingPao]

Great post Nostalgia and good news; about the organic bees doing well, not the greedy assholes trying to make a buck.

[sprucejuice]

Yay for organics!

I had heard that one of the potential causes of colony collapse was that bees we're pollinating GM plants etc, and the 'in-built' pesticide attributes as a result of their GM was causing issues for the bees.

I'm not sure how much truth there is there though.

[ZingPao]

I'm happy to report that my sweet basil is still attracting bees and more of them. I like to think the herbs we plant may be beneficial to the bees. I'm surprised the bees are still around since it is getting so cold.

[EnergRecruit]

“‘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,’ said Sharon Labchuck. ‘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.’”

[Regina]

EnergRecruit, welcome to the forum! However, I'm confused why you have copied and pasted a section of the original article as a post. Do you have any other comments to add to this thread?