Hello All,

This post has been churning in my head for at least six months.  It has
the potential to start a flame war and I just didn't want to put my dog
in that fight.  But after reading something in one of Allen's posts, I
guess I will risk it.

Allen Dick wrote:

"On at least one other discussion group the use of Mavrik(r) along with
instructions on how to use it has been openly discussed a couple of
times within the past year. I'd be more likely to believe fluvalinate
tolerance developed as quickly as it did because of that practice, but
then that's another story."

It may sound like I am blaming commercial operations in this post.  That
is definitely not the case.  I have a lot of respect for and learned
much from the folks that do this for a living.  Most of them have
forgotten more about beekeeping than I will ever know.  There are good
and bad folks in everything and beekeepers are no exception.

Not that long ago I met someone that had been keeping bees for a
relatively short time and had less than 20 colonies.  He then decided to
purchase an additional 100+ colonies and presto he is a commercial
operator.  As a commercial operator he decided using Apistan is too
expensive.  All the "big guys" use Mavrik(r) and that is what he did.
Last I heard he lost most of his colonies over winter.

In early spring I attended a workshop dealing with varroa.  Along the
way I heard someone who is in an "official capacity" mention that most
folks that have a large number of colonies (a.k.a commercial outfits)
can't afford to use the conventional treatments so they rely on, as Bob
Harrington has mentioned, "sheep dip".  That was confirmed in other
conversations where some operators openly admitted this.  The final
straw came when I was reading the mid summer state inspector's report
that stated 12% of the colonies inspected were treated using "illegal
methods".  In my state there are only a handful of big operations.  They
make up well below 1% of the number of beekeepers here.  Because their
livelihood depends on it, I think most, if not all, of them know what
they are doing (Bob H. can probably confirm this).  What scares the hell
out of me is a guy like me who hears what they are doing and thinks he
can do it too.  We have all met folks like this.  They think that having
more colonies automatically makes them better beekeepers.  Yes the more
opportunities you have to work with different colonies the more you will
learn, but that only comes with experience.  Most of these folks are in
it for a few years, lose a lot of bees (and money) and then get out.
The problem is how much damage will they cause in the process.

I do think some of the commercial operators may be partially to blame.
I know it is not intentional, but when a successful large operator
mentions something they are doing, it only stands to reason someone else
will try it.  I truly believe they are doing this in order to help other
folks out but I think the old saying "a little bit of knowledge is a
dangerous thing" applies here.

I don't have an answer to this, and please believe me I am NOT attacking
commercial outfits, God knows they are hard workers at a craft that is
not always rewardable.  I just think we all have to be better stewards
in what we are doing.  The consequences of many may be tied to actions
of a few.

Take care,

Ron Bogansky

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