KR>From: Kelley Rosenlund <[log in to unmask]>
  >To: Multiple recipients of list BEE-L <[log in to unmask]>
  >Date:         Thu, 14 Sep 1995 08:01:38 -0400
  >Subject:      Re: Emergency AFB
 
KR> Get some "LAURIC ACID"
 
KR>Is this legal in the U.S.A.?
 
KR>God Bless,
  >Kelley Rosenlund
  >Gainesville, Fla. U.S.A., 32 hives
 
Hello Kelley,
 
For sure it is not approved for use in the USA. It could be illegal to
sell any product for use in or on a beehive or on bee's that is not
approved. It could also be illegal for a beekeeper to use a product that
is not approved.
 
The problem is and continues to be getting any product, no matter how
safe, or how much research, or how long it has been in use by
beekeepers, approved.
 
Make's one wonder about the future of any golden bullet does it not..!!
Worse it make's me wonder about the product's that are approved as
they are not necessarily the best, only the one's that had the money to
use the system to get approval. And for sure limits the choice that
we can make and that choice is not necessarily made on the best
research, only who has the most money.
 
I know nothing about "lauric acid", but would bet that it will never be
approved as the cost to do so is beyond the economic resources of all
but the biggest chemical and drug companies, plus the use or need for
the product would not pay the time of even one beekeeper who would want
to see it approved so he could use it. Household bleach would no doubt
do the same thing but it also is not approved.
 
Is it illegal for a person to use Lauric Acid in the US as a dip or
drench, or painted on beehives to kill unwanted bacteria? No it is
not, but one should be insured just in case it finds it's way into the
honey at a later date. It is not approved but it is not necessarily
legal, one should also have fund's set aside for any legal action
any government agent or agency would want to bring against you if you
need to prove that your use of this or any chemical not approved for
use was legal. If you use it without it being approved you could become
an outlaw by that use. Outlaw's contrary to public opinion are not
treated well by government agency's other then welfare. You could win
every legal point in the highest court's and legislatures in the US and
still be an outlaw and receive some special treatment by any government
agency.
 
The approved chemical treatment for the prevention of AFB and EFB is
TM, use it, it works and it is cheeper then any other approved or
not approved chemical or drug that you could use. It also benefits
healthy hives with increased brood rearing if used as proscribed on
the label. You know it is working when the bee's do remove occasional
old AFB scale from combs. It is not unusual to find a few scales of
AFB in equipment from healthy hives that have had regular treatment
with TM, that is the way it works. Honey and brood combs that do not
have scale rarely cause healthy hives to break down with AFB. I did
not say never. Never is a long time in the bee business. What never
will happen will always happen once in a beekeepers lifetime. Normally
AFB is like the bogy man, as long as you don't see him you need only
fear him. In the old days, before any chemical's were used by
beekeeper's for prevention or treatment of AFB it was not unusual to
find up to 3% AFB in any one season. Many times the uncapping of these
bad cells with AFB, if they were few in number, with the corner of a
hive tool and then roping it out with a wooden match stick to be sure,
(they use to all be wooden), was all it took for that hive to be free of
AFB the next inspection, maybe a week to a month later. The beekeeper's
I apprenticeship under burned them anyway, I know, it was my job to dig
the hole, come back after dark, carefully open the hive, throw in the
gasoline, pull out the combs and then stand back and throw a lit match
into the pit and watch the bees and wax combs burn. One time I got ahead
of the fire so to keep from being bored I would check the combs for AFB
by the light of the fire. I could not find any..? So the next time hives
were brought in for the pit, I check them all by the light of day, and
to my surprise I could not find any cell's showing AFB. We burned them
anyway. Later with the advent of drugs, first Sulfa, then TM, the AFB
found is seldom the one cell type, and all combs found should be burned.
I am not so sure about the combs that show no scale at all and do not
burn white extracting combs from AFB hives myself, going most years with
1/2 of 1% AFB using TM in all food products introduced into the hives.
 
 
                             ttul Andy-
 
 
(c)Permission to reproduce, granted.
Opinion is not necessarily fact.
---
 ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ * A cynic smells the flowers and looks for the casket.