At 06:45 PM 1/21/98 -0500, you wrote:
 
>Another of those big lies from our US state governments.
>"I am from the Texas Department of Agriculture and I am here to tell you
>what you can post or read!"
 
>This technology that we are using now is is going to be the biggest bane to
>government bureaucrats that there ever was.  News travels so fast and so
>much of it that I do believe that we are going to see more honesty and
>better government because of it.
 
Hi Billy Bee,
 
I really hope you are right... But I also hope that Mr. Caldeira does not
let his experience end without some kind of political or civil action. Far
too often over zealous regulators, and I include bee regulators are able to
walk away when they are wrong or did wrong under the cover of law and the
lowly beekeeper is the loser even when he wins. The powers of the State of
Texas was mis applied against this beekeepers and who knows how many others
because of not what he or they did but what was written or said.
 
If I say, and I have said, that I am personally for beekeepers in the US
being able to import bee stock in a regulated market, and also say I know
how it can be done safely and successfully.Am I to expect a knock on my
door in the future by some bee regulating agency of the government.
 
Note no question mark because I can tell you I know the answer and it is
yes. They may not come from the bee regulators, they may come in the dress
of the tax appraiser, immigration agent, water or air quality board or some
other of the legions of regulators whom I must work with in the apiary
business, but informed by the bee regulator.
 
 
In California we had a bee inspector accidently cause a fire that burned up
a bee yard (100+).  It was an accident and the loser was the beekeeper. In
the same year we had a beekeeper accidently cause a fire because of his
catalytic converter and dry grass, (at the time by regulation this could
not officially happen), and he was made to pay the full cost of putting the
fire out. Lucky for the beekeeper his bees were saved and his insurance
company worked out the cost of the suppressing the fire, a $250,000.00
bill, with the state.
 
To some my illustrations are like apples and oranges but to me both
represent the arrogance of government and IMHO the misuse of the power
people give the state.
 
Thousands of hives were killed in the federal-state T-mite quarantine, most
of them in Texas and California. Dozens of good bee people big and small
had their lives forever ruined, some never recovered emotionally or
financially. It was wrong, in fact so wrong that in recent years the
federal administrators in charge of animal and plant quarantine use the Bee
Mite Quarantine as an example of how not to have quarantines yet to this
day no beekeeper involved has received an apology from those responsible or
fair remuneration for their losses. Some of the regulators and academics
who went as far as to even give the courts false and misleading scientific
evidence today are still employed by their agency's and in fact one of the
greatest enemies the bee industry ever had in California is now a big shot
Federal administrator and dealing with some beekeeping programs. Even the
beekeepers and queen breeders who promised to help those who fell under the
ax for the most part reneged on their promises as they were overwhelmed by
the enormity of the loss. Many quietly did help out their neighbors, God
Bless them all.
 
The Federal Quarantine on Afrikaans bees is another example of how far some
in government will go even with the sure knowledge that what they are doing
other then being interesting to some has no basis in fact or law and the
regulation could not stand under a court challenge or the light of day, yet
in Texas and other states quarantines or regulations still exist and are
enforced or are they. It is easy to find bees  from regulated areas of
Texas that find their way to California, Washington, the Dakota's, Florida,
and you name it.
 
African bees as represented by the hype of the killer bees or the Tex-Mex
bee, or the pure thing from Africa are NOT new to the United States and
have never been a problem and are not a problem even though some will say
they are for what ever their reason, more times then not what they have
read, heard
or been told, but not what they have experienced working with African and
non African bees. Regulations should be made based on facts and not on what
any one or any group perceives as the fact no matter that groups standing
in government. The beekeeping industry in the past had years when the bee
regulatory industry had a grater net income and this is one reason for more
regulation at least if you are a regulator.
 
Yes all bee regulators are not bad people, but few of them if told too
would not have cited Mr. Caldeira. I have seen them crying as they gassed
some poor beekeepers bees knowing they were doing the wrong thing and yet
the next day they were back to gas some other beekeepers bees, oh how
"sorry" they were.  Maybe the tear's were from the gas fumes and not the
heart, my own tears came from what's inside most beekeeper, and a respect
for nature, and others efforts. I remember not one BS (bee scientists)
giving testimony or support to those beekeepers, but I am sure there was at
least one I just can't remember which one.
 
Well, Mr Caldeira may not have to pay a $600 fine but the people
responsible for trying to collect it are still out there and who know who
will be the next beekeeper victim.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
 
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