You won't believe this one

Beekeeping Practices are Killing Honeybees, Part I
Saturday, January 30, 2010 by: Laura Weldon, citizen journalist

> modern beekeeping practices put severe stress on honeybees, possibly causing this weakened resistance to diseases and parasites in the first place. These practices include unnatural feed, migratory beekeeping, artificial insemination, and chemical treatments. In part one of this series we'll look at the first two practices.

> Unnatural Feed. The only natural foods for honeybees come from the nectars and pollens they collect. These foods contain vital nutrients that optimize the health of these tiny insects. Bees carefully vary their own diets, flying farther to find different blooms if large amounts of nectar have been gathered from one type of plant. But today's beekeepers commonly feed their honeybees artificial syrups and patties made out of high fructose corn syrup (HFC). Unlike the range of fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals found in pollen and nectar HFC is devoid of any real nutrition.

> researchers reported, "The migratory bees were more consistently infected and had a significantly higher prevalence of triple infections. This may be due to the differences in both exposure to pathogens that migratory and local bees experience and overall fitness of the hives as related to stress." In other words, this practice is bad for bees.

Hmm. In other words, the bees may have been sick to begin with unrelated to the fact that they were trucked elsewhere. Very loose grasp on cause and effect here.

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