On 6 Aug 2003 at 21:26, Tim Vaughan wrote:

> Robin clarifies his previous post where it seemed he felt people who
> feed
> their bees sugar are the moral equivelants of child abusers.

    I could not tell you how many times I have been asked: "When
are you going to rob the bees?"  Or, "Have you robbed the bees
yet?"

   I look them right in the eye and tell them. "I have never robbed
the bees yet, and I never intend to do so."  Usually they are
surprised.

   Then I explain. If you rob the bees, they will starve, or they won't
be able to keep their babies warm in winter. My goal is to "harvest
a surplus," not to rob them.  There was no such thing as a bee
keeper until modern times when we learned how to do this without
harming the bees. Before that we only had bee robbers.

   I sulphured a wild hive in the old fashioned way once, and it
made me sick to see all the puking, dying bees. I resolved to never
do it again.

   If I harvest too much, and the bees are at risk of starvation, then
it is my responsibility to feed them. Sometimes I give them frames
of honey, sometimes I give them sugar syrup. They are wild
creatures but they are under my care. The same is true of their
health or risk of parasites. I have accepted that responsibility, just
as I would have if I kept cattle.

   My objection to Robin's statements is that they were absolute. I'm
glad to see some modification in them, as the culmunitive
experience of so many good beekeepers is that the benefits of
feeding sugar whenever there is a shortage of nectar far exceeds
any drawbacks of lack of trace minerals that may be missing in
sugar. Any good beekeeper can look at the hives and can see,
smell and hear the signs of robust, healthy bees. When one can
see, time after time, that hives are roaring strong because of a
timely sugar feed in late winter, or during a hot dry summer, it is
irritating to have someone come along and assert catagorically that
one is harming the bees by the feeding"

   The decision that sugar is bad was made before ANY testing of
the idea, and clung to with absolute tenacity despite observations
to the contrary.

   I certainly would welcome good studies of this question (by those
who hadn't already concluded before the test, that sugar is bad),
but doubt that they will be done. There just isn't enough evidence
that this is really an issue, to trigger such studies. Many
commercial beekeepers have done this in a less formal manner.
Most of our bees may get fed in a timely manner; yet wet weather
may make our access to a particular bee yard impossible and they
get missed. The difference in the yard that missed the feeding is
pretty obvious. Now a "real" scientist might do tissue studies to see
if the bees have suffered any nutrional deficiency. A beekeeper
might simply observe that the bees are fat and healthy and they get
out and do the job we like to see them do.

   Robin brings our attention to another area where this absolute,
arrogant assertion of truth is made over a matter that is tentative.
Robin may respect evolution, but the incredible beauty and
complexity of our bees could be a result of a wise creator. The
evolutionists consider that they have absoute fact, and they get
downright hostile whenever anyone challenges their efforts to
dominate the educational system. In fact they have a religion,
which has made the primary decisions beforehand.

   Someone has said that if a lie is repeated often enough and
strongly enough people will begin to believe it.  The same could be
said for notions, unproven theories and half truths.

   I also question the comparison between human needs and the
bees' needs. We are so utterly different.

  Recent studies have shown that the darker honeys are better
supplies with cancer fighting antioxidents, which of course makes
them the logical choice for human consumption. But long
beekeeper experience has shown that these are the hardest for the
bees to digest.  Having been raised on buckwheat honey, I kind of
enjoy the idea that the best honey for humans is the worst for bees.
Perhaps here we have another hint at a wise Providence.


Dave Green   SC  USA
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.info

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