When Checkmite was introduced the label had some half-baked wording
that prohibited producing comb honey from a hive that was treated in
the spring.  Knowing that the coumaphous formulation was deliberately
made to be hydrophobic, I did not understand.

With relatively little effort I managed to find the actual person at
FDA (EPA?), who approved the label and learned that Bayer wanted those
words, although they had no indications that use of coumaphous in the
spring would contaminate the subsequent comb honey.  The FDA agreed,
but only because Bayer promised to do tests to determine if such
contamination was a danger.  The tests subsequently showed there was
no such contamination, and the wording was withdrawn the following
year.  So, the short answer is that new wax made from bees will not be
contaminated, but wax existing at the time of treatment will absorb
significant quantities.

Under controlled conditions, cappings wax has been tested time and
again and found to be free of coumaphous.

That said, a couple of years ago I had occassion to have some wax
tested for contamination and the readings were far, far higher than
those that have been reported here (in the past couple of days).  This
wax was being sold as capping wax, but had been sold to a rendering
house by a well-known commercial beekeeper.  I did not pay for the
first tests, which were done in France, but because the results were
so high I paid personally for a subsequent test by Columbia Lab. in
Oregon (?)...same house used by the NHB.

I got the same results that they got in France.  (Test costs $200, and
that is still the price today.)  Eventually this was reported to the
USDA, without the name of the beekeeper, and the reaction was 'so
what'?  They had been seeing these results for a long time.  Very bad
and scary stuff.

Next I contacted certain of those that make foundation for beekeepers.
 I was pleasantly surprised to learn that those that I contacted had
been randomly having their foundation checked and were finding no
contamination.  That is real important for those of us who someday
hope to again have foundation without pesticides.  Something (unknown)
in the manufacturing process is removing the coumaphous and
fluvalinate.

No, I am not going to tell you the manufacturers I contacted.  They do
not advertise their product as free of such contaminates as they do
not check all batches.

But, it is a wonder that OSHA has not issued instructions requiring
robots or gloves when handling extracting frames!  I've had some tell
me they would not handle such frames otherwise.

Lloyd

--
Lloyd Spear
Owner Ross Rounds, Inc.
Manufacture of equipment for round comb honey sections,
Sundance Pollen Traps, and producer of Sundance custom labels.
Contact your dealer or www.RossRounds.com

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