Bob Harrison wrote:
> I am impressed with some of the new generation of beekeepers. They realize 
> the main truth about beekeeping. Even a bad beekeeper can be successful as 
> long as he puts in the hours. You need to know when to work from morning 
> till night ( or dusk to dawn) and when to pick up the fishing pole and 
> leave for awhile to clear your head. 
>   
and in another post

> Did border controls stop tracheal mites?
>
> Did border controls stop Varroa?
>
> Did border controls stop africanized bees?

I always enjoy Bob's posts because they inform. 

I noticed, back when Tracheal was the problem /de jour/, that new beekeepers took them in stride while many of the "set and forget" beekeepers dropped out. Same with Varroa. That is not unusual, since you are trained for the environment you are in, and not what was. The abnormal becomes the norm.

As far as border controls go, usually if you the "follow the money" you will find the real reason for any controls. Sometimes they are legitimate, when there is an ocean acting as a border, but not when the States or countries are contiguous. Then controls seldom have anything to do with keeping a pest out, since the pest is usually there or almost there. It has more to do with the protection of the local industries from larger or more efficient outside sources. 

In beekeeping, this is classic when the advocates are hobby beekeepers or "organic" beekeepers. We (since I practice both), will fight to keep the "bad" commercial beekeepers from violating our space and bringing in all sorts of bad stuff that we probably already have but are too unobservant or ignorant to recognize. The local commercial people use that ignorance to protect themselves from competition. I saw that up here in Maine with the closed Canadian border and the "protection" of the Canadian blueberry pollinators from US competition. Varroa was already there but protection was put in place anyway. 

From casual observation, it looks like the same with SHB and California. 

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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