Factory farmed honey bees?

Despite continual admonitions from more levels heads, various groups
around the world are each trying to make a case for their own special
interests. We have heard from the NO GMO groups, the anti-cell phone
clubs, the ban corn syrup faction, etc.

Now so-called organic beekeepers are rallying and trying to make a
case against the "factory farmed honey beekeepers" as the real
culprits. I would think that, as beekeepers, they would have more
sense, good will and camaraderie.

QUOTED:

> While no one is certain why honey bee colonies are collapsing, factory farmed honey bees are more susceptible to stress from environmental sources than organic or feral honey bees. Most people think beekeeping is all natural but in commercial operations the bees are treated much like livestock on factory farms.

> I'm on an organic beekeeping email list of about 1,000 people, mostly Americans, and no one in the organic beekeeping world, including commercial beekeepers, is reporting colony collapse on this list. The problem with commercial operations is pesticides used in hives to fumigate for varroa mites and antibiotics are fed to the bees to prevent disease. Hives are hauled long distances by truck, often several times during the growing season, to provide pollination services to industrial agriculture crops, which further stresses the colonies and exposes them to agricultural pesticides and GMOs.

> Commercial beekeeping today is just another cog in the wheel of industrial agriculture – necessary because pesticides and habitat loss are killing native pollinators, and vast tracks of monoculture crops aren't integrated into the natural landscape. In an organic Canada, native pollinators would flourish and small diversified farms would keep their own natural bees for pollination and local honey sales. The factory farm aspects of beekeeping, combined with an onslaught of negative environmental factors, puts enough stress on the colonies that they are more susceptible to dying out.

* * *

An example of real solid research: out of 1000 emailers, not one
reported colony collapse to the organic bee list. Boy, that proves it.
Probably never lost a single hive, having no idea why it failed. I
wish I could say that.

Of course our author is new to beekeeping and undoubtedly has not met
any of the real decent beekeepers that keep bees in one location,
don't move them at all, are not anywhere near large scale farming (I
could name dozens here in Upstate NY).

Even before CCD hit the news some of these people experienced losses
up to fifty percent and had no real explanation other than a "bad
winter". I have seen vanishing bees many times and it was usually in
untreated hives.

pb

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