Bob Harrison wrote:
>> A French chap claimed that since the banning of imidacloprid and fiprinol
spraying, the bees in France now are doing well.  No more massive die off.
Thats what I have been saying now for a very long time on BEE-L. I have
spoken with commercial beekeepers in France!  We have got to ban together
and try to stop the use of the above chemicals. I will say that the bees
when given a choice (plenty of pesticide free pollen like this year in my
area) will stay away from contaminated pollen ( perhaps the bees somehow
know the pollen is not right? ) but in a drought year they will seek out the
contaminated pollen ( my own experiments!). Give me 5 minutes in front of a
CCD meeting and I WILL get the real story out.

Sorry for the long quote, but look here: You claim to be able to get the
real story out in 5 minutes. I submit that 5 minutes isn't long enough to
get any story out, let alone one as complex as Colony Collapse. It would
take ten minutes just to lay out all the different theories. But then, you
have boiled it down to just one. Obviously you must be right, since your
source is "A French chap". What ever happened to proof? I would be
embarrassed to tell farmers that they should give up the sprays they think
they need to produce a paying crop just because "some French chap" says they
hurt bees. But then, only in a drought year, because the bees "stay away
from contaminated pollen". These guys have just as much right to earn a
living as you or I. I don't think a bee can tell whether pollen has traces
of pesticides in it; they will pick up just about kind of pollen, nutritious
or not. But then, I haven't conducted "my own experiments". Come on, Bob. I
hope your 5 minute presentation contains more than "somehow I know" and I
got it from a "French chap".

Pete

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