> this thread has started producing nothing that is helping anyone keep a single bee hive alive or fix any problems.
OK, then. How about these ideas:
1) Get the bees away from Agricultural areas. Regardless of what neonics do or do not do, modern Ag uses all sorts of poisons that kill bugs, including bees.
2) If you pollinate, ask the grower to use bee safe products, or he should expect to pay more for rental bees. You can't keep taking a hit without charging him for it.
3) Get the bees away from other beekeepers. The general run of hives is so full of crap, that even if you have resistant bees, they'll get overwhelmed by the stuff coming off of other guys crashing hives.
4) Demand and buy resistant stock. Many companies have been offering this for years. Weavers come to mind, and many others. Try VSH queens, I think this is the coming bee.
5) Stop using fluvalinate, coumaphos, etc. These chemicals in combination are present in most of the collapsed hives, and could be responsible for weakened immunity. Learn to use the newer treatments: Formic, Thymol, Oxalic (where permitted).
6) Organic Beekeeping Standards demand many of these things and they are all good ideas. Unfortunately, some of them are not practical. We can't all move out to the Sonoran Desert and raise wild bees. We live in the real, not ideal, world. That's where IPM comes in. Integrate all the best ideas and forget the stuff that doesn't work.
7) Support the research community with dollars. Steer them towards the work that you want to see done, work that will benefit all beekeepers everywhere.
plb
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