Each state should have someone to notify, even with budget cuts. Most
will be housed in your State Dept of Agriculture, call the Director's office.
Each state also has a State Beekeepers Association. If this hasn't been
done this yet, now would be a good time for someone in the State Association
to run to ground the appropriate responsible state government person,
contact information for the state and POST it for all of the state's
beekeepers. If all else fails, go to the Governor's office and file a complaint.
Finally, by far the best strategy is for the beekeepers to maintain
communications with their local growers.
I realize that takes a bit of leg work, since its not uncommon for growers
to RENT widely dispersed fields. However, in the past three years, I've
done work in four states as well as in Canada. In each case, I needed to
run to ground the local growers and the local beekeepers, both for access to
fields and for information about products used, etc. It took a bit of leg
work, but it wasn't that hard to do - and that wasn't even my own state.
Usually took a day or two of phone calls, or going to an office and sitting
down with the grower, local seed company tech reps, etc.
COMMUNICATION is key. Take some time to get to know your farmers and
growers, and your state government people. Invite them to your annual
beekeeper meetings.
It's usually far easier to get someone locally to come out in a timely
manner, than it is to find someone in the federal government to fly out to look
at the incident.
Also, this should be obvious, but in light of the SUDDEN increase in
reports, remember, not all bee losses are caused by pesticides. Pests,
diseases, and sometimes just gettiing behind on bee management, such as keeping
varroa in check or getting food to the bees when they need it can produce bee
kills ranging from minor to severe. For example, at this time of year bees
are especially vulnerable to nutritional stress, starvation. In the
spring in many of our northern states - winter stores mostly gone, colonies are
caring for lots of brood, weather turns cool or rainy, and bees can
suddenly go into a starvation event, which can rapidly produce dead bees on the
ground. And ,although some main disagree, I've also investigated bee kills
where the issue was that there were no 'smoking gun' levels of pesticides,
but dead bees on ground were loaded with Nosema ceranae. And, years ago in
tunnels, I saw bees from colonies heavily infested with varroa march out
the entrance, move out some yards, and then die in a pile. I was shocked
when I first saw this in a tunnel, then saw it in others. Not a trickle of
bees, but the whole population suddenly marching out without flying, then
dying in front of the hives.
So, report the incident, but follow up with someone taking samples and
getting them analyzed. Although I've seen lots of bee kills from pesticide,
starvation, and mites and diseases, I've found that its not always possible
to tell WHICH is the cause, based just on the observing dead and dying
bees, or dwindling colonies. I may have my opinion as to what happens, and I'm
right more often than not, but there are no definitive, visible signs.
Even if the problem IS a pesticide, it may not be the one you suspect.
Jerry
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