In a message dated 4/11/00 3:43:26 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

>  Hives that are found to contain pests and diseases should be sent back to
>  their originating state--BAR NONE.

    I read this as almost an attack on the migratory system.  I don't know
where you are, Kevin, but your screen name would imply you are in the
northeast.  Are you prepared to provide the bees that are needed for the
northeastern orchards?  You have little understanding of the pressures that
face a migratory beekeeper, but, if you put him out of work, you will also
sink the orchards.  In fact, I know of one such case that happened during the
tracheal mite quarantines. The southern inspector was slow, and the tractor
trailer load of bees weren't released until nearly petal fall in the
orchard where they were scheduled to pollinate.

    Whether we like it or not, the fruit industry has made drastic changes,
in the form of concentrating more and more into favorable areas and
abandoning others.  When I was a boy, there were small orchards all over
upstate NY and northern PA.  But many of these growers lost crops to spring
frosts, or just couldn't compete, because soil types, drainage, etc, just
weren't the best. Most of these orchards are gone today, and the local fruit
supply comes from a narrow band of intense fruit production along the south
shore of Lake Ontario, where they have frost protection and ideal soils.

    Meanwhile the beekeepers, having to service these concentrations of
orchards, are having a harder time keeping up the supply. Winter losses are
rising, and overwintered bees often are just not ready for fruit bloom
anyway. The good pollinator wants his bees built up FOR apple blossoms, not
building up ON apple blossoms.
New York requires about 30-35,000 hives for spring fruit, the last I heard.
Maine requires about 50,000 for blueberries. A large proportion of these bees
come from the south.

    The beekeepers usually did not chose to migrate for any reason but that
this was the only way they could survive. Bees could be built up in the
south, and be "raring to go" when they reached northeastern orchards.  Many
of the winter losses could be alleviated by southern winter homes.  Bees have
almost continuous brood rearing, so the bees in the spring are all young
bees.  Plus they get a good supply of fresh pollen to dilute and allow the
cleansing of stored contaminated pollen. Much of the winter loss in
overwintered bees in the fruit, vegetable and hay growing regions is not
truly winter loss, but is pesticide losses. Contaminated pollen is stored and
covered, then the bees begin to use it during the winter, when they are most
vulnerable.

   So we have two opposing trends; fruit is concentrating into fewer areas,
which are then requiring larger amounts of bees for pollination. At the same
time fewer and fewer local bees are available.  Whether you like it or not,
migratory beekeeping has become the solution for this problem.  The system is
vulnerable, but it is all we have today. Anything that interferes with this
migration -- quarantines, pokey inspectors, rules and regulations has the
potential to kill our fruit industry. (Al Gore would love this; he says all
our food will be grown "offshore."  He and his cronies, of course, don't
remember WWII; probably most of them don't even remember the oil embargo!)

    So, Kevin, you get those big, bad migratories sent back south. Or set up
a cumbersome bureaucracy, that has little understanding of agricultural
deadlines.  Then YOU pollinate the orchards.

    I expect Allen Dick and Dave Eyre to point out that this *can* be done,
and I agree. If the africanized bee were to be established in the southeast,
and the annual migration were to be ended by paranoid restrictions, this will
happen.  But the dismantling of our present migratory system would cause
enormous disruptions, causing a lot of folks the loss of their livelihoods,
both on the grower side and on the beekeeper side. Both systems are already
under too many strains to withstand much more.

Dave Green
Hemingway, SC
The Pollination Home Page:  http://pollinator.com