> I am so glad that most beekeepers are not of your mindset.

I find it quite fascinating to watch this interchange between two respected 
beekeepers, one who is not inclined to believe any evidence presented by the 
"Establishment", and an one who apparently is willing to accept them at face 
value, possibly because he has taken the task of negotiating with "the 
enemy" and in order to do so and listen effectively, has to suspend 
judgement.

Both positions are quite valid and reasonable IMO, and so we find ourselves 
treated to a very civil slow-motion demonstration of dialectics.

Personally, I am in the middle.  I have long thought that it is very 
plausible that we have not thought of the correct (effective) way to 
evaluate the real effects of pesticides and that we tend to view the 
question in the context 'framed' by convention, the chemical companies' spin 
doctors and the the researchers who have been financed largely by those 
firms.

Framing necessarily leads to "in the box" thinking, and the answer IMO is to 
be found "outside the box".  Bob is definitely not willing to confine his 
ideas to the box where we are told to do our thinking.

It seems very obvious to me that these chemicals which are designed to 
disrupt insect life must damage at least some individual bees to various 
extents on a daily basis anywhere they are employed due to the fact that 
localized concentrations must -- on a micro basis -- exceed the average 
application level, and that some environmental features and idiosyncracies 
must concentrate and extend the lifespan of the applied chemicals.

The question to my mind is not whether there is such damage so much as 
whether the collateral damage in employing these pest controls is 
cceptable  -- in the minds of contemporary humans, at least. (Just defining 
a box, here, since the issue is much larger).

> Instead bees have two strategies to protect themselves. On the first day 
> of foraging in a new area ,scout bees are sent out first to taste the 
> nectar and pollens- if any are adversely effected they will bee expelled 
> from the hive immediately and the colony will avoid the area... Once 
> foraging begins ,nurse bees in the hive clean foragers each time they 
> return. These strategies protect the colony from mass exposure to lethal 
> doses of chemicals., but they do leave the bees particularly susceptible 
> to sub-lethal exposures to any contaminants they encounter."

I know nothing of this writer, but I love the insight here, assuming it can 
be proven

Is this fantasy, or fact?  Are these things demonstrated in well-run 
studies? 

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