D>From: [log in to unmask] (David J Trickett)
>Subject: Essential Oils
D>I have been trying to get someone at EPA, USDA, or FDA to
>confirm or deny that application of these treatments would render honey
>illegal for sale. No luck so far, but I'll keep calling.
Well Dave,
I can assure you that if natural chemicals end up in the honey in
detectable amounts not normally found it will be a problem and you need
not wait for any official answer.<G>
D>Assuming application of mint oils is effective against mites, it
>would behoove us to obtain some sort of official sanction for its
>implementation. I assert this because these treatments appear to be
>cheaper than apistan, and because use of apistan is (or will be) reducing
>honey's standing as a "safe," "natural," semi-organic food. (I don't
>care what the label says about no detectable residues resulting when used
>properly.
Could bee if thymol, other E-Oils, or Neem products are used as
supplements to bee foods by the beekeeper the same as he uses sugar,
yeasts, soy products, veg'ee oils and there is no problems I would
expect that nothing need to be done in the way of regulation at the
beekeeper level. If you are into selling this stuff to your neighbors
you better have a approved label for the product you are selling and its
intended use. There is nothing wrong with adding say thymol to fortify a
bee protein diet as it has been used for years off and on for such
things in human, animal and insect diets and could be classified as
inert ingredients and not even disclosed as long as it does not end up
in the honey which would be the same with any of ingredients normally
fed to bees. If it protects the bees from disease, pests, or parasites
at the same time it fills their needs for fortified food that is a free
bonus of good nutrition and should not be regulated under any laws now
applicable that would only inflate the cost and alarm the public. None
of us know what feed goes into a cow to produce the milk we all consume
in one form or another. The dairyman does use regulated products, but
also is free to add what ever additional diet supplements he finds
beneficial to his herds diet to keep it disease free and does not have
to disclose them unless they start to show up in the milk. Honey
producers should expect no different treatment from regulators for the
food additives they add to their bee's diets as long as it does not show
up in the Honey and much of what we have fed is also found in other
animal diets.
Now if the same ingredients are to be used to treat a pest or disease
then thats a whole different ball game and you may need registration
with the supporting research to sell and use it.
>And what about the big guys out there using "home remedy?")
What big guys? You must mean big honey producers, most of them are
not in any position to have their honey found to contain any chemical
residues of any kind, and all the major honey packers and industrial
users have labs to check honey for chemical residues and adulteration of
any kind and do not buy from any "big guy's" who use any "home remedy".
A big producer is in no better position to have honey sent back or
dumped down the tubes because of home remedy use then is the small guy.
Then we should also know that there is a difference between "home
remedy" and "home brew". I tried for years to find a way to feed bees
proteins in a liquid diet using pure pollen as the source of protein.
I knew that all foods consumed by honeybees are consumed as a liquid as
they are not provided with the tools to hunk off a chunk like we are.
I never succeeded in doing much for the bees but did find the outer
limits that when the bees consumed my liquid diet they would just flat
quit feeding brood but never found a value in that. I also learned a
lot about "home brew" as there is a big difference between the pollen
bees bring into the hive and the pollen that they consume as food.
Bee collected pollen that has naturally fermented may be a better
ingredient for adding to bee diet supplements then pollen that has
not fermented as the bees maybe going to ferment any pollen they bring
in the hive into "bee bread" before using it anyway.
In fact if there is real danger in all of the things we beekeepers
do to our bees it is first to the bees themselves, 2nd the beekeeper
and his own family, and then to whomever he gives or sells his honey
locally and this includes all beekeepers big or small. When I was a big
beekeeper I did not give or sell my own honey to anyone but the honey
buyers and always purchased bottled honey, sometimes my own to give away
as gifts and know many other beekeepers who do the same including the
biggest of the big in California where we pay big cash rents for most
bee locations and don't get much for a can of honey any more when it
comes to public relations or bee locations.
D>Also, is anyone else out there worried about the wax pool becoming
>contaminated? ("Wax Pool..." what a thing to be worried about!
Sure there are in fact a lot of very interested people who do watch very
close, maybe even closer then honey as there are many pharmaceutical uses
that require beeswax. They are know as BeesWax Buyers and Refiners,
usually the guy who buys the wax from the guy beekeepers sell it too,
and you can be sure they have employed very respected and knowledgeable
chemists. The beeswax market has detected small changes in beeswax over
the years and in fact the standard analyst may have been changed a few
years back to reflect the increase of bromides in natural wax from two
decades of using several different chemicals in controlling wax moths by
beekeepers, or maybe some other environmental use.
At times wax adulated with other non beeswax waxes is also detected but
since the advent of all plastic frames this has leveled out. Beeswax is
a renumeral resource that is because much of it went back into the bee
comb foundation and changes in the environment were somewhat trapped or
magnified in the beeswax harvested from year to year. The vast majority
of things that you and I would worry about are removed in the normal
processing of beeswax on the farm or at the wax refinery. Beeswax can be
treated with chemicals and filtering agents that remove most all of the
contaminates if they are known. And pure beeswax is really refined
beeswax at the industrial consumer level. Beeswax is so individual and
reflects how the individual beekeeper handles his own beeswax that
buyers on the third tier of handling have been able to trace it back to
individual producers and areas of actual production because of
identifiable differences. Very similar to raw gold which also can be
traced back to the area it was first dug up and sometimes to the mine
itself and it is a normal analytical assay practice to avoid "salting"
which would be common if not held down by assay chemists..
>Minimally, this has some serious implications for queen breeding
>since the "cups" grafted into and used for starting queen cells need
>to be free of anything that would harm the larvae - and my
>understanding is that many of the big queen producers buy
>the cups rather than produce them.
Don't know about others but around here the bee breeders make their
own cups or use the plastic cell cups. I don't know anyone who buys
wax cell cups but someone must I am sure.
>I wonder if anyone in the production
>end is watching this. I would think that this would be one of the first
>place that miticide residues would begin to be a problem, next perhaps in
>foundation used for brood frames, and last for foundation used for honey
>frames.
Bad manufactured wax cell cups have been know to kill or damage many
queens bee grubs in the past and everyone at all levels are alert to
any new problems or reports of them. I know of none with wax cell
cups, but now bad sugar syrup is a sad story for another time.
D>If there's any legitimacy to this concern, we may end up experiencing
>the problem in the next year or two in the form of commercial queen
>producers experiencing difficulty in producing queens - even after/if we
>find a replacement for apistan.
We all share some concern but I am more concerned that beekeeper have
jumped on the agricultural chemical merry go around and without some
benign treatment for mites like the use of essential oils of one kind
or another will in time never bee able to get off without some fear
of their bees being destroyed by mites.
ttul Andy-
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