"Hard Smoke' is what beekeepers do when their bees get out of control. We
have all done it and sometimes in the heat of the battle a little fire
comes out and opp's some wings get flamed and a few handful of bees are
prematurely aged and sent off to a better life.
 
Today in many places in the bee world the varroa mite continues to cause
beekeepers to Hard Smoke.
 
Years ago before the first ugly American beekeeper had discovered the first
vampire mite on a bee attracted to the light of a window in his honey barn
European beekeepers had killed more bees controlling varroa mites and tried
almost all agricultural chemicals on their bees then has been documented
killed by the mites they targeted for death. (Some beekeepers also were
able to degrade their own personal health in the effort to kill varroa
mites and all should be aware that danger is real.)
 
Of course history always repeats itself and I have held back a little on
some of the horror stories passed on to me by US commercial beekeepers from
all areas of the US because what they do to their own bees    is really
none of my business and repeating this kind of antidotal information can
cause problems to otherwise innocent and good people. Beekeepers who must
make a living from bees have a real problem balancing that need with their
responsibility of being good citizens, all these laws, rules, regulations,
and bee research never seem to take into consideration that beekeeper can
not wait years, and years for the paper work to clear whatever committee
when the bees they need to make a living to live like normal people are
today's needs, so short cuts are made.
 
We all live with the fear that some chemical will get into someone's honey
and cause a problem for all. Of course you are right but at the same time
there are private interests outside of the honey production side of the
industry that are also concerned and do check bulk honey for adulteration
and farm chemicals, and they do find these cheerless and adulteration in
honey and because that honey is returned to the producer and any
information that is required by law to be passed on to the Pure Food & Drug
Administration and other government agencies is passed on, only a very
small amount of the total honey produced in the US is found to be
contaminated or adulterated as no honey producer can afford to not be able
to sell his crop. It is no different for imported honey which is also
checked by bulk purchasers and foreign honey is found to be contaminated,
adulterated, or with farm chemicals and it is also rejected from sale. This
also is a small percentage of the total amount imported because of the high
costs involved to those who are caught. So we do have some protection from
government and private interests checking our honey. The danger is that
down the road someone will put all these measures together in such a way as
to put fear in the minds of the public and we will suffer the loss of our
good public will for Honey. The danger is real and it would not necessarily
take some new contamination or adulteration to have a real PR problem, kind
of like our/your President with all his old girlfriends coming out of the
closet.<G>
 
 
Well let me tell you, yes I get reports of beekeepers doing some outlandish
things to protect their bees and using other then prescribed methods to
control the varroa mites resulting not in the contamination of their farm
production but for sure causing the complete loss of their hives sometimes
in numbers of 1,000 or more hives, dead, dead, at one time. Some of these
losses were not because they were not able to control mites by legal
methods but to pinch a penny or just out of curiosity and bad judgement,
but more and more are reporting the failure of the legal and prescribed
chemical in controlling mites, or using the prescribed chemical and
following the directions and still having the bees go to hell in a hand
basket.
It is not really clear which it is I suspect the later but in any case
beekeepers for what ever reason are having a real problem today with mites
in some areas or operations that can not be met by the prescribed and
lawful method of control and are using not approved chemicals. It is not a
general problem, yet, and I still think this loss is not all because of T
or V mites, but it is a growing problem and it is real to those who are
suffering.
 
One case that may shine a little lite on what they are up against. A
beekeeper picked up a load (500 hives) in Florida that had been treated
lawfully and found on inspecting them prour to loading them out to be
infested with numbers of mites that exceeded anything he had ever
experienced, multiple varroa mites on every bee. He had to move them so
assigned one man to smoke them and another to spray the entrances with an
no longer approved chemical as they were being loaded. When these bees
arrived at their out of state destination in the south west after a day and
half on the truck they were unloaded. Close examination found NO dead bees
out of the normal wind damage but so many varroa mites had died and were
kicked out by the bees in transit that the tops of the hives on the bottom
tier were covered as was the bed of the truck. I wish I had a picture
because words can not discribe what was seen except his bee hive tops and
the truck were carpeted red with dead mites.  In this case without the
unlawful treatment these bees would all be dead today instead of having
taken another long trip on the semi truck and pollinating almonds in
California before making the trip back to the south west and finally ending
up in the north for the clover flow...
 
Is this beekeeper a criminal and threat to all other beekeepers and the
good name of honey? Well if he were to get caught you sure better believe
that is what the bee police will testify too in court at his trial and I
guess some would say he got what he deserved if here were locked away from
the rest of the beekeepers, but I say to all we may be entering into a time
when it is easier for the few who would see all honey bees destroyed by
pestilence get their wish and hard times for those who wish only to have
healthy bees for commerce or hobby and I see no way that someday we may all
be outlaws if we wish to continue. I just hope these beekeepers who are
doing these things are more cleaver on covering them up then our/your
President has been keeping his thing covered up. In any case don't ask for
names or even chemicals involved, if you are that interested come to
California the next few week almost every commercial beekeeper in the US
who has his bees on wheels is here and everyone of them has a set of these
Hard Smoke stories. A keg of nails dropped on highway 99 would catch an
easy 20 to 30 truck loads of bees per hour after dark, or look for the real
cheep motels that have big dark drug dealing parking lots or just about any
all night coffee shop between Bakersfield and Mt. Shasta, or just look for
the muddiest looking trucks, with the tiredest looking drivers toeing the
newest forklifts covered from mast to rear end with fresh sticky mud.
Beekeeping is a lot of fun!!
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
 
* Use tasteful words, You might have to eat them.
 
 
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