Peter wrote:

>After the petal drop, they move to summer locations, away from the apples. 
>A beekeeper that kept bees by an orchard knowing that spraying was going to 
>be done, would be a knucklehead.

As soon my hives are released from blueberry pollination we work as fast as 
we can to get them moved out, so they can spray.  But when they get moved, 
they are still going to be within flying distance of other blueberry fields 
and every other crop grown.  We put them in locations where considering the 
hedgerows and wind they will not get directly sprayed on, but keeping them 
away from particular crops that they might forage on is just not an option. 
Prince Edward is an island and one hours drive from my place encompasses 
about one third of the island.  Our one cent coin on the scale of our 
roadmap is about a three kilometer radius circle (normal foraging for a 
yard).  Already the coins representing my yards overlap considerably, and 
the yards are in my opinion a little overstocked (average is 45 hives).   I 
think the situation is the same in Nova Scotia.  Although the province is 
bigger, almost all the agricultural areas are overstocked with bees.  The 
forested areas here have very little in them here for bees except for spring 
pollen.

Of particular interest to me in the guttation study was the fact that 
although thiomethoxam was not excreted in guttation drops nearly as well as 
imidacloprid, even with the higher level of seed treatment, it was more 
toxic.   All the canola grown here is seed treated with thiomethoxam.   So 
far I have not noticed ill effects from it.  In fact,  the hives near canola 
fields seem to really benefit from a honeyflow at a time when  clover is 
pretty well finished and the other yards have little coming in.   But we are 
going to keep track of those hives this winter to compare survival.

Stan 

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