Hello All,
To take the legal issue a step further and use recent pesticide legal
battles for reference.
The chemical companies will try to prove *reasonable doubt*.
Example:
Did not these hives have some level of varroa mite infestation?
Beekeeper answer- yes
Did not these hives have some level of tracheal mite infestation?
Beekeeper answer- yes
The lawyers would then show through USDA records how deadly these two mites
can be. Could not these hives have died from mites and not Imidacloprid?
40-50 years ago the only other posssible death cause was AFB which was easy
to see AND PROVE.  Even then actual pesticide blame was hard to prove.  The
two examples above are only the tip of the iceberg chemical company lawyers
would use to try and prove Imidacloprid is not responsible for the problem.
Also we may only see a serious weakening of the hives and not colony death.
In the *old days* you could not collect without hive kill.
In the *old days* the government repaid beekeepers for losses at around $18
per hive. Replacement cost for the bees. Better than no reinbursement at all
but still you lost the hives pollination and honey gathering for the season
in most cases. I believe the government reinbursement program was last in
effect around 1979 for a short while and is NOT in effect today. I could be
wrong about this and if the program is still in effect in your area of the
U.S. please correct me.
Bob