DJT>I tried making essentially the same point in August (the dipping of cloth
   >strips into Mavrick and use of the strips in place of Apistan is one form
   >of the "home remedy" I referred to as being used by some of the large
   >honey producers) but received but one reply (a lengthy one from the old
   >drone, more or less downplaying the problem because it was being monitored
   >and nobody was in a position to cheat!; you may remember it).
 
David, I don't remember that post, I hope you did not take it personally
and I have always tried to identify my ramblings as my own "opinion"
based on my own experiences and none have been anything more then that.
 
But if you know that other's are breaking the law there are official
channels to place this kind of information in other then this echo
ware it tends to paint all commercial beekeepers with the same brush
which is far from fair or the actual truth of the the misuse of
agricultural chemicals in the bee yards that I have inspected. No one
group is any better then the other at following the law or directions as
far as my own experience has seen it over 40+ years with beekeepers of
all stripes; commercial, hobby, educational, or regulatory beekeepers.
 
I personally know NO one who is doing this, (using Mavrik), and if I did
I am not sure it would concern me enough to do anything about it other
then caution the beekeeper to not use it or any other chemical in a way
that it could get into the extracted honey or wax. I am not a bee
regulator or anyone's judge and I know the hopelessness of seeing your
bees die after doing everything that you know that is recommended to
prevent their death, when every death represents a personal loss to the
beekeeper, until all hope is lost, so I have become in some respects a
cautious liberal when it comes to beekeeper efforts to maintain healthy
productive bees.
 
All the commercial beekeepers I know are spending big bucks using the
recommended strips, but then I don't know everyone, and I have no way
of knowing what or who we are that post in this and other beekeeping
echo's as I know not others definition of a commercial beekeeper. I was
never one of those, I am a professional beekeeper myself, and am still
one temporarily without bees. I suspect that the commercial beekeepers
are out numbered fifty or a 100 to 1 by beekeepers with interests other
then commercial honey production here.
 
The point I was trying to make is that anyone who produces honey for
sale outside the home commercially has a very good chance of having it
screened or tested for bee farm chemicals by one or more of the major
honey packers and nothing has been more self regulating then the few
dozen or so commercial lots of domestic honey that have been rejected by
several packers and SUE Bee because of chemical residues other then
sugars the last few years. Incidentally SUE Bee has more restrictive
tolerances on what level of chemicals can be found in honey then the FDA
or the USDA, but much of the SUE Bee honey would not pass muster in the
European market tests because of different concerns. It is also the law
in the US that with some chemicals the packer must also notify the FDA
of what was found such as with EDB, and a follow up investigation by the
FDA police, including a field trip, armed and with search warrants if
necessary, to the beekeepers headquarters for a on site investigation is
normal. Rejected honey must be destroyed or in some cases can be fed
back to bees during the non production season, and not just shipped to
another honey packer who may not be aware of any problem, and proof of
its disposal must be demonstrated. It is a very serious matter and one
that most would not want to go through the 2nd time. With SUE Bee once
your honey has been found to have residues and it is shipped back to you
at your expense, every lot from you from then on is checked if you still
want to stay in the co-op.
 
   >was/is that we ought to be concerned about the wax pool (stream, whatever)
 
I may have said this before, but because much beeswax is sold after it
leaves the beekeepers hands to large wax refiners that are also more or
less in the chemical business with good working labs, beeswax is
checked much more frequently then honey. Beeswax has changed over the
years, it is contaminated with less heavy metals such as iron and
copper, but some increases have been noted in the amount of bromides in
the average sample which may or may not be from 20+ years of EDB use by
beekeepers but also could be from a natural increase in the environment
from other bromide uses. Because heat and heavy filtration through
carbon and other chemical aids are possible with beeswax most farm
chemicals in use by beekeepers have not been a problem in pure beeswax
which is still used in some medical preparations and needs to bee pure.
Beeswax was one of the few re numeral farm products that has the
potential to magnify the additions of contaminates over a period of 75
or 100 years since comb foundation was first milled. This has somewhat
diminished with the advent of plastic core and plastic foundations.
 
   >> > ...  I don't see what everyone is so worried about
   >> > however...  After all, there are hordes of lab techs out there
   >> > monitoring the purity of wax and honey... right?
 
I don't know about any "hordes", but there are a few people who's job it
is to protect our food, they are not numerous, and the honey processors
also few in numbers who are just as concerned as any regulator, and then
the majority of commercial beekeepers who produce honey that is consumed
by the public that depend on the good will of all to protect the value
of the "pure" in "pure honey". Together all of this is only cursory in
nature and most honey is not tested for farm chemicals, but enough is
that any general problems would be detected and are. At this time there
is NO problems with US honey and none is expected but this does not
preclude individuals from puffing in their own nest, and as you report
one or more may be doing just that in your area. The fact they are
commercial only increases the odds that they will be discovered if they
are indeed causing their honey or beeswax to become contaminated. It may
also be the fact that what they are doing is just as safe as what others
may be doing but does not fall into what is a recommended use as defined
by law and regulation because there is no useful process of having such
uses permitted because of our less then perfect system of farm pesticide
registration of minor uses...
 
There is nothing stoping anyone from having a retail sample of honey
analysed at their own expense. The bee industry itself pays for several
dozens of samples of honey to be check for the addition of sugars other
then honey each year at a honey lab supported by the industry. SUE Bee
has its own lab and uses two private labs for conformation of suspected
chemical or added non honey sugar contamination.
 
Public interest groups are free to check any honey found in the retail
market for whatever they want to look for and you can be sure that they
do and when they find something we all will hear about it. Different
research groups have completed many adventures into the micro
contamination of honey and wax from dozens of environmental chemical
contaminates for over 40 years that I know about, and much information
has been published by different federal, state, and educational groups
on the results. None of this information is being hidden, held back, or
minimized from anyone other then what is truly confidential such as SUE
Bee is not going to publish a list of producers who's honey has been
found to be thought to be contaminated by its in house testing process.
At the same time none of this information has demonstrated a need for
more testing or regulation other then what is now being done and the
continued application of a fair amount of common sense by all beekeepers
and the watchful eye of big brother as jaundice as it may bee.
 
                         ttul OLd Drone
 
 
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