At 09:28 AM 6/12/98 -0400, you wrote:
 
>Concerning the Hornfaced Bees, I wonder why it is allowed to import/
>study/release the Hornfaced bees in light of the STRINGENT controls
>there are on importation of genetic apis material (eggs and sperm, let
>alone the actually bees)?
 
The regulations on importation of bees and other insect pests are for you
and I, not the government so they bring in what they want when they want. I
suspect this is because the US government is make up of cells, now called
committees and beekeepers do not work well in cells.
 
Why, because we beekeepers who work everyday with bees all our lives are
not equal to government bureaucrats in bugology or beeology and we would
bring in bad bees and bugs. All should know that by now as it is the same
with the beekeepers use of farm chemicals and that is why we pay maybe
1000% more to have them dosed out to us.
 
We beekeepers can not even be depended on in choosing what stock we would
import if we could as this is all handled by committee at the highest level
of government. Some say ALgore heads it.
 
There is a roomer that those beekeepers who have slept in Lincoln's bed do
have some input but I am also told the last beekeeper who slept in
Lincoln's bed did so when Lincoln's was still alive and out of town.
 
Actually there has been many recent confirmed illegal importations of bees
and these are the one's that are bringing us the four horseman of
beekeeping, disease, pests, predictors, and bee regulators. The last being
the fatal one. Most of these importations are man aided, at least in their
mode of transportation when they come in by sea and the rest are "wet back"
bees who fly across boarders not swim. Nobody has explained why in all
these years the good bees always stay at home and obey all international
boarder regulations.
 
>Is this not a double standard (rhetorical
>question) but I would like to know the reasons for this double standard.
>Anyone know?
 
Yes, its the law and the law was written with the above in mind and to
protect you from your dumb neighbor who keeps bees and whom you do not know
other then he know's nothing about beekeeping. Beekeepers are not mature
enough even to use the best government scientist selected stock. This is a
near quote from someone big in bee science I will not name as I don't want
to start a food fight in this group or have you spit up your pop on the
keyboard. Lucky for the beekeepers this person is now retired but we still
have to live with the books produced while he was on the public payroll.
 
ttul, the OLd Drone
http://beenet.com
 
BTW. The commodity in the BIG SILLY contest is not HONEY, thank GOD for
that and this message may contain other clues.