Hello Brian & All,
Thanks for your civil reply. I am going to reply honestly and give what I
see as I am close to many commercial beekeepers and we need to look honestly
at what is happening.

> 90% of the citations are not published.

They are available to the public. I will see if my contact in your state
will respond as too what they are seeing and what chemicals are in use.
Without contacting the inspection service and from what I have been told the
violations are mostly formic acid on rags/pads. We used to have a member of
the Minnesota apiary inspection service on the list but he has not posted in
several years.
Maybe he will comment?

 As I said earlier the use of formic and OA  in forms (as approved in
Canada) is widespread in commercial operations. Many of those operations
are very open about the use on another bee list which I read but do not post
on due to the time involved. My best industry information comes from the
phone. Much faster than internet typing and waiting for a response. However
I do post on BEE-L as I feel the worlds best beekeeping minds read BEE-L.

Those FA/OA methods can be found on many websites. Those methods have been
taught for years at bee meetings. Have been in use for decades around the
world. But still not approved in the U.S.

 Why not?

Both the ABF & AHPA associations have made resolutions to get both methods
(as used in Canada) approved for use in the U.S. However both organizations
only meet once a year and despite statements made at both national meetings
bringing commercial U.S. beekeepers within the law concerning use as
approved in Canada has not happened and not sure if ever will happen.

>They news released the big operator last year for show.

Many large U.S. operations are using liquid formic acid on pads as used in
Canada. Is this use a threat to the purity of honey? A dangerous chemical?
Is not FA approved as a treatment for mites in the U.S.?

Canada beekeepers got the use of both approved so why not in the U.S.?

I use the Miteaway two treatment and have receipts to prove legal FA use but
I have a hard time seeing the danger (other than safety concerns of
application) from the *not yet approved* use of FA & OA *if* the user
follows the methods approved in Canada.

 I personally think the Miteaway two pad is the best treatment around for
varroa & tracheal mites. Quick and easy and treatment done in 21 days (half
the time of Apistan or checkmite). I have no desire to fight jugs of liquid
formic in the field.

 Coumaphos and fluvalinate are worthless in most areas of the U.S as a
varroa control.. Rumors of their illegal use  were based in fact some years
ago. Especially in Florida as documented by the USDA-ARS.

I have read  of illegal chemical use in recent articles from the West in bee
magazines but none of the beekeepers I talk to have used those chemicals in
years mainly as they do not control mites and attempts to return to Apistan
has been met with failure.

> Bob I know you are smart guy and you don't expect a silver bullet to come
out of the CCD working group where all of a sudden all is well in the bee
yard.

I have actually found very little help so far from the CCD information so
far. The USDA-ARS ( ran by Jeff Pettis Beltsville Bee Lab) testing done on
Dave Hackenbergs CCD deadout boxes has got our attention.

Most of us looking into CCD are interested in seeing if hives going
backwards can be reversed.

Our current project is taking hives with disappearing bees and making nucs
with new queens. Time will tell if requeening with reverse the problem. IF
Harry Rothenbuler was correct in his opinion that the old disappearing
disease was a genetic problem then perhaps changing queens might help.

 Placing hives dwindling on new comb is also being tried.

Too early to tell if these approaches will work.

 Hives with more brood than bees are being reported right now in several
areas of the U.S.. Many beekeepers are taking my advice and taking a single
hive per yard and monitoring bee population ( number of bees times number of
brood in hive)

The number one indicator of *real* CCD seems to be a hive full of brood and
missing bees. We are trying to catch CCD in its early stages and see if the
dwindling can be reversed.

Another method being tried is removing the hive from the area to other area
to see if the hive will return to a positive progress situation.

>So my point is why toss a bunch of CCD money at the problem if mite
management is a source of big pay back and what to do about stressful
migratory practices is a Ag policy issue.

All research concerning bees should be welcome. Putting men on the moon was
considered by many to be a waste of tax payer dollars but many discoveries
were learned other than simply putting men on the moon.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

"What we don't know is so vast it makes what we do know seem absurd"
 Bob Harrison


-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************